aggressive english bulldog

[magicbean]

I'm temporarily staying with a friend who's got a dominance aggressive bulldog. She knows she never trained the dog as a puppy, and now it owns the house. You can't sit on the furniture, the dog bites her husband if he goes in the kitchen, it pees in the guest bedroom. Whines like nothing I've ever heard, charges at visitors, bites if you wake her up. It's either we re-program this poor dog, or she's headed for the vet with a one way ride. I have real hope that we can do it though.

I'm taking some advice that we got from a book about re-programming dominant dogs.

I started clicker training the dog, I'm not very familiar with dogs, but I'm the only one the dog listens to right now. We've got sit (sometimes) and come, and "in your crate", but the dog is not consistent about it. She gets over-exicted about the treats and doesn't listen. At which point I ignore her until she's calm again.

Here's what we are doing so far:

The dog doesn't eat until we've eaten and she's behaving calmly.
No toys unless its a reward.
We treat when she's quiet and calm and she otherwise gets no attention, we use attention as a reward for behavior we like.
We have her restricted by a leash to one room of the house where her crate is. She whines and fusses when she's not in the kitchen with us, but we ignore her until she's calm and then she gets a treat.

I think she's only responding for treats, not because she sees that humans are the pack leaders. Should I stop with the treats?

Are we doing the right things? How long does it take to shift a dog's dominance and re-program the pack?

[Sarah]

The thing with bull dogs is they are extremely stubborn.. So you have to be more stubborn then they are. It's almost like you have to be a bull dog too, but better.

It sounds like you are doing the right things. Keep the leash on and use the leash to correct her when she is exhibiting bad behaviour. Any small thing she does correct her. Right now give her no leeway at all. Leaving the leash on also gives you more control.

Yes take away the treats. The only treat she gets is "good girl" when she is good. IF the clicker training is working for you, excellent.

Stay firm with her, but loving and kind, not abusive in any way... Ignoring her is good. I don't really like the idea that you have her separated from you.. This is not healthy unless you are using the separating as a correction for her.. But when she is being good, allow her to be with you.

One thing you didn't mention is walking. Put that leash on her and take her for a very long walk, and do this every day. She will give you trouble but the walk will allow her to bond with YOU quicker.

Keep the hope you have, and don't give up on her. She will change, it may take some time, but it sounds as if she is aggressive because she was spoiled without any boundaries and limitations, it's not inherent within her to be. Understand?

Let us know how its going....

[newbear]

Hi magicbean,
I have some articles here on dominance in dogs. You can have a look at them and tell me how you think about it. Dominance Myths and Dog Training Realities, Dominance and Dog Training,
Dominance and Dog Training
I am so glad that you are trying to clicker train this dog. Well done! You did the right choice by choosing clicker training. I am a clicker trainer too. I would strongly encourage you to have a leash on this dog all day and connect the leash around your waistline so that she is near you all the time and you can click and treat her immediately when she displays the behaviour you desired.

I have some suggestions that may help you and the dog. First, you need to teach the dog to settle at her bed or on a mat. Here is a video on youtube by a fantastic clicker trainer demostrating how to teach a dog to settle on a mat: YouTube - Settle on a mat. Once the dog learnt how to settle on the mat, you can place the mat near any furniture and click and reward her if she settles on it (do not sit on a furniture when you teach the dog to settle on a mat, sit on the floor). Once she is reliably settling on the mat, move a step towards the furniture and click and treat her for not reacting. If she is really comfortable with the distance between you and the furniture, you can move one more step towards the furniture. Same thing. Click and treat her for not reacting. Gradually move more steps towards the furniture until you reach the furniture and sit on it. Click and treat her for not reacting at any steps and remember to let her be comfortable with the earlier step before moving on to the next one. In this way, you will set her up for success and prevent her from reacting. Your goal is to try to prevent her from reacting so that she will learn that she will get the treat if she did not react. At any point of time when the dog reacts, go back a step where she is comfortable with and repeats that step for a few more times before moving on to the next step.

Secondly, ask the dog to sit and wait or let her settle on a mat beside you while you hold her leash and keep a distance between you and the kitchen (it is important for you to hold a loose leash and not a tight one, as dogs are more likely to react when they feel a tension on the tight leash). Ask your friend's husband to stand a distance beside you (this is a safety measure so that the dog cannot bite him even if she goes around you and try to bite him). Click and reward the dog for not reacting. Ask your friend's husband to take a step towards the kitchen and click and treat the dog if she is not reacting. Make sure the dog is comfortable with your friend's husband current position before asking him to take one more step towards the kitchen and click and treat the dog for not reacting. Raise the criteria slowly until your friend's husband can walk into the kitchen and go one round in the kitchen without the dog reacting. You can then let your friend's husband to take the leash. Ask him to stand a short distance away from the kitchen with the dog beside him. Take a step towards the kitchen and let him click and treat the dog if she is not reacting. Make sure the dog is comfortable with this step before asking your friend's husband to take another step towards the kitchen with the dog. Click and treat the dog for not reacting. Raise the criteria slowly until your friend's husband can walk into the kitchen and go one round in the kitchen with the dog without the dog reacting. Click and treat her for not reacting at any steps and remember to let her be comfortable with the earlier step before moving on to the next one. In this way, you will set her up for success and prevent her from reacting. Your goal is to try to prevent her from reacting so that she will learn that she will get the treat if she did not react. At any point of time when the dog reacts, go back a step where she is comfortable with and repeats that step for a few more times before moving on to the next step. From now on, let your friend's husband be in charge of feeding the dog in the kitchen and play with the dog in the kitchen so that the dog will build a positive association between your friend's husband presence in the kitchen with good things happening.

Thirdly, as you put a leash on the dog all day, it is easier for you to take notice of what the dog is doing. She pees in the guest bedroom is because her house training is still not reliable yet. Take special notice of the dog especially after meal times when you bring her to the guest bedroom if that is the only place she always do her business in. Once she starts circling or sniffing around to show that she is going to do her business, bring her to the spot you choose to be her potty spot and wait for her to do her business before you click and give her a jackpot of treats and praise her excitedly so that she will more likely repeat this behaviour that you desired.

You did a great job by giving her treats when she's quiet and calm and she gets no attention when she is whining, it is also a good idea to use attention as a reward for behaviour we like. Besides that, you may like to find out the reason why the dog is whining. She will most likely have a reason for whining. In order to effectively tackle the problem of whining, you must find out why she is whining before you finds solutions to this problem. It will be a better idea if you put the dog in her crate instead of restricting her on a leash and put a kong toy in the crate so that the dog enjoys being in the crate and view the experience as a positive and rewarding one and this will also help to reduce and eliminate her whining and fussing in the crate.

If you do not wish the dog to charge up at visitors, you can train her to go to her crate when the doorbell rings. Here is a video by an amazing clicker trainer on how you teach your dog to do that: YouTube - How to prevent barking at the Doorbell: Training for dogs: My Award Winning APDT Video 2010. You can also teach the dog to greet visitors with all four paws on the ground instead of jumping up. Here is a video on how to teach the dog to do that: YouTube - How to stop Jumping up!- clicker dog training

Do not touch the dog when she is sleeping to wake her up. She will bite you when you wake her up by touching her when she is sleeping because she is frightened and surprised by your sudden touch. If you want to wake her up when she is sleeping, whistle a soft tune until she wakes up before you touch her. It is best not to wake her up too if you do not have any urgent reasons to do that as the dog will not like you waking her up when she is sleeping and it will destroy the relationship between both of you.

Try to exercise her before you train her so that she will not be over-excited when she sees the treats. Try practising the commands like sit, come and in your crate which she is not so consistent with so that she will be more consistent with the tricks. Remember, practice makes perfect. If you do not want the dog to do tricks because of the treats, you can wean off the treats slowly. You can ask her to do a few tricks before you give her the treats or you can make the treats a surprise for her giving her sometimes when she does a trick and do not give her sometimes when she does the trick. Make sure that she is reliable and consistent with doing the trick before you wean off the treats and also make sure you have other reinforcements for her doing the trick like praising her excitedly and lavishly or play a game with her so that she will do the trick without treats next time. You can also use real life rewards instead of tricks using the premack principle. This means you ask her to do something that she doesn't like and does not want to do first before you let her have something she wants or like to do. For example, you can ask her to come and sit before you put the leash on her and take her for a walk. After you have a reliable recall with her, try asking her to come when she is sniffing the ground. Give her a belly rub or pet her at any spots she love most and praise her excitedly and lavishly and at last, release her to go back to the spot she wants to sniff. In this way, she will learn to come to you even if she is distracted without treats as coming to you earns her three rewards, a pet or a belly rub from you, your praise and lastly, the biggest reward of all, to get back to sniff the scent that she is interested in. Lastly, get your friend to train the dog tricks with high-value rewards like her favourite treats at first so that the dog will listen to her commands too instead of yours only. You can also let her try training the dog with the above solutions so that the dog knows that she should be listening to your friend too. You can let your friend wean off the treats when the dog is listening to her consistently.

Bulldogs are lovely and smart dogs. From what you have written, I can see that you are a great trainer too as the dog listens to you. Hence, I am sure that she will be a dog that everyone loves after she has been trained in a short time if you set her up for success. Keep us posted of how she is doing and feel free to ask me any questions when you are in doubt. Wish you good luck and success in training this dog!

