5 Month Old Puppy Likes to Sleep in Urine?

I have a five-month old puppy who's recently started doing something very odd. She's usually very well trained, and her potty-training is going well, but she's recently started to pee in her crate before sleeping in the puddle itself, and I can't figure it out. I'll take her outside to go, and she'll go, but then once we're back inside she'll go into her crate, pee, and then lay in the pee itself - it's so bad she even has a urine scald! Her crate is large enough to not sleep on it, but she still does it. She does not have accidents anywhere else, it's only where she's going to sleep. I've tried moving the crate, switching things around, going back to training 101 and taking her out every half hour, using Nature's Miracle to attract her outside, nothing works! I've tried putting her in the crate, then taking her outside, nothing. Several times I've stayed outside for over an hour at a time hoping she'll pee twice, but she holds it. I've tried going in and out over and over, too. I've tried watching her when she's in the crate, but she makes absolutely no warning when she's going to go - I interupt her and take her outside, but that's the best I can do. Does anyone know why she might do this, and how to get her to stop? Am I doing something wrong or is it something else?

Maybe change the crate to a soft crate to see if that will help. If the tray inside the crate is plastic take it out and line the inside of the crate with newspaper or a sheet. Put the plastic tray underneath the crate so that the floor doesn't get wet. Let us know how you get on. You could put a puppy training pad in aswell to soak up the wee. Also if she is on a high protein diet maybe she has a kidney problem. Could be the smell of the wee if very strong smelling makes her think of her mum. Try putting a soft teddy in with her that might help aswell. If it is only the crate that she does it in maybe dispense with the crate and use something else like a corner of a room if you are worried about damage when leaving her. Bit like a puppy pen.

Give her vet bed to sleep on with a puppy pad underneath, the urine will soak straight through the vet bed so she'll be sleeping in the dry avoiding urine burns and the puppy pad will absorb the wee. If the crate is way too big you could try an upturned storage crate in there to reduce the amount of space available.

brenda1; She has a large bladder, so she pees a lot, I don't think a wee pad would hold all of it. She already sleeps with a little plush toy that's her favorite, though I had to take it away because I didn't want it ruined (the smell is very hard to get out of stuffed items). I don't know if getting a soft crate or ditching the crate would really help her, it seems like she only does it to sleep so I would think she would do it wherever she was sleeping. As far as I can tell the only time she doesn't do this is when we're taking a nap on the floor together. I'll try moving the crate bottom just to get her out of it, though, I don't want her getting any more burns.

Trouble; My only concern with the vet bed is that she'll just form a habit of peeing there for the rest of her life instead of becoming properly potty-trained. She was raised on pee pads (not by me) and I think the vet beds would remind her too much of it.

I doubt she will, one of mine had a high sided soft bed in her crate and vet bed covering the whole of the bottom of the crate, she used the high sided bed as a toilet ugh and slept on the vet bed. I only realised what she was doing on removing the bed and finding it totally sodden. Puppies do strange things lol. If she really does enjoy lying in urine you be denying her that pleasure as the vet bed will be dry so hopefully she'll stop doing it.

Just a thought, but have you tried putting the crate in a different area to see if that makes any difference?

Trouble; Puppies are indeed very strange! If it is the feeling she likes, the vet bed would probably help. I'll see what I can do to get one. It's not too far-fetched, she seems to like water in general.

Chris; Yes, I tried moving the crate to three different areas and there was no change.

Just a thought, maybe she likes the warmth of it so you could try a heat pad. Or at least one that warms up in a microwave and put it under her bedding. You can only try. What breed is she?

I have a little terrarium heater designed to be left on all the time, I could try putting that under the crate bottom to see if it helps - her crate is in the basement so it's cooler than the rest of the house, that could be it. We're not sure what breed she is, her mother was a purebred pitbull but we don't know what the father was. She looks a bit like a German Shepherd, and one of the neighbors to her mother's owner has a German Shepherd/Malamute wolfdog, so that might be what the father is.

Ok she feels safe and secure in her crate so she relaxes, when she relaxes so does her bladder. Thats when the peeing occurs.

Have you had her to the Vet to check if she has a urinary tract infection - these are very common in puppies esp females who squat their bottoms close to the ground. It is very easy then for infections to travel up the uretha and into the bladder. A simple course of antibiotics will solve the problem. This should be your first port of call - visit to the vet