First of all...Hi! This seems to be a really great resource for all things dog related.

I have a male, neutered, 2 year old bullmastiff x who is dog aggressive.

I was given him when he was 6 months old by some people who were moving to an apartment and couldn't/wouldn't keep him.

He was 35kg at that age, hyperactive, jumped on everyone, play bit a lot and pulled like crazy on the lead. He was also very reactive (barking/lunging) towards other dogs on the lead, I figured he hadn't been socialised or trained much and it was redirected excitement.

First thing I did was book him to be neutered, then looked into obedience. From the very beginning I followed Nothing In Life Is Free, I worked hard at his obedience and gave him daily walks at the local dog park (mistake no. 1).

He is the first dog I've been primary carer of, and also the largest I've been involved in owning. I wanted only the best for him and was willing to work hard to make him a gentle, well behaved large dog. I believe very strongly in treating dogs like dogs and being a strong, calm leader. He was incredibly headstrong and stubborn but I never gave up and persisted.

He blossomed, he was happy, he made doggy friends and he was fast becomming a star at obedience. It took a while but he learnt to stop jumping and he stopped play biting. He learnt to heel beautifully, although he still barked and lunged at dogs in the street, but since he was absolutely fine offlead with them I figured he'd calm down with age.

When he was around 10 months old it all started to fall apart. He had a few male dogs start fights with him. Nothing serious, all noise. Over time he would stay wound up afterwards and it was difficult to calm him down while the other dog was still in sight. He also had a lot of dogs dominance hump him, I'm guessing because he was young and they saw his size as a threat so they decided to push him around.

Then he started to pick fights with other male dogs. Then it was any large dog or any with a ball/stick, even some smaller dogs that stared at him would be lunged at. Needless to say I stopped offlead exercise and cut back dog park visits significantly.

I've been to different schools, spent a fortune on a behaviouralist and tried everything suggested, although looking back most was very bad advice and not suitable for him at all.

I see improvements sometimes, then I see a big slide where it seems we go back to square one. He has mostly stopped barking and lunging at other dogs in the street however, we just can't walk on the same side as them (yet?).

What I'm struggling with mostly is not knowing if this is all fear or dominance related. Up until recently I've been convinced that it's 100% fear- he just learnt to become very defensive and act out before he was attacked. His body language has always been very assertive though, no tail between the legs, shaking or backing down. He postures and stares with his ears and tail up, then barks and lunges until I redirect him and have him calm down. But he's also displayed dominance aggression towards one of my cats around food (which has since been corrected), and the other day he tried to rush at a puppy for no reason. He's always on a lead and I have good control of him, but that frightenend me. The puppy was doing nothing that should have set him off, it had no toys or food and wasn't even staring.

The body language he displayed when rushing at the puppy and going for my cat were almost identical to that of his fear related reaction which is making it hard for me to distinguish the 2 and react appropriately.

It's worth mentioning that he's also warey of strangers occasionally, although I don't know why. This developed at around the same time as his aggression. He will bark and lunge if he's stared at, but he doesn't appear to be interested in biting. If I direct a person to ignore the dog and let him approach & sniff on his own time he accepts the stranger very quickly. After a couple of introductions like this the stranger can then stare, play and do anything they like with my dog. Regardless of what I think he may or may not do if I don't control him, he wears a strong wire muzzle just in case. He could be absolutely lethal if he truely wanted to hurt another dog or a human being.

SO...after all that, where to from here? Is he fear aggressive towards big dogs, dominance aggressive to some small? The fear of strangers is a weird one as he's only ever had positive experiences with people and generally loves everyone, especially kids (although he can be a little rough with them so he stays onlead around them).

I've read through the Leerburg website about dominant dogs and never has this dog so much as raised a lip at me. He's never had a problem with me taking toys off him, messing with his food, correcting him or poking him to check for injuries. He's also 100% happy with my housemate. He does as he's told, when he's told and knows that he must work for everything he gets. He's best mates with the cat these days thankfully- she curls up next to him to sleep and he can sit and watch her eat or play with toys and won't so much as stare or raise his ears.

I'm limited as far as training tools are concerned as e-collars and prongs are illegal where I live (insert eye roll here) and good trainers who don't talk crap are scarce. He is walked on a check chain and sometimes a Halti as well if we're around people and I need immediate control of his head. I'm keen on looking into drive training with him as he seems to have a very strong prey drive and I think he'd thrive with it. I'm also guessing that it could help boost his confidence so he doesn't feel threatened by other dogs so easily. The only worry then however is that I don't really want him get over his fear aggression and swing to dominance, but then again I HAVE had more luck with correcting dominance aggression (with the cat) than fear...

