JLPandFriends Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 (edited) Hello, I will be bringing home my bullmastiff puppy in about a months time when she will be 8 weeks old and would like to get some advice on training hert to be an indoor pet. She will be let out to run around the yard all the time, but i want to keep her inside at night so i have to "potty train" her. I would also like to train her to like other animals and people as i have pet rabbits. I'd prefer to do it without a clicker because i would like for her to simply hear my voice, understand and "heed my command" as they say. Although i want her to be well socialised so that i can safely take her on walks and out in public without fear of her attacking anyone that approaches, i also want her to be protective of our property. So friendly and calm when out, but a protective guardian when at home. Any advice would be very much appreciated! Edited October 16, 2011 by JLPandFriends Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristineX Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Hi, welcome to DOL and congrats on your new puppy. Have a trip over to the puppy forum - there are a lot of threads on socialisation. A few quick things to remember - socialisation is introducting your puppy to the world,not just other dogs. And you don't need to teach your bullmastiff to be protective of your backyard/home, those instincts will kick in normally. Particularly if you give your puppy a good foundation with a good socialisation programme so it grows up with an understanding of what normal human behaviour is. If you take a trip into the subbreed forum at the top of the page, there is also a bullmastiff thread - they would be delighted to meet you and answer questions in great detail. ChristineX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLPandFriends Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Thanks for the info. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 ..and if you only have your puppy indoors, locked away to sleep .. she will not easily learn how to behave calmly and carefully inside/around humans/food/pets . Definitely head to the puppy forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 www.leerburg.com has some great articles on there about puppies and training especially for working breeds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espinay2 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Welcome!! you have recieved some great advice so far! One thing I would mention about you wanting your dog to be a guardian when at home. There should really be no need to actually 'train' your dog for this. Instead train your dog to be well socialised in ALL situations INCLUDING in your home. Once your dog is mature, it will be able to discriminate between friend and foe (and will do this a lot better if it knows who is welcome and who is not) even if they don't seem like they will. And it will be a good thing if it never has to be tested. 99.9% of the time just the presence of the dog - no matter how it acts - will be all you need and in these days of dengerous dog legislation it is important to do everything possible not to put your dog at risk. Have fun with your puppy!! I have friends who breed Bullmastiffs and I love hanging out with their beautiful big well mannered and well socialised Booeys :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I second Leerburg, plenty of free ebooks and videos. http://leerburg.com/dogtrainingebooks.htm The Michael Ellis DVDs are excellent if you want to learn about training your dog with verbal markers too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLPandFriends Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 ..and if you only have your puppy indoors, locked away to sleep .. she will not easily learn how to behave calmly and carefully inside/around humans/food/pets . Definitely head to the puppy forum! Already there looking through the threads. =) The puppy wont only be indoors to sleep, it will be free to come inside and go outside as it pleases but i don't want it to sleep outside. I mean if it really wants to then i suppose it would be ok. www.leerburg.com has some great articles on there about puppies and training especially for working breeds Thanks for that. =) Welcome!! you have recieved some great advice so far! One thing I would mention about you wanting your dog to be a guardian when at home. There should really be no need to actually 'train' your dog for this. Instead train your dog to be well socialised in ALL situations INCLUDING in your home. Once your dog is mature, it will be able to discriminate between friend and foe (and will do this a lot better if it knows who is welcome and who is not) even if they don't seem like they will. And it will be a good thing if it never has to be tested. 99.9% of the time just the presence of the dog - no matter how it acts - will be all you need and in these days of dengerous dog legislation it is important to do everything possible not to put your dog at risk. Have fun with your puppy!! I have friends who breed Bullmastiffs and I love hanging out with their beautiful big well mannered and well socialised Booeys :D Thank you! When i said i wanted it to be a guardian, i didn't mean i wanted to train it to be aggressive or anything like that, what i meant was that i didn't want the training and socialising to take away its natural instinct to protect itself, us and the property. There will be nights when i will be home along and it gets pretty pitch black and scary in the mountains, so i want to feel secure knowing that she will be alert and warn any would be intruders off. I don't want an aggressive dog, just one whose glare is intimidating and bark is worse than its bite. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLPandFriends Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 I second Leerburg, plenty of free ebooks and videos. http://leerburg.com/...iningebooks.htm The Michael Ellis DVDs are excellent if you want to learn about training your dog with verbal markers too. Thank you. