HELP! 6 month old Mastiff still urinating in house!

[Mastiff4me]

My darling girl seems to be having a hard time peeing outside!  Help! She will go outside on command and we have limited her space in doors to one room and she still urinates on the carpet. Of course, we all know these BIG kids have a lot of water in their bodies! It's driving me nuts. I have yet to see her in "the act" so it's hard to punish her.  We've tried the spray to keep her off the carpet. She likes it. We have used special sprays to change the urine smell.  Do big dogs take longer to mature???  She is so smart in every area except this.  Advice??

[Softhug]

Hi Mastiff4me!  Glad you made it to BPO!  We have an American Mastiff that is just a bit younger than Nala.  He is 16 weeks now.  Boudreaux will have accidents on occasion.  Sometimes it is our fault as we missed his "circle around the recliner" but sometimes he gives us no warning and will just squat and pee.  Mastiffs DO mature a lot slower than smaller dogs.  For example, most dogs should be getting spayed or neutered at about 4 months but Mastiffs are supposed to wait until about 8-10 months.  We keep Boudreaux crated when we aren't home and he hasn't had an accident in his crate in a long time...probabl y 2 months.  Maybe instead of confining her in one room when you aren't home, confine her to a smaller space...a laundry room if you have one?  or a cage?  Is Nala an OEM?  She is beautiful! 

[Mastiff4me]

Ah, thank you so much for your kind words.  Nala is an OEM and she is darling!  As is yours!  It's good to hear that they mature slower because we have a tiny Shih Tzu that never had a problem with house training at all.  I think alot of it is our fault and we are so trusting of her that we forget that she's just a pup.  A huge pup...lol..but a pup all the same.  I think we'll confine her in our master bathroom (tiled) while we're gone from now on. I hate to have her outside because it's very warm here in California.  The whole peeing inside is a total stress on me!  I love animals so much but won't stand the idea of urine inside on my carpet. That grosses me out!  :-)Thanks for your response!

[Bella's mom]

I just had to say that I think Nala is gorgeous!  Bella also had problems with accidents until she was about 5 or 6 months old.  She would use one half of her crate.  Then I sectioned it off, but she still managed to go where is would just drain to the sectioned off part.
I finally had to do as a trainer told me, and start feeding her in her crate.  They cannot stand to go where they eat.  I think she had maybe two more accidents after that, and we were fine!

[MafiaPrincess]

Has the dog been to the vet recently?  You should rule out a uti or anything else medical before trying to crack down on innaprpriate peeing, it may not be her fault.

[Bella's mom]

Has the dog been to the vet recently?  You should rule out a uti or anything else medical before trying to crack down on innaprpriate peeing, it may not be her fault.

That so true!  I had forgotten that when Bella was about 3 or 4 months old, she would just stop and pee right in front of me.  This went on for a couple of days until I called my vet to complain that Bella had forgotten everything that I had taught her.  He explained that she probably had a UTI.  Yep, she did.  I felt so bad that I had blamed it on her behavior.

[MafiaPrincess]

Always good rule of thumb to rule out a medical problem when behaviours change or intensify.
I had the same problem Bella's Mom.  We were using pee pads though and they were blood spotted.  So I looked online was pretty sure it was a uti, and she kept stopping and peeing on the floor like it had caught her off guard. 
Ever since I've tried to remember to remind people of medical probs first to be safe.
I've read that uti's are actually a fairly common thing in young females.  Thankfully we had one and were then okay.

[Boyle]

Here is the potty training schedule we followed when Nola was a puppy:

1) 90 second rule:
a) Take pup outside on a leash to the exact same spot, be prepared by having very very special food treats in your pocket.
b) When you get to the potty place, stand still and make no eye contact and say nothing. Canine has 90 seconds to pee and/or poop. If canine eliminates, reward immediately and let it off the leash to play.
c) If nothing occurs after 90 seconds, go back inside the home and crate the canine. Crating after a no response is not punishment, its decreasing the ability of the canine using the home as a bathroom. Wait 20-30 minutes and return outside.

2) Timing of trips outside:
a) Immediately if the canine wakes up from a nap or when you arrive home.
b) 15-20 minutes after a meal or a large consumption of water or a play session.
c) Every 45 minutes excluding the above mentioned situations.

3) Increase supervision:
a) Canine is stationed on a 4 foot leash under supervision or dragging a 6 foot leash around that can be used to escort the canine outside.
b) When canine has an accident in the home, never never ever punish the animal. If you want, you can hit yourself with a newspaper. Through training, canines learn to eliminate in specific places and punishing them for an incorrect response is wrong.

Softhug, I agree with you that mastiffs are very slow to mature (rather reminds me of my brothers, honestly ) but I don't agree with the spay/neuter at 8-10 months.  After talking with our breeder, other breeders and other mastiff owners, the age to consider spay is no earlier than 1 year and neuter no earlier than 18 months.  If you do spay/neuter early, you may wind up with a mastiff that doesn't reach it's full growth potential. Mastiff4me, you may want to talk with your breeder about when to spay. 

