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my new american bulldog puppy is crazy please help me


Guest Anonymous

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One other suggestion DK, for yours and your childrens safety.

While you are demoting your Bully (and yes, that's his problem. He's a puppy, but he wants to be "top dog" and is fighting for the spot) You should keep him on a short three foot lead ALL THE TIME as long as someone is there to watch him. When you want him to move away from something, rather than risk a limb trying to push him, pick up the lead,
give a short, sharp command like the ones above, and pull him away.
The command shold be loud, and firm, but dont yell. Yelling just gets them more excited. As soon as he has come away from the issue, then make him sit and then praise him alot. Every thing he does right should be given lots of positive praise, even the little things. In a short time he should learn that whatever command you gave him means "leave it alone" and
he will respond. The short leash is also excellent for obedience training.

Good luck with your baby!!

:D

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Guest Anonymous

Aaaaaahhhh, ok. Such a simple thing but makes perfect sense, thanks courtnek. So what about the problem he has with being pulled away from something though? I mean he lunges and snaps when being pulled or pushed away from something. I will try that though.

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Dont drag him. One short "snap" on the lead, issue your command, and then tug while calling him to you. This dog needs reverse psychology (I had one like that) make him think that leaving the object and being called to you is the best thing to happen to him. Treats work for the beginning of this training. If you try to drag, he will resist. Try to make him come of his own volition. This dog may benefit, for a short time, from a training collar, but never drag him on it. Use it just for the short tug, to get his attention. Then give him hugs and kisses and treats. He is guarding things from you, so he thinks he is higher in rank then you are, which happens quite often with a "wannabe alpha".

Here are some demotion techniques you can use to get him used to not being the boss...

1. NEVER let him pass thru doorways before you. YOU go first, even if that means you have to close the door in his face. Make him sit, and dont let him get up until you have gone thru the doorway.

2. NEVER let him eat before you. Find a spot where he will be made to
lay down, and where he can see you (attach the leash to a chair if necessary) and make him watch you eat. Sounds silly, I know, but in a pack the Alpha ALWAYS eats first. No table scraps while you're eating either...

3. NEVER let this dog up on the furniture, especially the couches and beds.
Alpha always gets the prime sleeping spot.

4. If you have stairs in your house, DO NOT allow him to go upstairs and look down on you. Alpha always gets the prime lookout spot in every pack.
If you sleep upstairs, that's even better. Babygate him downstairs all night.
or crate him while you are sleeping.

These steps all sound silly and tiresome, but you have to remember that these animals are descended from the wolf, and these are instinctive pack rules that they all will respond to if you lay down the law. You will definitely
start out with resistance to these rules, he's already resisiting your control.

But if you follow them all to the letter all the time, in a short time you will
see his behavior improve. While you are doing this, keep the kids from
interfering. Once you have regained control, you can teach the chiuldren
these same steps. And until you have regained control, keep the lead on him.

:)

p.s. professional puppy training will help as well. You should get him signed up.

good luck!

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Guest Anonymous

like i said before if he acts aggresive he should be put in isolation to learn he cannot be around people when he acts this way
sence he does bite do not play with him with your hands
And if all the advice to u buy the other peeps and i don't work

Prove your alpha statis to him. When he does this aggresiveness. Grab him and put him to the floor asap! Becarful! but do not worry he is a bulldog he will be fine with a little ruff'n'tumble. This proves u r bigger and stronger. If he trys to bite hold him down and hold his mouth but not hard so he does not bite tonge :cry: . hold him for just a sec and let go causing him no harm. He just got himmed up for a sec. He know nows u can do this. but he also knows he didnt get harmed.

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billy g - I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with that, at least at this stage.

It's dangerous to try to take down a dog with an attitude like this one. He is already snapping because he thinks he is boss. And a dog can bite 15 times faster than a human can move his hand. Also, we have a male dog who thinks he's boss trying to be controlled by a female he considers lesser rank. It's a bad combination for getting bitten.

