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Anxious / unsure 8 month boerboel?

Boerboel_887

New Member
Hi everyone - recently found and joined this community and this is my first post!

I have an 8 month old male Boerboel who is very unsure and anxious on his walks. I have socialised him heavily since he was vaccinated (you name it, we’ve done it!) but on his walks his hackles are often raised and he’s always scanning his environment with “unsure” body language. I don’t understand why he does this due to the heavy socialisation I have done with him, and still do with him. He tends to relax at the end of his walks quite a lot, but for the first half he’s in unsure mode.

He’s also unsure around other dogs - his hackles raise but he’s also excited to greet other dogs. It’s like he’s super excited to say hello but equally unsure as to how they will react to him. Again, I’ve socialised him with other dogs so I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. He’s never shown an ounce of aggression, it’s always excitement/unsure. He’s never gotten into a fight although some dogs have charged and barked at him. Could it be this?

I do not think this is a fear phase because this behaviour has extended beyond a typical fear phase now. He also displays much less of the above behaviour if I walk him with an older mature dog who he knows…

Has anyone else had their boy react like this? What am I not doing right? How can I help him feel confident?

Thanks in advance from an exasperated and confused owner!
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
Hi everyone - recently found and joined this community and this is my first post!

I have an 8 month old male Boerboel who is very unsure and anxious on his walks. I have socialised him heavily since he was vaccinated (you name it, we’ve done it!) but on his walks his hackles are often raised and he’s always scanning his environment with “unsure” body language. I don’t understand why he does this due to the heavy socialisation I have done with him, and still do with him. He tends to relax at the end of his walks quite a lot, but for the first half he’s in unsure mode.

He’s also unsure around other dogs - his hackles raise but he’s also excited to greet other dogs. It’s like he’s super excited to say hello but equally unsure as to how they will react to him. Again, I’ve socialised him with other dogs so I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. He’s never shown an ounce of aggression, it’s always excitement/unsure. He’s never gotten into a fight although some dogs have charged and barked at him. Could it be this?

I do not think this is a fear phase because this behaviour has extended beyond a typical fear phase now. He also displays much less of the above behaviour if I walk him with an older mature dog who he knows…

Has anyone else had their boy react like this? What am I not doing right? How can I help him feel confident?

Thanks in advance from an exasperated and confused owner!
Welcome to the forum. And the wonderful world of mastiffs.
Iv not had any interaction with boerboels but have 4 ccs.
Our youngest as just turned 8 months old, hes doing very similar to your boy.
It is defo a fear phase with mac, and i think it is with your boy as well.
It is important how you are to get him past this stage, you need to be confident how you feel travels down the lead to him, walk where there is other dogs, when he starts to react you need to get is attention from the other dog and on to you, either with something that makes a noise like a squeaker or food but never give him a reward until hes totally calm and focussed on you, at the start we got mac to sit, focus on us then ehen calm we walked on, slow approach to dogs is best it can twke a while but he needs to be cslm when he meets them.
Yes it will help walking with another dog but not all the time, he needs to build his own confidence.
You have done all the right things, its just another phase to get through.
 

LOKI-EFC

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone - recently found and joined this community and this is my first post!

I have an 8 month old male Boerboel who is very unsure and anxious on his walks. I have socialised him heavily since he was vaccinated (you name it, we’ve done it!) but on his walks his hackles are often raised and he’s always scanning his environment with “unsure” body language. I don’t understand why he does this due to the heavy socialisation I have done with him, and still do with him. He tends to relax at the end of his walks quite a lot, but for the first half he’s in unsure mode.

He’s also unsure around other dogs - his hackles raise but he’s also excited to greet other dogs. It’s like he’s super excited to say hello but equally unsure as to how they will react to him. Again, I’ve socialised him with other dogs so I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. He’s never shown an ounce of aggression, it’s always excitement/unsure. He’s never gotten into a fight although some dogs have charged and barked at him. Could it be this?

I do not think this is a fear phase because this behaviour has extended beyond a typical fear phase now. He also displays much less of the above behaviour if I walk him with an older mature dog who he knows…

Has anyone else had their boy react like this? What am I not doing right? How can I help him feel confident?

Thanks in advance from an exasperated and confused owner!
A boerboel being a boerboel, people get breeds bred to be highly suspicious of strangers and their environment and then wonder what's going on when their dog acts highly suspicious of strangers and the environment. It also sounds like you have been socialising wrong, most people fall trap to this mistake, when socialising a dog they should be around the presence of people and dogs but not interact with them. You want to teach the dog to be neutral to the environment and people and dogs around him, do not let him meet and greet other dogs and people there is absolutely no need in it. How sociable your dog is with people and other dogs is based largely on genetics and forcing a genetically highly suspicious dogs to interact and greet other dogs/people is a recipe for disaster which will likely lead to your dog becoming reactive.
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
A boerboel being a boerboel, people get breeds bred to be highly suspicious of strangers and their environment and then wonder what's going on when their dog acts highly suspicious of strangers and the environment. It also sounds like you have been socialising wrong, most people fall trap to this mistake, when socialising a dog they should be around the presence of people and dogs but not interact with them. You want to teach the dog to be neutral to the environment and people and dogs around him, do not let him meet and greet other dogs and people there is absolutely no need in it. How sociable your dog is with people and other dogs is based largely on genetics and forcing a genetically highly suspicious dogs to interact and greet other dogs/people is a recipe for disaster which will likely lead to your dog becoming reactive.
I agree with what you are aaying to a degree, weve had 4 ccs, i think its the owners responsibility to show the pup how to act with people and dogs approaching, then you can read how comfortable your pup is with the situation, one of my ccs was aloof with people and dogs but we got him to be excellent with being close, if people asked to stroke him it was explained he didnt like it and a definate no, but what was put into training was he tolerated it at the vets.the others disnt mind but its not something we force. We train them to ignore, we take them everywhere from a young age.