[Moved] Hi all, well i do have a few questions and things i would like to get advice on. Posted by Robin Baxter

[Marco]

Moved this post out of the Introduce Yourslef post cause I think it will be seen by more this way.  I Hope you don't mind but it would have been looked over there by most.

 

 

 

  Reply by Robin Baxter 6 hours ago

 

Hi all, well i do have a few questions and things i would like to get advice on.
My boerboel Rory is now 5, almost 6 months old, he is a strong dog and always happy.
I dont know if its cause he is still young and full of energy but he loves barking, growling and biting, i know he is playing cause his tail is always wagging. he also like jumping up on me when we play. i take Rory a walk everyday and play with him for atleast an hour throwing tennis balls around and so on. i think his barking, biting and jumping is just cause he is really excited and young but im worried if people with kids come around he is going to jump, bite and bark at them. also when we go a walk he always wants to run off but after 30min he walks next to me and i feel like i dont even need the leash. is this also just excitement?
I have signed us up for dog training classes which we will be doing every saturday now for an hour, its just behavioural classes and not attach classes.
I think this should help him a bit.
Does anyone else have these problems and what advice would you give me, if you guys think im doing anything wrong please let me know, all advise is welcome. 

 

 

 Reply by Leah 3 hours ago.

 

 

Welcome!  We found that if our boerboel Mabel bit, even playfully, we would YELP....loudly. Then ignore her briefly.  Then go back to play.  She has perfect bite inhibition now.  We also stopped the jumping up because as they grow it is no longer cute.  A firm "no" and turn your back worked for us.  When she stayed on all fours she got lots of love.

 
Hope that helps.  Sounds like you got a real wonderful and confident guy.  Have a blast with him

 

Leah

[Marco]

Hello Robin!  I would definately stop him from jumping up on you.  This is not something you don't want a 100lb plus dog doing.  Not only that it can be a form of dominance over you.  Most likely now its all due to excitement but can lead into other problems.  You can read a quick article on jumping up here.  You also want to control the biting asap.  Direct his biting from you to a favorite toy but don't allow him bite on you or anyone else.  An article on biting and a podcast to listen to can be found here.  As far as the growling it may be play growling, which dogs will do when being playful.  However if he stares at you and gives out a long steady growl, with his body is tense hes not playing around. These are just some behaviors you will want to correct, and I hope some of this info is helpful to you.

 

Video on jumping up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7FT6BGF7EU

[Lee May]

Hi Robin, barking, nipping or even full mouthing and jumping on you are signs, for dominace, or want to be dominance. All should be put to a stop. Ofcourse there are a million ways to train, but BB are a very strong breed, and looking at it through BB's eyes, your lack of disipline tells him you don't want to be in charge so he will. I train with praise, love and corrections. so they learn to respect your word as law. I know it may sound harsh, but thats the dog world, your either king, Queen or Pawn. Good praise from the heart will make your dog/pup want to work for you. Firm NO's will make them respect your voice. But getting to that point requires work and proper training. I would stear clear of pet smart training, because it doesn't work for BB's they are in no way soft. A lot of folks here use treats for training, it works for them. I do not use food/ treats because I like to build that one on one bond. Which will allow you to learn your dog. I would find a god trainer in your area, one used to dominate working breeds and who uses lead training to start. Your dog must first earn freedom from the lead through, work and respect. the other way around will just keep problems going, remember BB's are very smart too. Like Children need boundaries/ training so do BB's even more so. Good luck to you. FYI, once a week is not enough for training 2 to 3 times a week plus home work and you will have a stellar pup/dog and you will learn tons. Average prices for 8 to 10wk. course should run you about $350. US dollars./ with training equiptment, worth every penny. You should be a end test, to make sure you and your dog  understand what your doing. I would look for praise, love correction training class with trainers used to big agressive dogs. So you don't waste your money. Let me know if you need any more help or slight direction. Good Luck and Peace Lee 

[bel ballard]

I'm sure you know more than I do, but I've had a few dogs over the years--this one is different and I am not sure he is a Boerboel because he is too small; he's a dogpound rescue who just integrated instantly to house and family.  Then the next day I found I had a dog who chased cars, went nuts on motorcycles, growled at neighbor men,  crushed cans, and tried to eat the cats!  However he was very housebroken , trained to walk stairs carefully, recognized certain words like dig and water and sit..and he liked the small poodle and neighbor children.

