I am having trouble with my 12 week old GSP. She is sleeping in her crate at night, at least until she is fully housetrained. She is waking up barking at 3:00 a.m., fully soaked in urine. This is new because we used to keep a blanket in the crate and she was soaking it but not waking us up because she was dry. I don't keep a blanket in there anymore because it is just gross, washing it every day. So we take her out when this happens, clean the crate and she soaks it again by 6:00. I need advice. My husband is livid, and tired.

Added note: She is not fully housetrained either. She was great the first 2 days we got her and then she got an infection "vaginitis" which caused her to dribble everywhere. Now we are back to square 1. She has been on an antibiotic for over a week so I don't think the infection is causing this. It seems to have cleared up.

We were exceptionally lucky with Otto--he never had an accident in his crate, and started sleeping through the night after just one week.  I'm fairly certain this is entirely due to our individual puppy and the clean living conditions he was exposed to by his breeder, and had little or nothing to do with my efforts.  However, I can offer two pieces of advice: 1) make sure her crate is not to big (it should only be large enough for her to stand up and turn around in).  If it's too big, section it off and adjust it as she grows.  2) And this is key--make sure you take away her food and water about three hours before bedtime.  Otto had free access to food and water throughout the day, but by 7:30/8:00 I'd put it up and give him frequent potty breaks outside, right up until bedtime (around 10:30/11:00).  If I diligently followed this routine, he'd sleep till 6:00.  I did forget once or twice, but I'll tell ya--those 3 AM wakeups to potty in a cold drizzle have a way of quickly ingraining a behavior in us humans as well!

Well IF she is NOT over her infection here is the key to your success. Wake up at 2:30 and 5:30 and take her out...!!

Fact is they can't hold there bladder for very long periods of times at that age. Specially if there is something working against them. However at 12 weeks she should be pretty able to at least sleep most of the way through the night.

Start by controlling her water intake later in the evening. If shes thirsty give her a little. And make sure her crate isn't to big. After a couple days if shes still doing it. GO TO THE VET!

Two things come to mind of why she is doing this. 1. She wants attention. 2. She needs to pee.

This could be for multiple reasons. 1. Her infection is causing her to eliminate. 2. Her bladder isn't trained well yet because of the infection and she cant hold it. 3. There could be something else you don't see happening. 4. She is lonely. And you wake up and give her attention,