Aggression or puppy behaviour?

[melaniejane84]

Hi everyone, I could use a little advice.

My BM has just turned one year old, and has recently started behaving quite aggressively. He has always 'played rough', nipping and barking and whatnot, but this was getting less - Every time he nipped during play, we would give him one warning, then remove him from the room if he did it again. It seemed to be working, but this last two weeks the nipping has been relentless. The bigger he gets the more it hurts and I can't even tell if he's playing any more.

He's not nipping hard enough to draw blood but he's certainly bruising me. He doesn't always wag his tail when he does it, but does often roll onto his back and start flailing his paws. He does this high-pitched, excited bark at the same time. Sometimes he just wakes up and does this, sometimes it's just when I walk into the room. We still give him the time-outs, sometimes he will come back in and start playing with a toy instead, but sometimes he'll just come straight back to biting me again. Usually, after he's done being crazy he'll come and lie by me for a cuddle.

If anyone has any idea why he his suddenly like this, or how to control it, I would be very grateful. He's wearing me out.

 

[ruby55]

I'm always surprised when I read about a bm mouthing & biting. We've had 7 bullmastiffs in the past 6 years (3 have passed), & none of them were mouthy. We've had to deal with zoomies, where they run around like crazy, but they've never bit us. Maybe it's because they've had brother or sisters to play with.
I would totally ignore him when he gets into this mode. It sounds like hormones running rampant to me. If he continues to nip & bite, maybe crate him for a time out. Once he settles down, open the door but don't acknowledge him; just walk away.
Someone who has had to deal with this will probably pop on, give you some different advice. All I can tell you is once they have grown up, it's a totally different story. But you have to stop this biting now, or it could get ugly.

 

[melaniejane84]

Thanks for the reply. He's never done the 'zoomie' thing. Part of the problem, I should have mentioned, is he has pano right now, and the vet said we can't walk him for more than five minutes a day. He's got so much pent up energy, and I don't know how to burn it off without hurting his leg.
Also, he only came from a little of two, so I wonder if he didn't learn much bite inhibition when he was little. I saw him with him mom and brother when he was four weeks old and he used to bite them something awful.

 

[Sadies Mom]

It does sound like he has some energy to burn of. If he can not run it of due to having pano, try some mental exercise. You can do some nose work in the house, make feeding time in to a mind game etc. Here are some examples
[video=youtube;SaNZhDYzeRM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaNZhDYzeRM[/video]

[video=youtube;YFnWnejG_IU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFnWnejG_IU[/video]

 

[melaniejane84]

These are helpful, thanks Sadies Mom

 

[RockstarDDB]

Hi everyone, I could use a little advice.

My BM has just turned one year old, and has recently started behaving quite aggressively. He has always 'played rough', nipping and barking and whatnot, but this was getting less - Every time he nipped during play, we would give him one warning, then remove him from the room if he did it again. It seemed to be working, but this last two weeks the nipping has been relentless. The bigger he gets the more it hurts and I can't even tell if he's playing any more.

He's not nipping hard enough to draw blood but he's certainly bruising me. He doesn't always wag his tail when he does it, but does often roll onto his back and start flailing his paws. He does this high-pitched, excited bark at the same time. Sometimes he just wakes up and does this, sometimes it's just when I walk into the room. We still give him the time-outs, sometimes he will come back in and start playing with a toy instead, but sometimes he'll just come straight back to biting me again. Usually, after he's done being crazy he'll come and lie by me for a cuddle.

If anyone has any idea why he his suddenly like this, or how to control it, I would be very grateful. He's wearing me out.

He has reached sexual maturity. My male is roughly the same age and enjoys this dominance play too. though i taught him soft mouth months and months ago. You determine wen its time to play not him . when he does this with out you instagating the play. correct him with the collar . most of it is just energy from all the testerone being released. I would also suggest at this time you routinely Expose him to new people and dogs , this is almost a second socialization period and some males flip at this stage. Trust me you don't want a large male that has decieded its best he has control of the situations , i learned that the hard way with my first DDB

 

[Hector]

It might sound like he needs more exercise and more training on impulse control. Practice calm, impulse control exercises in the house to let him know, you can't play in the house. Practice things like "place" and "crate". Nipping is a sign of over arousal and poor impulse control.

 

[DennasMom]

I agree with the above suggestions - more mental games, continued socialization (meeting new people / visiting new places) and additional training will definitely help.

But, I'm going to also suggest that it's time for heftier negative consequences to ANY tooth-on-skin action. Not Allowed. Period. End-of-Story.
Giving him a warning and continuing play is allowing this to drag on longer that it should IMO.

You need to provide an immediate negative consequence - at a level to match his energy when he's nipping. You have to get it through his head that this is NOT allowed. Period.

I would expect ONE significant (in the dog's mind) consequence will be enough to shape his future behavior to where you can reduce the levels back again... but until you match his energy with your own, he'll keep escalating and pushing the limits. Testing limits is a natural dog behavior - and the 1-yr age is a perfect time for puppies to retest out where those limits are.

Just to clarify: "Negative Consequence" still needs to be something you're comfortable with doing, but I think you need to up the game to his level, so he "hears" what you're trying to communicate.

That you've allowed him to "play rough" has not helped matters, so I'd recommend you stop all rough games until this is under control, in order to avoid confusing him on what the rules of the house really are. Once you have rules established (i.e. the humans and the dog BOTH understand and abide by them), you can go back to playing as you wish on YOUR terms. Be sure you teach the dog a "safe" word (like "enough" or "gentle") so you can signal when play time is over or getting out-of-hand.

I hope this didn't come across too negatively... I just want to make sure you have all the tools you need to get your pup to be more gentle during play. I'm sure he has some frustration over the reduced activity from Pano-restriction... but he needs to know that nipping hurts, and is not going to be tolerated. And, you need to communicate this in a manner that the dog understands, which often is more body-language than verbal, too.

 

[melaniejane84]

Thanks for everyone's input. We've taken a much firmer, zero-tolerance attitude with Toby this last couple of days and it really seems to be paying off. I can see when he is going to get over-excited, give him a quick collar-correction and now he just sits and pouts instead of nipping. We increased his walk time a little today and he had some good doggy-socialisation time.
He went through a phase like this when he was 7 months old, which I read about in advance and was prepared for. I just wasn't expecting this one! Thanks again!