I bought a American Bulldog from good bloodlines. It seems to be very shy. I have only corrected it twice and it is very hand sensitive. What can I do?

Question

Hi Ed,

I just bought a 4 month old male American Bulldog. I have been checking out breeders since 1998, this pup came from one of the best performance breeders in this country. I told the breeder I wanted a dog to be a family dog and he was to be trained in personal protection. I bought the pup in late March when he was 10 weeks old, and it took the breeder 2 months to ship the pup to me. When I got the pup he seemed a little nervous, but I knew he needed time to adjust. I spent the first week building up his confidence in play, and basically sitting back and evaluating his temperament. He is very soft in temperament, which to me is not a problem, but he also seems to have weak nerves. He spooks easily ( laundry baskets, outside influences make him run and hide), doesn't like to be pet, and seldom wags his tail to people. He is the kind of dog that when you go to pet him he ducks his head and generally doesn't seem happy. I only gave him 2 corrections: the first one was when he urinated in the house and the second was when he was chewing something that he wasn't supposed to chew. He urinated several times over a period of several days, before I gave him a physical correction ( scruff shake ), so it wasn't like I jumped on him from the start. At first I just gave him firm NO's, and the same for the chewing. When I gave the corrections he turned and started to fight me, literally turning and trying his hardest to bite my arm. I shook the SH*T out of him for that. After corrections he runs away and hides and won't come out. Trying to make a long story short, I called the breeder and he said he doesn't know the first thing about temperament or training, and his trainer friend was the one that picked the pup for me. So I told him to have the trainer call me. The trainer basically said that that was a proper American Bulldog ( he evaluated him and he didn't see anything wrong with him) and I should never have given any corrections to him. He told me that I should have just let him piss and chew. I worked with a Certified Master Trainer for a period of time, and that just isn't the way I was taught to train dogs. I have experience with German working line Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Akitas, and Pit Bulls. This is my first American Bulldog, and this trainer is telling me that American Bulldogs are some special breed that has to be treated differently than others, and that when they do unacceptable things it is ok. Can you please give me your opinion of this situation?

    Thank you
  Joe

Accepted Answer

You may be right about the softness. I don’t know without seeing the dog. The comments on a bulldog being treated differently is bull shit. Dog training is not breed specific – its temperament and drive specific.

The other issues are handler mistakes. If you were doing the right thing your dog would not be pissing on the floor. It would be pissing outside. Use a dog crate – don’t allow the dog to be loose in the house. If you were watching the dog it would not have been chewing on something. The only time a dog is out of the crate in the house is after it comes in from outside, only when you have eyes on it and only for a short period of time. Those things did not happened and you created bigger problems by correcting this dog.

There are only two reasons to correct a puppy in the first 8 months of life that is going to do personal protection work. The first is for not coming when called, the second is for not OUTING when told but even then the dog has to go through a learning phase to know what you are telling him to do.

I suggest you get the Drive Focus and Grip video I produced – learn how to play with a dog and how to work him in drive. Stop letting him be loose in the house, stop correcting the dog. Soft dogs can be tough dogs. I know of a soft police dog that had over 300 street bites.

Start taking this dog EVERYWHERE to overcome this shyness. Use food if you have to get it to go with you. Drive it places and socialize it.

Next time selection test your dog better or pick an honest breeder.