my dog used bathroom on floor when i was sleeping. should we punish her?

Question
Hey
i have a 6 year old shih tzu and she won't bark to let me know she needs to go pee! she did that last night and my parents are really mad at her! they've lockd her up in a pretty small corner and they plan to leave her like that all day! Is there a better way we should be punishing her? or should we punish her at all?

Answer
Once the dog has an accident in the house or destroys something, it is impossible to punish it because the dog will NOT HAVE A CLUE why it is being punished! A dog must always be "caught in the act" to understand why it is being punished. Dogs cannot understand or reason like people.

The primary rule of dog training is that any correction OR praise must be done within a millisecond of the action or the dog will not understand the reason for the correction or the praise.

If your parents are concerned about the dog pottying in the house during the night, the dog should be confined to a crate during that time instead of being allowed to roam the house at night. Doing that during the day as punishment is absolutely pointless as the dog will learn nothing.