Your thoughts

[TWW]

In the last 2 weeks Mouse"s attitude has had a major swing.

I normally walk him, morning an evening thru the week, and weekends being morning,noon and evening.
He just turned 8 months on the 29th.

He is flip the switch between day and night walking for the wife.
With me he wants petted by everyone and loves kids to the point where we are still working on that part of leash training. He walks beside me and just slow rolls as we walk places.

With the wife, he is exactly the same during daylight hours. Dark new story, he is a Sentry that wants to direct her. Side alley or road he barks down, if he hears a sound from a side street /alley or yard, his head rolls up and he stands like a rock. If she is walking and someone is coming toward them he is in front of her standing, blocking her from going forward. (He adjust walking left to right to keep her from going forward, leaning against her legs). He will just stare at people walking past, if they cross the street, he will give 1 or 2 big boy barks at the person. (think we all know what those sound like).

Now it does not matter if I am with her or not, thought it was him reading her at night so I have walked with them, he did exactly the same.

Last night walked to get a 6 pack and she wanted to come and walk him, a drunk yelled at her outside, he locked up head rolled forward, hair up and had a look like "come on I need a snack and your ass looks like it will do". I had to come out and take the leash and bump him to get him out the stare down,

Most of this I can go ok, but today he shock me and a friend, he has been around friends pit since he was a pup. If the pit wants something or has something he will snap or jump at the other dog, it's what they call a Bully Pit, there decent size. which this one is around 85lbs. I nor wife realized we still had his Kong stix toy in the treat bag. Mouse at some point pulled it out and started chewing on it. The bully jump forward and growl to get it, Mouse grabbed the bully and showed his ass. I and friend yelled at them both. Both retreated and wagged butt like nothing was wrong. Toy back in truck. Peace is restored in the world.

After a couple hrs of play, treat time. Now Mouse has always let all dogs lick the treat filled drool, that we all have after. This time he barked and walked away, bully charged him trying to be dominate (in a playfull manner). Mouse growls, big boy barks, grabs ahold of him, pins him to the ground and acts like he is about to eat him alive.

Since then he has played with the same staffy mix and pit boxer mix he always does, normal noon walk.

He just seems to be hyper protective of wife, and over sensitive to aggression.

Do I need to worry or stage?

 

[swanguy7]

Hi mate from my experiences with bullmastiffs this can be the fact he is 8 months old his hormones testosterone are kicking in at high levels this is around same age my mates started to change a lot ( not desexed) it started also to become over protective of his wife and kids as may thought it was above them in the pack and felt it is it's job to over protect them . Also he has another dog a rottie that was there when he got the 8 week old bm n yep best of friends untill around 8 month mark and than 1 day the rottie bit the bullmastiff over a bone and well the rottie ended up needing 2 of us (lucky I was there also) to pull bm of it and it wasn't pretty $1600 at vets to get the rottie stitched up etc it was pretty bad and scary and did not see this coming . But at around 8 months your going to notice lot of changes and it's so important to keep on top so you can avoid future problems and $$$$ vet bills . You really need to be consistent with this breed you can't scream and belt them it only ruins a dogs spirit. They need constant reminding . Example if your mastiff even looks like he's getting aggressive with other dogs be on him straight away I teach my dogs the word NO ! And this has worked well for me I look them in the eyes and point my finger and say NO in firm voice and it works for everything pretty much is a great tool . Dogs also feel you through the leed this is so true I've only started realising how true this is so if your wife is feeling bit scared or nervous at night this only adds fuel to dogs already over protective way . I still struggle with trying to be calm when another dog is close to my dog when I have it on leed it's not easy (had some bad experiences etc) and I can tell my dog feels my worry through the leed . I probably not answer your question sorry but thought I would share similar experiences and ideas of why I think it may b happening from my vet has told me and my mate . As for my mate he never put enough time into his male bullmastiff as he works huge hrs etc so it's become out if control I feel sorry for it and have had a go at him several times about it . But no 1 can put there hand or head over his fence or they will lose it and i feel bad for it etc . Sorry all typos etc Im half asleep lol cheers

 

[musicdeb]

It appears you know his body language. When you notice he is becoming agitated or getting ready to go in attack mode with another dog, you need to step in before he gets to the point of pinning down a dog. I would keep all toys/treats in their proper place when another dog comes onto the scene to prevent a fight. Your pup may do damage to the other pup. The bully's owner should be doing the same with his pup, as you are doing, i.e. know his body language and correct the behavior before it begins.

Does he know "leave it"? A good command to teach so they will know to ignore something or someone.

He is doing his job at night when he goes into "guard" mode.

At 8 months, he will soon be in the "teenage" stage, if not already there. Consistency in training, adopt NIFL and LOTS of patience. swanguy7 is right, yelling or hitting a dog does not accomplish anything with a mastiff.

 

[TWW]

Sorry about the slow replying, been one of those work weeks.

He's been around the same dogs as always, and been perfect. Friends informed me Waldo is on a med for ear infection, a antibiotic cream, and may be because of the smell he may have thought it was a foreign dog.

musicdeb he knows "At or No" which I use for leave it alone.

He nor any other mastiff I have ever own has been beat/hit training or discipline wise.

He seems to be 100% Fine past the wife and night time. He is amped protective and it is solely adults, he is fine with children.
If he locks on a adult, at night she can't move him until the person is out of site.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Combination of things I think

Teenage stage is likely showing its head

Protection instincts are showing up

and he's decided he's not going to be dominated by a brat dog.

All you can do about the protective instincts is continue to show him what isn't a threat. Maybe see if you can stage some night time pass-bys by people he knows, and prep them with treats and how to act non-threatening.

That pit has resource guarding issues. Sorry, but just from your description he does. Maybe its not severe RG, but thats what you're describing. The "its mine and I'm going to get it even if it means being a rude and aggressive SOB". Which is flat out rude dog behavior. Be very very carefull with toys, chews and treats around him. You can teach Mouse to be polite in return, but there's nothing in this world that says he has to put up with a jerk of a dog pushing him around just cause Mouse has something the other dog wants. And from your description Mouse has decided he's not going to put up with it.

 

[musicdeb]

Sorry about the slow replying, been one of those work weeks.

He's been around the same dogs as always, and been perfect. Friends informed me Waldo is on a med for ear infection, a antibiotic cream, and may be because of the smell he may have thought it was a foreign dog.

musicdeb he knows "At or No" which I use for leave it alone.

He nor any other mastiff I have ever own has been beat/hit training or discipline wise.

He seems to be 100% Fine past the wife and night time. He is amped protective and it is solely adults, he is fine with children.
If he locks on a adult, at night she can't move him until the person is out of site.

I agree with Ruth that the pit is resource guarding. Hard behavior to correct but it can be corrected with consistency in training and LOTS of patience.

I would continue doing what you are doing but keep Mouse and Waldo separated when Waldo has food/treat to prevent a fight.

 

[zakir500]

I think, it is better. Keep it continue......