Funny behaviour

Question
Hello :)

I have a Chihuahua and she around a year old. She is trained to get back into her cage whenever she wants to urinate or clear her bowels and for quite awhile except for the starting weeks we got her, she has been giving us no trouble.

Recently, she has been urinating or passing motion in the living room. Once she did it for 3 consecutive days, despite  whipping from my mom everytime she commits that mistake. It's pretty weird, because sometimes she'll hop back into her cage to do her business(I'll clear it) and the next time she wants to do it, she does it outside. It's not that she doesn't know what's right or wrong. She does because every time she urinates outside, she'll have this very guilty look and sneak back to hide in her cage. So why does she still want to do it? Despite the whippings she hate. It hurts me to see her cry out in pain but my mum says she has to learn.

What can I do to train her and make sure she never commits the same mistake again? My mum always forgives my dog very easily and is that why she never learns?

I hope to hear from you soon!
Thankyou :)

Answer
First, Amy, the whipping needs to stop immediately. Whipping a dog does not accomplish a thing except to make the dog fearful of the person doing the whipping, and it can also make the dog 'sneak off' to potty out of sight. The whipping is probably the reason she appears 'guilty' when she potties outside. She is confused.

If you catch her in the act of pottying on the floor, you should make a sudden noise to startle her, and then take her to her cage if that's where she's supposed to be going to the bathroom, and praise her for pottying in there. Then you should whip yourself for not paying better attention to her and allowing her to go on the floor in the first place. If you do not catch her in the act, you should not punish her because she will have no idea why she's being punished. Just clean it up and whip yourself again.

I'm wondering, does the dog do anything in her cage besides go to the bathroom? Do you prefer that she do it in the cage or outside? I'm a bit confused here. Normally, you put a dog in a crate to prevent it from going to the bathroom.