Author Topic: House training a two year old Mastif  (Read 6294 times)

Offline BrandyGreer

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House training a two year old Mastif
« on: March 15, 2009, 04:18:46 pm »
I bought a 2 year old female Mastif about 6 weeks ago.  I was told she was house trained, but at night, she frequently finds a nice piece of carpet to leave ginormous gifts.  I have tried confining her, with a child gate, in our master bedroom.  The doorway is right near our bed, so she isn't alone, but she whines a LOT.  Especially in the wee hours of the night, until one of us gets up and leads her to the backyard. 

I need advice on how to proceed.  Any tips would be extremely appreciated.

Brandy

Offline BrandyGreer

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Re: House training a two year old Mastif
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2009, 06:16:57 pm »
It is possible her schedule is different than ours, I hadn't thought of that.  Apparently she was in a kennel most of the time. I don't believe she has had much training at all.  She isn't leash broke, and that has been challenging.  Also, she is more than just shy, she is frightened of strangers.

 I wish a doggy door was an option, but it isn't.

I let her out first thing in the morning, for an hour or so, depending on what she wants.  Sometimes she doesn't want to come back in.  Usually, after an hour though, she comes back in but wants back out within an hour. 

She acts like she wants to go down for the night at 9 pm, and then wants to go out around 3 am.  However, twice now, after I have let her out at that ungodly hour, she has still left a mess. 

Other than coming to live with us, which I know was upsetting for her, the only other change is that we restricted her from the bed after the 4th night.  She is just too big to share with, and it is a California King size bed.

She hasn't gotten much exercise, other than dashing around the back yard, trying to get my older dogs to play with her.  Sometimes she will sort of wrestle with me.  She hasn't been taught any fun games like sock tug of war or fetch. 

The weather is warming up and the snow is nearly gone, I am hoping to walk her more. Would an evening walk help the night time problems?

I don't have a feeding schedule, I allow her to eat freely.  She is nice and trim and eats moderately so I haven't worried about her overeating yet.

She whines if she is confined, but likes sleeping in my boys' room.  I can't confine her in there though, because her gas is so bad, the paint will start to peel off the walls! It gets so bad in there, you can't even breath.

I hope I have answered questions well enough to get some answers to my problem.  Thanks so much for helping.

Offline BrandyGreer

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Re: House training a two year old Mastif
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2009, 04:10:16 pm »
The bell is a great idea, thanks!  :D I am going to try it.

Offline BrandyGreer

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Re: House training a two year old Mastif
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2009, 05:58:23 pm »
Finally, I have a moment to sit back down at the computer.  We feed Honey "Native" performance food.  I realized that we were buying the #3 level which is supposed to be for very active dogs.  So, I ordered the level 1 which is for less active dogs. 

I have been able to contain her, with a child's gate, at night, but she wakes me up at least once per night to go out.  If I don't wake up right away, she gets pretty vocal about it, and then she runs as fast as she can to the door.  I am afraid that if I don't contain her, she will still mess in the house.  However, I would really like to sleep through the night.  I feel like I have a newborn again.

Offline BrandyGreer

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Re: House training a two year old Mastif
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2009, 06:56:21 am »

Thanks I am going to try picking up the food at 6, that is the easiest solution for now, since we have 2 other dogs.  I am also going to look into non filler foods.  Smaller poops sounds like heaven.  We have to poop scoop, at least twice a week, or it gets pretty ugly, and it is a pretty big yard. 

Walking her is something of an issue,  it turns out she was never leash-broke.  I don't like using choke chains, and so the process of her learning not dragging me is very slow.

I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice. 

Thanks again,
Brandy

Offline maxsmom

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Re: House training a two year old Mastif
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2009, 01:50:41 pm »
None of my dogs that came from their breed rescues were house broken when we got them.  Each one was very easy.  I feed morning and night.  We feed raw, so there is no free feeding.  The poops are also very small and well formed.  The dogs go out when we get up, later to eat and use the bathroom, early afternoon, late afternoon for supper and to use the bathroom and again before bed.  We only had 1 or 2 accidents at the most with them and they house broke themselves basically.  If one of them is sick they will wake us in the night, but that's it.
Kathy
Max  2 Irish Wolfhound
Jake  2 Great Pyrenees
Cody   3 Tibetan Mastiff
ChiChi 1.5 Caucasian Ovcharka
John and Nicki Maine Coon cats