18 month old English mastiff behavior problems. Please help!

[Remi's Mom]

Hi! I am the mom to one amazing 18 month old male English Mastiff. I won't spare any details since I am desperate for help. So, hope you're ready for a lengthy read.
I got my boy Remi with my ex spouse when he was 8 weeks old. He came to us with parvo, and went spent a few grand saving his life. After he survived that ordeal, I swore I would give Remi the most fulfilling life I could seeing as he was so lucky to have made it. He went thru basic puppy school, loved walking at the park, playing with other dogs, was an ANGEL on a leash, and around ANY person, stranger or not. Unfortunately, my ex and I split when Remi was only 8 months old. I moved to an apartment complex complete with a dog park, TONS of other dogs for Rem to be friends with, and plenty of great walking trails and areas.
Remi turned 1 in December and in the same month, I found that he had hip dysplasia. After starting a regime of vitamins and a medication, you would never know he had a problem to begin with. Only problem might be me, his mom. I'm assuming due to guilty feelings of the split, his hip problems, and probly some loneliness of my own, I began babying the crap out of Remi. Letting hi
Sleep in my bed, moving my coffee table out more so he could lay on the floor in front of me on the sofa, pretty much smothering him with love, affection, and petting when I got home from work as soon as I walked in the door. Now, I'm paying for it. He started refusing to get off the bed, so now I won't let him sleep on it. He then moved to taking the couch while I'm gone. He started pulling my arm off when he sees other dogs, when he never pulled before. It started out friendly, but now he is aggressive towards any new dog, only friendly to ones he knows. Always was fine with people, hell bark at them and pull at most, but today he nipped my neighbor in the butt and tore his pants when he walked passed him. I lucked out with my neighbor being an amazing nice person. Wouldn't even let me reimburse him the cost of the shorts. I know I'm almost 100% to blame for Remi's behavior issues. I want to give him the most structured and happy life I can, I just need the tools and advice. I think I've got the love part down. Please help. I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Any advice is welcome. I have no problem accepting blame either. Lol

 

[musicdeb]

He's a puppy and his living environment changed. Moving is just as stressful on a dog as it is for a human. Remi is now at the age where he will test his boundaries with you. You need to train him to do what you want him to do, not want you do not want him to do. Titan used to get on my bed because I let him sleep with me. I stopped it about 2 months ago. I would be things on my bed during the day so he could not jump on the bed. It took about 3 weeks and he finally got it...no bed. Sometime he'll jump on it when he does his zoomies but as soon as he jumps on it, he stops and has the look on his face "uh oh, what did I just do?"

Have you tried obedience training? Remi needs to know that you are leader of the pack because as he gets bigger, he will be harder to control on his walks.

It sounds has if you socialized him early. OB training is key. Patience is an absolute.

 

[Sadies Mom]

He might also get the vibe from you, that you feel voulnerable right now and might have taken the natural instinct to protect and guard you. You both might benefit from a one-on-one, in-home consultation from a behaviorist before he nipps someone that is not as understanding as your neighbor. Sorry, I have no other suggestions.

 

[musicdeb]

He might also get the vibe from you, that you feel voulnerable right now and might have taken the natural instinct to protect and guard you. You both might benefit from a one-on-one, in-home consultation from a behaviorist before he nipps someone that is not as understanding as your neighbor. Sorry, I have no other suggestions.

Great point! That is one thing I have learned with Titan, he feeds off of my fear. I'm still working on it but we've come a long way. His trainer told me that Titan feeds off of my fear. Titan feels he has to protect me and I needed to let him know that I have it and I will let Titan know when I need him to take over. I do that by remaining calm. I use a muzzle with Titan if we plan to go into situations with unknown people or dogs. The muzzle helps me to relax so Titan will be relaxed.

 

[Remi's Mom]

Thank you so much for the suggestions and responses. More are always welcome. Keep em coming! Im not too proud to "be trained" myself so I can be a better leader for my boy, and give him the structured and happy life he deserves. I think patience and consistency might just be the key here. He's genuinely a sweet huge baby despite how tough he looks and I want anyone that meets him to see that. I'm looking into obedience classes in my area and other alternatives as well. Some of those classes are expensive! But, a lawsuit would be even more costly. Thank you!

 

[angelbears]

Welcome! What a great attitude. You and your boy will be fine with a little work. You already know the key...CONSISTENCY.

If you don't practice it already, do a search here on these boards for NILIF (Nothing In Life Is Free). It is a philosophy that offers nonviolent behavioral training that is fairly easy to follow and has worked well for us (and we have a couple of hard headed, obstinate dogs at our house).

