Socializing My Bullmastiff Rescue

[PerfectMatch]

I rescued Augustus a bullmastiff from the Los Angeles shelter back in January. He is so sweet and was even very timid for the first few months. When company is over he is great, but when I am walking him on the street I never know how he will react to people. He will sometimes randomly lunge at old ladies or children or anyone at all really while on leash. But then other times he doesn't mind passers-by at all and doesn't even acknowledge them. I don't want him jumping at people and terrorizing my neighbors... How can we work with this?

The other issue is with other dogs. Since he is a rescue I don't know how he does with other dogs. When we go walking he is on the leash and there are a lot of dogs in my neighborhood barking and growling at him from behind their fences. He used to loose it and bark and growel back, but I have been rewarding him with praise everytime he can pull it together and just walk by unaffected. So.... dog agression on-leash is not too bad anymore, but now I am concerned about introducing him to my friend's dogs or taking him to a dog park. I would love for him to have the chance to play and many of my friends want doggy play dates, but I don't know how he will be. I assume he will be better off leash, but I don't want to endanger him or anyone else's precious pets. How do I begin to socialize him or safely see how he is going to be at a dog park?

 

[Marrowshard]

Oh goodness ... sounds a LOT like my situation. We adopted our 7-year-old Bullmastiff in early February. She's very affectionate towards us and to people we have in the house. She barks rarely, and has so far been outstanding with children (fully tolerating strange kids poking her in the face, petting her backwards, etc.) and our two housecats (they all share the couch, and one has even taken to pouncing on her moving tail without consequence). When it come to either a) people on bicycles or b) other dogs, especially "interested" ones, she's an entirely different dog.

When we saw her at the shelter, she was around a lot of other dogs, all in their kennels and she paid them no mind. We introduced her to a friend's (neutered) male black Lab who is known, in the gentlest terms, as a marshmallow. He's a natural submissive. They were fine together in an enclosed yard as long as he stayed at a distance. When he tried (veeeery slowly) to sniff her nose, she launched and bit him in the nose. He was fine other than a little shaken (no stitches or anything), but it made us start to watch her when we had her around other dogs. Later, they were reacquainted on leashes for a walk together and they were fine. They weren't allowed to touch, but they generally ignored each other and passed within 6 inches without so much as a second glance. Recently (and as described in more detail in another post in this section), she got under a chain-link fence and attacked a Pomeranian that was barking at her. She did some damage, none of it permanent, and we ended up footing the bill for vet work. Since then, we've just had to accept that she's not safe around other dogs. We don't take her to dog parks, and any time she might encounter another dog (out on a walk, for example) we use a choke-chain to make sure we can quickly get her under control.

We've found it effective to make her "pull over" then another leashed dog approaches. Her leash manners have always been good, and she walks at a close Heel at all times. I now take her to the road shoulder and make her Sit. She gets corrected if she moves from the Sit, stares after the other dog, or otherwise tries to intimidate it. She gets loads of praise and treats if she lets them pass and if she Sits right away. With that strategy, even when the other dogs try to get to her (little yappers straining at the leash, loose dogs behind an invisible fence, etc.) she's more relaxed and she waits for my signal to keep walking.

I understand what you're saying about wanting your dog to socialize with other dogs and have play-dates and such, we did too at first. But taking into account the Bullmastiff's breeding as a guard dog and poacher-catcher (and knowing that that means they're not SUPPOSED to be friendly with strange dogs) and the reactions I noticed in my own dog, that's just not possible. Even if she got along "okay" with one dog, that wouldn't mean I'd ever leave them alone otgether or that the multi-dog dog park would be safe. We've been down that road and the Pom and Lab were both very lucky.

As for lunging at people, we're still working on Ebony's problem with bikes. It seems best to just pay extra-close attention to her for body language that points to her stressing out or getting aggressive, and nip it in the bud with the pull-over-and-wait approach.

~Marrow

 

[Hmacalle]

Hi. I am new to the site and have been meaning to post but when I saw yours I felt I immediately had to respond. I recently adopted a 4 year old male Dogue de Bordeaux. He's been with us 1 month. We also have a 1 and a half year old female DDB who is the dominant dog in the house. We've raised her since a pup and she's been given a tremendous amount of socialization and has completed advanced obedience training. She is waiting to complete the CGC. Our new boy, who is controllable on leash, has good house manners and responds to basic obedience but has given us some trouble which is probably just because he's adjusting/testing us. He displayed some territorial behavior within the first week with his food and toys which we quickly responded to with basic discipline - the nothing in life is free approach. Within a week we had him under control in the house.



However, he has on several occasions randomly lunged, growled and snapped at someone in the park where we walk both our dogs regularly. The first person was an old man, the second was a female jogger. The most recent was a young tall man who was at a safe distance and minding his business listening to his headphones. I don’t even think the guy noticed that he did it which I’m glad for because it’s embarrassing. I immediately yanked him away, told him he was a bad boy and made him lay down until he looked up at me and acknowledged me. We walked home and mostly ignored him for the rest of the afternoon. This was toward the end of our walk and there were lots of people that walked by with and without dogs at the same or even closer distance and he didn’t react at all. In fact, he was great on the walk until that moment. I know I didn’t send any anxiety down the leash so I’m a little perplexed. It sounds so much like your bullmastiff and these breeds both have the same guardian background.



From what I learned from his foster family and my own observation, it seems he wasn't given a lot of socialization, either with other dogs or on walks. He's great in the house and very tolerant with kids. It's outside that he's unpredictable. For the most part, he behaves beautifully on the walk. When he sees other dogs, particularly small dogs, he's very interested and wants to go toward them although he's easily controlled with the leash. If he gets the chance to meet a dog, he's usually very dominant in his posturing - all puffed up and forward on the leash, towering over the other dog and if I had to say he'd attempt to mount immediately. He's done that with the other dogs he lived with (3 months) before he got to us and has been bitten a couple of times. He simply doesn't know how to greet and talk doggie language. So, no dog park for him. If other dogs bark or growl at him, he doesn't respond at all. He's just interested. He and my female get along fantastically, though and for the most part he's a very good boy.



Any insight into this random behavior would be most helpful. We plan on taking him to obedience class in the fall with a trusted dog trainer/behavioralist to continue to train him with the distraction of being around other dogs. In the meantime, we've been taking him on pack walks led by our trainer and he's done great. I'm hopeful he can be trained out of this but I have a strong feeling that the guardian instinct is strong with these breeds and they can never be fully trusted not to attempt to "guard" us when not appropriate or needed. I'm only happy that he's able to be controlled on leash.