[KimluvsLexie]

I'm sorry Tucker had a rough start This problem occurs more often than you'd think. At 6 months, he's had time to make the negative association with the crate. Being left in there for prolonged periods of time when he was younger gave him no option but to get used to laying in his own waste.

Have you considered starting from scratch, using an ex-pen? Expandable baby fencing works great for this. Start small with a couple of panels, perhaps in a corner. Lightweight plastic painting tarp on the floor, covered with towels or hospital pads will prevent any urine from scenting the carpets or flooring.
Inside the pen, just enough room for his crate on one side, potty pad opposite side, away from the crate.

Introduce the crate as if it were day one. Short, positive experiences, lots of praise. I swear by the small Kong stuffed with peanut butter and frozen. If he'll enter the crate and entertain himself for 15 minutes, yay! Praise him, take him out - and praise, praise, praise!

Once you've reintroduced the crate as a positive place you can try putting him in the x-pen area with the crate. This should be in the same room where you and your family members spend the most time. If you are close by, he won't feel banished, abandoned or alone, but he will be able to establish a "den" area and a "potty" area.

Entice him into the crate with the frozen Kong, small bits of kibble or small treats. If he begins to enter the crate on his own, even if he was "food motivated", praise him! "Good Kennel", or whatever you choose to call his crate, will create the word association.

I'm not sure what your objective is. Is your goal to train him to potty outside, or on potty-pads?
How much time is he spending outside his current "laundry basket" crate?
What is his normal routine with you like each day?

Knowing more about your situation might help in developing some strategies to help you move him forward. I know this is tough and frustrating for you!
I'm happy to help in any way I can

Thank you for such wonderful advice! I am so relieved to finally have a starting point! Our goal is to train him to washable potty pads that we should be getting next week sometime. Our other yorkie, Lexie, is trained to regular pee pads. We do have an x-pen so we can move it to the family room and start to use it in the way you suggested. Every day when my husband and I go to work is when he's in his laundry basket crate. We come home at lunch and let him out for an hour to run around. He gets out again at 5 when I get home and then he spends the evening with me on my lap or playing until bedtime at 10:30 when he either goes back in his laundry basket crate or sleeps in the bed with us. He was really good about sleeping in the bed for a while, but after an accident in the bed we've been more likely to let him sleep in his laundry basket crate. When we have days off he is out most of the day unless we are tending to something such as laundry, dinner, etc. He is under our watchful eye of course. I have also ordered some belly bands to help with the times that I can't watch him 100%. I am off Saturday and Sunday and my husband is off Tuesday and Wednesday so there are only 3 days where he spends 8-5 in the crate with his 1 hour lunch break. This summer I will not be working so that is probably when potty training will get VERY intensive. Thank you for all the input and we will put it to good use. If anything I've said makes you think of anything else we can do let me know!