Ok, I know I made a mistake with Johann and his housetraining.  We were doing wonderfully until he turned 5 months because I had a surgery and couldn't get upstairs to my room to sleep so he couldn't be crated.  My brother even brought his crate downstairs and put it next to me but Johann refused to go in it because it wasn't in its normal spot, which is in my room.  So he slept on the floor next to the couch where I was sleeping every night for a week and he never went potty in the house or tore anything up during the night, so I figured it was ok to let him stay there.

When I finally did get back upstairs with him to be crated, he again, refused to be crated.  Yes, I am a huge pushover, but there are some things that I won't let slide, and sleeping in the crate was one of them.  I couldn't let him whine and bark in his crate because my very elderly grandmother was visiting and she couldn't sleep.  So he has been sleeping on my bed since then and has been really great at sleeping through the night and waking me up if he has to go potty.

When I'm gone for school twice a week, I'm usually gone from like 9am to 6pm, which is a really long time for him to be alone.  I don't crate him at all and he hasn't gone potty in the house, not even once, when I have let him have free range of the house during the day.  However, when I or another family member is home, he won't think twice about pooping upstairs (or ocassionally peeing).  I don't know how to correct this because it's ONLY when we are home.  Sometimes he barks at the back door to go out, but I don't know how to get him to do it all the time.  

Has anybody else had this problem?  He's 7 months old, I don't know if he's just going through a phase, if I'm worrying too much, or if I've really messed something up in his training.  It's just late and I'm frustrated because he pooped upstairs today when only my mom was home and she stepped in it.

Thank you everybody