I am not sure how to proceed with Bailey and her potty training, as she constantly has to pee. We've been to the vet. What would you recommend?

I am not sure how to proceed with Bailey and her potty training. I got Bailey at 7 weeks. She is an 11 week old female Doberman. She came from a good breeder and a clean environment. She has a great personality, learns quickly and is an all around happy, playful puppy.

She is crate trained. She is exercised, walked, trained and I play with her every day.

At first I thought the constant peeing was her age. After about a week and a half of the relentless peeing I began to realize that this wasn't normal behavior and not just her age. She peed in her cages, walked in it, sat in it and slept in it. Her sleeping area is so small that she can't get away from it.

A typical morning for me was to clean her up because she peed in her first cage, take her outside for potty-she always went-and then put her in her other cage so I could clean up the first one. By the time I got that one cleaned she had peed in the other one. Again, clean her up, take her out and put her in a small area on the tile so I can clean up the second cage. Within 10 minutes she had peed on the floor. Usually by 1pm I would have cleaned up after her at least 10 times and taken her out to potty about every 30 minutes.

I took her to the vet because of my concerns and she had a very high white blood cell count and a bladder infection. She was 10 days on antibiotics. The problem got slightly better. I didn't have to clean up the cage every time. She could go sometimes 2 hours without soiling her cage. Most times not. I must add that I do follow your house training rules. She is either tethered to me, caged, or out on the deck supervised. Also she can go 6-8 hours at night sleeping in the bed without peeing. Some evenings I will let her nap in my lap and she can go 2 hours without peeing. She doesn't leak when she is sleeping. All this just adds to the confusion about what is going on.

There are times that she goes and doesn't realize that she is going-like walking or playing with her toys. She doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that she just peed. It just comes out. She doesn't acknowledge it, didn't squat to pee and I really think she doesn't know. At this point I believe she doesn't have much, if any bladder control. When I have her tethered to me most of the time I don't catch her in the act because there are no signals.

Since the problem wasn't getting better I had her to the vet again yesterday. She still has a high white blood cell count in her urine. I had blood work done and an x-ray to make sure there wasn't a stone. Both came back normal. We have put her on another round of antibiotics in case of an infection. In 15 days, if it isn't better she goes in for a sterile urine sample which will be sent off to a lab to see if we can figure out what the problem is.

I tell you this to give you the background of what is going on. Thanks for hanging in so far. Here is what I would like your advice on: I have started correcting her when I catch her. She must be a soft dog because my corrections must have been too hard. I yell no-no-no-bad dog-shame on you-potty outside -in a very loud voice. Now what is happening, she has done this twice, is when she knows she has gone she tries to hide from me. An example is yesterday she peed while I was standing at the kitchen sink-she was tethered to me. I didn't see her do it but looked down and she was cowering behind my son's legs. She had just gone potty behind me. There must be some awareness that she shouldn't be doing this. I don't want her to be afraid of me so I need to change what I am doing.

At this point, since it is a medical problem I don't know how I should correct her since she really can't help it. But then I don't want her to think it is okay either. What would you recommend for a correction?

Also, since she is soiling her cage anyway I was thinking that maybe I should take out the dividers, give her the whole length of the cages and put papers in a corner. I would hate for her to think it is okay to potty in her cage and don't want to encourage this behavior but also don't want her laying and walking in it. What would you recommend?

I do know that she is still very young and that plays a part in this. I don't want to do anything that will negatively impact future potty training or my relationship with Bailey and have to believe that when the medical issues are resolved this will pass. Meanwhile I just am not sure how to proceed. The vet, really trusted and very good with all my dogs, seems to believe that there is still some infection and this is behind the lack of bladder control and frequency issues. Any help or thoughts would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Patricia