[Softhug]

While spay/neuter is totally off topic and Boudreaux isn't anywhere near the age, I have done a little research on message boards and with breeders and found a thread I will post (removing names/email addresses).  (This is kind of irrelevant as you have a princess and I have a prince, but I still thought it was interesting.  I don't know about the difference between the sexes and growth after fixing.)Personally, I won't wait over a year to get Boudreaux neutered as I just don't see it being a necessity having an intact HUGE male dog with the beginnings of raging hormones in the house.    I really don't think there is a right or wrong, it is personal choice.  Anywho, here is a post from one of the message boards...



 B...I just want to clarify..I am by NO MEANS
 EVEN CLOSE TO HAVING FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THIS SUBJECT. I simply had a conversation with my vet whom owns a mastiff who suggested to me to wait until the 8th month....that being said...I did a quick GOOGLE search and found the following link...
http://www.petresource.com/Articles%20of%20Interest/new_views_on_neutering.htm>
In that article there is a small blurb that states
"Bone growth ceases when the physiologic growth plates located at the ends of immature bones "close." Growth plate closure of the radius and ulna (forelimb bones) occurred three months later (in seven-month-old
neuters) to four months later (in seven-week-old
neuters) in neutered puppies versus their sexually intact litter males. The result is that the forelimb bones of neutered puppies were a fraction of an inch longer than those of the unneutered pups".

(HENCE THE LENGTH MY VET SPOKE OF IN OUR CONVERSATION)

The same article...as you can read suggests that
puppies can be neutered much earlier as soon as 5 months. Perhaps it is because of the larger breed and rapid growth of these dogs that my vet suggested that. It doesnt look like it would make a huge impact. But I trust my vet so thats the reccomendation I was going on. Sorry if this causes confusion.

B.-
Trust your vet, We have had puppies neutered anywhere
from 6 to 10 months and I haven't seen where it has
made any difference at all. It is entirely up to the
individual.

K. (who is a breeder)

[Boyle]

Sorry to highjack the thread...

Softhug, I did a quick read of the article but it didn't mention anything about giant breeds.  Did the message board also pertain to giant breeds?  What did your breeder say regarding neutering Boudreaux?  I am truly curious because everything I have read regarding giants always talks about waiting until the pup is older.  I know that even now at 15 months Nola is continuing to grow both taller and wider so the bone growth is not complete. 

Nola, though he does have a girlie name, is in fact a boy.  He is 15 months and intact but I haven't noticed him being ragingly hormonal.  A moron, yes, it's the norm, but there has been no change to his temperment.  The only drawback we have found so far is we are unable to kennel him because kennels do not accept intact dogs. 

[Softhug]

<giggling> Mastiff4me is the "princess" I was talking about.   But yes the message board is an American Mastiff board and "K" at the end of the thread is one of only 12 breeders.  It is great to know you haven't noticed any change in Nola's temperment with him still being intact.  I keep my fingers crossed that we will have that luck with Boudreaux!  More than likely, we will try to keep him in tact as long as we can before getting him neutered.  I just don't want his teen hormones to get the best of us.  Oh, and I am so glad to hear he is a moron too, it makes Boudreaux seem even more normal!  LOL!

[doggylover]

OMG I am such an IDIOT.  Badger only piddled in the house twice when we got him.  I just assumed that if you did the training a certain way, it was a cinch.  Now, we are getting our bullmastiff in 3 weeks, and it's dawning on me that she is going to go potty in my house!  OMG ::runs around screaming::
 

[Boyle]

Doggylover, you better get your sleep now because late night and early morning potty times will rob you of all rest.  We are now just recovering from last summer's sleep deprivation.    Really there is no recovery because the twit likes to climb into bed with us at 5 am FOR NO REASON other than to wake us up then climbs back down to the floor where he is more comfortable.

[doggylover]

Doggylover, you better get your sleep now because late night and early morning potty times will rob you of all rest.  We are now just recovering from last summer's sleep deprivation.    Really there is no recovery because the twit likes to climb into bed with us at 5 am FOR NO REASON other than to wake us up then climbs back down to the floor where he is more comfortable.

::SOB::
WHAT was I THINKING?
 

[marshaz29]

My dog brandy was trained in about 3 weeks for outside.
What i was raised by parents that when the dog goes inside take paper towel dab it in pee clamp in mouth say bad outside, then you take whit vinegar put on pee spot wipe up with same paper towel or new piece and clamp it in mouth say bad outside while holding mouth shut. Dogs don't like the taste of vinegar so they get to hate it when they see you coming with bottle and towels. It worked on my dog. she is 4 yrs old and still doesnt like smell of vinegar
hope this is helpful.
marsha