Q: I'll be blunt, my Yorkie poops on my couch. I show it to her and she runs under the bed even if I don't say a word. I put a plastic spiked rug runner on the couch, but this only worked for a week before she jumped up there and did it on the runner. I also tried Doggie No. I know she knows it's wrong and I have lost one couch already. She is house broken otherwise, and there isn’t a pattern to this behavior either -- she may do it 2 days in a row then not again for a month. THANK YOU for your help.

A: As you have discovered, punishment does not work for this problem. She may seem to know she has done wrong, but actually, pottying in the house is not the moral issue with dogs that it is with humans! She is not getting an attack of conscience, or learning from your corrections after the fact -- she is simply reacting to the fact that she knows you are going to be mad at her.

Yorkies can be difficult to housetrain. It's a problem with various terrier breeds -- and Yorkies are terriers -- plus it's a problem with many tiny dogs, too. To a tiny dog, a room that is not used very often may seem like an out-of-the-way place, where a larger dog would often rather leave this scent mark outdoors.

If the only place your Yorkie is having accidents is the sofa, you're not doing too badly. Do check her schedule for feeding and opportunities to relieve herself, and see if you can improve on that. Intestinal parasites can make it hard for a dog to hold it, as can a dog food that is not high quality. Free feeding rather than scheduled meals can make housetraining more difficult, too.

I would start by removing her access to the sofa completely when you are not there to watch her. You could baby-gate off the entire living room so she can't go in there. Or put an exercise pen (kind of a doggy playpen) around the sofa. Or be creative, whatever you can do to safely remove her from this temptation.

You mentioned that you have lost a couch to this. If her stools are not solid, that may indicate a problem with health or diet, so discuss that with her veterinarian. If the dog is not completely healthy, she may not be able to hold it. And it only takes small amounts of the wrong foods to upset the digestion of such a tiny breed. They are hardy, but they have very small digestive systems.

Be sure to treat any spots where she has had accidents with a bacterial enzyme odor eliminator product such as Nature's Miracle. This will help save your furniture, and also remove odor that would draw her instincts back to use the spot again.