What I have learned (so far) about my crazy OCD EB!

Momma2Bullies

New member
Aug 2, 2012
356
26
Canada
Bulldog(s) Names
Layla and Wilbur
Ok. So Wilbur is special. We have no idea why he is so vastly different from Layla (they are littermates, both 2 years old now). They have been exposed to the exact same things at the same time, and yet they are so unique in their reactions! Layla is the 'brave' and 'inquisitive' one. She is fearless. She approaches anyone and anything new with curiosity and a sweet wiggle bum-bum. She gets in trouble a lot; she is h*ll-bent on escaping under our fence!

Wilbur however is different. He is a special boy. He is like my cats from yester-year: when there is a new decor item (like a basket or barstool), it needs to be run away from and then barked at for hours. Then Mommy has to touch it and demonstrate that it is in fact an inanimate object so that he will approach (Layla has, in the meantime, basically laid all over it). If there is a new magnet on the fridge, he notices immediately and freaks out. He hides, cowers, then attacks, then backs away, then runs, then attacks. For. Hours. And. Hours. Days.

Some of you know about my issues with Wilbur and Layla having some "tiffs' of late - we are working on that. But this is in a whole other category. I (yes, me... Mommy has created a monster) used to hug and soothe him, baby talk him, and tell him everything was ok with the new DVD on the kitchen counter. BIG mistake. HUGE. I see that now this was just rewarding his behaviour. So I switched and firmly NO! SIT! BAD! NO NO NO! WILBUR! NO!and so on. This only made him freak even more, and the whole episode would escalate until he was panting and exhausted and I was practically crying. (Layla is usually rolling her eyes from her spot on the couch).

Now, I have just been...ignoring....the whole thing. No matter what - fireworks, thunder, the fridge beeping because it was accidentally open a crack, someone hammering a nail in Omaha....Wilbur flips out and runs around like it is the Apocalypse. I continue doing what I am doing - and I don't react at all. I don't tell him it is ok, and I don't tell him no. I just keep on keepin' on, and usually (fake) yawn or something to show that I am totally relaxed. AND HE JUST GOES AND LAYS DOWN!!! Have I won? Is this hubris to even post about this? Am I tempting the Gods?

If I just don't react at all, does he think "oh. ok. I will stand down then'?????

Victory??!?!
 

Rural mystic

New member
Jan 1, 2013
1,600
105
North Florida
Country
United States
Bulldog(s) Names
Ace
Seems like he was taking some of his cues from you. If he made a fuss and you act as if you don't care then it must be ok and he won't mind. Hopefully you got a breakthrough and the light is being turned on with him. Dogs take cues from people, our emotions, our body language, the tone of our voice and etc. that often we are not aware of ourselves. Dogs like no other animal has evolved with human beings and so our cues are hardwired so to speak in dogs. I read some time back that the estimate now is that dogs have been in a synergistic relationship with humans for approximately 33,000 years. So out of necessity they have evolved to pick up on these cues
 

linwhite

New member
Sep 24, 2012
605
26
Tallahassee, FL
Bulldog(s) Names
Guido Zamboni - EB, Zoltan - Shortybull, Zeva - Frenchie
You did say they were 2 year olds. It sound like he's acting like one.
 

Casper

Well-known member
Apr 28, 2013
1,716
215
Slidell, Louisiana, United States
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
"The Stallone Bros"
(Layla is usually rolling her eyes from her spot on the couch).Now, I have just been...ignoring....the whole thing. No matter what - fireworks, thunder, the fridge beeping because it was accidentally open a crack, someone hammering a nail in Omaha....Wilbur flips out and runs around like it is the Apocalypse. I continue doing what I am doing - and I don't react at all. I don't tell him it is ok, and I don't tell him no. I just keep on keepin' on, and usually (fake) yawn or something to show that I am totally relaxed. AND HE JUST GOES AND LAYS DOWN!!! Have I won? Is this hubris to even post about this? Am I tempting the Gods? If I just don't react at all, does he think "oh. ok. I will stand down then'?????Victory??!?![/SIZE][/SIZE]
ROFLMAO...... and y'all think i'm funny !!!!! wheeeew, I'd say victory, get you a chalk board, and chalk that 1 up for Human, I'm sure you'll loose plenty other battles in the future..... I think parenting a Bully reflects on how each of you finish the race, I'm thinking one foot on a bananna peel and the other on a razor blade, and both sliding into home plate sideways..... Let the race commence......
 

