4 month old French Bulldog - pees in crate and licks it up

Question
Hi - Wondering if someone can offer me some advice...  About 3 weeks ago, my husband and I got a French Bulldog (from a breeder) named Oscar.  He is now 16 weeks old.  He caught on to house training very quickly - he eliminates outside and has only had a few accidents in the house.  
However, when he is in his crate during the day while my husband and I are at work, I think he pees in his crate and then licks it up before I get home to walk him.  (He is only in his crate for 4 hours at a time - I come home for lunch during the day to feed and walk him.)  When I get home, the plastic bottom of the crate is a little wet on one of the sides with pee.  The crate is only big enough for him to lay down in and turn around in.

I am led to believe that he licks it up because I have seen him try to do it before when he had an accident in the house.  My husband thinks he lays in it, soaking it up, and then it just dries.

Before we go to work, we make sure to take him out a few times to make sure the food and water is out of his system.
If he is, in fact, licking up the pee, is he endangering himself?  I am very, very worried and don't know what to do!!  Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Answer
Undoing the results of poor care by the breeder is hard.  One thing you can do is put a grid in the bottom of the crate.  It keeps the puppy up out of the urine.  Skip the bedding. At first it gets wet, and later it can be chewed into choking
hazards. A wire grid in the bottom will help keep the puppy up out of
accidents at first. 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. It helps block off part of the crate for the smaller puppy.