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Macis 10 week old aggression, please watch these videos and help us!!

irina

Well-Known Member
I would tend to agree: it's better to trade than hold her collar IMHO. Then she will start being reactive to you touching her collar or even reaching out to her. Corsos are very smart that way: they learn patterns very quickly and know what to expect. Sometimes it's a blessing, sometimes a curse.
 

joshuagough

Well-Known Member
Good looking girl. Where did you get her from? Breeder wise.

She's driven, and resource guarding.. working line dogs can show some of those same traits. Once they get a big head, they aren't backing down.. even at a young age. I'm assuming this is something that's built since you've gotten her from day (1)?

I would have a drag leash on her at all times, its time to get this in check before you end up with a big problem on your hands. Also I'd try hand feeding her all of her meals, for a while. Don't mess with trying to pet her while she's eating when you first start hand feeding her.. build something good with her eating from your hand. You can add back in the petting after a few weeks, slowly.

During feeding at any sign of growling I would give a firm no, if not immediately stopped give her a correction with the leash. Strong enough to get her attention out of guarding and on you, this is a pup it likely won't take a lot. This needs to happen now, this isn't a process you want to go thru with her full grown showing these same signs.

Remove all the toys from home. If it's toy time, it's with you play with her with the toy. No free time with toys, bones or food. Same thing.. when your playing with a toy w/her.. drag leash, none of that none sense she's showing.

I would remove this pups free time completely as well, in a crate or with you on a leash.. this will help a lot (I do it even with pups that have no issues). If you want her near you use the leash to guide her, until the bond is built better I'd 86 picking her up. Trying to correct a dog and holding them at the same time is about impossible. Your not going to be holding her much longer anyway lol.

Once the bond is firmed up, she will likely come around on you picking her up.
 
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musicdeb

Well-Known Member
Great advice here. I do not agree with taking the food away, as this reinforces the fear that the food will be taken away. I agree, stop picking up the dog. Use the leash to move the dog around the house until the issue is resolved.

Definitely resource guarding which can be corrected with consistency in training and lots of patience.
 

Siloh

Well-Known Member
I don't know if this will make you feel any better, but I see a TON of terrier types (usually carins [sp?] and yorkies) who do this... You just happen to have a will-be massive pup and need to take action immediately instead of letting it go like the terrier owners seem to.

Same business though, mostly a front of growling and flipping about or charging to resource guard. I even know one carin terrier owner who made this into a "game" (encouraged this "adorable" behavior) and growls as if viciously every time you are within 20ft of his toys. He taught my chi to do it (Look! When I growl they don't take your stuff!) and it took several weeks to end.


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Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my issue. The trainer I had scheduled to come did a no show so last night I had a behaviorist come over and he worked with my wife and I as well as our 3 dogs for about 3 hours. He helped us so much with maci and brought out the issues that we have with our other 2 dogs that we didn't even realize was a problem. Maci is already showing signs of improvement. Now I realize my wife and I really didn't know how to handle a cane corso pup and this type of behavior. I will keep everyone updated on the progression and keep posting videos and pictures of her improvement and growth. Again thanks everyone and I will keep in touch!
 

season

Well-Known Member
tread carefully, this will grow up into a monster, fast...zero respect.
this puppy needs a dose of reality, fast! she needs to know this is unacceptable. period. don't dance around her and make excuses. this needs to stop.
Leadership, leadership and more leadership....calm and assertive...but it does need to stop and if you are the pack leader then it needs to be you that stops it. Take the emotion out of it. By watching the videos the dog obviously is not showing respect of you or your space. That it your home. It's your toy. It's your dog bowl and food. You allow the dog to use them. I don't know the whole story but I do know what I would do. My CC is 5 months old and he knew his place very quickly. He needs to work for everything. Everything.
  1. "Dogs don't know how to be good unless we show them."
  2. "You create your dogs value system."
  3. "People don't give birth to a brat!"
  4. “You can feed, water, and love your dog and he will like you, but he very well may not respect you.â€
  5. “Dogs know what you know and they know what you don’t know.â€

Leerburg Dog Training | The Groundwork to Establishing Pack Structure with Adult Dogs
 

season

Well-Known Member
Good looking girl. Where did you get her from? Breeder wise.

She's driven, and resource guarding.. working line dogs can show some of those same traits. Once they get a big head, they aren't backing down.. even at a young age. I'm assuming this is something that's built since you've gotten her from day (1)?

I would have a drag leash on her at all times, its time to get this in check before you end up with a big problem on your hands. Also I'd try hand feeding her all of her meals, for a while. Don't mess with trying to pet her while she's eating when you first start hand feeding her.. build something good with her eating from your hand. You can add back in the petting after a few weeks, slowly.

During feeding at any sign of growling I would give a firm no, if not immediately stopped give her a correction with the leash. Strong enough to get her attention out of guarding and on you, this is a pup it likely won't take a lot. This needs to happen now, this isn't a process you want to go thru with her full grown showing these same signs.

Remove all the toys from home. If it's toy time, it's with you play with her with the toy. No free time with toys, bones or food. Same thing.. when your playing with a toy w/her.. drag leash, none of that none sense she's showing.

I would remove this pups free time completely as well, in a crate or with you on a leash.. this will help a lot (I do it even with pups that have no issues). If you want her near you use the leash to guide her, until the bond is built better I'd 86 picking her up. Trying to correct a dog and holding them at the same time is about impossible. Your not going to be holding her much longer anyway lol.

Once the bond is firmed up, she will likely come around on you picking her up.

Well said.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Lots of great recommendations from Jadotha, SmokeyCat, Joshuagough and others!

I'll just add in a thought to may help you get in Maci's mind...

My guess is that she was not born this way - but something in her early litter experience made her believe she had to fight to hold onto her food... there may have been other dogs besides the mom and litter mates in with her that she had to compete with - especially once weaned, older dogs would have been interested in the smelly mush they normally wean them to.

I would try and "mother" her (or "father", but "mothers" normally have softer energy) - hand feed her, and if she growls, just slowly move the food away so she can't reach it - wait for her to be calm and maybe even look at you instead of the food, and then calmly say "good" and give her another handful. At this point, you might want to feed her until she can't eat another bite, too... so she knows she won't go hungry. If the other dogs come to see what you're doing, make sure YOU are the one that tells them to stay away - before Maci needs to growl at them herself, so she learns to trust that you'll protect her, too.

Reward EVERY little good thing she does - become a source of happy, calm, loving thoughts. Fill her days will positive good things. As others have said - avoid anything that might end up with a bad reaction (i.e. picking her up or sneaking up on her when she's eating).

I would do a lot of "come" drills. Put the other dogs away, then have you and your wife sit on the floor, each with a bucket of kibble or treats (you can make this "dinner" if you give her enough kibbles this way)... use baby talk to get her to come to you - say "good Come" or "Maci!!!" in a happy happy voice, and give her some treats - then have your wife start calling her the same way... 'pass' her back and forth between the two of you, so coming to each of you is a GREAT thing - full of love, praise and food. :)

Then - send her to her crate with a nice toy or chew treat, and lock her in for a nap and some calm alone time. That will give her time to absorb all the goodness and reflect on how wonderful life is now that she doesn't have to fight for survival.

And, if you do need to get a bone or something away from her, and she does the growl/charge... don't back down, don't get angry, don't yell, don't say her name. Just stand your ground, move in very slowly and wait for her to back away from you, there will probably be a moment when her light switch goes off and she surrenders - then you can calmly pick up the item... count to 3, then have her look at you and/or come to you and give her calm praise for that.

And, I'm not a trainer either... so take what works for you and modify as needed.
Glad that you have had some professionals come over that seem to be helping!

And, she is a cutie. Looking forward to some happy pictures and videos of her in the near future.
 

Jadotha

Well-Known Member
Of course we can continue this discussion on our own, but I think Jmpatrick has said that he and his wife are very happy with the behaviourist, and are going to follow his advice. I personally wouldn't want to muddy the waters with suggesting things which may be contradictory to the direction the behaviourist is taking.
 

cayeesmom

Well-Known Member
Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my issue. The trainer I had scheduled to come did a no show so last night I had a behaviorist come over and he worked with my wife and I as well as our 3 dogs for about 3 hours. He helped us so much with maci and brought out the issues that we have with our other 2 dogs that we didn't even realize was a problem. Maci is already showing signs of improvement. Now I realize my wife and I really didn't know how to handle a cane corso pup and this type of behavior. I will keep everyone updated on the progression and keep posting videos and pictures of her improvement and growth. Again thanks everyone and I will keep in touch!

Very happy you found someone that can help you, please keep us posted .Bet Maci will end up being a great dog.
And if you want to, share your experience with the behaviorist, it would be interesting to know what she/he said/did. Also may be helpful for other young puppy owner with similar issues even though every dog is different.
 

DMikeM

Well-Known Member
I had seen this behavior a couple times. Both were staffordshire pups and it was our improper lifting of them off the ground that started it. Give the pup as much underbody support as you can when lifting. I scoop under the chest with one hand then under the rump with the other now. Just grabbing around the torso puts a lot of pressure on the ribs and such.

The resource guarding is just normal behavior until you train it out of her, hand feeding is best and trade ups are also good. Trade up is you give her something good if you take something away. Always use a command like Off, Leave it, or something similar when doing this so she knows you are initiating some sort of interaction. Get down on the floor with her and give her tons of attention with no toys or food present, pull her into your lap or at least very close to you and pet, stroke and praise her. This will create that bond you need. I really liked Joshua's reply and think it is solid advice. You got some great advice here and looks like you are headed in the right direction.

Keep us updated.
 

Jadotha

Well-Known Member
Yes, I agree that it would be very interesting and valuable if you share what the behaviourist is advising!