Training a Dogue Puppy

[fredthedogue]

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this forum, seems to be really helping me with my new dogue

My name is Angela and now we have Fred in the family, a now 3 month old Dogue de Bordeaux he is amazing and we are so much in love!

I'm just trying to find a solution to a few problems... seems to happen a lot with dogues from what I am reading, but I was hoping to get some tips on how to avoid it.

Fred loves, loves loves to bite hands and feet. But it's not just biting gently, he seems to act with it just like he does with his other toys - he "hunts" it, and bites kinda hard sometimes haha. He seems to be only playing, but the sometimes he growls a little bit and it scares me. Is this behaviour normal? What should I do to stop it, besides trying to calm him down, saying no, etc?

He is doing so good with everything else, but it's hard to calm him down when he gets too anxious or excited. When he's with us, he just can't seem to calm down, he's always nibbling and playing. He only seems to sleep nicely when he's alone, or during the night when he falls asleep with us in our bed (lol, wonder how we'll change that later haha).

Thank you so much for the help

 

[musicdeb]

Welcome aboard Angela and Fred~ He's a real cutie!

Puppies will chew/bite anything they can find unless you re-direct the chewing/biting. Provide frozen washcloths or small towels (make sure the cloths are big enough the pup cannot swallow them), ice cubes with treats frozen in the middle, nylabones, ropes, deer antlers, Kongs with frozen yogurt so they can chew to their heart*s desire. Some people use boxes, be aware that the pup will continue to chew all boxes.

If you puppy is biting/nipping, then try the following. This behavior can sometimes take a lot of patience and consistency in training.

They bite and growl because that is how they played with their siblings. When they bite, tell them “OW” in a high-pitched voice and “NO” in a stern, calm voice. NEVER HIT OR YELL AT A MASTIFF. Hitting can lead to fear aggression and yelling causes the pup to shut down on you and ignore you.

When the pup stops biting, tell them to sit and re-direct to one of the chew toys, i.e. ice cubes with treats, freeze small bowls of water, freeze large hand towels (large enough they will not swallow), cardboard boxes, deer antlers, ropes or nylabones.

Teach the pup “leave it” is another option. When the pup “leaves it” meaning your body part that he is biting, then bring to a sit and reward with motivational reward.

**Do not allow children and pup on the floor together. Pup will see them as playmates and nip at them. Picture the pup playing with their siblings.

Keep the pup on leash while the children are on the floor so you can have control of the pup. Pup and children should not be allowed to play alone.

Have the children hand fed the pup and help with training, i.e. teach the pup to sit, stay and come. This helps the pup to see them as non-playmates but as people in authority. These activities are great bonding exercises.

When he gets excited, teach him "calm." I taught Titan calm, by saying the word in a calm, stern voice and raise my hand in front of me like a stop signal. It took a few times but now he calms down when I say calm and do my hand signal.

Little tip, once they start sleeping in your bed, it's can be a pretty difficult behavior to correct.

Sounds like he needs some exercise to calm him down. He can exercise 15 minutes at every exercise event.

Puppies can exercise with natural movements and free play like running, stretching, playing on soft surfaces (grass and dirt). This type of exercise is actually healthy and good for their developing bodies but they do need to be able to pace themselves.

Structured exercise/play on hard surfaces and where they don't have they ability to pace themselves is where you need to be very careful. This type of exercise could harm the pup*s joints and bones. Puppies should not do any excessive exercise, i.e. walking, jumping, running and navigate stairs for the first 12 months to avoid injury.

Stairs should be maneuvered while on leash (even in the house) especially going down the stairs. Stairs should have carpet or rubber matting to give the pup traction. Mastiffs should be assisted up and down stairs until they are about age 12 months to prevent injury.

Most mastiffs can be very lazy but they still need to exercise. Generally, the amount of time to exercise is 5 minutes per each month of age.

Hope that helps.

 

[fredthedogue]

That helps a lot, thank you so much! I'm trying to re-direct the chewing and nibbling, but I'll try it with more consistency and maybe that will help. The "calm" training probably will help a lot too, I did try something like that but he usually starts barking at me when I put my hand up, and then I tried ignoring him a bit. I'll try that again to see if it works after a few times.

This is my first mastiff, so everything is new! He is exercising a lot, we try to run a bit in the yard for a few minutes a few times during the day, but it's usually after exercising and playing that he gets even more excited. He is definitely not a lazy dogue haha.

Also good to know that the growl is playing, as I thought.

By the way, do you have any tips about socializing with other dogs? I know that nibbling is usually how they play with each other, I saw that when he was still with his family, mom dad and siblings. But many other dogs don't like it, so they usually get scared of him. How will it be possible for him to play with other dogs without any problems?

I'll post about how it goes, thanks a lot for the help!

 

[musicdeb]

Here's a great article: Are Domestic Dogs Losing the Ability to Get Along with Each Other? | Victoria Stilwell Positively

 

[fredthedogue]

Thank you

 

[RockstarDDB]

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this forum, seems to be really helping me with my new dogue

My name is Angela and now we have Fred in the family, a now 3 month old Dogue de Bordeaux he is amazing and we are so much in love!

I'm just trying to find a solution to a few problems... seems to happen a lot with dogues from what I am reading, but I was hoping to get some tips on how to avoid it.

Fred loves, loves loves to bite hands and feet. But it's not just biting gently, he seems to act with it just like he does with his other toys - he "hunts" it, and bites kinda hard sometimes haha. He seems to be only playing, but the sometimes he growls a little bit and it scares me. Is this behaviour normal? What should I do to stop it, besides trying to calm him down, saying no, etc?