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monah Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Maybe PM Kaffy Magee, she's not on often now, very busy. She is a breeder and has several, plus kids, cats, and little dogs too... all very lovely, so she obviously knows her stuff. :D Hers are indoors too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espinay2 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 (edited) what i meant was that i didn't want the training and socialising to take away its natural instinct to protect itself, us and the property. There will be nights when i will be home along and it gets pretty pitch black and scary in the mountains, so i want to feel secure knowing that she will be alert and warn any would be intruders off. I don't want an aggressive dog, just one whose glare is intimidating and bark is worse than its bite. =) I sincerely doubt that you will need to worry about any socialisation or training affecting that. In fact, the more you do, the better your dog will likely be at protecting you. Natural instinct is just that - natural instinct, but the better you train your dog, the closer its bond with you will be and the more you socialise your dog the better it is able to discriminate between who you see as a friend and who you don't and in what situations these things occur. Beleive me, a dog may look and act like a marshmallow when all is good, but when things are 'not right' that instinct to protect its 'pack'[ comes out. I have been in a situation when the seemingly biggest, softest and well socialised and trained dog protected me when I really needed to be protected so I know what it feels like to trust your dogs natural instincts 100% in these types of situations. The other person was surprised as they had actually met the dog before in other circumstances, but I wasn't ;) . Edited October 16, 2011 by espinay2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I would not recommend trying to train your pup to be a guard ... or to neglect socialisation/obedience training.You have what will be a LARGE dog ..and the more settled she is around everybody, and the better the communication , the easier she will be to control .. Dogs which are poorly socialised may well bark/attack out of fear/uncertainty ..and this is VERY dangerous, and not in your control Dogs which are well socialised, comfortable around all sorts of people and situations have learnt about how humans operate ...learnt lots of body language and scents and language from different humans , and are much better able to be trustworthy around your family/friends !!! You also should not encourage ANY form of 'protectiveness' shown by your pup- whether it be guarding food/toys, or barking at passersby/traffic. It is NOT HER house ..it is YOURS , and so is everything in it ...and you allow her to share ;) This is important - as a very large pup/dog deciding what is to be guarded can be a bit of a problem. Lots of setting boundaries/training /socialisation will help grow your pup into an educated and trustworthy dog, who, because of your bond, will be more able to judge when she needs to step up and do the appropriate thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raineth Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 what i meant was that i didn't want the training and socialising to take away its natural instinct to protect itself, us and the property. There will be nights when i will be home along and it gets pretty pitch black and scary in the mountains, so i want to feel secure knowing that she will be alert and warn any would be intruders off. I don't want an aggressive dog, just one whose glare is intimidating and bark is worse than its bite. =) I sincerely doubt that you will need to worry about any socialisation or training affecting that. In fact, the more you do, the better your dog will likely be at protecting you. Natural instinct is just that - natural instinct, but the better you train your dog, the closer its bond with you will be and the more you socialise your dog the better it is able to discriminate between who you see as a friend and who you don't and in what situations these things occur. Beleive me, a dog may look and act like a marshmallow when all is good, but when things are 'not right' that instinct to protect its 'pack'[ comes out. I have been in a situation when the seemingly biggest, softest and well socialised and trained dog protected me when I really needed to be protected so I know what it feels like to trust your dogs natural instincts 100% in these types of situations. The other person was surprised as they had actually met the dog before in other circumstances, but I wasn't ;) . I really want to second this Socialisation is especially important for any dog that has guarding instincts. Otherwise you may find it interprets kids, ladies with prams, or men in helmets (just examples)as a threat.Socialising will let him have a sense of what is 'normal' so he won't react to things that aren't a threat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ravensmyst00 Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 As a bullmastiff owner and breeder I can't emphasize enough the need to ensure that you adequately socialise and obedience train your puppy. Your vet may offer puppy preschool classes for your pup that are available for pups from 8-14 weeks of age. If possible get your pup enrolled. After that I would highly recommend that you get enrolled in obedience. This pup will reach up 50kg of solid muscle and pretty much nothing will stop an untrained bullmastiff if they want to investigate something. Having a hyper bullmastiff rush up to someone else's dog is not a good thing and people who don't know your dog will think the worst just because of the size. Socialize socialize socialize. Yes I am repeating myself but it is vitally important that your pup be socialized with all breeds of dogs, animals and situations. A well socialized and well trained bullmastiff is a wonderful ambassador to our breed. Regarding being protective - a bullmastiff will be naturally protective of their family - they take their cues from their owners. So no training is necessary. On another note - be sure you establish the pack dynamics in your household from the moment your pup arrives. You are the head of the pack not the dog. If you have any further questions please feel free to PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullbreedlover Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 As a bullmastiff owner and breeder I can't emphasize enough the need to ensure that you adequately socialise and obedience train your puppy. Your vet may offer puppy preschool classes for your pup that are available for pups from 8-14 weeks of age. If possible get your pup enrolled. After that I would highly recommend that you get enrolled in obedience. This pup will reach up 50kg of solid muscle and pretty much nothing will stop an untrained bullmastiff if they want to investigate something. Having a hyper bullmastiff rush up to someone else's dog is not a good thing and people who don't know your dog will think the worst just because of the size. Socialize socialize socialize. Yes I am repeating myself but it is vitally important that your pup be socialized with all breeds of dogs, animals and situations. A well socialized and well trained bullmastiff is a wonderful ambassador to our breed. Regarding being protective - a bullmastiff will be naturally protective of their family - they take their cues from their owners. So no training is necessary. On another note - be sure you establish the pack dynamics in your household from the moment your pup arrives. You are the head of the pack not the dog. If you have any further questions please feel free to PM me. X 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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