amymoore27
New Member
Hello everyone! My name is Amy and I'm somewhat new to the Neo world. I have owned OEM's and have been rescuing for many years. I personally have two failed fosters (an OEM and a BM). I've fostered Boerboels, Bullmastiffs, OEM's, Neo/BM mix (puppy), etc. Kali is my first Neo foster. I was somewhat prepared for her "attitude" but I'm not sure how to deal with it.
When she first came to me a few months ago, she had HW's and was about 20lbs underweight and was extremely fearful. I can tell she has been beaten because she will cower down and put her nose in a corner and not come out if you raise your hand too fast. Its extremely sad. She was eager for you to pet her but she would pee all over the place the second you reached toward her. She never growled or anything with me. She did snap a few times at my boyfriend the first time he met her but she has never done it since. It did take her about 3 weeks before she wouldn't pee if he touched her, though. We figured out that what worked with her. When he comes over to visit, he doesn't acknowledge her at first. He goes straight out to the back yard and she will run out to see him. He tells her to come and she will run over and drop and roll. Then he gives her lovin' and if she pees, at least she is in the yard. It took longer than I thought to acclimate her to my two male dogs. She has bonded quickly with my male Bullmastiff. They play non-stop all day. She lays on the bed with him and she allows him to go in her crate. She "tolerates" my OEM but continually tries to dominate him (and he is the more submissive of my two dogs). She gets snappy when he comes to me for affection and she corners him and attacks (but has never hurt him) when he goes near her crate or food. She corrects very easily, though. I can say HEY and she stops immediately. It was a good 2 months before I allowed her the opportunity to free roam when I am not home. I normally kept her crated when I was gone for the protection of my other dogs. She has been doing great and hasn't destroyed anything.
I found, early on, that she is VERY smart and eager to please. She learns commands so fast. Because she is territorial, I make her eat in another room. She will inhale her bowl of food and then go for everyone elses. So she has to sit and wait for her food til I tell her it is OK. She does it like a champ. If I have a treat, she has to go to her crate and she sits and waits patiently. She has to sit and wait for me to give her a toy if she wants to play (she is rather OCD about toys and becomes very territorial over them.. she destroyed a black extreme kong in 11 minutes... I timed her). Walking her on a leash has been a challenge but she is getting better. I've been using a gentle leader, which she hates, but at least she isn't dragging me across the yard anymore. While walking on a leash, she will bark and lunge towards people she sees so it has been a little more of a challenge than I'd like. She knows "Off" when I want her off the bed or off the sofa. She knows the dog door. She learned "outside" within 2 days of being here. If I tell her "take it outside" she will take whatever she is chewing on and go outside with it. I can tell her "crate" and she goes in the crate. I've taught her sit, stay, etc. She will go in the shower with the water running if I tell her to go in. Nail trimming isnt something she is very fond of (as I've found with most of my dogs).
She is very submissive. You can count it down. The second you touch her it is like... 5, 4 3... drop and roll. She loves belly rubs and will drop the minute she thinks she might get one. She is one of the most hyper mastiffs I've ever been around. She can play for hours. She never seems to tire out. So this was an issue with the HW treatment because I couldn't keep her calm and quiet. However, we got through that, finally. She wants to have a toy in her mouth at all times. She entertains herself by throwing the toy in the air, chasing it, shaking it , etc. She is VERY entertaining. You can see her in action, here: [video=youtube;246t_dnDCuw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=246t_dnDCuw[/video]
Now that she has completely and totally bonded with me she is starting to be more confident and less submissive. Her territorial/protective instinct is becoming more intense. She doesn't want ANYONE near the house. She set off my window break alarm sensors yesterday and the police were at my house. If she sees someone or something outside the house, she literally charges the window. When a door-to-door salesman came by, she was charging the door. The next door neighbor had roofers on his house and she was practically body slamming the fence to get to them. My other neighbor is terrified of her cause she runs and hits the fence when he is mowing the lawn. It is in these moments that she will NOT listen to me or focus on me. I have to go out and physically remove her from the situation. When I have friends over, I have to crate her because she goes ballistic. I just ask them to ignore her and when she calms down and sits nicely for me, I allow her out of the crate. She will run over and smell them and many times pee all over the place if they touch her. She has been fine with them after I leave her crated for the first 15-20 minutes that they are there. She did snap at a friends daughter. She came up and started giving her kisses so I thought, OK, she is fine. But when the girl started laughing, she snapped. Lesson learned... no kids. I have said No Kids anyways from day one because of how territorial she is with toys. I have been plowed over and growled at for taking a toy. Of course she does not do that with me now. She can have a toy in her mouth and I can stick my whole hand in her mouth and she won't do anything.
When she was at the vet for her HW treatment, they RAVED about how sweet she was. They said it was hard to give her the injections because the second they touched her, she was on her back wanting a belly rub. She was giving them tons of kisses and loving all over them. I put her in the car and went back to pay (left the car running cause I have a remote start on it). A tech came out to say goodbye to her and she went NUTS and was lunging and snapping at the tech. I was inches from her face and she never lunged or snapped at me. I THINK she was being protective of the car because 10 minutes before, this same person went on and on about how loving and sweet she was. Today, I took her in for her spay and we had her on the scale. The tech (a different one) was standing in front of her and reached over her to reset the scale and she snapped at the tech. Normally, outside the home and car, she is an angel. So this new "reaction" has me even more concerned. I obviously want her to go to the best home and I want it to be a home that is very knowledgable about the breed and will take my warnings and suggestions to heart. I've asked the rescue to refer me to a behaviorist.
