house breaking my pup

Question
Although I have read several of your comments in regards to training puppies.....I have a 9 week old male siberian pup and watching his sibling female pup in which belongs to my sister.  House breaking them certainly has been challenging.  I do have a crate but only use it for a certain amount of times.   Even though they do go a lot outside they still have several accidents inside.
I guess my question would be is how much should I be keeping them in the crate other than when I am not home?

Answer
First, dogs can be in their crate about 1 hour more than the number of months they are old.  Translation - a two month old puppy can be in a crate for about three hours without a break, a five month old for about six hours.  Keep that in mind for ideas about how long to leave your dog in their without getting a bathroom break of some sort.  Of course, make the crate as pleasant as possible, but not big enough for the dog to much more than sleep in there, turn around and stretch a little bit.  It is supposed to be a "den", which aren't known for wide open floor plans.

Now, as for house breaking.  Make sure you are with them when they go outside to praise them for going in the right spot.  When they are inside, the dog must be one of two places - right next to you, or in his crate.  There is no wandering around at this age.  If you can't watch the dog, have him in his crate, and when you can watch the dog, watch him.  Dogs usually sniff around a little before eliminating, and you should catch this.  If you see it, yell "No" and take the dog outside.  A few times of this, and usually the dog will realize it needs to go outside.  If there is an accident in the house, you have two things to do:  If the dog is in the act, yell "No!" and take him outside - praise the dog if he finishes out there.  If you missed catching him in the act roll up a newspaper and beat yourself over the head - you weren't watching . . . :)  Then, clean up the mess with an enzyme based cleaner.  A little known tidbit, make sure your dog doesn't see you clean it up (leave him outside or in the crate).  This will discourage the dog from thinking - it's easier to let someone else clean it up then for me to go outside.

The big thing about house breaking a puppy is you have to be very vigilant in the beginning to prevent accidents.  The crate time will decrease as the dog can be trusted more and more, but try to let that take several weeks.  Good luck, and let me know.