I would prefer she try to demote him using pack rules..Once successfully
demoted, the aggression should stop as well. She needs to regain control of this dog without hostility. Once he accepts her as alpha, and if she KEEPS that place, he will not be dangerous anymore. And yes, she may need to keep demoting him his whole life - it sounds like he is already
determined to rule, but it can be done without force. I have demoted
a number of dogs in just this way for friends who had lost control of the
animal. None of them ever bit their owners after being "shown their place".....I am very concerned about a biting incident here, so I could not recommend taking the dog on right now. Isolation is one thing, and that
does often work - no pack animal wants to be isolated fromt he pack.
But I would not try to hold him down by the nose.

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I wouldn't recommend doing any of the physical punishment--I know old school people stand by pushing your dog down when he misbehaves, and even nipping him back, but in my opinion, these can very easily make your dog more aggressive and/or ecited to be pushed around and coming back for more... Positive reinforcement (what coutnek and cassie explained) works much better to have a dog who does what you want him to not because he is afraid of you, but because he wants to listen to you and please you (or get treats :D )

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Guest Anonymous

Once again, I have to agree with Courtnek b/c the males in the house have tried to take him to the ground and hold his mouth shut......results=he bites more and harder. This does not work on him AT ALL. That was our first instinct and learned right away this dog would not respond positively to that, but I thank you for taking the time to respond with some advice.

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DK,

if you need help feel free to email me ([email protected]) or PM me....

I have demoted a lot of dogs in this matter, it does work, it just takes time
and can be frustrating because it's not an immediate "fix"....the lead will help keep your hands and fingers safe, and the rest of it is instinctive to the dog anyway. We just need to change his "ladder rung" from top to
somewhere near the bottom. I'll be more than happy to help you with this.

Welcome to Dogo by the way....I dont think I ever did that. :oops:

:D

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Billy G, has it ever occurred to you that your dog might benefit more either from you actually taking the time to teach him to not go into the street (through boundary training, etc) or from you keeping him on a leash (especially since he's a pit bull, and chances are that if he's "going into the street", it's not unlikely that he'll one day meet another dog in the street, resulting in a fight); rather than "whipping" him for doing something only you understand. Dogs don't automatically grasp the concept of roads being a dangerous place... to him it's just another interesting place to check out.

Widl Turkey/DK fairy, congrats on the new pup :lol: Be aware though that you may have problems in the future with him and your other dogs... what breeds (or mixes) are the other two, and how old are they? With any multidog same sex household, there are bound to be a few problems here and there, but ABs are big strong dogs who may not take"NO" for an answer when it comes to your other dogs wanting to be in charge. Watch how things play out as he matures, and be ready to either do some "rearranging" of their current ranks, or even to keep them seperated should the problems be that serious (as he matures, you should consider seperating them when you're not at home anyway, because should a fight break out while you're not home, one or more dogs could be seriously injured or even killed).

What degree of tolerance are you looking for between the bird and the dog? It's not hard to teach a dog to control themselves even around "high value" prey items when someone's right there, but can be much harder to get the dog to leave them alone when you're not right there to enforce the "rules" (case in point, Haley was doing well in leaving the cat alone until last night... when the cat came out of the bathroom and she jumped him. I've been really careful to not let her catch him alone, but I wasn't home and my mom wasn't paying attention. Both seem to be ok, the cat's a bit ruffled, and Haley has a lot of scratches on her face, but none really bad.). The info Cassie gave you on introducing cats to dogs is good, and could possibly be used for the bird, too. Another thing you might try is giving time outs (or obedience drills, though he may be a bit young for that) when he gets too "rough" with the bird, starting with a 5 minute time out, then 20-30 min, then the third time, he gets seperated from "birdie" for the rest of the day... it's up to you to set the boundary for "too rough" though. Another thing that might work is to redirect his prey/play drive onto a more appropriate "toy", if everytime he starts to bother the bird, you tell him "no" and hand him the same toy, he should eventually start getting the toy for himself when he feels the urge to bother the bird coming on :roll: .

