Pit Bull Aggression

Hello all. My name is Jeff and am new here. I am here because I desperatly need some advice. I have a 3 year old Red Nose Pit, and a 3 month old Pit Bull slash Mastiff Mix. The older red nose has bitten the puppy 3 times already. I cannot keep them together. The older dog is constantly growling and acting extremly aggressive twords the pup. I have had the older dog for only 1 month and the pup for 2 weeks. I have consulted a couple of pro's concerning the issue but nothing is working. I want badly for them to get along. What can be done. Thank-You.

 

"Pit Bulls" tend to have dog aggression. It's a genetic trait. It is not something that can be trained out of the dog. The best thing to do is keep the dogs away from each other. One way is crate and rotate (aka when one dog is walking around the house free, the other is crated). This is definitely not a problem. It just comes with the territory of owning this breed.

If you can't live with keeping them separate, then you should stick with an one dog household, or not own this bred (not trying to mean, just telling it the way it is).

Hope this has help. Good luck!

 

Dog aggression in pit bulls is to be expected. For the safety of the puppy you will need to crate and rotate. If you cannot do it then think about rehoming one of the dogs.

 

My advise would be: keep the puppy and find a suitable one dog home for the older male.

 

Crates don't always work, either. A willing dog will find a way sooner or later out of a crate if he truely wants to. Crates are not 100% safe and secure!

do not leave the crate with the other dog in it where the uncrated dog has free access to. Just because a dog is in a crate doesn't mean they cannot bust through the crate or fight through the crate (or chain link fence, ect). MAke sure you have a room with a solid door you can place the other crate with dog in while the other dog enjoys it's free time or at least spend time training your older dog so he knows messing with the crated pup is not allowed.

 

How true. And sometimes even solid doors & walls will not suffice. I've had ones who would chew through both doors & walls.

The sad fact is, the APBT is not a breed bred for canine companionship. You'll get some will tolerate other dogs, but as a rule the APBT is a breed that is best in a one dog household.

In this particular case, the aggression seems a bit extreme, as even game bred APBTs will almost always tolerate a puppy. For the safety of the pup, it may be best to find the puppy a good home elsewhere. I know it will be hard, but in this case it may be what is best.

If you choose not to, crate & rotate is an absolute must. Or make a nice chain set-up for your adult dog & put him outside. Contrary to popular belief, APBTs can do quite well & even thrive on a good chain set up provided the owner give the dog the proper care & attention it requires.

Good luck.

 

if you are not willing to keep them seperate via effective means such as crate and rotate or prefferably solid chain setups then I reccomend getting rid of one or both dogs. Never trust a bulldog not to fight.

 

Jeff, the main problem here is that the older male is new to your environment and needs to establish his place. Bringing another dog into the picture added stress to him. He is in a strange place and pup is a challenge. It does not help that he does not have a bond with you. Since the pup is alive and well, I figured those 3 bites were more to establish dominance than true aggression (unless there is missing info).

The best solution is for you to only have one dog. This is truer when dealing with dogs you have little to no experience handling them. Where did you get the dogs (in particular the 3-year old)? How was he homed? If you have any chance of getting the adult dog to deal with the pup, you need to bond with it first. It needs to feel secure and know his place is below you. Here are a few things you may want to do to attempt to reduce his aggression toward the pup:

1. Have adult dog free while pup is in crate or cage (cage is better for this). If adult dog starts trying to break cage, correct/stop him. The point here is to have both near each other safely. Observe both dogs physical and verbal reactions. Observe ears and tails. Once adult dog has ignored him or has reduced his aggression, go to step 2.

2. Have adult dog on a leash. Pick up pup and bring him close enough for adult dog to sniff his butt. Yes, hold pup in your arm and expose butt for adult dog to sniff. Remember that the dog needs to be at the end of the leash to make sure he does not attempt to bite pup's butt. This stage is for the adult dog to learn who is the pup. Adult dog may want to lick pup's butt....let him. Adult dog may then start smacking his jaws a little...that is ok. Then if it went well, repeat steps 1 and 2 several times throughout the week or next weeks.

3. This step I would normally do first but since you have no bond with the adult dog, you need to be very careful if you decide to go ahead with it. In this step you are introducing the pup as your own. In other words, you introduce the pup as if you were the mom....a very protective mom. The pup needs to stay on you and adult dog needs to keep his distance until you feel he will not be aggressive. You keep your eyes on the adult....while you talk to him in a soft voice....unless he starts to show dominance....i.e. trying to hump the pup........you need to be an aggressive/protective mom at this point.....adult dog needs this to understand pup is part of your pack. This step can be very complicated and may not work due to lack of bondage between you and adult dog. This step may need to be repeated many, many times. The education process may last a month or two...it all depends on the intelligence level of the adult, your ability to read dog body language, your bonding level, and patience.

This may help but best thing to do is to only own one dog. You sound to be new to dog aggressive breeds. One will be a handful but two may frustrate you into giving both up.

Think about it.


Rocky H. Balboa

 

In my experiances. My mature gamebred dogs will not tolerate a puppy. Wont tolerate anything W/Fur period. Big Game

 

why would you suggest that? get rid of the new dog, the other one was there first.

 

Because the older male has only been there 2 weeks longer AND the puppy is likely to be easier to manage with the proper training. The owner is new with these dogs and he's bit off more then he can chew.

