Dog Owners - Need Advice (Long)

mrsmckinky

History:  We adopted one of our dogs 3 years ago.  Abby's previous owner moved in with her bf (who didn't like dogs), so the owner would leave her in the crate all day for work (9 hours), come to let her out, feed her, etc., then put her back in the crate for (13-14 hours) while she went to her bf's house.  When we first got her, she would pee in the house (she would freak out if we tried to crate train her - naturally, after all that).  We took Abby to the vet and had about $500 worth of tests done to make sure she didn't have any sort of bladder or urinary tract infections. The only thing the vet could tell us was that the lining of her bladder was extra thick (bladder is a muscle - by holding it so long, it built up the muscle....too much muscle = less room inside the bladder). 

Fast forward 3 years, Abby will occasionally pee on the carpet.  She won't pee in our room, since she sleeps there at night, but we have to leave the guest room and nursery doors closed, otherwise she will pee in there.   She won't pee on the tile or hardwood, JUST on carpet (we've had to take the rug out of our living room as a result).  Well, since we are in and out of Dex's room so much, sometimes we forget to shut the door.  I walked in there this morning, and she left a lovely pee spot in the room. 

I can't take this anymore.  I'm not saying we are getting rid of her, I just can't handle the urine everywhere.  I know Abby is capable of holding her bladder, because if we shut our bedroom door at night, she will hold it no problem.  If we put her down in the basement during the day (when I was working, we would do that), she holds it no problem.  The only signals she gives for needing to pee are looking at us and whining very quietly and hopping around on her back legs.  Obviously, when we are asleep, that doesn't do anything to wake us up.  We let the dogs out every couple of hours, except for at night, they go about 8 hours.  I read somewhere that training a dog to ring a bell might help, but she really is not a smart dog.  Like...at all.  She's also extremely stubborn.  The only command we've ever been able to teach her is to sit, and she will only do that if we have a treat for her.  It's very frustrating, especially because our other dog is extremely intelligent (she's part border collie, and took to training very easily).

 If you made it through all of this, does anyone have any other suggestions to work on this problem?  I really am sick of having to keep doors closed off, worried that Dex is going to be crawling soon, and unhappy to keep having to clean up pee from the carpet and not having a rug in our living room!!  Ugghhh!