The destruction... either get a crate, or buy a baby gate (when he's older, you may need two, one for the bottom half, one for the top) to block him into a room or area of the house. Provide lots of toys, water, comfy bed (though he may eat it :lol: ), etc. This way, he can't destroy things while you're away. When you're at home, anytime you catch him with something he's not supposed to have, hold up a toy he likes and call him over to you. When he gets there, "trade" his toy for whatever he has, and praise when he makes the trade. You could also just tell him "no" when you catch him with something-not-for-puppies, then give the toy and praise when he takes it. Either way works, but if you don't want him picking things up at all, the second way may be better.

For his biting at you.... bully puppies mouth a lot, and if he was taken from his litter too early, he'll likely be even worse about it until you teach him what's ok and what's not. When he just does normal puppy mouthing, tell him "no", and hand him a toy instead. With time and repitition, he'll start getting the toy himself when he feels the urge to mouth people. For the nipping when he doesn't want to do something, follow the advice others have given, about keeping a leash on him in the house, making him "earn" priveleges, etc. You should also start working with him on obedience, as once he's got the basic commands down, they'll be a big help in getting him under control without confrontation. An example: rather then having to pull/push him off the couch, you could just come in to the room and tell him to "come" or to "heel" either command should bring him up to you, you give him a treat for obeying, then you're free to sit down. Enough repetitions of this, and he should automatically get down and wait for his treat when he sees you... then you can start phasing out the treats until he just gets down anyway, with maybe a treat once in a while. Everyone in the house should work with him on his obedience, even the kids can (if they're too young to do much else, they can at least tell him to "sit", then treat him when he does). "Down" is a submissive position, so putting him in a down/stay when he's acting like a little heathen will help to get through to him that he needs not be so rowdy in the house, or not get in your face while you're eating, etc.

Do NOT take the advice about pushing him to the ground and holding him there... it may work now, but before long he's going to be a lot bigger, and he'll probably be stronger than you. Dogs aren't stupid, and they know when they can or can't win a fight, so while that may work now, it's not something you want to have to rely on when he's older.

On pit bulls and ABs, some say APBTs (pit bulls) came before ABs, others say ABs were before APBTs. Some say they're related, some say they're not. Both are bully breeds, though I believe ABs typically fall under the "mastiff" heading, whereas APBTs are terriers. From what I've seen/heard/read, the "average" AB is generally less outwardly dog aggressive, but are still dominant, and will fight if challenged (there are some outwardly dog aggressive ABs, not not as many as there are APBTs). The AB is also more aloof to strangers, whereas the APBT should see everyone it meets as a new friend. That's not to say that there aren't aloof APBTs, nor that there aren't super-friendly-to-everyone ABs, those are just generalizations. ABs have more defensive drive, most APBTs have very little (that's why they make poor guard/protection dogs). The two breeds have a lot of similarities, but also some differences.

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Guest Anonymous

in response to gooeydog, the other dogs we have are a 3 1/2 yr old Golden Retriever/ German Shepherd and a 1 1/2 yr old Rottweiler/Chocolate labrador. They are both very well behaved dogs and even "tolerate" the puppy most of the time. Buddy is the "Alpha Male" definitely and since we got Buster(Rott) when he was 6 weeks old, Buddy established who was Boss very early on. Buddy is the wise older dog who will just sit there looking down at the puppy as he barks and then Buddy will give one good WHOOF and the puppy usually retreats for a second but then comes back. He's gotten nipped a couple times but nothing serious. The puppy does not take NO for an answer yet. With the bird, I think it just might've been a novelty at first because he seems to be leaving the bird alone now.

Thank you Courtnek, I might just do that. I know I could sure use the help.

