Thanks for the greetings. I am not very good with photos, but will put some up when I can.
The avi photo is my mastiff/shar pei mix at 3 or 5 months old.
He is a good boy and well trained. My two CC's are females and works in progress.
I adopted the older CC mix in July after my Bully passed. My Bully was blind for almost 7 years. My Bouvier/Lab mix passed in 2016 and I didn't get another dog at that time because it would have been unfair to my blind Bully senior to have a new dog family member. When my Bully died in July I got the CC/Pit mix. She had been outside all of her life and is about 1.5 yo. She was in a high kill facility thereafter. She was terrified of being inside and would drop like a rug. She had been beaten and dragged and much worse. It was gutting to see such a beautiful girl and magnificent dog so skiddish, shut down and unresponsive. She is still skiddish sometimes and needs more socialization.
She was terrified of a food reward (lure) and ran from the word, "come." Someone had used the term "come" and also the lure and then betrayed her traumatically when they caught her. She is adjusting well to inside life here with a large outdoor fenced in area. She is housebroken now and is doing amazingly well with lots of love and teaching. Yes, training, but I prefer to look at it as teaching. I work with her alot, but now work with two dogs at once with the younger CC I got this month.
Training two dogs isn't a problem, but it needs to be very positive, consistent/firm, rewarding and...fun. I haven't had Corsi before and they are a different kind of mastiff than I am use to working with. I have no problems with dominant, intelligent dogs. The last time I trained multiple dogs (simultaneously) was 2002 - Mastiff/GSD mixes, so it's been a while for multi-dog training. Training one dog is easy, when it is one at a time, but two or more can be challenging. This is especially true when they are older and already have backgrounds/baggage and some unfortunate negative experiences.
The CC's have a stronger prey drive than the mastiff's I've had, and I have four cats and 19 poultry. Dog training had to start with integration. The first CC/Pit was fully integrated in less than a week. The new, younger CC was also fine after less than a week, but has some lapses when birds are in flight or a cat is racing by her outside. My younger CC was outside and untrained for 7 months. She got some training at the pound where I adopted her, but hadn't lived indoors. She is house training well with only a few accidents, and learning the basics...leave it, off, heel, sit, come.
The older of the two adoptees is doing rather amazingly. She has the potential to be an obedience/agility dog. She has the potential to be
that good. She'll never be a border collie, but she is excellent in her skill achievements so far. I only teach her for fun and exercise; not competitions. I am not
that good, nor inclined. LOL.
Quite a difference in less than 90 days with an outside dog who would drop and flop and be unresponsive.
I wish I had a movie of her. She comes and sits proper, and we are working on reliability in it.
Learning takes time and many people believe training is static when it isn't. It isn't always a direct and straight forward path to success.
General and overall forward achievement is fine, and it is my aim.
Off the leash - she keeps almost perfect track at heel (walk and run). She also corners, pivots, halts, sits proper, and resumes with little or no voice commands.
Finger snapping and hand signal control. She is beautiful and has grace.
I am so proud of her, and she is much more interested in the excited praise for her accomplishments than any tasty reward I have.
She still needs to learn "sit-stay" and "come" with
absolute reliability. These are crucial, but time and "needs must" are the order of the day.
We are working on alot and at one time. Time, consistency, fun and patience are key. We are getting there and at a stellar pace, all things considered.
She needs more social skills and unfortunately the outdoor farmer's markets are now closed for the season.
We need new "meet and greet" opportunities because I live in a remote, wilderness type area.
I started looking here at the Mastiff Forum for some additional CC breed insight. I have lots of experience, but not specifically with the Corsi and they are a bit different. They are not harder to train, in fact, they are so smart, energetic and eager, they are easier than many large breeds. Still, they have radar for ambivalence, so they need a firm and consistent leader. I would not suggest this breed to the inexperienced, and have seen that the more responsible breeders require obedience training in their contracts. Both CC's I have are
alot of dog.
We are raw feeders and the older CC/Pit is fine now and loves her food. The CC puppy has only been here for a couple weeks. She has some digestive issues and is going to take more time with the transition to natural food. She doesn't have a clue what to do with any piece of food which is larger than a quarter which she has to chew. She has no bite from eating soft food out of a bowl so far in her life. The bite will be a learned behaviour. Chewing is one of the most fun (solitary) activities for any dog imho. Dogs enjoying a good chew are in a form of meditative bliss.
I hope this info on my pack is what was requested. I will try to come up with some pictures.
For me, I am very fortunate, honoured, privileged and blessed to have my pack. That probably says it all.
I hope to learn alot from all of you.
Best regards,
Ari