He is doing so good with everything else, but it's hard to calm him down when he gets too anxious or excited. When he's with us, he just can't seem to calm down, he's always nibbling and playing. He only seems to sleep nicely when he's alone, or during the night when he falls asleep with us in our bed (lol, wonder how we'll change that later haha).

Thank you so much for the help

Welcome. ,my experience is based on my opinion of owning two males from 8 weeks.

All breeds do this , Biting at this age is how they play and establish their pecking order in a pack. chewing is also how they soothe teething . teaching your dog a soft Bite is important as well as when this play is allowable. My first was much like yours and bit feet and shoe laces , more so when it was time for work. he out grew this at about 6 months with lots of no' and stop while pushing him away and making him sit until he was somewhat calm.

Correction for play biting and using body parts as toys was simple. When he would bite hands our try to use a pant leg for tug of war i would simply place my thumb in his upper palet and pinch gently with two finger on his nose and say Ouch!. tell him no and hand him a toy.

Most of all do not run or avoid him when he does this. you will encourage him to be dominant , do not shy or be intimidated by him at all. My first was a very dominant and had high guard instinct . it turned to horrible leash aggression. As your male ages and hit's sexual maturity you want him to completely understand you have everything under control. Hand feed him from time to time, put your fingers in his food as he eats if he growls or shows any form of aggression with his food,toys or treats take them away . You control everything he needs to understand this early. He may challenge you again at 12 to 18 months, do not panic it will pass if your consistent.

Each one is different my second was much easier far more affectionate,trusting, and lower guard instinct. (thank god because he is much larger and heavier). Having an older trained dog around makes life easier too. He will naturally follow the older dogs lead.

Also remember he is a dog . i firmly believe if you want a family dog treat him like family, but he is not a human don't treat him like one. training him and socialization takes consistency and patience . Harsh correction will make him shut down, calm assertion will gain his trust. You will have a bonded friend for life and will likely get bitten by the Bordeaux bug. I will own this breed until i am too old to have one. Good luck and Congratz on your new puppy !

 

[musicdeb]

I, personally, do not agree to the pinching the upper palate because what you consider to be a gentle pinch could not be a gentle pinch to someone else and the pup could be hurt. I do not agree with causing any pain to a pup unless it's a life or death situation.

 

[RockstarDDB]

I, personally, do not agree to the pinching the upper palate because what you consider to be a gentle pinch could not be a gentle pinch to someone else and the pup could be hurt. I do not agree with causing any pain to a pup unless it's a life or death situation.

that is a good point i personally would never hit / hurt any of my dogs,your asking for trouble later. the dog needs to be bonded ,loyal and trusting of your judgement . but this will work with out pinching . you can also grab his canine when the adult teeth are in and mature. anything that controls the dogs ability to bite will communicate you do not like what he is doing. this will not work for aggression only dominant play. Im no expert nor am i a dog trainer . it is what has worked for me ,and what has not believe me i made plenty of mistakes with my first but i never gave up.

But growling and play biting at this age is normal . communicating what you allow and what you do not is crucial.

 

[fredthedogue]

I can see he's getting better and better each day, I was most worried about the growling, thought he might be showing a bit of agression, but I can see it's not.

I thought he was missing something a bit more tasty to bite - he does bite his toys, but he gets tired of them very very fast. I gave him a tastier bone and he just loved it. i just tried to always get it from him while he's chewing on it just to make sure he would not get angry, and it all turned out pretty well. He would bite on it for a while, then he would try to play and we went down for a turn of exercising. Then he returned calmer, slept a bit, and started it all over again. No chewing on hands and feet and a lot less anxious

I'm trying the "calm" command as well, not a lot of luck yet, but I'm always making him sit from time to time and he responds very well.

We are being a lot more patient as well, we never ever tried hitting him, but I think we put our voice a bit too loud from time to time. The calmer NO has also been getting a better response.

We'll see how the next few days go

 

[Hector]

Growling is a form a communication. There are also different types of growls. There are play growls, I don't like you growls, scared growls, I want that thing so I'm going to growl and be a pest until you move growls, territorial growls, resource guarding growls, etc.

A lot of dogs growl when they play or growl when they are over aroused during play. You should not be afraid. You should try and learn your dog's growls. Not every growl is an aggressive one.

Good luck, he's a cute looking pup.

 

[Nik]

fredthedogue - I have had the same exact issue with my puppy, Diesel. Almost identical situation with the biting and the barking and growling when I correct him. I do a variation of the "calm" command based on advice from this forum. I use "focus" and he seems to really get that one. The way I got him to do it is put a toy or a treat or something he would really want right by my face while I stood up and firmly and sternly told him "focus". When he sits and calms and looks at me then I reward him with the item that got him to "focus" and lots of praise. He has this one down pretty well now. Another variation that often gets him to calm down is "are you ready?" I accidentally taught him that one to indicate the beginning of a game of fetch. It means he has to sit and watch me before I throw his toy for him. And it helps get him calm again also. He is only just starting to learn to redirect the biting to the toys on his own when I tell him no but Diesel and I have a long long way to go still. Lots of patience, lots of toys, lots of consistency and ya that "focus" or "calm" or whichever variation of the command you want helps so much! Also the structured fetch games and we now do a structured "tug" game too. When once he calms I grab his tug toy and tell him to "take it" and then I give him command "tug" which means he can pull it and play tug of war. Every so often I tell him to "drop it" to make sure he understands that I control the game and doesn't get possessive. The combo of alllll of that helps for me.