Letters to the Editor
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No more pets!
All the people giving advice about replacing the Yorkie with another dog or cat are off the mark. The grandma can't take care of a pet. She can't train it. And all 'Dog whisperer' advice is training. The chief caretaker rewards good behavior. Grandma is rewarding whining and ignoring good behavior.
It's not clear to me that the dog is incontinent or just getting totally inadequate care. My short term advice is to make sure the dog gets a lot more outdoor time. That's a job for someone other than Grandma. Walk the dog 10 times a day if it will only walk for 5 minutes. If this doesn't work (perhaps because neither Grandpa nor Aunt is willing to take the responsibility) then:
Talk to the vet. If the dog has serious medical problems that better care can't fix (I'd say incontinence is one), then it's probably time to euthanize.
If the dog has no health problems and no one in the house where it lives is capable of giving it adequate care (enough walks, decent diet), then I still say it should go. Either the pee or poop has soaked into the carpet causing permanent smells(those special sprays help, but they can't cope with chronic problems) or the wet floors are a slipping hazard in a house with fragile elderly people.
As for no-kill shelters, when they fill up, they stop taking in new animals (who will then go to other shelters with different policies). How many people looking for a new pet are going to want an old, fat, blind dog with house training problems? Not many. Yes, some get adopted, but the supply of such animals far exceeds the demand.
Anyway, don't get sucked into the whole 'what is our society coming to' thing. Look at the question from a humane perspective: the health and quality of life of the dog and the health and quality of life of your grandparents. That way, if you make the decision to euthanize, you won't think you did the wrong thing even if your grandma asks about the dog 50 times a day for the rest of her life.
Wring the thing's neck because it's a fat, annoying yap-yap and you'll probably regret it.