Housetraining 2 puppies

Question
2 Aussie puppies both born in April (5th and the 15th.  Having issues with the younger one always pooping in his crate no matter what time of day/night. Crate is lined with newspaper and small enough for him to stand sit, letdown and turnaround.  That's it. I even have someone who lets them out twice a day for me.  They are out at 5:30-6am again before we leave at 8:30am, between noon -1pm again at 3-4pm and I'm home by 6:30pm.  This is driving me nuts! I never had this much trouble housebreaking!  I am looking into changing their food from Science diet to either Blue or Innova and hoping that will help!?  The older pup is only having a wet accident once in awhile and that's my fault for being slow in the morning.  I also have an adult dog they follow around..I was hoping being on his schedule as well would help too.  but a dirty crate 1-2-3 times a day.. what am I doing wrong?

Answer
The rule of thumb is a puppy can hold the number of hours he is in months, plus one. So, a 3 month old puppy MIGHT be able to hold 4 hours, but that is probably the most you could expect. And of course some dogs are more mature at that age than others - just like some children potty train quickly and others struggle with it for much longer. If they are left crated long enough that they have accidents there, you are in trouble, because they no longer think they have the option to stay clean, and quit trying. Also a consideration is how they were maintained by their breeder. Were they given the option to stay clean? Pet store puppies can be particularly difficult to house train. An alternative might be an ex-pen (you can get a scrap of vinyl flooring to go under it) with a litter box. I prefer litter to newspapers or pads as the texture of it is much more like "outdoors" and less like rugs and other things they will find inside. Also less "messy". I'd keep up with the crate training, but in much shorter stretches, and keep taking him outside as frequently as possible until he outgrows this. At least if he does have an accident, he doesn't have to sit in it. And yes, changing from Science Diet to a better food could be really helpful. I'd go for something with less (or no) corn or wheat, fewer fillers and of course feed scheduled meals instead of leaving food down. Helps with scheduling. I'd also do a fecal. In addition to worms, giardia and coccidia can cause frequent and messy poops. They don't always show up in a fecal exam though. Sandy Case MEd CPDT, www.positivelycanine.com