Regardless, the only trainer who teaches it is in another state so I'll have to wait a few months for his next seminar here.

I did think briefly about protection training for him so I could teach him to control his outbursts and give him an outlet, but after researching it's clear that his temperament would not be suitable (I think he's far too defensive and would be dangerous if trained to bite human beings).

At the moment with his fear aggression I'm teaching him that aversion is a better option and he's heavily praised for not focusing on dogs. He's clearly relieved when we pass by another dog and he hasn't had to make a fuss so I think this is definitely the way forward. When he had dominance problems with the cat I corrected him with the check chain for it and praised for a calm demeanour.

I still feel like we have a long way to go though and I'd like to be able to have more control over him when he's defensive. At the moment I have to more or less drag him away when he'd focused on another dog and it's very hard to get him to focus on me for guidance which I think would help a lot.

So after all that any suggestions?? Does drive training sound like a good idea? Am I doing the right things to combat his problems? How on earth can I tell if he's fearful or just being a jerk? This drives me insane as he's an awesome dog in so many ways and I know he has so much potential, it just seems that my location and financial constraints work against us a lot.

Also, would it be worth having his thyroid checked out? I haven't had blood work done on him before as he's always been very healthy.

Er, thanks for reading this small novel. I only just realised how long it got

Sounds like you're on the right track trying to be a good pack leader.

Try this DVD: http://www.leerburg.com/301.htm

It explains how to be a pack leader to dominant and aggressive dogs and deals with dog-aggression issues.

That's insane, how are you supposed to walk a bullmastiff without a prong?? Glad I don't have ridiculous laws like that where I live...

Luckily the main collar that Ed recommends in the DVD is a dominant dog collar (like a nylon choke collar but it HAS to be strong and not fail when your dog is trying to attack you or another dog). That's legal where you are, right?

If you watch the DVD it'll be more effective than people simply giving written advice because you'll see how it's done (and how it's not done). You probably won't have any questions once you're done with it.

Good luck!!

In the meantime you might want to avoid situations of conflict with your dog (around other aggressive dogs or letting anyone approach him while he's eating).

Even in the DVD Ed points out that you should pick your battles. It's probably best not to fool around with having people/cats/dogs approach him while he's eating. It's not fair for him to be harassed when he's eating (i.e being corrected) - feed him in a crate or in a room where he can be alone

i'm very familiar with bullmastiffs and mastiffs. your dog sounds like a typical male bullmastiff. they are known for dog aggression. he came into maturity, and has the typical traits of the breed, is what it sounds like to me.

the reserve and/or fear around strangers is also typical of mastiff breeds.

i am not a professional trainer, and i cannot tell you how or if you can turn this dog around.

i do know they are a lot to handle and there is absolutely no margin for error because of their power, drive, and size.

while you are exploring possible remedies, resolve immediately that you will avoid any and all situations that could trigger this dog. keep him away from such situations for at least a year, so that first, nobody gets hurt, and second, his unacceptable behavior won't be reinforced. remove the opportunities and you remove the reinforcement, automatically.

i have a male intact mastiff that went through a very trying adolescence, and a little booklet that helped me a lot was "the cautious canine." i beleive i found it on amazon.com.

remember that these dogs are not emotionally mature until they are at least four. if you remove all opportunities for him to reinforce his bad behavior, he may calm down considerably at that time. mine did.

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated

I most definitely keep him away from any dog that may have an aggressive response to him, as well as the dogs he's likely to react to. The only dogs he interacts with at close range are those who I know for a fact he enjoys being around. I'm working very much on positive experiences to try and decrease his defensiveness outside the house and so he stops reinforcing the aggressive behaviour. We do see other dogs in the street and I cross over and use it as a training opportunity which is working very well. In time I hope we can stay on the same side but that's a fair way off still.

As for the cat the issues he had were when she was eating, not him (sorry, didn't clarify!). I did keep him outside for her meal time for a good couple of months altogether and he lost his rights to ever enter the kitchen (that's where it took place). After that I started working with him onlead around the cat's meal time and made it crystal clear (by means of verbal or check chain correction) that staring or aggressive behaviour was unacceptable. He's now perfect around her and I can feed her in front of him with zero issues. I will never leave him unsupervised with her though so if we had a repeat performance I'd be right on top of him in a heartbeat. He can be a little thick at times, but I don't think he's stupid enough to try again though He's a big sook and is terrified of me if I raise my voice.

He's fantastic about his own food, never had any problems with me or the cat (if he has something to chew on inside the house), but I don't mess with him while he's eating either as I want to keep it that way.


