Moving on to a training collar.

[Biscuitsmom]

I know a lot of you probably won't agree but I don't know what else to do. My almost 11 month old Bulldog keeps starting fights with my other dogs and it gets bad. This Tuesday she and my older girl dog got into it so bad and I couldn't split them up. They were moving towards my toddler so I grabbed her right away and then finally got them apart. My pup had a nick on her face and my pit had a hurt leg (luckily just a stinger). Then last night she jumped on my VERY scared and submissive mix and because he was yelping my other boy dog jumped in and they ambushed him . He ended up with a nick on his ear.

I'm scared that any of the dogs are going to end up seriously hurt but more importantly my kids! I'm ordering a shock/vibrate collar today in hopes I can get her under control. She is amazing with my kids but she is wild. She chases my cat and picks on my other dogs. I don't want to have to re-home her

If you have advice please help me. After having two "aggressive" breeds with no issues I NEVER expected this out of my Bulldog.

 

[2BullyMama]

Female bulldogs can be real buggers... some are very dominate and can not co-exist with other females. Banks was like this and we used a vibration/shock collar with her. She was a 9 yr train session... we could not let up I centimeter or she would take those 10 miles.

The collar is a good tool, but you have to know how to use, please make sure you get a trainer to help you --- timing is EVERYTHING, I can not stress that enough. When to vibrate or shock makes the difference of it preventing or causing more problems. Example, if you vibrate/shock her when she is 'fighting' or engage with one of the other pups, she may relate it to them and not the collar. You have to ping her BEFORE she engages... learning her tiggers and body language is totally the key, if you do not know those things, the collar might not work.

The collar for us was a last resort, but we did not have children in the home.... we did almost a full year of training before we relented to the collar. We used it with Banks from the time she was 2 yrs old till she past. After a few years, all we had to do was place the collar on her, it was not even active, she just knew... 'crap, they are on to me... and she stayed in line'

Ask away.... more than happy to help you. But, PLEASE bring a trainer in to help you learn to use it, if you have already decided to do so

 

[Biscuitsmom]

Female bulldogs can be real buggers... some are very dominate and can not co-exist with other females. Banks was like this and we used a vibration/shock collar with her. She was a 9 yr train session... we could not let up I centimeter or she would take those 10 miles.

The collar is a good tool, but you have to know how to use, please make sure you get a trainer to help you --- timing is EVERYTHING, I can not stress that enough. When to vibrate or shock makes the difference of it preventing or causing more problems. Example, if you vibrate/shock her when she is 'fighting' or engage with one of the other pups, she may relate it to them and not the collar. You have to ping her BEFORE she engages... learning her tiggers and body language is totally the key, if you do not know those things, the collar might not work.

The collar for us was a last resort, but we did not have children in the home.... we did almost a full year of training before we relented to the collar. We used it with Banks from the time she was 2 yrs old till she past. After a few years, all we had to do was place the collar on her, it was not even active, she just knew... 'crap, they are on to me... and she stayed in line'

Ask away.... more than happy to help you. But, PLEASE bring a trainer in to help you learn to use it, if you have already decided to do so

Thank you for the advice! I have been looking up trainers today actually but haven't picked one yet. I can see her signs easily in the house because she gets all in their face and tries to bite their necks. Usually they ignore her but if not then a fight ensues. We were doing SO well for a few weeks, I was stopping it early and making sure she knew I was boss. I will not use the collar except to re-gain her attention to me. Also to get her to stop chasing the poor cat!

She is such a good girl most of the time and very responsive but my 2 girls are both stubborn and want to be top dog. I'm really confused about the other fight unless I was wrong and my other dog started it and she jumped in but my mutt never starts anything. He is bottom of the pecking order and just lies down. He was abused as a puppy and has never got over it and still fears us even after 6 years. I felt so bad for him. For now I'm just keeping her on a leash if they are both in the house at the same time, and food is a major trigger so making sure they are not together when I give my kids snacks. My toddler loves to feed them and I don't want a fight to start around her. They are so gentle with the kids though so that's a good thing.

 

[2BullyMama]

Thank you for the advice! I have been looking up trainers today actually but haven't picked one yet. I can see her signs easily in the house because she gets all in their face and tries to bite their necks. Usually they ignore her but if not then a fight ensues. We were doing SO well for a few weeks, I was stopping it early and making sure she knew I was boss. I will not use the collar except to re-gain her attention to me. Also to get her to stop chasing the poor cat!