As questions arise, just ask. This forum is full of knowledgeable, friendly folks.

 

[Remi's Mom]

I looked up info on the NILIF training and started integrating it into my daily routine with Remi. It totally makes senses. "Working" for what u want or need. We are now working on The walk on a leash. Stopping and sitting when I stop, no walking ahead of me, no pulling. He is seeming to respond, but you can tell when he grows tired of the lessons. The sit becomes more casual and at his leisure. A slow sit, if you will. Lol. There's a park by me with an open field and little to no distractions that is working well for us. Combined with that and the consistency of NILIF training, I think we're off to a good start. My only concern is now how to handle the unavoidable encounters with other dogs and people while on our bathroom walks. He immediately looses concentration and focus on me. What's the best way to gain that control and focus in these situations where distractions are unavoidable? Right now, I'm making him sit, and essentially blocking his view. But the blocking his view almost seems to increase his alertness towards the distractions. Any suggestions?

 

[ruby55]

Work on the command "Look at me"; make him focus on you when other dogs/people go past. I have a friend who walks her 2 GSD's on a back road off leash. The dogs are trained to sit & "Look at her" whenever a vehicle, bicycle, or scooter approaches. I've seen her walking them many times & they NEVER break their stare. The biggest problem I have with this is I can tell that I start to tense up as someone/something approaches; Ruby feels it & her awareness goes up. Something we've been working on.

 

[Remi's Mom]

Awesome advice. Thank you. A great addition to the training routine I've started with him. Armed with his favorite cut up apples and consistency, I oughta see some results eventually. There's gotta hope for my boy yet. I must say, this website has already turned out to be a great resource for me. It's one thing to have behavioral issue with any dog, but the mastiff breed seems to be in a league of its own!

 

[Marrowshard]

I agree with ruby55, we use a variant of that command: "Watch Me". It doesn't do anything for Oscar when other dogs are nearby, but we're working with a trainer to remedy that.
What kind of setup do you use when you go on walks? Harness? Just his collar? Also: when you walk, where does he walk? At your side? In front?

~Marrow

 

[Remi's Mom]

On walks, I use a "pinch collar" which really doesn't remotely phase him if he wants to pull. I've since started working on heeling, not letting him walk ahead of me at all. I'm one week into working on correcting all the bad habits I've slowly but surely instilled in him. it's going to be a long road. I think both of us are tired at the end of each walk from the work we are both putting in. I know it'll be worth it.

 

[Kelly]

With the pinch collar, is that a prong collar? Unless you've been shown how to use it by a trainer or professional I wouldn't use it.

I was shown how to use it by a professiona and it has really helped with Tess, and now I rarely use it on our walks. I still put it on her, along with her flat collar, but i keep the leash on the flat collar. Mostly im able to distract her with treats when we pass other dogs and such. I dont always need to though, she's really come along. The last time we went i forgot both the prong and treats. Didn't matter, she was fine.

 

[Remi's Mom]

Yeah, I'm using the prong collar. I'm definitely not using it correctly, cause he could care less about it. I'm thinking about going to the local pet store to find out the correct way to use it. I know it needs to be at the top of his neck, but even after taking links out, it still slides down after a while it seems. So, it definitely isn't being used to its potential.
I'm seeing improvement in the short time we've been working. Weve added "lay down" and "on your bed" to his list Of learning. We've still got a long way to go, but I'm feeling a bit more hopeful. The friendly and informative responses on here have been more than I expected. Thank you!

 

[Remi's Mom]

Just a quick update. In the two weeks since I started working consistently with Remi, I've seen positive changes. we also have a trainer coming to the house tomorrow just to ensure that we are taking steps in the right direction. Hoping to have even better updates soon!

 

[musicdeb]

*thumbs up*

 

[Cody]

Awesome! Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

[Kelly]

How did your training session go? Did the trainer show you how to use the prong collar?

 

[angelbears]

Any update? Hope it went well.

 

[Glasgowdogtrainer]

I would't use a prong collar on him at all. He could easily build negative associations with you causing him pain when he sees someone in outside on pee walks if you correct him with it. I've linked Ian Dunbar's website, there are loads of training articles which can be downloaded for free. If he is loosing focus on you, train him more, using his normal kibble, under less distraction and work up to greater distraction i.e. more people about. If you feed him his food from your hand and not from a bowl, he'll pay more attention to you.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

John
Glasgow Dog Trainer and Behaviour Consultant
www.glasgowdogtrainer.co.uk