excelrn
Active Member
Hi. I was searching out information to see if this is something normal for a Mastiff puppy, or if something is really wrong, and I came across this forum. I have a 6 month old blue Neo Mastiff, female- Astrid- Divine Strength. Most of the time, she is great- she is incredibly smart, passive enough to roll over and show her belly at times, friendly with strangers (I have been intensive with socializing, although I have one issue there, too). When I first got her at 2 months, she was something of a hellion. Wanted to treat everyone around like littermates, but some positive reinforcement training worked wonders. But we're having these sporadic episodes of aggression with no warning. Tonight I came home from work, let her out of her crate to say hello and play, she played with a toy, ran for a few bites of food, drank from her water bowl (the rest of what was in there), played with the toy, then went to the cat's water bowl. She was making a mess with the cat's water, so I grabbed a towel to put on the floor, and as I neared her with it, she growled. I said something to her, she looked at me then went back to drinking, and I put the towel down. She turned around, growled, jumped towards me, biting! I couldn't get near her after that, until she lost interest in the water bowl. I have historically made a point of doing things with her when she is eating and drinking to prevent food aggression, have taken things out of her mouth, etc. As a result, I've not had any problems with that. Tonight I wasn't even touching her or the water bowl. No obvious trigger. She had water and food available during the day. Most of the other aggressive episodes have involved taking something away from her that she shouldn't have, and usually it's someone else, but I really don't understand what happened tonight. She slightly broke the skin on my stomach (from the biting), and bruised it.<br><br>I previously had a St Bernard, and was looking for another "gentle giant." So many people call Mastiffs gentle giants, but this has not been my experience so far. I feel like I'm having to fight to bring the "good dog" inside, out for everyone to be happy.<br><br>As I said, I had a St Bernard. Cotton was a giant marshmallow. She loved everyone, extremely passive (too passive, sometimes), just a giant lap dog. I also had a Malamute, Ozzie, that we got to keep Cotton company d/t separation anxiety (it worked great). I went out of town and had someone taking care of them for me, but they got loose, and my 2 great, wonderful, loving companions that never showed any aggression in the 4 years we had them, attacked 3 dogs in the neighborhood. I had to surrender them to animal control.<br><br>I don't want something like that to happen again. Astrid is going to be bigger, and I don't want anyone to be at risk from her. Is this just a matter of training? What can I do when she acts like that? I have stayed away from any harsh punishments, using positive reinforcements and time-outs, but I don't know what to do for this.