house training my four month old male toy poodle

Question
My male poodle is not getting the house training thing. i have been using the outside method. He does have a crate and doesn't use it in the crate. When he is out in the house he will do well for awhile and will just stop and use it. I have even started having problems with him using it while im opening the door to go outside.i do go to school and have to leave him in his crate for 5-6 hours at a time but when i get home i immeditatly take him outside. I have tried my best to be consistant but feel maybe im missing something. Please help.

Answer
Hello Alex,
First off, you don't mention if your boy is neutered or not.  If not and you don't plan on breeding him, now is the time to get this done.  The sooner the better because you don't want him getting his adult male horomones that will encourage him to want to breed.  This will lead to house marking and dominate behavior.  
You also need to Dominate him and show him you are his boss.  When he potties in the house, you need to lay him on the floor and make him submit to you which shows him you are boss and lets him know that you don't approve of him peeing in YOUR house.  You don't want to be mean, but you need to be firm and get the point across.  Hold him down gently with his head on the floor, look him in the eye and make him look away, growl at him if you need to until he will submit and relax for you.  Then get up and walk away from him.  
You also need to clean his potty messes up with something that will get rid of the urine smell.  I like Kids N' Pets that you should be able to find in Wal-Mart in the cleaning isles.  OdoBan is another good product that will remove the smell.  Even if you can't smell it anymore, your dog still can and will want to return to those spots.  

When taking your dog outside to potty, take him out for about 5-10 min and if he hasn't pottied in that amount of time, bring him in and put him in the crate for about 5-10 min, then take him back outside.  Repete until he goes outside where you want him to go.  Praise and give him a treat to let him know that you approve of him going there.  
If you are having problems with him going just before you take him outside, have him sit at the door before taking him out.  It will give him something else to think about other than going potty, and it will teach him to sit at the door to let you know that he has to go potty.  
You might try to get him on a consistant schedule of going potty at certain times rather than randomly taking him outside.  If you get him on a schedule, it will teach his bladder to go at those times and you will have better success getting him to go when you want him to.  

Give this a try and if you have other questions or concerns about this, or would like other suggestions, please feel free to ask me.  

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim