So I started working with my American Bulldog tonight on holding stuff. She's cool with the muzzle hold and me messing with her lips. We're both having a lot of trouble arranging her lips so that she doesn't bite them with that underbite she's got. It's leading to a very hesitant hold. I finally just switched to using my finger as the hold object because I can feel her lips and move them aside. I got a couple of nice firm holds with that and she visibly relaxed into the work.

How have you guys dealt with this in the past? My plan right now is to continue using my fingers until she gets the idea of what I'm trying to do with her. Hopefully at that point she will take a more proactive role in managing her jowls and she'll figure out how to take things without biting herself. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I don't think using your fingers to move her lips is going to carry over to when she actually picks up and holds any object on her own.

Does she pick up balls, sticks, tugs on her own?

It seems if she's comfortable doing that she'll probably figure it out herself.

Hopefully others have good ideas on the issue.

All my mastiffs have had fleshy jowls, and I haven't ever known them to have problems with tugging, retrieving or eating, in fact, Harry and Kaiser used to love taking blackberries off the bush, and they would just use their lips to remove them whole, without snagging the thorns, they rarely ate them, just loved the challenge of stealing them!

Sugar takes tiny pieces of chicken or liver with a softer mouth than the pointers do, their dexterity - if thats the correct word - is really precise, and they have huge mouths with powerful jaws.

I think unless she has a really pronounced underbite, like some British Bulldogs, she will be fine, because thats just the way they are made, so like Bob said, it all comes as naturally as it does to dogs with long snouts.

I love the American bulldog, they have that athleticism of a well bred Boxer, with the sweet temperament and playful boisterousness.

Are you enjoying her? I would like to think I still have it in me to have one last Boxer, but I am so aware of the hard work involved with bull breeds - all that energy I envy you!

I switched to using one of her nylabones which is working MUCH better. She just wasn't understanding that I was going to be putting something IN her mouth so she wasn't arranging herself so as to not bite her lips.

Yes, she's a challenge sometimes with all that energy but she's a real sweetheart. Thankfully I have a Cattle Dog that's only two months older than her so they blast around the yard and wrestle like crazy. I don't know what I'd do without Maverick to keep her busy. They are similar to Boxers but more "bullish". She'll run full force into things and simply not care. She'll also take your legs out from underneath you if you're not watching while she's playing. I'm honestly doing almost 100% positive reinforcement with her. She can be very sensitive to corrections and really tries her best if she understands what I'm asking of her.

Bullish is the perfect description!

What I love about bull breeds - and I know they are not for everyone - is their comedic nature. Our old Boxer, Rocky, would do something daft, and when we laughed at him, he would do it again, wagging his stump and jumping up and down on the spot like a Polar bear on ice, if he farted, he would spin round and glare at his bum, then at us like it was our fault!

He liked to surprise my dad by stopping dead, reaching down, grabbing his ankle and yanking him off his feet, then look at him like, 'What are you doing down there?' When Rocky died at the age of 14, my dad was heartbroken. He was a holy terror with other dogs, but bossed around without mercy by our ginger cat, he was protective and hugely affectionate, stubborn and relentless, just a great dog.

Your girl sounds like a lot of fun, and hard work, but I like a dog with character, you enjoy her