Goes in the house. Seem on purpose?!

 Hi. Your dog is not properly housetrained. He's not doing it on purpose. What you see as "knowing he's doing wrong" is probably his confusion at your response. He runs and hides, not because he knows it's wrong, but because of your reaction when it happened last time.

Housetraining your dog 

You just have to be more diligent about it for a while until he really gets that outside is the place to go. Be sure to PRAISE him when he goes in the right place. :)

what FiC said. He's not housebroken. He has no idea where he is supposed to go potty, so he goes potty when he needs to regardless of where he is. Pretend he's a puppy and go back to Housebreaking 101. The happy thing about housebreaking an adult dog is he has bladder control so as soon as "the light dawns" he'll be housebroken, unlike a puppy who really has to physically mature. So a week of training may be sufficient to do the job.

rule #1: if dog potties in house, it's your fault for not taking him out often enough/ not watching him like a hawk. That means full attention on him or he is in his crate. None of this leaving him alone for thirty seconds.

rule #2: take dog out often. Every hour on the hour if necessary. Walk boringly to potty spot, if dog potties, then you praise and have fun.

rule #3: if you fail to prevent "an accident" NEVER punish the dog. Just say calmly oh whoops and take dog outside, then calmly clean up. Make sure you use an enzymatic cleaner to remove any residual smell.

With a dog that old he's simply confused.  Most of the time he hits it right -- but he's never learned it's simply *not* appropriate in the house, NOR has he learned how to let you know he needs to go out ****NOW****.

Neither of those are intuitive.  both of those require communication between you and the dog. 

One small hint I've found invaluable -- it simply helps with the communication angle.  When you find an accident, put him in the other room and then go remove the waste TO THE OUTSIDE.  Put it where you *want* him to go. 

 Then .. go get him **on leash** (you need control here -- you need to be able to direct him exactly where you want him to go and hold his attention).  You walk straight out to the waste and *show* him. As you pass thru the door you say "Out".   Then, point to the waste and say  "here -- OUTside"

You probably won't need to do it more than a few times .... and you might need to give this dog a trigger to TELL you what he wants/needs.  Hang a bell on the door or put one of those spring doorstops behind the door you want him to go out.  A gentle tap of the bell or door stop produces a sound YOU can hear. 

What MudPuppy and 4IC said is purely true -- you can't just leave this dog alone and "hope" this resolves.  You have to keep track of this dog because every time you *miss* his communication and yet you are dismayed or angry or upset when you *find* his waste all you did was teach him "Man, I can't go in FRONT of her -- she hates me!"  That's why they run and hide.

Rememeber a dog identifies SO closely with it's waste -- if you point to it and get angry or even say 'BAD DOG' an hour later -- all you just told this dog was 'I don't like YOU -- because THIS STUFF ***IS*** you!!'.  He's completely not 'getting' the in/out part of the deal. 

In 4 years probably what he's learned is that humans DO seem to like it when you go outside ... but ... they just don't let you out there often enough and gee ... a dog can only hold it SO long ... so make darned good and sure that when you DO go inside you DON'T do it in *front* of em cos they'll get all upset.  And when they DO find it ... run like heck!!!

So ... communicate -- it will work.  And keep washable bedding in every room for him to lie on -- it will minimize your dog smell if there are blankets YOU can launder every day or so. 

 thanks for all the replies....

i'll try with the help of the others in the house to keep a good eye on him, generally this is easy to do... just a bit of a curve bacll sinece i opted away from a pup to avoid having to do this. I work 10 hours a day usually. There are others that tend to him when im not home but arent so in tune with training and that and I knew this prior, so I was hoping an older dog would be house broken already..... i will work with him and hope for the best.

thanks for all the replies and suggestions.. it all seems to make sense. 

Are you going outside with him and saying "go potty"? When he goes outside throw a party and treat.