Potty Training French Mastiff

[brook168]

I have a 9 month old female French mastiff. I am having a very hard time potty training her. She was doing well right around 6 months and then all of a sudden decided she was done going outside.

She has a doggy door that is open 24/7. She is kennelled only when it isn't nice outside for about 8 hours, any other day she is outside in the yard.

I feel like she has just gotten to lazy to go outside. It doesn't matter what she has to do or if it's on the carpet, vinyl, or her doggy bed.

Please help.

 

[Bailey's Mom]

Okay...I was going to write a huge long list of possibilities, but, let's find out more about the dog's home life. What are her days like? Is she alone, either in the yard or in the house, whether "kenneled" for protracted periods of time without human attention or just alone to amuse herself because the family is busy with other things? What is her usual schedule, morning to night? Fill in the blanks and we will all have a better idea of where to start with advice.

The fact is that the cause is probably something you've overlooked, though, it's possible...not likely...that there is a medical reason. So, let's first examine her day, her routine, her food (type, and feeding frequency.)

The more you can tell us, the closer we are to knowing the cause.

 

[marke]

you need to catch her when she attempts to go inside , and you need to praise her when she goes outside .....you need to somehow remove the opportunity to go inside when you can't catch her ........ you probably know to correct her when she goes in the house you need to actually catch her in the act , anything else will do nothing but confuse her , no matter how soon after she's already done it ........ you need to limit her access to the house when you are not able to supervise her , keep her limited to a small area with access to the dog door when you are not around , clean up mistakes , correct her when you catch her ....... you need to break the habit by limiting opportunities when she can't get caught ...... once a dog pees on a carpet , no matter how good you clean it , they'll still be able to smell it ...... i had a dog pee on a carpet in the basement one time , i cleaned with that enzyme stuff , a couple years later i let a couple older housebroke pups down the basement , one of the male pups walked over sniffed and peed on that exact spot ......... she'll get it , i've never seen one not .......

 

[brook168]

She has the same schedule everyday.
I get up and put her out right away. Before I would just let her out of the room but since she has started having accidents again I literally escort her to the to the doggy door. I watch her and tell her good job.
Then if it's nice out before I leave I put her outside, I will find an accident from her on the floor just within that half hour of letting her out and leaving.
If she is kennelled I have been putting her in with my other dog so she isn't alone. No accidents in the kennel.
I feed her as soon as I get home. I feed her in my room so I know she eats, she on the thinner side so I make sure she eats it all.
Finally we just hang out and do whatever. Whenever I catch her going down stairs I follow her.
I can't sleep with my bedroom door open anymore because she will have an accident down stairs but she won't have one in my room.

 

[marke]

get a crate , put it next to your bed , let her sleep in it and take her out in the morning , or if your bedroom door being closed works , stick with it ..... you need to stop her having the opportunity to have accidents , the longer you can get her to go without accidents the sooner she'll be reliably housebroke ..... my kennel dogs housebreak themselves , I just clean up the accidents , and try to catch them to correct them ..... when they first come in the house I confine my pups to the kitchen which gives them access to the dog door , I clean up accidents correct them when I catch them , give them as little opportunity for accidents as possible , and they all end up housebroken , I've never seen an exception ...... your pup has a bad habit now , it's a little more intensive work , but I assure you , patience and persistence , and it will happen , it always does ......

 

[marke]

and don't forget to reward her in some way when she does her business outside , especially when you intentionally take her out for that purpose and she goes quickly , she'll be able to put that together easier than rewarding her after she's been out for a long time ......

 

[DennasMom]

Seems like she considers anything outside of the bedroom fair game, does that sound about right?

Once she goes in the living room (for example), unless you get the smell out REALLY well (vinegar or enzymatic solutions work best), she'll smell the previous mess and think "oh yeah, THIS is the bathroom!"

Start feeding her in the room that she's been using as a bathroom to reinforce that room as an extension of the "Den". Dogs don't like to mess where they eat.

I would wonder about medical issues, since she was ok for a while.
I'd also look at what else changed around the 6 month mark... anything going on with the other dog or a change in your home/away schedule? Any extra stressors in her life might have caused a shift in behavior, and you just have to go back to step one and reinforce the rules... Potty Parties outside, "no" and removal to outside if she starts to squat inside.