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DK, the other breeds are tolerant of your Bully, they may even "roll over"
and let him be top dog - that's fine. among the dogs...YOU need to be top dog with him. however....

Trust me, what I advised WILL work.. It has worked in many cases before.

Good Luck!!

:D

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One great thing about having well behaved adult dogs...they can help you train your puppy...I have always had a multie dog house hold...and always found the elder dogs to be essential in training. I havent had a puppy in a long time but when I did the elder dogs were very tolerant letting the pup get away with alot...but, they also taught the pup proper behavior & bite inhibation...my elder dogs when they got tired of the pup always nipping and playing rough would get up and walk away...some what a kind of time out, and at times they did give the pup little nips. Pups play rough, and learn alot through play. The neatest multi dog house hold I had was a Border Collie mix (spayed female), Shep/Husky mix (neutered male), 2 Newfoundland dogs (intact male & s/f), Great Pyrenees (s/f), Doberman Pinscher (s/p), German Shepherd (s/f)...the neatest thing I used to do was make them all sit before getting fed...and I would mix up the commands on different days..some days they had to lay down before getting fed...this really helps to keep control during feeding time! (and having them all line up in front of me doing the command was really neat, I have pictures...I wish I could post them... :cry: ) every thing given had to be earned...nothing was free in my house hold...the only mistake I made at that time is I would have them sit, then lay down, then back to a sit before meals...I did this for a couple of weeks...after that they thought the sit command was the whole ordeal..kinda funny actually!
One last thing I want to add, be sure to socialize your new addition...get the new pup used to traffic, busy areas with lots of people, children other than your own, bicycles flying past...just thought I'd add this as lack of socialization causes the biggest problems later on...an unsocialized dog is very hard to deal.
The advice you have received from courtnek and gooeydog was very good...you may not have to buy any reference books at all!!! :wink:

[b]Don't follow this advice[/b]
[quote]If he trys to bite hold him down and hold his mouth but not hard so he does not bite tonge . hold him for just a sec and let go causing him no harm. He just got himmed up for a sec. He know nows u can do this. but he also knows he didnt get harmed.[/quote]
you will have a fearful dog in the end, and if your dog was directing it's aggression at another object and you happened to do this you would be badly biten... I've lived to learn the wrong of that deed...don't confuse your pup...an unpredictable owner will create an unpredictable dog....
if your dog is directing its aggression on another dog etc, redirect the dogs attention to you, reward the dog/pup as soon as he looks at you only call a dog/pup once, never keep saying it over and over...buddy, come...if the dog/pup does not respond go get the dog/pup and put a leash on and do recalls
One last thing I really have to add...in the 20 years I have worked directly with dogs its amazing how they can take on the personality of their owners...happy go lucky people with out going happy dogs...angry people with angry dogs....etc...not that this is a rule, but it does happen...have a happy home and you'll have happy dogs. :lol:

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Guest Anonymous

NEVER have I heard of a puppy getting MAD at it's owner and peeing on the carpet........


My post is really no help, this just brought up a memory--I don't let my dogs on the couch, because it a) causes fights and b) doesn't allow the cat a clean get away if they can just follow her up there, but anyway, my siberian husky would get up anyway. He was very dominant and would growl or snap if I got ahold of his collar to get him off. I started using a leash attached to him at all times, and he would go and pee on the side of the couch after I ran him off...I guess it was his way of saying it was HIS couch! But, um, you're right about the pup being mad and peeing...at seventeen weeks, he just can't hold it.

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Guest Anonymous

First I would like to say that how i learned the take down trick was by watch father dogs take control of unrully pups. But as u said that does not work with your dogs so it will not work with u.
Gooeydog i would just like to say i dont have to do any of this with my neither of my dogs but these are tactics i have had to do with other dogs.
and i would like to say infavor to pits while at pet stores and on walks we have come across little and big dogs and I have had no problem. Except for the occasional dog try'n to get us. And also a dog out in the street is the least of my worrys it is 18 wheelers i am worried about that is most certainly death to your dog non of mine have lived. So i say a good big rolled news paper SOMETIMES does work.
I have had my pit for 2 months know and he is off leash trained as good as leash trained (outside in yard or park). He responds to positive renforcement very well. And will totally shut down with even a scolding.
so there is a lot of redireting. Remember dogs like ppl responde differently. And yes gooeydog it does take time, patients, tlc and alot of repetitive training.

