Unusual Urinary Behaviour...

Question
I have a two and a half year old Yorkshire Terrier. She has been living with me since she was 10 weeks old. I am struggling with her occassional peeing and pooping inside the house. She is trained: 90% of the time she goes outside, but I should say that this number has improved greatly over the past few months, prior to that she maybe made it outside 75% of the time (this improvement is due to the diligence of my parents who I moved back in with 6 months ago.) I have theories that she is potentially asserting Alpha Dog behaviour. It does seem like her accidents in the house occur after my brother's dog visits or when she first moved to my parents (who also have a dog.) Althogh I htink the problem is bigger than that because last night before bed I put Stella out twice for ten minutes and she wouldn't go, so I brought her upsatirs and went to bed, and she got up minutes later and went downstairs and peed in the kicthen! It is unexplainable. She has gotten used to my parents dog so I really have only observed this behaviour when another Dog visits the house or we visit a house where another dog has been. You can imagine how embarassing this is when She poos or pees in someone else's home. I am struggling with this now more than ever because I am about to move into a new rental home on April 1st which is almost all carpeted. The clencher is that the homeowners of my rental property have a dog residing there currently. I need some advice about how to control this problem before I move into this beautiful new home. Please help me!

Answer
Yorkshire Terriers do not exhibit "alpha" behavior.  You stated that last night you "put her out for ten minutes", does that mean you WENT out with her or did you send her out on her own?  Do you yell at her or otherwise "discipline" her when you find urine or stool in the house?  If so, you've trained her NOT to urinate/defecate in front of you since she absolutely associates the PRESENCE of urine or stool as something that angers you (and she has NO IDEA it's her inappropriate production of it that's doing it.)  This would explain why she does NOT urinate/defecate in front of you outdoors; if you just "put her out" by herself, she has no idea why she's out there, and ten minutes just isn't sufficient time.  House training a dog takes WORK, consistent effort, patience and a commitment.

This little dog was never reliably house trained but she's improved since your parents got into the act and obviously afford her ample opportunity to eliminate outdoors.  This of course insinuates that you did not do this, did not take her out sufficienly and did not give her adequate time to eliminate, so essentially she was forced to eliminate indoors and that behavior is persisting (as is quite common in dog behavior). Further, she has changed households and is about to do so again.  Moving causes enormous stress in a dog; habituating to a new environment (with another dog), new outdoor experiences (with other sights, sounds, etc.), new schedule, etc. is VERY difficult for any dog.  You may be angry and frustrated because you seem to think the dog is eliminating indoors as some sort of "statement" or perhaps even out of spite, the tone of your question suggests to me that you don't like this little dog very much.  If this is the case, this may be adding to her stress.  Dogs "read" our body language quite carefully and react to any negative emotion we feel, especially if it's directed at them.  You may feel that you really don't want this dog and perhaps your lifestyle and responsibilities to yourself, your job, etc., make it difficult for you to care for her.  Is it possible for her to stay with your parents after you move?

If you decide to make the move to your new place with your Yorkie, you must make the commitment to take this dog out on very, very long leash (in the event she's afraid to urinate/defecate in front of you) and WAIT until she urinates and defecates, no matter how long it takes.  Each outing will increase her understanding of what she's supposed to be doing outdoors and within a month or two she should be urinating and defecating within several minutes of being TAKEN out.  Praise her EVERY TIME she eliminates (in a soft voice) and pop a tidbit of treat into her mouth when she's finished.  Take her out as often as possible (every three hours isn't too much when you're house training) or AT LEAST five times daily, at regular intervals and on a consistent schedule; she needs to learn she will be given fair and ample opportunity.  Give her fair opportunity to perform, fair opportunity to learn, kind and consistent treatment; IGNORE the "accidents" unless you catch her in the act in which case INTERRUPT her behavior by clapping your hands (do NOT yell at her, do NOT make direct eye contact with her), then take her outdoors to finish.  If you are concerned about her urinating indoors, buy doggy diapers and use them for the first 4 to 6 weeks while she is learning where to eliminate (outdoors).  Find an area outdoors where you take her consistently so her scent is there, this will stimulate her to eliminate outdoors.

You don't seem to understand your dog's psychology.  Dogs learn all the time and what they learn is dependent upon what YOU teach.  I suggest you do some reading to improve your relationship with this little dog:
"For the Love of A Dog", Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
"Think Dog", John Fisher