English Bulldog Potty Problems

Question
Hello,
My husband and I brought "Vegas" home about 5 weeks ago, he is now 18 weeks old.  Since the beginning we have tried to kennel train him.  The kennel is just his size, long enough to lie down in and enough room for him to turn around in.  For 4 weeks he would go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6:30 ( barking to let us know he needed to go out).  He only had one accident in the 4 weeks period, but within the last week and a half he has peed daily if not twice a day in his kennel.  He now wakes up at 1am, 4 am and his usual 6:30, needing to go out or has already peed.  During the weekdays he only remains in the kennel for no more than 4 hours.  I am concerned he has devoped a habit and don't know how to break it. Should we buy a new kennel, could he smell his own scent and think its ok forever?  We live in an apartment and have no closed in area to keep him, we also praise him when he goes outside. I would like to continue with the kennel since it worked like a charm for a month.
I could understand if he was just having trouble with the kennel from the beginning but it seems like he just woke up and decided to go backwards in his training.  Before we were confident when opening his kennel knowing he would have not urinated now its becoming expected.  We are trying to be very patient but don't want our patience to enable bad lifelong habits.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!

Answer
Oh he's just a baby! Babies often have set backs. Don't expect consistency in his potty training that you can count on until he's 5 or 6 months old.

Don't give him access to water after 6 p.m. Make sure he goes out as late as possible at night and as early as possible in the morning. If you have anything in his crate for bedding, a towel or blanket, take it out and let him sleep in a bare crate.

He's teething right now and he's just out of sorts. He'll be back on task in no time.