housebreaking my 5 month old english mastiff he just wont break

[ponyxpress]

We have a 5 month old English mastiff Brindle. We Love the heck out of the guy. We have had him since he was 6 weeks old we started off trying to crate train him up until about 3 weeks ago.( he is now 5 Months old.) Now we keep him in the kitchen just gated off because I got sick of him going both in the crate and then laying in it or getting covered in it for more of a mess. so he still goes in the kitchen but at least he doesnt get covered in it. I have tried rubbing his nose in it and the old trick of smacking him with a few sheets of paper so its more noise than hurting him. He knows when he has done bad cause he will put his head down. He doesnt give us any warning signs. he is home about 8 hours by himself but with his size he should be able to hold it. with that said though even if I dont feed him till I get home he will go outside and go but then there will be 4 piles on the floor in the morning. I swear he doesnt even eat as much as he dischargers. my patienece is not running out and we wont give up on him that is just not options he is ours to keep he is part of the family but I really hope someone has some ideas on what I am doing wrong or what I need to know to get him going in the right path. Thanks and I hope everytone has a Great ThanksGiving
Bob

 

[raechiemay]

I can understand your frustration. What is his feeding schedule like? Is he on a schedule? What food is he eating? Is he going in the same spots? I'd say outside 20 minutes after every meal, praise & treat when he does go outside. Are you leaving him access to food &/or water when he is crated or gated off to the kitchen? Also, how big is his crate?

I agree don't give up just yet. My girl wasn't fully housebroken until about 6 months. Part of which was my own fault. I put too much trust into her before she was ready. I wasn't taking her out as much as I should have. But we used bells for when she needed to go out. She picked that up pretty quick & we ended up having to take them down bc she was ringing the bells just for the fun of it.

 

[ponyxpress]

no food or water in the crate. he eats about 3:00 pm when I get home from work and then if I let him out about 1/2 hour later he will go. he wont eat anymore cause he will have eaten all him food. but will leave 2-4 piles of poop on the floor by morning. my wife and I have even taken him out over night every hour and when we finally fell asleep at 5 am we would come down at 6:30 am an boom 2 or more pile of poop it is really unbelievable how this is going. I am just hoping to find a reason or answer or timeline as to when he may just "get it". we have tried the bells but he could careless about them.

 

[raechiemay]

It could be the food you're feeding. I know when I first got my pup I was feeding her a not so great food & she was going like 7 times a day. And she liked going in the dining room to do her business. So I blocked off the dining room & changed her food to a better quality food.

 

[Smart_Family]

You really shouldn't be rubbing the dogs face in their messes or hitting them with anything. Neither of those methods will help a dog learn and are just cruel. You need to be consistent in your training. As the above poster said it could be the food, especially if it's one with chicken and or grains. Many mastiffs have issues with one or the other and when they eat food with it can't control their bowels because it goes right thru them.

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

PLEASE do not rub his nose in it and please do not punish him for accidents, this only teaches fear and makes it much, much harder to train properly. You cant punish a dog for something they did hours before, you can correct him if you see him in the act of doing it but not after the fact, he wont know what he is being punished for. He puts his head down because you are punishing him not because he feels bad for making a mess. A correction in the middle of doing wrong is a stern, loud NO. Nothing more.

If it were me I would start with the basics all over again. First thing in the morning before you do anything at all, even having a coffee, take him out to potty to his potty spot, when he goes reward. Potty = good things. After breakfast wait 20 minutes and take him again. After lunch or play or drink out he goes again. Reward always for good. Ignore accidents, put him out of the room and clean it up. Take him out right before you go to bed, reduce his water or just give him ice cubes in a bowl overnight so he doesn’t have a full bladder. Set your alarm and get up every 3 hours to take him out in the night. When he goes reward. At 5 months old he should be able to hold it for about 5 hours, I go by 1 hour per month of age. 8 hours is asking a lot of his little bladder. During the day do you have a neighbour or friend that can come and do a relief visit? Or can you get home for lunch?

Also exercise before bed will help him relieve himself. The movement and mental stimulation will get his bladder etc going and he will want to eliminate, it will also help him sleep through the night. And teaching him to ring a bell or scratch at the door will help him to help you realise when he needs to go, in the meantime keep a close eye on him, get up in the night again and until he is full dry.

Good luck.

---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ----------

My post came in the bottom somehow before I saw the above...scratch head and laugh at myself again. Agree also look at diet.

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

My post came in the bottom somehow before I saw the above...scratch head and laugh at myself again. Agree also look at diet.

 

[Buddha's Dad]

A lot of good advice from everyone. And like others have said when he does go outside reward, and make a HUGE deal out of it like he won the lottery, pet him, talk in an excited happy voice, praise him etc.
Do you use a set word like "Go Potty!" every time you take him out and he is in his potty spot?
Sometimes I'd give Buddha one of his favorite treats which was a piece of frozen green bean if he went outside and peed and then pooed in a timely manner and then headed right back inside and not tried to do laps around the backyard late at night LOL

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

I feel your pain, that sounds like my boy Stone who is 7 months now. While he does go on command now he has not been potty trained since the day I brought him home. I can count the number of times has held throughout the night on both fingers. He still goes in the crate but to make the clean up easer I just started using horse bedding.

 

[Jakesmum]

Time and patience. We crated our BM until he was about 9 months old, he has never had an accident in his kennel. We tried gating him in our bedroom where his crate is when he was 5 months old, he was good the first day but the second day he had an accident. Now he is 15 months old and we haven't had to lock him in his crate since June, but saying that, between June and August my husband was recuperating from surgery so he was home with Jake. He still has his crate set up and he sleeps in it all the time, but he has free range of our bedroom during the day. In my experience 5 months was too young to gate him and give him more space, but every dog is different.
Buddha's Dad made the suggestion of using a set word when you take him out, we always said "find your spot" and took Jake where we wanted him to go, so now when we let him out if we say "find your spot" he automatically goes to that part of the yard and starts snoofling for a good spot. Give tons of praise when he does his business outside and a special treat.