Yuko- I'll check out that DVD...I've been meaning to spend a bit of pocket money on this website for a while now. According to the government prong collars are "cruel" and "inhumane". They clearly don't know how cruel and inhumane it is to not be able to train a dog using tools they understand.... But that's life for you so people either make do or use one and risk being charged with animal "cruelty". I'd so nervous of being caught that the dog would notice

Alice- thanks for the insight into BM's. He's crossed with a wolfhound (apparently) so I'm not sure exactly how close to a BM he is in nature, but to me he seems close. The reservation around strangers sounds spot on as does the maturity level I'll keep an eye out for that book, it sounds familiar.

Jennifer, have you considered um, "concealing" a prong collar on your dog?

I usually don't advise people to go break the law, but since it's such a stupid law in this case... how about tying a very large and wide bandana or cloth collar over the prong so that it isn't visible?
Your dog will be perfectly happy and well behaved by your side so no one will suspect animal cruelty!

I re read your first post and see that this dog has no issue with being aggressive towards you, which is great.

According to what Ed explains in his DVD's, it sounds like your dog's aggressive reaction to other dogs (and to the occasional stranger) is caused by you not being a strong and reliable enough pack leader.

If your dog accepts you and trusts you entirely as pack leader, he will look to YOU to deal with strange dogs and people that he may be worried about. Sounds like he's a submissive dog with you but dominant around other dogs.

From your description, you didn't protect him when he was younger and got "attacked" by other male dogs. Not saying he got hurt or that it was a serious fight, but the bottom line is that you allowed it to happen.
A strong pack leader will protect its pack members and drive away strange dogs that approach.
The pack leader is the one who decides who can get close and who to show aggression to - the lower ranking pack members are expected to stay back. If the leader wants backup, he'll ask for it. Watch how strongly and quickly an alpha wolf corrects a subordinate member when it tries to interfere with the alpha's decisions.

If your dog is deciding for himself to chase away other dogs/puppies/people, it's probably because he does not entirely respect your leadership abilities and remembers that you have allowed him be attacked, bullied, whatever before. This makes him insecure and, since he can't trust you to drive away threats, he's taken it upon himself.

The DVD will explain everything you need to know; you cannot tolerate any unprovoked acts or displays of aggression on his part (this includes staring at another approaching dog, much less charging and lunging at it) and you have to deal with it forcefully (no nagging corrections; if you have to give more than 2 corrections with a prong to stop this, your corrections are too weak). Ed shows you how to correct this (prong and/or dominant dog collar).

Of course in turn, you have to fulfill your duties as pack leader and deal with strange dogs that get near you and your dog. You stand between your dog and the approaching dog and drive it away AGGRESSIVELY! Use a loud firm voice and point at the other dog to go away, if that doesn't work, charge at it and kick it if you have to.
Don't be shy about this, your dog expects you to drive other dogs away, and if you fail to do this he'll feel insecure and you will damage your bond with the dog.
If he sees you aggressively driving these strange dogs away, he will respect and trust you so much more than he does now.
Avoid dog parks - Ed has an article on the leerburg website, you can read that until you watch the DVD

Best of luck to you and your dog!
I hope you keep us posted on your progress.

Ok I realize you're no longer considering protection training with this dog, but that would be such a bad idea at this point. Not only because of the dog's temperament, but mostly because you don't have the bond and the trust in this relationship that you would need. This dog doesn't trust you as pack leader and doesn't trust you to be strong and to protect him - you will confuse him and turn him into a nervous wreck if you introduce any kind of defence training to him.

Also, you NEVER solve dominance and aggression issues with positive or motivational training (that's just a band-aid method and solves nothing). Ed clearly explains the difference in his DVD about obedience work (where you need motivation and lots of rewards) and inappropriate pack behaviour, where you never reward.

Inappropriate pack behaviour (aggression towards other dogs and people, aggression towards you) is met with a swift and strong correction (strong enough that it makes the dog look at YOU, not the other dog/person), and is certainly not followed by praise!!
In obedience work on the other hand, if the dog messes up, you give a correction. Then, when the dog complies, you follow with a lot of praise.

Your dog already knows the difference - if you watch the DVD, you will too


PS: my mother - a sweet little Japanese lady in her 60's - watched this portion of the dominant dog DVD with me (I always try to keep her well-educated on rank issues and such).