She is such a good girl most of the time and very responsive but my 2 girls are both stubborn and want to be top dog. I'm really confused about the other fight unless I was wrong and my other dog started it and she jumped in but my mutt never starts anything. He is bottom of the pecking order and just lies down. He was abused as a puppy and has never got over it and still fears us even after 6 years. I felt so bad for him. For now I'm just keeping her on a leash if they are both in the house at the same time, and food is a major trigger so making sure they are not together when I give my kids snacks. My toddler loves to feed them and I don't want a fight to start around her. They are so gentle with the kids though so that's a good thing.

The leash is a great idea... let's you get to her quick. Are you using nothing in life is free with her? I would make her work for every move she makes... she gets to do nothing without you saying she can. Also, big here, all humans in the house have to be on the same page and using the say commands and rules with her or all your work is for nothing. She will know when she can get away with what based on who is in the room.

If you are right, and the fighting is over 'alpha', you have a long road in front of you dominate females, regardless of breed, do not relent easily sometimes ever.

I am going to tag David.... he has experience with two females not accepting each other. so it would be good to get his insight as it is first hand.

 

[Biscuitsmom]

The leash is a great idea... let's you get to her quick. Are you using nothing in life is free with her? I would make her work for every move she makes... she gets to do nothing without you saying she can. Also, big here, all humans in the house have to be on the same page and using the say commands and rules with her or all your work is for nothing. She will know when she can get away with what based on who is in the room.

If you are right, and the fighting is over 'alpha', you have a long road in front of you dominate females, regardless of breed, do not relent easily sometimes ever.

I am going to tag David.... he has experience with two females not accepting each other. so it would be good to get his insight as it is first hand.

Thank you again! I'm trying to be super consistent with everything she does. No getting on the furniture, no kid toys in her mouth and simple commands such as drop it and OFF. I use a loud SHHUSH or AAAT to deter her and most of the time she reacts to me. She is perfect on walks. She is crate trained and sleeps in it at night without any issue. My kids are little so I try to get them to use the same things, even my 20 month old will say "Biscuit down!" lol.

When my husband comes home it's usually dinner time so I either put them outside or up in her crate because he doesn't want them begging or trying to get the kids food.

My other girl was just always top dog but she isn't trying to fight her. She actually has A LOT of patience with her but I think she is losing that quickly. It's definitely the puppy, she even fought with an old Jack Russell at the dog park for no reason. I do really feel that this is a phase for her, this is all newish behavior in the past 2 months.

 

[2BullyMama]

Thank you again! I'm trying to be super consistent with everything she does. No getting on the furniture, no kid toys in her mouth and simple commands such as drop it and OFF. I use a loud SHHUSH or AAAT to deter her and most of the time she reacts to me. She is perfect on walks. She is crate trained and sleeps in it at night without any issue. My kids are little so I try to get them to use the same things, even my 20 month old will say "Biscuit down!" lol.

When my husband comes home it's usually dinner time so I either put them outside or up in her crate because he doesn't want them begging or trying to get the kids food.

My other girl was just always top dog but she isn't trying to fight her. She actually has A LOT of patience with her but I think she is losing that quickly. It's definitely the puppy, she even fought with an old Jack Russell at the dog park for no reason. I do really feel that this is a phase for her, this is all newish behavior in the past 2 months.

At 11 months old, she is in the toddler years and your other girl is still seeing her as a puppy, MIGHT be why she does not fight, but as Biscuit gets older that could change so getting Biscuit in line now may be what stops them from fighting for alpha down the road. What I call the teenage years will be the real test, as Biscuit will be 15-18 months and your other girl will not see her as a puppy and the fight will be on.

 

[1Chumly]

There have been a couple of threads on here about females fighting. It might be worth your while to do a search and read through them. It happened to two of our dogs. Everything was perfectly fine until our American Bulldog turned two and she decided she wanted to be the alpha bitch. Our other dog was a really laid back greyhound but she decided she was not going to give it up. It was horrendous. Really serious fights with trips to the emergency rooms. We eventually rehomed the greyhound as we were scared about the AB maybe ending up in a fighting situation. We have never got over the guilt about having to give her up but we tried everything and in the end it was the only thing to do. The greyhound would probably have been killed as she was no match for the strength of the AB. As Christine said, the training now might make all the difference before she matures. You have the very real concern about your kids so I sincerely hope it does.

 

[Davidh]

[MENTION=2894]2BullyMama[/MENTION] has given you some great advice. I agree, get a trainer. Even with the training, some just will not get along with others and need to be an only dog, so keep that in mind.