Bossy Boots

New member
Feb 5, 2012
51
2
Melbourne
Country
Australia
Bulldog(s) Names
Boss
Well I hope that you taking no notice of his behaviour helps.Seems as if your doing all that you can.But OCD is a major illness for humans and animals.Does your vet know anything to help?
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
Staff member
Community Veteran
Jul 28, 2011
48,581
3,673
Gilbertsville, PA
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Chelios (Frenchie), Nitschke (2004-2011) Banks (2005-2014) and Lambeau (2014-2024)
[MENTION=900]KMARINO[/MENTION] and [MENTION=572]Libra926[/MENTION] can help with OCD. Both the Vegas boys have some issue with OCD....... my two have/had issues, but very minor to what you are going through. Nitshcke would :poo; if we moved furniture, but he was over it after that... Banks would just pout in a corner or bark for about an hour then go off to something else.
 

Jennifer Clark

I can handle the whiskey, if you can handle the nu
Community Veteran
Apr 16, 2013
2,872
117
Searcy, Arkansas
Country
United States
Bulldog(s) Names
Sheldon A.K.A Shelly Bean (06-12-19); Duecy (9-13-14); Maddie (4-16-19)
Ok. So Wilbur is special. We have no idea why he is so vastly different from Layla (they are littermates, both 2 years old now). They have been exposed to the exact same things at the same time, and yet they are so unique in their reactions! Layla is the 'brave' and 'inquisitive' one. She is fearless. She approaches anyone and anything new with curiosity and a sweet wiggle bum-bum. She gets in trouble a lot; she is h*ll-bent on escaping under our fence!

Wilbur however is different. He is a special boy. He is like my cats from yester-year: when there is a new decor item (like a basket or barstool), it needs to be run away from and then barked at for hours. Then Mommy has to touch it and demonstrate that it is in fact an inanimate object so that he will approach (Layla has, in the meantime, basically laid all over it). If there is a new magnet on the fridge, he notices immediately and freaks out. He hides, cowers, then attacks, then backs away, then runs, then attacks. For. Hours. And. Hours. Days.

Some of you know about my issues with Wilbur and Layla having some "tiffs' of late - we are working on that. But this is in a whole other category. I (yes, me... Mommy has created a monster) used to hug and soothe him, baby talk him, and tell him everything was ok with the new DVD on the kitchen counter. BIG mistake. HUGE. I see that now this was just rewarding his behaviour. So I switched and firmly NO! SIT! BAD! NO NO NO! WILBUR! NO!and so on. This only made him freak even more, and the whole episode would escalate until he was panting and exhausted and I was practically crying. (Layla is usually rolling her eyes from her spot on the couch).

Now, I have just been...ignoring....the whole thing. No matter what - fireworks, thunder, the fridge beeping because it was accidentally open a crack, someone hammering a nail in Omaha....Wilbur flips out and runs around like it is the Apocalypse. I continue doing what I am doing - and I don't react at all. I don't tell him it is ok, and I don't tell him no. I just keep on keepin' on, and usually (fake) yawn or something to show that I am totally relaxed. AND HE JUST GOES AND LAYS DOWN!!! Have I won? Is this hubris to even post about this? Am I tempting the Gods?

If I just don't react at all, does he think "oh. ok. I will stand down then'?????

Victory??!?!

We redid our kitchen and Sheldon stood in the kitchen and barked and growled at the wall where the cabinets and sink use to be he doesn't bark at the wall now but he stands in the hallway and barks and growls at nothing and sometimes does it in the laundry room. I usually stand next to him hunker down and talk calmly to him and ask him what he is trying to scare he usually stands in front of me like the shadow of the book case is going to attack me, but it should also be noted that we live in the house my father in law passed away in and I have seen shadows in the same hallway when no one could have possibly made the shadow because of the location.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 

