Crate Training Problems

Question
I recently read a question someone asked about their Great Dane puppy eliminating in his crate. We have a 16 week old Great Dane and are having the same problem. This evening after walking her along with are 3 year old Boxer, I let them play around in the house for a while before feeing her in her crate. We usually put a blanket in for her to lay on, but there wasn't one in there because she had peed on it during the day and I had taken it out to be washed. After she finished eating I took her out, she peed, and returned her to her crate to eat dinner. She peed in her crate and started whinning. I did not catch her in the act, so did not scold her. I took her out gave her a bath, cleaned her crate and put her back in with her toys and no blanket. She started whinning; I told her "no." About a minute later, she peed in her crate again. It seems as if she is doing it to get out of her crate. What do we do? She gets a lot of attention, daily walks and play time. The only time she is in her crate is when we are not watching her.

Answer
It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first.  What the puppy
wants more than anything else is to be with others, you, anyone else in the
household, and any other pets.  In our modern society, even if we are home,
other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have.   The
only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around.  Leave it some toys.  Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter.  Don't leave anything in the crate the dog might chew up.  Rather than relaxing and catching a nap in their den, some puppies protest by fouling the crate.  I haven't had this problem.  I see many questions suggesting it, and saw my daughter fight the problem.  

A wire grid in the bottom of the crate will help keep the puppy up out of urine and to a lessor extent stools.  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.  This reduces the mess, making the protest much less effective.  The longer haired the puppy, the higher it needs to be.  In warmer weather, you can just haul the crate out and hose everything off.  When the puppy sees you coping with the situation, and you stand your ground, most of them give up and learn to relax, and that you will return.  One more thing that may help is using a smaller crate, or blocking off part of a larger one so the puppy can't fouled one spot and retreat.