 

[helsonwheels]

Ive trained my GS with a dogtra. Like 2bullymama said you have got to know how to use it and when. Maybe like said get a trainer to help at first. My GS was 115lbs all muscle and no way was he going out without that collar cause he would rip dogs apart as he was attacked 2x as a pup. But to be honest with you, its his sprong collar that controlled him on our walks. Big suck with people but not animals. Dont want to alarm you but these electric collars can pierce through skin. Ive seen it with my own eyes. Some dogs can over power these collars like mine did if he was on a misson. These collars are not meant to put high volume either. They are fantastic to train but you need to know how to use them. There are different kinds of collars. Mine was a dogtra which are for training hunting dogs to bring back the duck back in one piece. Cesar uses this collar seem it on one of his show. Sorry if im alarming you just very important to know how to use them as you can hurt your dog and I know you wouldn't want that either.

 

[nubonics]

We bought curly a remote spray collar (shoots puffs of air) when he was a pup that was great in correcting his bad behaviors - such as chewing on the molding of our house. I'm not sure if that is too weak of an option for you but I thought I'd throw it out there. The batteries die really quick and are hard to find in stores so we ordered a bunch from Amazon and keep them stored

I've heard that shock collars aren't good to use with aggressive dogs because they can become more aggressive. I don't have personal experience with shock collars so I cannot say if that is true or not.

Curly very recently attacked our 14wk Great Dane. It was out of no where and it happened when the environments energy level changed (all the dogs got excited when a friend came in the yard, except for Our GD and curly just randomly attacked him to the point of $5K vet bills). There were no indictors that would have been able to clue is in that he was going to go into attack mode.

We are currently keeping the dogs separated (the puppy is in a cast for 3.5 more weeks) and we are arranging for a trainer to come by and start working with curly. Curly is a well socialized dog and we never thought he would behave so violently. Our vet said to us you never know what is said between dogs.

I digress. we are giving the two space for about 2 months in which they won't have interactions with each other to the very extreme decision for me to move to my parents place in philly while my husband stays back in VA (we are moving in July so there was always a plan for me to go stay with my parents during the transition but we decided to bump the dates up)

I need to stay in VA until my GD is cleared for rehab. So in the meantime, we have bought curly a muzzle for the times that we cannot be in the room with him/he decided to barrel through the barrier we created (though there has been zero indication he would do that).

My situation allows me to go to an extreme to try to reintegrate my dogs. This wouldn't work if I lived anywhere else.

Anyhow, my suggestion would to also perhaps invest in a muzzle for times that you aren't home, even if they are separated, in case an escape happens. I bought this one from Amazon and curly finds it very comfortable. When we finally attempt to reintegrate them we are going to use a muzzle on both dogs and go from there.

It is fair to mention I already have a rehoming option for the GD (my sister) if we can't work things out.

Quick question - are both your dogs fixed?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Biscuitsmom]

There have been a couple of threads on here about females fighting. It might be worth your while to do a search and read through them. It happened to two of our dogs. Everything was perfectly fine until our American Bulldog turned two and she decided she wanted to be the alpha bitch. Our other dog was a really laid back greyhound but she decided she was not going to give it up. It was horrendous. Really serious fights with trips to the emergency rooms. We eventually rehomed the greyhound as we were scared about the AB maybe ending up in a fighting situation. We have never got over the guilt about having to give her up but we tried everything and in the end it was the only thing to do. The greyhound would probably have been killed as she was no match for the strength of the AB. As Christine said, the training now might make all the difference before she matures. You have the very real concern about your kids so I sincerely hope it does.

I did a few searches yesterday and got some good info, thank you! Sorry about your dogs. If it comes down to it we will have to rehome Biscuit, my other dog is an 8 year old pitbull with allergies and she was here first. She never tries to start anything ever. Last night I kept the pup on a leash the entire time and all was fine. If I get the collar I really want to make sure of the beep/vibrate to distract her and hopefully she will pick up on the queues. She is very smart.

 

[Biscuitsmom]

We bought curly a remote spray collar (shoots puffs of air) when he was a pup that was great in correcting his bad behaviors - such as chewing on the molding of our house. I'm not sure if that is too weak of an option for you but I thought I'd throw it out there. The batteries die really quick and are hard to find in stores so we ordered a bunch from Amazon and keep them stored

I've heard that shock collars aren't good to use with aggressive dogs because they can become more aggressive. I don't have personal experience with shock collars so I cannot say if that is true or not.

