Hi I am new to this. My neighbor brought this web-sight to my attention and I have read alot of things on it in hopes to find answers for my situation but in doing so I realized I don't know what the problem is as it fits some and not other things I have read.
I have a bull mastiff/Am Staff cross. The breeder told me his mother had an 1/8 Am. Staff in her. Well "Tank" will be 3 in Sept. Over all he is a good dog. We went through training with him and he did very well, the problem with him now has to do with his attitude playing. He has gotten very pushy. Our yard is fenced and if you were to step out onto the grass you are as good as his. He will run up and jump at you. Or he will run in front of you and jump at your face. If your back is turned he will run up and slam you in the back with his chest while attempting to bite your arm. If I yell at him and say no, he pays no attention, if I try to catch him he thinks it means I want more. If I am able to grab the short leed we have on him as soon as I get a hold of it he hits the ground in a submissive position and will stay there until I let go of the leash. Once I do that the game is back on.
He only does this to me and my husband, anyone else that comes over he shys away from and will sit either behind me or on my feet. He is very scared of men. The only thing I can come up with for that is I have had him since 10 weeks and until my husband he was never around males. He only barks when people come to the door once their in he hides by me if their male. If they are female he goes right up to them. He has no problems with kids, cats or other dogs.
He has a stong prey drive I have realized in reading your web-sight and watching your DVD's so I was wondering if I ordered the home protection DVD if I could still teach him that. It is like he is bored and I need to give him a job so he feels wanted or needed in our pack?

Thanks for any help. Justine Myers

It also sounds like you have serious dog bite waiting to happen.

Read Ed's groundwork article and follow it perfectly. Your dog needs leaderhip and exercise. Build a springpole.

It would be an enormous mistake to even think of protection training a dog that you have little to no control over.

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Justine,
When Tank comes lunging at you, firmly say "NO", then spay him with the garden hose on high pressure. Make sure your spouse is in the yard with you, so if he tries to sneak up behind and tackle you, he can do the correcting with the hose.
A squirt bottle with the “NO” command can stop a naughty puppy in his tracks, so a high pressured garden hose could definitely stop a big Mastiff in his.
If your dog likes to bite the water as it’s shooting out the hose, like so many dogs do, then this trick won’t work for you.
Anne's advice to you is a must. I also highly advise you to read Ed's Ground Work article

It's worth a shot, it might just work! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I never liked the idea of spraying a hose at a dog for correction. Makes it very difficult to bathe at times. I'd use a prong collar with a short lead attached. When he lunges give him a correction while saying "NO" Definatly get that basic obedience done

While your at it...get a long line for your husband to hook up to the prong for those back biting scenarios. This problem needs to be fixed right away. I agree with dennis, forget the hose, he may like it if it doesnt create a problem. Find toys for him to focus on instead of you for entertainment and bullying.

Howard

While nowhere near as serious as jumping on people, my GSD started bouncing off of the slidding glass door. He picked this up from my terriers but, with his size, it could be a disaster, not to mention he scared the he(( out of you if you werent ready for it. Wearing an e-collar, he learned in two easy lessons to stay off of the glass. Now he hops up and down like a cute little bunny while those dern terriers bounce off the glass. The e-collar should work easily with your problem.

If I was you I'd find a trainer who is experienced in dealing with aggression. This will not be a pure positive trainer. Find someone who trains for schutzhund, French ring, Police k-9 training or personal protection training. These trainers will know how to turn aggression off as well as on. Be sure to get references and check them out before deciding on a trainer. A good source for finding one would be your local police k-9 unit officer/s.

This dog is just now coming into full maturity and obviously does not respect you or your husband as pack leaders or his Alphas. From your post it really does not appear that you have the knowledge or experience to train this dog on your own at this point in time.

And, PLEASE do NOT train this dog as a protection dog. His breed combination is not suitable for that type of work especially if, as you say, he tends to be fearful.

Dogs WILL get away with what you ALLOW them to get away with. Sounds to me like the dog is just being a retard and playing at being silly.. even though it may not look like it. 'Silly' can get out of hand real fast!

You say you went through training with the dog, what many people fail to realise is that training is an on-going thing. You don't train a dog for 3 months as a pup and expect it to remember for the rest of its life.

Take aside 10 minutes, 3x a day and teach the dog a RELIABLE sit. When he starts getting silly you will have a command to put him under while he 'collects' himself.

IF the dog IS very high drive, and gets out of control silly, then jerky, not-very-well-placed corrections could turn the situation very bad, very fast.

Get with a trainer, get some real control/OB on the dog.

Having read your post, I think your dog is suffering from a lack of attention, and pure boredom. Bullmastiff types only come of age at around three, so I won’t be too worried about his shyness. No aggression issues detected. Jumping up is making play, however this scares the wits out of you if it’s a Big Mac like yours, the habit has formed, you need to correct it –fast. Having said this I will quite happily go with Denis, Earth dog (bunny –ha ha) and Howard’s advice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Thank you all for the feed back. The training he got we have kept up and he does very well with all the commands until he gets in the yard. Toys he really wants could care less. When he does want to play with you with one he goes over the toy and grabs your hand or arm. He does not bite hard when doing that but when he is running by and doing the back and forth jumping and gets a hold of you its a nip. If I am able to catch his lead he does drop down before I can even apply an correction. Sometimes I will make him lay there for 10-15 min. but once you let go it's like it never happened. I tell him NO once I get ahold of him and tell him BAD. I will look into the k-9 trainer. What about the weighted vests? Or maybe I should start walking him on a leash in the yard when he has to go.