Fila training advice

[angelobutter]

we have a male fila about a year and a half old. Looking to get info on training. he has some things we need to work on- we got him second hand at a little over a year old, he has since become seriously devoted to us though it took some work at first. most of our issues are little things, like what to do when he plays too rough, pushing him away makes him think we are playing and yelling makes him cower haha.. we would like something inbetween. and general obedience, he has gotten into a routine of when it is bedtime he plays "monkey in the middle" between me and my husband and won't let us bring him up to bed without a game of tag every night. gets old quick. same issue as above- if we just try to grab his collar we are playing his game and if we yell or squirt him with a mister bottle he turns to jelly. we have been luring him to bed with a treat recently - which seems to be working, but i would like to not have to rely on bribery to get obedience. plus we don't want him to think he gets away with that so what else can he get away with? consistency i guess. also we think it might not actually be an issue but part of why we got him was obviously to keep us safe, and i know filas do that without training, but we have worked with personal protection dogs before and were constantly working on good bite grips and practicing and such and are wondering if we should be doing any "conditioning" with him? He will bite a jute tug but wont hold on like our malinois or bulldog does. I guess we just know if you want to be a good ...weightlifter for example, you lift weights- we want him to be a good protector so what should we be working on with him? thanks for any advice. i will post pics eventually. he is beautiful brindle with no white at all.

 

[Tiger12490]

I would try treats honestly its not bribery its training he needs to get used to listening to you. And also as far as fila they are more of a mauling dog they bite and let go and re bite and let go its part of there essence much like a CO... if you want to work him what I would do is keep it civil.. muzzle work, defence of fence etc... play to his strengths

Tapd on my skyrocket

 

[angelbears]

I agree with Tiger about treats. You have to be consistent. Don't let him turn bad behavior into a game. How is he with other people?

 

[chuckorlando]

Be very carefull with bite training or any training really. Filas are kinda senstive and dont do well at all with aggressive means. Thats why your pup dont like being yelled at. They want so bad to make you happy and yelling kinda hurts there feelings. hahahahaha.

Treats and over and over and over again. But I'll tell ya now, if your dogs like most of our filas, you better have a strong training game. Cause they do poorly when distracted with tasty humans. hahahahaha. They may sit, stay, lay, roll, speak, and all that jazz till they go into defence mode. Then it's like pulling teeth. I've seen alot of vids of very well trained filas under great control, but that tends to take some serious training skills

 

[angelobutter]

haha- ya we don't let him see or meet other people besides me and my husband. We tried letting him hang around my sister and her husband and he was doing well- but we decided to keep him a two person dog- not really worth the risk. he was ok with my brother when he lived at our house but he has since moved out and now renzo won't let him in the front door. so if we have people over we put him in our bedroom- kind of a pain but we got him because we wanted a dog that wouldn't let other people inside so it is worth the extra hassle.
what i am hearing so far is just positive training- which is fine with me. Mostly I wanted to make sure we weren't doing something wrong by accident.

 

[angelobutter]

sorry for the poor picture quality- i will post better pictures when i find my camera

 

[cashbasket]

What a handsome man!

 

[Kelly]

"monkey in the middle" had to laugh at the mental picture!

Welcome and he looks like a beautiful dog.

 

[chuckorlando]

Nice looking pup from afar. hahahaha. Yea most I've read agree that positive training is the way to go. I'll swat kona on the rear cause she's hard headed like that. But thats more like play time to her than trouble. But I have read about folks dogs being broken with aggressive training.

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

Wow he's gorgeous! I didn't like to give treats either because I thought of them as a bribe but the trainers I spoke to disagree. So now I will give treats just not every time, and all interchange it with chest rubs.

 

[angelobutter]

little bit better- same junky camera but in better lighting.