 

[Smokeycat]

My EM boy is 10 months and has gone in the house over night about 2 weeks ago. He won't wake me up. He also was a pain to house train. One thing that I did notice is that when he was on any poultry based food he needed to go more often. I switched him to a salmon based food and the frequency went down while the solidity went up.

 

[DennasMom]

I agree with all the great advice on this thread -
8 hours is too long for a 5 month old puppy during the day... overnight, maybe (only maybe), but definitely not during waking hours.
That many piles does suggest something is disagreeable with the food - could be just too much food, or maybe a chicken issue.
Punishing for accidents in the house is counterproductive - reward for eliminating in the right spot and unless you catch him in the act, ignore the accidents. Accidents in the house are the human's fault - you left the puppy alone too long or weren't paying attention. The puppy had no choice.
I'd go back to the crate - feed him in the crate to make sure that's a "non-bathroom" den... dogs don't want to mess where they eat - if they do, it's normally due to inability to control themselves.
I might also consider taking a stool sample in for a vet check, just to make sure he's clean of parasites. And, if urine is an issue, bladder infections can make for control trouble on that end. And, at 5 months, the control isn't 100% yet anyway. The muscles are still developing.
Be patience and stay positive!

 

[Kona303]

Kona is 5 months too and the only way she learned is the crate. I would stop punishing for the accident after its happen because they dont understand why your upset. It's strange he would go in the crate and lay in it. For us we started out taking her out every 2 hours, and 20 mins after eating and drinking. When he goes outside tell him goodboy and really make a big deal about how happy you are. At night take him out maybe twice to begin with until he realizes he can hold it longer. We've only had 2 accidents which we caught, said no and she finished outside. I know it can be frustrating but keep consistent and he'll get the picture

 

[raechiemay]

I remember one time Duchess squatted to poop in the house once & I saw her, said no & she was like "oh!!! Well then let me out!!" then did a weird hunched back walk to the door & finished outside. Funniest thing I've ever seen. Couldn't get mad at her for the little nugget she left inside. At least she knew better & finished outside where she was supposed to.

 

[smfidler]

no food or water in the crate. he eats about 3:00 pm when I get home from work and then if I let him out about 1/2 hour later he will go. he wont eat anymore cause he will have eaten all him food. but will leave 2-4 piles of poop on the floor by morning. my wife and I have even taken him out over night every hour and when we finally fell asleep at 5 am we would come down at 6:30 am an boom 2 or more pile of poop it is really unbelievable how this is going. I am just hoping to find a reason or answer or timeline as to when he may just "get it". we have tried the bells but he could careless about them.

Are you only feeding once a day? I feed Bentley 3 times and have heard you should go down to 2 around a yr(I think that was it), but I would never just do one. Maybe b/c he is getting all of that food at once, it's all coming out at bed time. We feed 6-630/1230/6 and at 10 weeks Bentley has only pooped in my room once over night. I am just wondering if spacing them out would help him digust properly and be able to hold it better......

But same as the rest said, keep your head up too, if you stress then they do too

 

[bashmichel]

I just adopted a Fila (3 weeks ago)and she has had problems with diarreah. I did not know about food with chicken affecting mastiffs. I thought chicken and rice was the mildest dog food and the best to feed dogs with digestive issues. What should I be feeding her?

She still has accidents inside even though I was told she was housebroken. She is 12 months now. She seems to only have the accidents when I have let her go to a room unsupervised. It is like, if she can get out of my sight she will go but if I am there she will not and seems to be able to hold it forever. So I have never been able to catch her going! I take her out often and praise her when she goes but she is now restricted to two rooms only which is getting old!

 

[angelbears]

bashmichel, may i ask how much you know about Fila's?

 

[ponyxpress]

ok well I only rubbed his nose in it once and I felt bad and he already knew he did something wrong so I found that pointless. I didnt hit him with the paper rolled I was hitting the side of the cabinet just so the noise scared him I also only did that once. with that said I have been off work since tuesday and have been trying to spend time with him pay attention to him. I will take him out walk him around he will pee and sometimes poop. But at times right after I bring him in and walk into the other room he will pee on the floor in the kitchen like he is mad I left him there. He is not gonna get the run of the house till he is house broken and done with his chewing stage lol. I am giving him pedigree brand food. I have to go to the store tomorow because it is getting low and I am going to upgrade his food to a premium type food with no chicken and I believe it is salamon based mentioned above. I am also going to take him to the vet and see if he has a parasite as mentioned above. As I said we Love the little poopbox and he isnt going anywhere but we just have to get him past this or figure out what is cause it. I am confident with all your help and our effort we will get him turned into a great dog like we know he is. cause his personality is just so GREAT and he is AWESOME with the kids. thanks for the advice and keep it coming I apreciate it all

 

[jcook]

I had a hard time potty training Stella. We did try pushing her nose in it and yelling at her when we caught her in the act. We werent seeing any progress. Then our trainer said that what were doing was detrimental because we were teaching her that isnt okay to let us see her pee. So Stella would hide when she would pee in the house (found some behind couches). She also became really afraid of my boyfriend (he had less patience for the potty training). If we caught her peeing we started just gently grabbing her and telling her outside while brining her outside. Also, we did always tell her potty when she went potty outside, and of course praise her after she did the deed.

Stella is now almost 7 months and now the accidents are very infrequent. We feed three times a day. I also still dont leave stella home for 8 hours, she would definitely go in the house after that long.

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Stone would go right in front of me. Grrrrr...