[Deaf Dogs]

Hi magicbean,
I have some articles here on dominance in dogs. You can have a look at them and tell me how you think about it. Dominance Myths and Dog Training Realities, Dominance and Dog Training,
Dominance and Dog Training
I am so glad that you are trying to clicker train this dog. Well done! You did the right choice by choosing clicker training. I am a clicker trainer too. I would strongly encourage you to have a leash on this dog all day and connect the leash around your waistline so that she is near you all the time and you can click and treat her immediately when she displays the behaviour you desired.

I have some suggestions that may help you and the dog. First, you need to teach the dog to settle at her bed or on a mat. Here is a video on youtube by a fantastic clicker trainer demostrating how to teach a dog to settle on a mat: YouTube - Settle on a mat. Once the dog learnt how to settle on the mat, you can place the mat near any furniture and click and reward her if she settles on it (do not sit on a furniture when you teach the dog to settle on a mat, sit on the floor). Once she is reliably settling on the mat, move a step towards the furniture and click and treat her for not reacting. If she is really comfortable with the distance between you and the furniture, you can move one more step towards the furniture. Same thing. Click and treat her for not reacting. Gradually move more steps towards the furniture until you reach the furniture and sit on it. Click and treat her for not reacting at any steps and remember to let her be comfortable with the earlier step before moving on to the next one. In this way, you will set her up for success and prevent her from reacting. Your goal is to try to prevent her from reacting so that she will learn that she will get the treat if she did not react. At any point of time when the dog reacts, go back a step where she is comfortable with and repeats that step for a few more times before moving on to the next step.

GREAT POST! I wanted to add a couple of things here. As you are a new dog person, it may be a good idea to read these books "Reaching the Animal Mind" by Karen Pryor, and "Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog" by Emma Parsons It would be a good idea for the owners of the dog to read them as well.

As to what I highlighted, I want to add something to that as well. Keeping the dog under threshold (not reacting) is very important. When she reacts, all she is doing is practising the bad behaviour. If you never let her practise the bad behaviour, and give her good behaviour to practise, she will be well on her way to being a good canine citizen. Correcting bad behaviour is a constant struggle, you will always have to correct it, as she is practising it before the correction, and even corrections are attention, even when negative. The worst correction I give my fear aggressive dog is an "ahh" then ask for something (sit, down, back, paw.... whatever).

My new dog, that people who believe in the dominance theory would consider dominant, never gets corrected. He was pretty much exhibiting the same behaviours as the bulldog, but he is a mini Dachshund, so not a threat, just bad manners... He was a MAJOR resource guarder, whined for everything, toileted in the house, bit strangers, barked when demanding something.... he was a pain.

I've had him 6 weeks, he is almost totally cured. He no longer attacks people for going near his food, he no longer attacks people for coming near me, he no longer attacks people for getting near the couch, and no longer growls when I put him off my lap. How I did this? CLICKER TRAINING... yes, he's deaf, but I use a LED click light instead. I hand fed him, one piece at a time, making him sit for each piece (eventually I added lay down, target my hand, put his feet up on a book) he went without 3 meals before he finally realized he wouldn't get what he wanted without giving me what I want. He was on a leash attached to me for the first couple of weeks, and wasn't allowed on the bed or furniture, tho he has free reign now, as long as he sits first. He is responding very well to clicker training and quite happily works for his food now. I can feed him out of a dish now, with my hand in the dish. I never take food away from a dog, once given, and he's learned to be comfortable with me. I can hold a bone in my hand while he's eating it, tho again, I wont actually take it away.

6 weeks later, I have a good little dog, who no longer shows any sign of aggression, by giving him clear rules, and by kind, non corrective based training, and ignoring I have a great little canine citizen... BTW, Boo is 6.5 years old, and has (as I have a partial history) been practising his bad behaviour for at least the 2 years he lived with the retired couple, most likely longer.

[magicbean]

holy cow, what a huge lot of help. I'm very grateful. i immediately re-instituted walks, her owners had stopped taking her out, and tiring her out made an immediate improvement. she gets pooped out pretty easily, so more short walks seems better than one long one, at least for now. She's apparently always been "unpredictable" but it has gotten worse and that seems to have compounded the problem - her owners didn't take her out because of misbehaving, and then she gets lonely and bored which makes her misbehave even more. and so on.

yes, she is stubborn! but she seems to be responding to me OK. I am a liittle concerned that even if I spend the next month intensively working on things, when I leave, the family won't have made the changes they should make to keep her happy and behaving. but first things first, see if I can make some real positive changes.

I'm reading over through all your responses....thanks again for the courtesy of strangers, both the dog and the family here appreciate your time and effort.

[magicbean]

newbear, that mat video was very helpful - "stay" is a really, really hard command for her. she is also a heavy starer when she knows there's a treat in my pocket or hand. You have given me a lot of incredibly helpful stuff in there. I will give it all a go and let you know how it goes in a few days.

