[AkaYorkie]

Okay, I really need help. My hubby and I are first time Yorkie owners and our little Daisy is having some issues. We got her in March of this year and she turned one year old a couple weeks ago. Her original owner trained her to go on a pee pad and also outside and at first that worked pretty well for us too. We keep her pee pad in our downstars bathroom which is also next to her area outside of the bathroom where her crate (which we leave open for her to go in/out of), food, and water is. So when we're not home we just put a fence up separating the kitchen and the living room. We have a pretty good sized kitchen for an apartment so she has all that space, the bathroom, and her area to run around in when we're not home.

Well, lately she has been horrible about having accidents in the kitchen when we're not home AND when we are in the living room where we can't see her! I guess we're lucky she's not going on our carpet, but I am so frustrated because she was doing pretty good. She had maybe an accident every week or two at first and maybe more than that if her pee pad was too full. Well, last Saturday she went around 6 or 7 times while we were home with her all day and her pee pad was empty!!!

My husband suggested that maybe she's trying to assert her dominance (she is at the "teenage age") so we started being more strict with her, making her sit before we let her get on the couch with us, making her sit before we feed her, and that actually seemed to help a little, but now it's getting worse again. She had a bm in the floor when I came downstairs and then peed again later when I came home from work (AFTER I had just taken her outside!!!) Well, I really want her to know she's doing the wrong thing. What we've been doing is just locking her up in the bathroom with her pee pad when we find her accident (time out) for around 15-30 minutes, but today I made her spend most of the evening in there and would not let her come out until she sat and laid down (which she knows how to do). It took an hour for her to obey!!! But I thought, okay, at least she submitted, so I felt okay since she had obeyed me. Well, after cuddling with her and praising her for listening, my husband went into the kitchen and she had peed again while we were watching a movie!!! AHHHHHH!!!! So she's in the bathroom now and I'm thinking about letting her stay there all night, just to let her know we mean business. I really don't know if this is right and I need help!

I don't have any children (human), but I am a teacher so I know all about how to deal with kids (for the record, I would not lock them in the bathroom for doing something wrong), but dogs are so different and I am really at a loss. I can't reason with her and I can't explain anything. I know she knows she's doing wrong because if she had an accident she crouches down when we go into the kitchen. I am frustrated and need help!!!