The following day, I was watching her out in the yard with my young German shepherd and saw her apply the techniques shown by Ed: a loose dog ran up to our fence and my pup started to "puff up" and bark. She told my pup to lie down but he ignored her (I'm his trainer, not her) so she corrected him by grabbing him by the scruff (a 100 lbs. German shepherd!), made him lie down and then she ran towards this other dog, yelling at it. The other dog ran off and my puppy seemed visibly relieved to be able to trust my mother as a pack leader.

It was the funniest thing to have my mother come up to me afterwards all excited saying how she made my pup lie down but didn't praise him for "inappropriate pack behaviour"

Hee hee

Disclaimer: my pup is 9 months old and has 0 handler aggression, which is why I allow my (little ) mother to correct him like that for not obeying when I'm not there.
My dog is also well trained and knows the drill when it comes to strange dogs approaching; my mother also knows his training level and the rank "rules", as I regularly work with her to make sure my pup respects her. Obviously you shouldn't have uninformed family members trying these methods out on your dog before he's very reliable with you. End disclaimer.

One more thing; after you watch the DVD and take the time to read through this site, you might feel bad about all the mistakes you've been making with your dog.
I certainly felt that way with how I trained and raised my older female shepherd, before I found this site. This website should be sent to every dog owner out there; a lot of us are well intentioned, but without good information we inevitably make mistakes along the way...

please be careful about correcting if he's already "gone off" with aggression towards another dog. he could redirect and seriously injure you, if not kill you. this is no joke. if he's crossed with wolfhound he must be enormous, and pretty much unstoppable.

don't think that because he's submissive to you ordinarily that he would never redirect his aggression to you. not true!!

avoid situations, and if you do have to correct/redirect, do it the second he shows signs of "gearing up" towards another dog. don't wait until he is too reactive to control.

the sheer size and power of your dog makes working with a professional, in person, a must. no matter how good a book or a dvd might be, an aggressive bullmastiff is absolutely too powerful for you to get into it with alone. get some local professional help. and get lots of references on them!

 Quote:

I've been to different schools, spent a fortune on a behaviouralist and tried everything suggested, although looking back most was very bad advice and not suitable for him at all.

I see improvements sometimes, then I see a big slide where it seems we go back to square one. He has mostly stopped barking and lunging at other dogs in the street however, we just can't walk on the same side as them (yet?).

i've just reread the original post and noticed this part. i've also had this experience. there are plenty of lousy "pro" trainers/behavioralists out there. in my own case, i had to cobble together my own methods that work for my dog, because some of these "pros" do more harm than good.

you may have to give up on ever walking on the same side of the street as other dogs. you may have to accept that this dog cannot be allowed in many situations you wish he could be allowed in. certainly, he should never again go to a dog park or be allowed to run free in a public space.

he's in adolescence. he's going to be in adolescence for at least another year or two. your most important job now is to prevent him from repeating any behavior you don't want to see him keep after adolescence is over. sure, he is going to be wilder now than he will be when he mellows out. but if you keep giving him opportunities to aggress, that behavior will be reinforced, and then you may never be rid of it.

you may be expecting too much, too soon. lay off trying to "improve" him for a year or so, keep him out of triggering situations, and then, when he's mellowed out (as he hopefully will), you can try again.

i do think that booklet i mentioned will help you a lot.

last, be prepared to accept the fact that he can't ever be around unknown dogs, and organize his life accordingly.

If you're worried about the dog redirecting aggression towards you, put a good muzzle on the dog. Heck, set the dog up by anchoring it securely to a tree so that it can't reach you when you correct it.

Ignoring the aggression and dominance issues is bad and dangerous advice in my opinion (nowhere does Ed say in the DVD to ignore dominance issues just because you have a big dog!!). There are plenty of ways to deal with this and plenty of precautions you can take for your safety, which the DVD covers extensively.

If Jennifer is not strong enough to handle this dog and its aggression issues, then the animal should be rehomed with someone who is or it should be put down.

However, from what she describes she seems to have no problem controlling the dog and holding it back. It sounds like she just needs better information to work with to get her dog to respect her authority.

Why wait another year or two?! There's no guarantee that she can avoid with 100% certainty an encounter with another dog (loose perhaps) or another person. The earlier you start acting like a strong pack leader and stopping this behaviour, the quicker it can be controlled.
The day this dog decides it doesn't like another dog or person (or child) it encounters, it's going to be the work that the owner put into her relationship and control over him that's going to make the difference between him attacking or him choosing to pay attention to her and let her handle the situation.

Jennifer, I strongly recommend that you go with the advice on the DVD instead of listening to just anyone here. If you do decide to follow other advice, make sure it comes from someone who has as much experience as Ed does in dealing with aggressive dogs. As you discovered for yourself, most dog experts are clueless and will give you useless advice.

Good luck.