It's been two and a half months..we have conquered most of this now.  I watch The Dog Whisperer daily which helped some, and finding this site gave me tools to read this dogs personality better ( the large prey drive for instance, as well as not exactly wanting to please anyone but himself at first).

I had to show family how not to talk excitedly and not to wave their hands around/ just look kind of relaxed and dull, in order to stop a periodic tendency to want to dominate.  So, if he was tethered a few morning minutes, I could kind of just sideways back into him slowly in orsder to get there while stopping it.

 

I used a rope on his colloar and a slip leash in the other hand the fist week or so, transfering the leash to the rope hand just in case, holding both lightly. By one month, I didn't need the extra reminder leash, even though my sister feeds tame deer that crowd us off the steps as we try to get outside.

Now he is best friends with one of the cats he wanted to eat.  That was a trick.

 It was like a part of the book :The Little Prince [with the fox and the prince]. I kept the dog tied near my feet on a very long lead while holding a cat loosely at the top. Mat on floor watching Tv. Then we went to both on either side of me. Then the cat sleeping as the dog slept, yet within his range, about a foot from his head, etc.Took about three weeks.

But I have to use a leash alot, and I'm not real young..so it is minimal excercise throughout the day for this one.  He usually is quite calm in the house for long periods, lathargic almost.  Right when you think all the heeling and animal chasing, etc. are worked out, he can get this look and suddenly want to play tug of war with the leash..like tonight. He starts snarling and jumping around and shows signs of possibly nipping. ... though this is increasingly more rare as the weeks pass.

I have put him down on his side when he refuses to stop chasing the many deer near us, but when he is in this play state he is just a little too snarly to want to have it out with him.  I put him, this time, on the hammock tie out and went to get  a rawhide toy to throw around, which seemed to work.  Then we resumed the walking.

I know I can lift up , straight up, slightly on the leash- except I keep a very very loose collar on him, so he might get off.   Sometimes I touch 'hard-ish' or play bite in order to stop behaviors... but not when he is in this mode. He knows that "sheeeeesh" sound as no, but just gets too pent up.  We may try swimming this summer.  He's just about 60 lbs.

 

I think  you have to let your pup know that the upper air is your space, maybe. You could even turn your back and refuse to play untill it stops, which may take awhile.

 

I found it helpful with this guy to start implimenting the "me first" rule when going into or out of houses or gates.  he couldn't feel so important or excited this way, so it seemed to communicate something.

 

Good luck with your puppy. He sounds like tons of fun. My old dog died last summer at 17 years..so all I can really tell you is most puppy behaviors slow down at about 2 or 3 years old.  Then you miss that, so enjoy it while it is here. :D

PS I gave him a soda bottle, 2 liter on a walk and he knew words like "get it" and "attack' and "bad" bottle. We've reached a compromise with briefly chewing bottles before they crack and paper towel rolls ( only supervised)..because i can not buy enough chew toys to keep him teething/ he runs through them lightening fast. One has to watch carefully as plastic or paper is very unhealthy, but this one doesn't want to eat them.  Also, we have sublimated the prey drive to bugs! He is very proud of fly catching, moth catching and the like, lol.  So instead of just Mr. Dog all the time , he may be named Raid [Kills Bugs Dead] now.

[bel ballard]

I tried yelping & he didn't even listen.  Maybe I need yelp training lol. Then next night my dog started that horsing around ...again.  This time I tried something a wolf behavioralist on the tube did: grabbed him up by his collar, peered into his eyes intently, and growled. It worked.  I've only had to repeat this once, and no more problem

 

I already knew this dog was bonding and would not try to bite if I took both hands to his collar though. He had a tendency to want to engage humans in dog play while threatening to possibly nip at the time I brought him home from a shelter.  I don't play on that level , but had some dogs I kind of wrestled with when I was younger and knew them better. All I want now is to be able to start a walk when my dog has been in the house for too long during this heat wave. I can walk out the door with no problems, yet sometimes I tie him out for 10 to 15 minutes in order to do something else first or allow his ablutions (ha).  So, I realy needed to get it across to him that I didn't want him jumping up or trying to play fight...because it delays the walk.  Was glad to find out how to raise him slightly off the ground, stare intently, and verbalize displeasure.