potty training

Question
We have a german shephard puppy who is 4 months old and we can't seem to house break her. We originally started out in a crate that was too large for her (our fault) so we moved her to a smaller crate, where she did fairly well but still would just pee anywhere with sometimes no signs at all. She is 19lbs and now the crate seems to small, she is actually showing signs of hip problems so we moved  her back to the larger crate and now we are having major issues again. Once she urinates in the kennel, she will then drink it, I have never heard of this behavior. She will go outside also and we try to bring her out on a very regular basis, most of her accidents are at night, but she goes out 2 to 3 times between the hours of 9pm and 6:30 am. Should we put her back in her smaller crate?

Answer
That didn't seem to be working that well either.  There are some problems I have encountered and solved.  Some I haven't seen, but there are solutions to them where I found what did work for my problems.  I don't have a good solution to your problem, and am not sure anybody does.  I thinkit comes from poor early care.  

You could eliminate the mess and stop her from drinking it by putting a grid in the bottom of the crate.  They are available with the crates, but expensive and hard to find. A piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. I am now using a plastic vegetable bin with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom.