Hi ,
can anyone help , i have a 5 month bull mastiff who see wee's and poops in the house , only of a night time though when we leave her to go to bed or sometimes if we leave her during the day.
We take her out for a wee before we go to bed , but come down in the morning and she has weed right by the lounge door , not in the kitchen on her training pads we leave down for her.
we have confined her to a smaller space in the kitchen as we have open plan kitchen and lounge , but that doesnt seem to work.
Its not every night , but at 5 months shouldnt they be able to hold themselves by now?

can anyone suggest anything?

No at five months old most pups are only reaching the stage where they have voluntary control and with a  big breed this control may take longer, she goes because she needs to.

She won't know what the training pads are for so I would dispense with them and instead if you don't want puddles set the alarm for about half way through the night to get her out to toilet.  Gradually set the alarm later until she can go say for 6 to 8 hours.

Has she been clean all through for any length of time?  I would say that having too much space to move away from her bed to toilet will slow your training up, but as she is going by a door I would say she certainly has the idea OK, just not the ability to hold on.

she doesnt go by the back door , she goes by the lounge door which is near the front door??...

she does it in fits and starts ..she wont go in the house for ages but then she will go a few times in a row.
Like friday morning we came down and she had weed by the lounge door ( where she keeps weeing) , then this morning i came down and she had pooped in the middle of the lounge!

Does this coincide with a change in food, extra rich treats etc.  As for which door she chooses it just shows she wishes to go out to toilet, so she understands she should go out.

So you just need to make it easier for her and not allow this to become a habit.  It is important to remove all Trace of her smell from these areas as it will encourage her to go where she has gone before.  Use biological washing powder, vinegar or bicarbonate of soda.

I never expect a pup to be fully reliable much before 9 months of age, or in strange places even a year old.

she had some tripe last night , so that might be where the runny poop came from , altho she has it quite reguarly so its not something new we give her.

i was cleaning the area with antibacterial spray and disenfectant , would you suggest washing power or vinegar neat or diluted?

If she has been loose then you cannot expect her to have been able to hold her toilet.  Are you perhaps feeding too much as by this stage the growth isn't quite as fast as it was. 

Can you easily feel her ribs and does she have a waistline?  Looseness and frequent pooing is often a sign of too much food.

Depends on the surface, but best dilute it.

If i were you i would get rid of those training pads
they serve no purpose other than to confuse your poor girl
She needs to learn that going to the toilet indoors is not acceptable, and all the pads do is send her a message thats its ok to toilet in the house

Go back to basics, taking her out every hour and lots of praise when she goes in the right place
she'll soon get the hang of it
good luck

I agree, we started off with the pads and they just seemed to confuse our poor chap!:rolleyes:

Better to teach them that its not acceptable at all to toilet in the house.

If you are consistent your puppy will get the hang of it like huskygal says go back to basics of taking the puppy out every hour etc lots of praise. Have you read perfect puppy by gwen bailey? its a grat book and there is a section about toiletting in there.

If you do it right i personally think its one of the easier bits of training...

Good Luck x

I completely agree with the above 2 posts, my boy initially had newspaper down( when he was inside at night) but was taken out all of the time during the day, and when he did anything inside during the day he was taken to the mess sat in front of it and told no, as advised by an animal behaviourist/dog pyscologist, at 4 1/2 months old he was
completely toilet trained and has never done it inside since, unless caught short, in which case he does it by the back door, apparently to show that he has tried. Our husky was trained in the same way, she is now 4 and never, ever gone to the toilet inside.

The posters problem appears jsut to be night time, so this points to simply not being able to hold on.

I would keep her in your bedroom at night when you go to bed so if she scratches to get out you will be able to hear her.She could be grumbling to get out but because she is downstairs you wont be able to help.Either that or install a doggy door.

Personally at 5 months i think that there will still be some puppies that can't hold on all night, i'm with ktee on keeping her in your bedroom if you want to be able to let her out during the night!

brainless :and sometimes during the day

But the poster qualified the pup was loose,so again control not training appear to be the issue, so the OP needs to manage things so the pup does not fail, and toilet inappropriately else what she has learnt already will be undermined..

but having her up in your bedroom is this a good idea?
she has been kept in the kitchen since she was a pup and when we last attempted to take her up to stay in a room she wouldnt settle so we took her back downstairs and came down in the morning to find she had pooped and weed!!!

Then I think a baby monitor might be useful so you can hear her stirring in the night (if your a light sleeper) otherwise you will just have to get Up in the night/earlier in the morning to take her out.

How long is it from leaving her to when you normally let her out in the morning.  It might help to at first try an hour earlier, if this works then great, otherwise two hours etc, until she is always clean, then gradually leave her a little longer say 15 minutes each couple of weeks, until she can go until the normal wake up time.

hey how long are you leaving her for. i found after my dogs were about 4 months they were not going to the toilet at all in the house just the odd accident.

just over night , so from say 10.30ish til 6.30 in the morning!
but it has been diahorra lately so im assuming she cant hold it thats why?

if we go out we normally leave her outside during the daytime

If she has got dire rear ;) then she obviously won't be able to keep it in. My 6 month old bitch will still go to the toilet in the house if I don't pay enough attention to her. By this I mean if I'm busy and she needs out and I don't notice then she will go back to the puppy room and go to the toilet on the floor there. She sleeps in my room at night along with the other dogs and I hear if any of them need out (was up several times last night with one of them) I used to get up midway through the night just to let the puppy out, and gradually lengthened the time. She now sleeps all night.