Curly very recently attacked our 14wk Great Dane. It was out of no where and it happened when the environments energy level changed (all the dogs got excited when a friend came in the yard, except for Our GD and curly just randomly attacked him to the point of $5K vet bills). There were no indictors that would have been able to clue is in that he was going to go into attack mode.

We are currently keeping the dogs separated (the puppy is in a cast for 3.5 more weeks) and we are arranging for a trainer to come by and start working with curly. Curly is a well socialized dog and we never thought he would behave so violently. Our vet said to us you never know what is said between dogs.

I digress. we are giving the two space for about 2 months in which they won't have interactions with each other to the very extreme decision for me to move to my parents place in philly while my husband stays back in VA (we are moving in July so there was always a plan for me to go stay with my parents during the transition but we decided to bump the dates up)

I need to stay in VA until my GD is cleared for rehab. So in the meantime, we have bought curly a muzzle for the times that we cannot be in the room with him/he decided to barrel through the barrier we created (though there has been zero indication he would do that).

My situation allows me to go to an extreme to try to reintegrate my dogs. This wouldn't work if I lived anywhere else.

Anyhow, my suggestion would to also perhaps invest in a muzzle for times that you aren't home, even if they are separated, in case an escape happens. I bought this one from Amazon and curly finds it very comfortable. When we finally attempt to reintegrate them we are going to use a muzzle on both dogs and go from there.

It is fair to mention I already have a rehoming option for the GD (my sister) if we can't work things out.

Quick question - are both your dogs fixed?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I read about what happened to you and your pups and was even telling my husband about it the other day. He didn't think Bulldogs would act like this. So sorry for your puppy and glad he is on the mend!

I will look into a muzzle. Funny thing is fights never happen outside.. just in the house over food or a toy so I made sure nothing was around for that and kept Biscuit on a leash. When I am not home she is crated. I do think this is something that training can help with.

Also my pit is fixed but Biscuit is not.

 

[helsonwheels]

Before investing into all sorts which might not even be necessary, I would go see a good reputated trainer. Do be afraid to investigate into the trainer, ask questions from people that went to this trainer. Trainers sees all sorts it's their job and very often will correct the problem without any gizmos. He/she will tell you to bring in your other dog to correct your EB on the spot and all. All these "gimzo", time, being on the issue 24/7, plus you have little ones to take care of can be overwhelming. Good proper "Gizmos" adds up and at the end can amount to the same price as a trainer. Just a thought

 

[1Chumly]

Our fights were always in the house and sometimes we never did know what started it as you cannot watch them every second. They also got on fine for a few months at a time, then boom, it would start all over again.

One of the worst fights (and last I might add) happened in one of their crates! The AB was in hers and for some reason our Grey went in there with her. My husband was by himself (I was at home in the UK at the time) and he had a hell of a time trying to break it up. He had a couple of bites but nothing serious thank goodness. After another trip to the vet and us talking it over, he called the Greyhound rescue where we got her and she was rehomed immediately. I did get to see her a couple of times after and we kept in touch with her new owners and still are actually. Dog fights are horrible things, really distressing for all concerned.

 

[brutus77]

Ok, I also agree that a trainer is needed. I have two bulldogs. One is very submissive, Frankie and the other is not so submissive, Brutus. Before you go to a muzzle, which really I think isn't solving you problem at all or a collar, I think a trainer is necessary first because not only will they help your with the dogs behavior, they will teach you how to read your dogs body language before the conflicts happen. I am telling you this from experience. I will give you some examples.

When I know we are getting company over, I make sure Brutus is outside and Frankie is inside. Frankie is allowed to greet the visitor first and then Brutus is allowed in to greet the visitor. The number one trigger to aggression is chaos and a visitor with a lot of activity and fan fare will surely create chaos and aggression. Always try to keep the environment subdued. Also, I can see it in Brutus' face and body language when he is feeling like he wants to pounce on Frankie. We are at a point where when I see him tensing up, I can say, "Brutus, behave yourself or you will go in your kennel" and do not be afraid to put the aggressor into a time out. It really does help. Most times he can be redirected out of his snit. BUT like [MENTION=2894]2BullyMama[/MENTION], Christine said it is KEY to address the behavior BEFORE it happens. This is where the trainer will teach you what to look for. I truly believe that a lot of aggression can be avoided by simply changing behaviors and habits and knowing your dog.