 

IMO, the pup should be rehomed to an experienced dog owner, preferably experience in one of the two breeds in the mix.
Two reasons:
1. A puppy is easier to rehome than an adult.
2. An inexperienced owner and a pit bull/mastiff mix can be a bad combination, especially if not properly trained and socialized. Mastiff's are large and have a strong instinct to protect. The last thing our breed needs is this dog to get out and hurt someone and it be viewed as a "Pit bull attack"

 

1. I agree that the puppy will be much easier to re-home.

2. An inexperienced owner with an APBT can be a bad mix and now this APBT/AMStaff/Bully is already showing dog aggression. The older dog is already a loaded gun while the puppy just has the potential to be one. Also, with a strong hand and good training the new owner will be able to mold the puppy which he can't do with the adult.

 

I personally think you should get rid of one of them, because as they get older the problem will get worse until an accident happens. I have gone threw the 2 dog agression thing with my females(mother N daughter) who after like a year in a half got into a fight or two out of the blue and got rid of the daughter. But if you feel like you want to go threw the seperation you will have to go threw, risk of an accident, or etc with the dogs then as others have said crate and rotate or buy a nice outdoor kennel, cement or etc the kennel and tarp the top and switch the dogs everynow and then.

 

i dissagree with just about everyone on this site i would put them together and when the older male goes after him give him a strong correction with a choke collar make sure your not scared when doing this because the dog will sense that your weak you probably aint the pack leader the older male is watch the dog whisperer he has 17 pitbulls in his pack and they all get along they dont wanna kill each other everyone who says pitbulls are aggressive towards other dogs doesnt no anything its how you raise your dog and what you let your dog get away with im near chicago and have worked with sit means sit so if anyone needs help with there pooch let me no

 

ok, first off your choke collar correction method will NOT work if the dog really wants to get at the other dog...i dont care what the dog whisperer or a fly by night training service says.
it is NOT how you raise the dog-they are prone to genetic disposition, in this case, its dog aggression.not every single one will be DA, but as a whole-the breed IS DA
if you dont know this than you are either:
a. new to the breed
b. competely naive
or
c. all of the above

 

John Frank,

I don't care how you raise them. I true game bred dog, unless it is cold will not let a collar correction...or a kick to the head, bat to the side or anything short of a machine gun stop them once they have decided they really want to get at a dog.

I have always had male female combos, mother and son even raised together in a loving environmet and sooner or later WW3 WILL break out.

My 9 month old and 8 month old raised together started fighting a week ago....I had to use a breaking stick to get her off him and she also sustained some damage and now they have to be separated. These are just babies, when they get older they get really serious.

It is possible to train 2 dogs to get along 99% of the time (male female raised together from a very young age) but it is always a tenuous situation.

 

Did you really just say that? That sounds like a news hyped humaniac statement.

If this guy is wanting 2 dogs to be buddies, he needs to get rid of BOTH dogs, and go buy him some Labs or something.

If he keeps the older dog my bets are he tries to find another "companion" for him, and given the wrong opportunity he might have a nasty dog fight in his inexperienced hands. If he keeps the pup, most likely the same thing. If you don't understand a breed, you shouldnt own it. Every breed has their quirks. He needs to get a breed that bests suits HIM, his surroundings, and his knowledge.

 

Ok the pup needs to be seperated bottom line I have a rednose male that attacked my sister's new puppy 3 months old over a toy they were playing well like any other day and in a matter of seconds pedee had this pup in his mouth well after 1300.00 of surgery to repair the pups jaw and yes he ripped this pups jaw apart even though I was able to get him off it was a hard lesson learned that could have been prevented had I had the experince with the breed that I have now Aggression is expected from the breed but needs to be handled responsibly this is not something that will just go away with training the only cure for dog aggression is seperation . That is why you MUST keep them seperated. I am not telling you this to scare you but you have to understand the cold reality of the breed when it comes to animal aggression not everyone is a canidate to handle this type of dog or multiple aggressive dogs. Part of being a responsible owner is knowing your dogs and what they will and will not tolerate and taking proper actions according to each dog. I hope you will take heed to this trust me it's not something you want to put yourself through or that innocent puppy and the blood is on your hands if anything happens. If you cannot keep them apart you need to rehome one of them. Best of luck to you

 

That right there is EXACTLY why i think you need to get rid of both dogs.
The "dog whisperer" is a TRAINED PROFESSIONAL, are you? By your statements, you are far from one. I saw one of his shows where 2 of those mutts got in a scuffle. If you own Pit Bull type dogs, you DONT EVER give them the chance to fight.

I have a new BF that just moved in, and because of his inexperience & not understanding, his dog got the short end of the stick. Long story short, he "accidentaly" let my male out to meet his old Lab while I was in the bathroom. My male immediately grabbed the Lab's face. Not knowing what to do my BF tried kicking my male to let go (I saw this as I went running outside). I yelled at him that won't do anything. If I hadn't been afraid of what the BF might do in my abscence, I would have ran and grabbed my break stick. Anyway, I held my male the best I could to keep him from ripping the lip off the screaming Lab's face. I instructed the bf to grab a good piece of wood, which ended up being a 2x4 that had a dull point on the end... Luckily I had explained to him prior to this how to break off a dog with a parting stick, so he had the general idea. Not ever doing this before he got a little excited, the wood slipped (which he was forcefully applying) and went straight into my face very narrowly missing my eye and nose. I now have a lovely gash and very swollen forehead.
His dog ended up being mostly ok because I was there seconds after the scuffle started, and I was able to minimize the shaking.

Now I tell you this story for some food for thought... had you been in this situation with your dogs, and you were alone, what would you have done?

If i wasn't home, one or both dogs would surely have been very severly injured or died because my BF would not have known what to do.

What if your dogs started fighting when no one was home? Coming home to severly injured/dead dog(s) would be a TERRIBLE way for you to learn your lesson.

Maybe instead of being defensive and telling the smart, responsible, experienced people on this board (well most of you anyway haha ) that we are wrong, you should open your brain and listen. Your pup shouldnt have to suffer because of your ignorance.