Vicaroo1000

"Slug Assassin" and PBS Gardening Dweeb
Jun 23, 2011
5,775
389
Mukilteo, Washington State
Bulldog(s) Names
Beefeater's Buxom Beatrice and Lord Harrington's Bodacious Beauregaard
Bea has developed a new behavior in the last couple of months. We are calmly watching TV - me laying on the couch, Bo on the couch between my feet, Bea on her stinky blanket (which isn't stinky by the way) at the end where my head (and scratching hands) are. Something will come on the TV -- usually squiggly lines or something racing? - and she will LEAP off that blanket and BOLT toward the TV and bark at it. It's super annoying. SUPER ANNOYING because she will do it -- literally - four or five times during a two hour show! Bo, for his part, just lays there and watches her do this. At first, I disagreed with the behavior by yelling, "Hey! Knock it off!" and -- what a surprise - that did nothing to abate the behavior and in fact, probably encouraged it. I'm trying to look at this thing from the point of my dog; "I'm laying here being good and bark at the TV and then I get all this attention!" Maybe that's it? I don't know. I haven't figured it out exactly yet...the WHY she's doing it. If dog's are instinctual, is she protecting us from the racing thing on the TV? That sounds silly. And it wasn't working anyway. Next!

My new modus operandi is "claiming the TV". That means, I have to get up off my lazy butt -- which is why I didn't do this in the first place ---LOL. This is going to take some diligence and repetition -- calm and quiet. Less sound the better. I'll keep you posted on progress....LOL If this doesn't work, then I must resort to negative conditioning -- squirt gun -- and that's not the way I wanna go. I'd rather approach this behavior modification from a leadership perspective.

We shall see.

We're a work in progress!
 

Noyes27

New member
Sep 27, 2012
420
12
Bulldog(s) Names
Mack
Bea has developed a new behavior in the last couple of months. We are calmly watching TV - me laying on the couch, Bo on the couch between my feet, Bea on her stinky blanket (which isn't stinky by the way) at the end where my head (and scratching hands) are. Something will come on the TV -- usually squiggly lines or something racing? - and she will LEAP off that blanket and BOLT toward the TV and bark at it. It's super annoying. SUPER ANNOYING because she will do it -- literally - four or five times during a two hour show! Bo, for his part, just lays there and watches her do this. At first, I disagreed with the behavior by yelling, "Hey! Knock it off!" and -- what a surprise - that did nothing to abate the behavior and in fact, probably encouraged it. I'm trying to look at this thing from the point of my dog; "I'm laying here being good and bark at the TV and then I get all this attention!" Maybe that's it? I don't know. I haven't figured it out exactly yet...the WHY she's doing it. If dog's are instinctual, is she protecting us from the racing thing on the TV? That sounds silly. And it wasn't working anyway. Next!

My new modus operandi is "claiming the TV". That means, I have to get up off my lazy butt -- which is why I didn't do this in the first place ---LOL. This is going to take some diligence and repetition -- calm and quiet. Less sound the better. I'll keep you posted on progress....LOL If this doesn't work, then I must resort to negative conditioning -- squirt gun -- and that's not the way I wanna go. I'd rather approach this behavior modification from a leadership perspective.

We shall see.

We're a work in progress!

Hey sometimes squirt bottle negative conditioning is all that it takes. When we first brought Maya (pitbull puppy) home, Mack was obsessed with trying to hump her even though he is neutered. Then we bought a squirt bottle from the dollar store and realized he HATES it. Every once in while when they play too hard Mack still wants to hump Maya and I just say alright im getting the water bottle and he will stop trying to hump her and go back to playing...

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
 

Vicaroo1000

"Slug Assassin" and PBS Gardening Dweeb
Jun 23, 2011
5,775
389
Mukilteo, Washington State
Bulldog(s) Names
Beefeater's Buxom Beatrice and Lord Harrington's Bodacious Beauregaard
Hey sometimes squirt bottle negative conditioning is all that it takes. When we first brought Maya (pitbull puppy) home, Mack was obsessed with trying to hump her even though he is neutered. Then we bought a squirt bottle from the dollar store and realized he HATES it. Every once in while when they play too hard Mack still wants to hump Maya and I just say alright im getting the water bottle and he will stop trying to hump her and go back to playing...

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Indeed. I also used the same technique when Mr. Bo would start to play too rough with Bea. The squirt bottle really does work well for both "marking" a behavior AND modification -- providing they don't like it. Some dogs LOVE the squirt bottle! hahahahahahaha Then what do you do, right?

I'm going to try "owning" the TV first. That doesn't mean I won't get lazy and just revert "back to the jug". LOL I gotta at least TRY! And just think, if this works, it will be yet another leadership ritual under my belt with these dogs (Bo will learn from watching) and I'll have just elevated my high place in the pack even HIGHER!
 

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