Toilet Problems!

Hi there, I have an 8month old female cairn terrier/ westie cross! She is very clever and is more or less house trained however if i leave her to sleep in kitchen overnight with other dog she often pees or dirties on the floor, if i take her up with me she is fine all night. The main problem is when i walk her etc she will not do anything she waits until we are home and does it on our grass or decking?? I cannot get her to do anywhere else. This is a problem but the main thing is she will not do a number 2 in front of any of us. We can have her on grass for ages and she will pee and nothing else then you bring her onto decking which is fenced off and she will do it there when we go away or on kitchen floor the few occasions she has done on grass she hides and does it behind a table?! How can we stop this and get her to go normally? It is the only thing stopping her from being fully trained? Please help!

Boy that is a tough one. Gunnar my GSD and Katya my CO won't go while we are on walk either because they are in "guard" mode. If Gunnar has to go really bad on a walk he trys to hurry me up back to home so he can go! He will go if we are somewhere for the whole day, then he has no choice. I think you will find quite a few dogs that want their "privacy" when they potty and are only comfortable going on their own territory. As for the pottying in the kitchen at night it may just be too much room for her and if she has to go she feels fine doing it because she can get away from it. Smaller breeds can be harder to potty train also becuase their bladders are so small. Hope someone else drops in with some more advice!

Thanks for the reply! It really is driving me crazy, i am going away for 2 nights at end of september so it has to be sorted by then or I cant leave her with anyone!! I think you are right about the kitchen at night thing, that never crossed my mind. She doesnt do the toilet anywhere else because she knows it is bad and when she does make mistakes she runs a mile! I think that is why she is fine in my room. she knows it is wrong whereas kitchen was her training place! I did think that mybe she never does it in front of us because she has just associated doing a number 2 with getting punished because thats what happens when she does it in the wrong places. If she would do in front of me on grass i could praise her but i dont get the chance to!