Hello! My puppy is 4 months old English Mastiff. He was re-homed so I adopted him when he was about 14 weeks. He used to live in middle of no where (like one house, and just a field everywhere, not many cars, not many outside people or dogs), and I live in downtown, big city.
It's been 2 weeks since he came to me, and it has been okay. He is very scared, but he learned his new name, and a few commands such as "sit" and "crate", not perfectly yet, but we're getting there! I'm also planning to start a private dog training next months as he is too scared to walk outside to the training facility. He's very shy and timid but if he can be very funny and active at home, or with some other dogs.
Anyway, I've been planning to adopt a large breed dog for the last many years, large breed, due to my physical and mental health problem. I've been suffering from chronic autoimmune disease and anxiety disorder along with OCD and BPD. But these have been managed pretty well for the last few years.
However, I still get flare-ups and anxiety attacks here and there. It's been pretty hard even after medications and therapy, and I used to always have someone living with me who can help me with those problems. However, I cannot have someone next to me all the time. But amazingly, my puppy has been helping me a lot, just being there next to me.
Whenever I get anxious, I just sit and hug him and it helps me to calm down. But I wanted to teach him more tricks for whenever I have mobility and anxiety issues. When I get flare-ups, my right arm becomes useless, so I wanted to teach him things like opening the door, carrying items, picking up stuff from the ground, and calms me down when I start get anxiety/panic attack in public, etc.
But I know Mastiff does not like too much exercise or walking. Thankfully, I wouldn't need him to be my "service dog" every day, but more like whenever I have problems occasionally (there are days my problem gets worse, usually between different medications). So that part, I wouldn't worry too much, but I've never really seen many cases with Mastiff being a service dog. Also, I was told Mastiff can be very stubborn, so I wonder if he would be really able to help when needed?
In general, I love training with him. It also makes me more confident and happy. So no matter what, if he can do the service tasks or not, I'm planning to take CGC exams and Public Access Test, etc. I know it takes years to train different task, but do you think English Mastiff can be a good service dog?
- He is smart, I potty trained him in one day, and taught him "go to crate" in 2 days, and "sit" in 2 days. He reads my feelings very well. For example, he accidentally peed next to the potty pads (well technically his foot was on the pads lol), and I didn't praise him. Then he saw me not prasing him, and he literally went back to pad and squeeze his pee and looked at me like "Hey am i a good boy now?!" which i found it so funny.
- Also, he tried play-biting and humping me, and I told him "no" and walked away, and after that, he tried to control his urge to bite and hump! I could tell he was struggling to not bite me, which I thought it was so thoughtful and smart of him.
Anyway, I love him so much, and I'm so thankful he came to my life. My health has been already improving so much
It's been 2 weeks since he came to me, and it has been okay. He is very scared, but he learned his new name, and a few commands such as "sit" and "crate", not perfectly yet, but we're getting there! I'm also planning to start a private dog training next months as he is too scared to walk outside to the training facility. He's very shy and timid but if he can be very funny and active at home, or with some other dogs.
Anyway, I've been planning to adopt a large breed dog for the last many years, large breed, due to my physical and mental health problem. I've been suffering from chronic autoimmune disease and anxiety disorder along with OCD and BPD. But these have been managed pretty well for the last few years.
However, I still get flare-ups and anxiety attacks here and there. It's been pretty hard even after medications and therapy, and I used to always have someone living with me who can help me with those problems. However, I cannot have someone next to me all the time. But amazingly, my puppy has been helping me a lot, just being there next to me.
Whenever I get anxious, I just sit and hug him and it helps me to calm down. But I wanted to teach him more tricks for whenever I have mobility and anxiety issues. When I get flare-ups, my right arm becomes useless, so I wanted to teach him things like opening the door, carrying items, picking up stuff from the ground, and calms me down when I start get anxiety/panic attack in public, etc.
But I know Mastiff does not like too much exercise or walking. Thankfully, I wouldn't need him to be my "service dog" every day, but more like whenever I have problems occasionally (there are days my problem gets worse, usually between different medications). So that part, I wouldn't worry too much, but I've never really seen many cases with Mastiff being a service dog. Also, I was told Mastiff can be very stubborn, so I wonder if he would be really able to help when needed?
In general, I love training with him. It also makes me more confident and happy. So no matter what, if he can do the service tasks or not, I'm planning to take CGC exams and Public Access Test, etc. I know it takes years to train different task, but do you think English Mastiff can be a good service dog?
- He is smart, I potty trained him in one day, and taught him "go to crate" in 2 days, and "sit" in 2 days. He reads my feelings very well. For example, he accidentally peed next to the potty pads (well technically his foot was on the pads lol), and I didn't praise him. Then he saw me not prasing him, and he literally went back to pad and squeeze his pee and looked at me like "Hey am i a good boy now?!" which i found it so funny.
- Also, he tried play-biting and humping me, and I told him "no" and walked away, and after that, he tried to control his urge to bite and hump! I could tell he was struggling to not bite me, which I thought it was so thoughtful and smart of him.
Anyway, I love him so much, and I'm so thankful he came to my life. My health has been already improving so much