Potty training a female JRT

Question
Hi!  We have a soon-to-be 8-month old JRT female (spayed) and are having trouble with her housetraining.  We've crate-trained her, and she doesn't do her business in the crate unless we are bad owners and leave her too long, but she still isn't housetrained.  We aren't really having trouble with her defecating--she is good about telling us when she needs to do that--but her urination habits are terrible!  We take her out pretty regularly and she will urinate outside, but then she comes back in and will urinate on things that are left on the floor (clothes, backpacks, etc.) I'm afraid she might be marking territory, since she has obviously already taken care of her needs outside...HELP!  We have trouble taking her to other people's houses because of this problem.  Thanks so much!

Answer
Hi Hillary,
It's quite a common problem. The first thing you have to do is remove any and all urine smells from the house.
No easy task, but it can be done. They sell commercial products like URINE GONE and others that you can buy that do a good job. Lysol and all those strong smelling products smell good to us, but dogs can smell urine right through them! It's important to get one of those products made especially for pet urine smells. Even though we can't smell anything, they still can... and when they smell it, they assume that's the place to go.
You sound like you've done a great job, so keep up the good work.. but when she goes in the house, IMMEDIATE correction is the key. To correct her after the fact is pretty much useless, they don't quite understand what your upset at.
The best case scenario would be for you to catch her in the act and STOP it right away. Yell, make a loud noise, clap, or say NO!!! Grab her sternly but don't hurt her and take her outside to finish. You're going to have to watch her closely for a few weeks and THE SECOND she squats or starts to "go" - make the correction and take her out.
Do you use a word or phrase when you take her out to do her business? I say "go pee" to my dogs and they know what it means. When you take her out for her regular pee time, say the words, and when you are correcting her and take her out, say the same words, with a little more intensity.
Like anything, repetition and consistency is the key, it's frustrating and hard work but I've no doubt you can do it.
She's still young and Jacks are so smart, I can pretty much guarantee she won't always go in the house!!
Best of luck!
Carol