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Guest Anonymous

Cassie I would agree with everything u said but i only said that when u try to prove alpha statis and he IF he tries to bite hold his mouth. like I tried to say before if u try everything else this is last resort. And as far as having a fearful dog this was obviously not the right tactic for your dog.
a scared or fearful dog is an aggresive dog. and must be treated differently they are much more emotional. so this caused your dog to be more so. not subserviant. And this has worked with strong willed dogs or alpha dogs. Its is not unpredictable this is how pack members control unrully members expcept dog will bite the pups not just a ruff'n'tumble that is no ruffer than play. This is something u only want to do once or twice just to prove your alpha. After taking many strays and even taking in some (manly pit bulls) dogs that where saved from pit fighting. there is no best effective way to go about things. just what works with your dog.
one thing i have learned is that wither u want to have dog that is obediant
or even a gaurd dog the best training is with love not harm even the things i have stated will not harm dog. And buy the way i have to say that i have learned that dogs are much more protective (if something does happen and u are in potential harm) over u when the are shown much love. some disagree but i am just tring to give advice that was not give by these other obviously knowledgeable peeps.

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billy g,
[quote]Cassie I would agree with everything u said but i only said that when u try to prove alpha statis and he IF he tries to bite hold his mouth. like I tried to say before if u try everything else this is last resort. And as far as having a fearful dog this was obviously not the right tactic for your dog. [/quote]
billy g,
If this has worked for you, that is great. I have just had very bad experiences doing this in the past...and had a multiple bite from my dominant Rottie when I first got her by doing this. I got this dog as an adult (I rescued her) she was a very dominant assertive bitch and had attacked me a few times when I first took her in...she was actually stalking and running to attack...the more dominant and assertive I was with her the more it back fired on me...when I started attending aggression seminars and enlisted the help of an animal behaviorist the first time they saw me hold my dog on the ground they had a good stern talking to me...they showed me how to assert dominance in sutle ways & positive reinforcement...success builds confidence, removes confusion..

Any way blah blah on my part...I guess different methods work for different dogs...I did not mean to offend you billy g...I was just speaking of my experiences and the advice given to me by the animal behaviorist I have worked with...she is not my first dominant dog of course...but, she was the worst I have ever owned...attacking me was some thing I have trained out of her and now she is a very calm relaxed dog she is wonderful around other people now and I have been taking her for walks in busy people infested areas to get her used to being in crowds of people and she will sit and now she will actually fall down and roll on her back for a belly rub!!!! for strangers...I just find it amazing how positive training has worked wonders for this dog..she was very aggressive and was attacking me & others when I first got her...I almost gave up on her when I first got her...she had amazed me & the behaviorist which I worked with as they never thought she would turn out this good! time & patience and positive reinforcement worked for me.

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Guest Anonymous

I must say i have never had a dog stalk and attack me, if they seen coming, but not stalking. glad that worked out cause wow that could have been a problem.









P.S.
not offended we were just exchanging helpful facts for my fellow pit lover. :wink:

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  • 3 months later...
Guest Anonymous

[quote name='WildTurkey']i just got a new american bulldog puppy. he is 17 weeks old and is insane. he tries to bite me from time to time if he doesent like what im telling him not to do. he pees on the carpet when hes mad. and he doesnt listen!! if anyone can help me or has any advice for me please e mail me at [email][email protected][/email]. Thank you[/quote]

i have a 5 month old male. he loves to challenge me. he talks back, tries to bite. consistancy is key. be firm. it will get better.

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