Deaf dogs, thanks so much for the encouragement! i can tell she's a sweetie underneath the exterior, and your story gives me that extra bit of hope that we'll get her there. Great tale.

I can already see that clickers and positive reinforcement for small steps in the right direction (I think that is sort of what Karen Pryor calls shaping??) makes things better faster. As long as she's doing *something* close to right, she gets rewarded. And then she just wants to do more of the right thing, it's like the positive reward makes you the pack leader because you're just fun to please.

Very interesting about the leash idea, and not letting her out of your range, but still being in control...is that "umbilical training"? She doesn't like to be on her own, I wonder if that's why she whines so much when we are in the kitchen without her. She doesn't want to be left out.

Thanks again for all your help, I feel like I'm having to learn this all awfully fast! In a way, I'm lucky and she's lucky because my days are free enough that I can space 10 minute training sessions through out the day, so we can work without her getting overloaded and tired.

[magicbean]

Thanks again everyone. Brief updates:

The good news!

- no more pulling! she can't got for long walks because it throws her hips out, but she doesn't pull. She far prefers wrestling in the driveway to a long walk.
- whining is minimal and short-lived.
- she's nearly 100 percent consistent about sit and we're working on down and stay and she will even let me rub her belly which she won't let anyone else do.l So she trusts me and that's huge progress for someone who isn't a real trainer (me). she may not have learned much, but I sure have. You really have to reward fast and frequent and be really, really, really clear about what it is you expect. Otherwise she just gets confused and tries any trick she knows to get the "great doggie" reward. And she is stubborn, like a bulldog should be, so you just keep at it until she gives over and just figures it out.

The bad news:

I left for two days and no one walked her and she attacked the husband again. She's still really possessive of things that she perceives as "hers", like the broom and garbage can and the couch...but not with *me*.

So as long as I'm here, the DOG is trainable. The FAMILY may not be. They claim to love her, but aren't really investing in her needs. And i am leaving in two more weeks.

I'm just hoping that as they see that how I am with her is successful, maybe they will get the idea and at least try with her.

[newbear]

These are wonderful news! You are doing so well! I am so glad that you learnt a lot from dog training. You can put her in the crate with a Kong toy (a Kong toy is a toy that looks somewhat like a cone shape with a hole in it) and stuff it with the goodies she love like her favorite treats with lots of peanut butter and she will be busy licking off the peanut butter and the treats so that she will enjoy the crate and loves to stay in it and she will not whine too. Do you use a clicker to train her? If you have, you will not need to worry about her getting confused and try any tricks to get the reward. This is because the clicker acts like a camera and captures the behavior the moment you click and tell the dog that the particular behavior she is offering when you click is a behavior that you desired. For example, when you ask the dog to sit, she sits and you click. However, she stand after you click and you have not given her the rewards. You can still give her the rewards when she stand as you have clicked when she sit and she will understand that she gets the rewards for the sit that she offered just now and she is not rewarded for standing. That is the advantage of using a clicker. However, you must click at the precise moment when she does the behavior if you use a clicker. If you click a little later and she does another behavior, she will learn that the second behavior is the one you desired and she will then repeat that behavior to get her rewards. Keep it up with your training. You are fantastic as the dog improved so much after you trained her. I can see that the dog really trusts you as she will let you share the same couch with her, let you rub her belly and so on. If the dog doesn't trusts you enough, she will not let you do all those things. In dog training, it is important to gain the dog's trust as you will find it easier to train her once there is a mutual trust between both of you.

If the family have no time to exercise the dog, they may consider bringing the dog to a doggy daycare where the dog can play with other dogs to exercise. However, it is still important that the family will train her as exercise only will not solve all the problems that the dog have. It will reduce or solve the problem of her whining and pulling but it will not solve problems like the dog attacking the husband and the possessive issues that she have.

Hope that the you will be able to convince the family to train their dog through your successful examples. Good luck to you! Keep us updated for any new improvements you have done with the dog like teaching her "down" and "stay" successfully. You can train the dog to do some easy fun tricks like teaching her to scratch your back or shut a door and show the family that teaching a dog is not wasting of time or boring. It can be useful and fun at times too. Hopefully, through the fun tricks that you teach the dog, you will get the family interested in dog training.

Here are the two videos on the two parts on how to teach a dog to shut a door (you can teach the dog to shut a cabinet too using the same method):
YouTube - Dog Training: Teach Your Dog to Shut Doors Part 1 Clicker(part 1)
YouTube - Part 2 of Train Your Dog to Shut Doors using Targeting & the Clicker(part 2)

Here is a video tutorial by me teaching my dog to scratch my back:
YouTube - Tutorial - How to teach your dog to scratch your back

[Deaf Dogs]

I'm so glad things are going well, for the most part Keep up the fantastic work... you dont sound much like a novice to me I do hope that you are able to get the family working with her, though, or all your hard work will be for naught.