So, after my long drawn out post... my question is.... what can I do, at home, to help minimize this type of reaction? I live alone so its just me. I don't want her to become so protective of me that she will snap at a new family. I don't want to set her up to fail. She is beautiful and smart and an amazingly sweet dog. I think I would DIE if something bad happened to her.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Amy
When she first came to me a few months ago, she had HW's and was about 20lbs underweight and was extremely fearful. I can tell she has been beaten because she will cower down and put her nose in a corner and not come out if you raise your hand too fast. Its extremely sad. She was eager for you to pet her but she would pee all over the place the second you reached toward her. She never growled or anything with me. She did snap a few times at my boyfriend the first time he met her but she has never done it since. It did take her about 3 weeks before she wouldn't pee if he touched her, though. We figured out that what worked with her. When he comes over to visit, he doesn't acknowledge her at first. He goes straight out to the back yard and she will run out to see him. He tells her to come and she will run over and drop and roll. Then he gives her lovin' and if she pees, at least she is in the yard. It took longer than I thought to acclimate her to my two male dogs. She has bonded quickly with my male Bullmastiff. They play non-stop all day. She lays on the bed with him and she allows him to go in her crate. She "tolerates" my OEM but continually tries to dominate him (and he is the more submissive of my two dogs). She gets snappy when he comes to me for affection and she corners him and attacks (but has never hurt him) when he goes near her crate or food. She corrects very easily, though. I can say HEY and she stops immediately. It was a good 2 months before I allowed her the opportunity to free roam when I am not home. I normally kept her crated when I was gone for the protection of my other dogs. She has been doing great and hasn't destroyed anything.
I found, early on, that she is VERY smart and eager to please. She learns commands so fast. Because she is territorial, I make her eat in another room. She will inhale her bowl of food and then go for everyone elses. So she has to sit and wait for her food til I tell her it is OK. She does it like a champ. If I have a treat, she has to go to her crate and she sits and waits patiently. She has to sit and wait for me to give her a toy if she wants to play (she is rather OCD about toys and becomes very territorial over them.. she destroyed a black extreme kong in 11 minutes... I timed her). Walking her on a leash has been a challenge but she is getting better. I've been using a gentle leader, which she hates, but at least she isn't dragging me across the yard anymore. While walking on a leash, she will bark and lunge towards people she sees so it has been a little more of a challenge than I'd like. She knows "Off" when I want her off the bed or off the sofa. She knows the dog door. She learned "outside" within 2 days of being here. If I tell her "take it outside" she will take whatever she is chewing on and go outside with it. I can tell her "crate" and she goes in the crate. I've taught her sit, stay, etc. She will go in the shower with the water running if I tell her to go in. Nail trimming isnt something she is very fond of (as I've found with most of my dogs).
She is very submissive. You can count it down. The second you touch her it is like... 5, 4 3... drop and roll. She loves belly rubs and will drop the minute she thinks she might get one. She is one of the most hyper mastiffs I've ever been around. She can play for hours. She never seems to tire out. So this was an issue with the HW treatment because I couldn't keep her calm and quiet. However, we got through that, finally. She wants to have a toy in her mouth at all times. She entertains herself by throwing the toy in the air, chasing it, shaking it , etc. She is VERY entertaining. You can see her in action, here: [video=youtube;246t_dnDCuw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=246t_dnDCuw[/video]
Now that she has completely and totally bonded with me she is starting to be more confident and less submissive. Her territorial/protective instinct is becoming more intense. She doesn't want ANYONE near the house. She set off my window break alarm sensors yesterday and the police were at my house. If she sees someone or something outside the house, she literally charges the window. When a door-to-door salesman came by, she was charging the door. The next door neighbor had roofers on his house and she was practically body slamming the fence to get to them. My other neighbor is terrified of her cause she runs and hits the fence when he is mowing the lawn. It is in these moments that she will NOT listen to me or focus on me. I have to go out and physically remove her from the situation. When I have friends over, I have to crate her because she goes ballistic. I just ask them to ignore her and when she calms down and sits nicely for me, I allow her out of the crate. She will run over and smell them and many times pee all over the place if they touch her. She has been fine with them after I leave her crated for the first 15-20 minutes that they are there. She did snap at a friends daughter. She came up and started giving her kisses so I thought, OK, she is fine. But when the girl started laughing, she snapped. Lesson learned... no kids. I have said No Kids anyways from day one because of how territorial she is with toys. I have been plowed over and growled at for taking a toy. Of course she does not do that with me now. She can have a toy in her mouth and I can stick my whole hand in her mouth and she won't do anything.
When she was at the vet for her HW treatment, they RAVED about how sweet she was. They said it was hard to give her the injections because the second they touched her, she was on her back wanting a belly rub. She was giving them tons of kisses and loving all over them. I put her in the car and went back to pay (left the car running cause I have a remote start on it). A tech came out to say goodbye to her and she went NUTS and was lunging and snapping at the tech. I was inches from her face and she never lunged or snapped at me. I THINK she was being protective of the car because 10 minutes before, this same person went on and on about how loving and sweet she was. Today, I took her in for her spay and we had her on the scale. The tech (a different one) was standing in front of her and reached over her to reset the scale and she snapped at the tech. Normally, outside the home and car, she is an angel. So this new "reaction" has me even more concerned. I obviously want her to go to the best home and I want it to be a home that is very knowledgable about the breed and will take my warnings and suggestions to heart. I've asked the rescue to refer me to a behaviorist.
So, after my long drawn out post... my question is.... what can I do, at home, to help minimize this type of reaction? I live alone so its just me. I don't want her to become so protective of me that she will snap at a new family. I don't want to set her up to fail. She is beautiful and smart and an amazingly sweet dog. I think I would DIE if something bad happened to her.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Amy
