[DBlain]

first of all if you have gone to the trouble of rescuing her you must have wanted her, so why are you so short of patience so soon. Perhaps you have only had big dogs in the past or no dogs, but just so you know, probably at least half the yorkies out there are paper/pad trained to go to the bathroom indoors, so that could be the main reason she will not go outside. What you might try doing is pick up some of the poop and bring it outside, so she has some of her smells out there. You can also try putting a potty pad in front of the door you go out, it would be interesting to see what you are dealing with. While those books are good, if I am not mistaken they probably address dealing with a puppy, you do not have a puppy, you have a three year old where habits have been formed, it would be great if you knew what they were and retraining from that would be easier. For instance my last yorkie went in litter boxes with newspaper in the bottom of them. I decided that pee pads would be cleaner so I bought some of those, well he did not take to the change and started peeing and pooping just outside the litter box. So I put the newspapers back in and he started using it again, I tried the pee pad one more time and back he went to peeing outside the box. If someone had adopted him, they would have had a devil of a time figuring out why he would not pee on the pad since more yorkies use pads than newspapers. I had a friend that trained her dog to only go on cement. I tell you this so you realize that you don't know her past habits and can't assume what they were, so patience is a must. If it was me I would try putting a pad and perhaps some newspapers by the front door and see what happens, if the dog goes on them with little prodding then you will know you have a dog that was used to going inside, and then work on retraining from that by bringing the pad outside.

When you let the dog out to go potty, is it done by leash or does she run loose? My sister's yorkie is used to having the run of the yard. Recently we were both at my parents house and could not shut their gate due to heavy snow. So we had to take the dogs out by their leashes, Lola is leash trained to potty so it was easy, however stubborn Lucy would not go while on the leash, she would stand there hunched over almost afraid to move, even though she goes for walks via the leash with no problem, but she refused to potty that way, she held herself for close to 24 hours before finally giving in and peeing while I held the leash. I also know someone that keeps artificial turf mats on their balcony and the dog goes potty on that. So while I did not exactly answer your question, I hope that you understand that unlike humans who are all use to sitting on a toilet to potty, small dogs have been given a wide variety of potty choices by their owners.