digbydisaster
Active Member
Hello Everyone,
I am writing with my fingers crossed that someone can help us, we really need advice. I have a big problem at the moment with my dogs that have started to chase livestock and horses, and it has now become dangerous. I am sorry it is so lengthy but thought it best to fill in all the details!
The back ground to this is that I have two beautiful Neapolitan mastiff puppies (bitches, 17 weeks old) that I have had since they were 7 weeks old. We bought the puppies following a nasty robbery at our farm (we own a ranch in rural Ecuador, South America) and decided we needed some good guard dogs. We chose mastiffs specifically because they are good family and guard dogs and we also have Chihuahuas and mastiffs have a reputation of being gentle giants.
I am a firm devotee of positive only dog training methods and the mastiffs have been trained around 15 minutes every day (several sessions) with a clicker. They are progressing well with sit stay, down stay, recalls, eye contact and leave. They also walk well on a loose lead. They also get 2 walks a day of 20-30 minutes, which will increase as they mature. We work on the ranch all day so they are with us (or can be if they choose) for most of the time every day unless we leave the ranch for the day which is perhaps twice a week. They are outside dogs (there are another 2 older, rescue, outside dogs), but have huge comfy beds beside our front door and we spend most evenings outside with them on the veranda.
Everything was fine with the puppies until two weeks ago. The puppies had been on our ranch with the goats and horses with no problems at all since we got them. They used to play in the goat paddock which is besides our garden and never take any notice of the goats. We also have 5 horses which are in fields surrounding the house and garden, again with no issues. The trouble began because my partner brought our other 2 Chihuahuas from England 4 weeks ago. One is a rescue (Indy) and is very vocal and aggressive towards other dogs in general. However she settled in here no problem with the other dogs (her mate and 2 daughters, plus the bigger dogs). She loves to chase cats (we have 4 rescue cats) and bark at the goats and horses, which then starts all 4 of the Chihuahuas doing this and initially the other dogs did not follow.
The big trouble started around 10 days ago when we came back from walking the 8 dogs and were walking past the 3 goats that had been tied out to graze. Indy started chasing and barking the goats and the mastiffs joined in and before we knew what was happening, they had bitten the goats and were “locked onâ€, with jaws clamped down on the poor goats which was very difficult to remove despite my fingers in her mouth prizing them apart, and my partner scruffing her neck, at this point they were ignoring any commands, and basically all hell broke loose.
To cut a long story short, this has become an increasingly worse problem in a matter of days, attacks on the goats have occurred several times and which culminated today with one of our horses being bitten by a mastiff which was hanging off its belly, he kicked the puppy and we managed to wrestle the mastiff to the ground and sort the situation out.
I cannot believe that our lovely girls have turned into such animal bothering dogs in such a short time with just the provocation of the new Chihuahuas. I was shocked that they would try anything with a horse as they are so much larger. We have tried to minimize the situations that would invite trouble, for instance only moving the goats once the mastiffs are away on a walk, as until today, the mastiffs would only try anything with the goats if they were walking or moving near them. The goats sleep in a paddock next to the garden but the mastiffs had not bothered going into the paddock by themselves which they could easily do at night if they chose to. We also ensure that the Chihuahuas are shut in the house before any animal moving takes place. For the first time today, one of the mastiffs took herself off into the goat paddock and attacked the goats. No other dogs were involved or provoked this attack.
I would love the advice of a professional, but we simply do not have any dog trainers here in Ecuador, let alone positive ones. I am terrified that the mastiffs will start to attack the horses in the fields. We have now ensured our garden (which is 2 acres so they have plenty of space still) is dog proof so that the mastiffs cannot get out and cause trouble but I was hoping to be able to ride out with the dogs and exercise them when they are older, I do not want to have to keep the mastiffs and horses apart. I know that we need to work on our training more so that they obey the “leave†command or the recall when it is used but does anyone have any advice on how to de-sensitize them to the goats and horses? Or any advice on how to deal with their behavior if they are (god forbid) ever attacking and locked onto one of our animals again? How should they be reprimanded in such a serious situation? I understand that working against a dogs prey drive is difficult but this has only been happening for such a short period of time, I am hoping someone might be able to offer some training ideas to de-sensitize the mastiffs. Many thanks in advance.
I am writing with my fingers crossed that someone can help us, we really need advice. I have a big problem at the moment with my dogs that have started to chase livestock and horses, and it has now become dangerous. I am sorry it is so lengthy but thought it best to fill in all the details!
The back ground to this is that I have two beautiful Neapolitan mastiff puppies (bitches, 17 weeks old) that I have had since they were 7 weeks old. We bought the puppies following a nasty robbery at our farm (we own a ranch in rural Ecuador, South America) and decided we needed some good guard dogs. We chose mastiffs specifically because they are good family and guard dogs and we also have Chihuahuas and mastiffs have a reputation of being gentle giants.
I am a firm devotee of positive only dog training methods and the mastiffs have been trained around 15 minutes every day (several sessions) with a clicker. They are progressing well with sit stay, down stay, recalls, eye contact and leave. They also walk well on a loose lead. They also get 2 walks a day of 20-30 minutes, which will increase as they mature. We work on the ranch all day so they are with us (or can be if they choose) for most of the time every day unless we leave the ranch for the day which is perhaps twice a week. They are outside dogs (there are another 2 older, rescue, outside dogs), but have huge comfy beds beside our front door and we spend most evenings outside with them on the veranda.
Everything was fine with the puppies until two weeks ago. The puppies had been on our ranch with the goats and horses with no problems at all since we got them. They used to play in the goat paddock which is besides our garden and never take any notice of the goats. We also have 5 horses which are in fields surrounding the house and garden, again with no issues. The trouble began because my partner brought our other 2 Chihuahuas from England 4 weeks ago. One is a rescue (Indy) and is very vocal and aggressive towards other dogs in general. However she settled in here no problem with the other dogs (her mate and 2 daughters, plus the bigger dogs). She loves to chase cats (we have 4 rescue cats) and bark at the goats and horses, which then starts all 4 of the Chihuahuas doing this and initially the other dogs did not follow.
The big trouble started around 10 days ago when we came back from walking the 8 dogs and were walking past the 3 goats that had been tied out to graze. Indy started chasing and barking the goats and the mastiffs joined in and before we knew what was happening, they had bitten the goats and were “locked onâ€, with jaws clamped down on the poor goats which was very difficult to remove despite my fingers in her mouth prizing them apart, and my partner scruffing her neck, at this point they were ignoring any commands, and basically all hell broke loose.
To cut a long story short, this has become an increasingly worse problem in a matter of days, attacks on the goats have occurred several times and which culminated today with one of our horses being bitten by a mastiff which was hanging off its belly, he kicked the puppy and we managed to wrestle the mastiff to the ground and sort the situation out.
I cannot believe that our lovely girls have turned into such animal bothering dogs in such a short time with just the provocation of the new Chihuahuas. I was shocked that they would try anything with a horse as they are so much larger. We have tried to minimize the situations that would invite trouble, for instance only moving the goats once the mastiffs are away on a walk, as until today, the mastiffs would only try anything with the goats if they were walking or moving near them. The goats sleep in a paddock next to the garden but the mastiffs had not bothered going into the paddock by themselves which they could easily do at night if they chose to. We also ensure that the Chihuahuas are shut in the house before any animal moving takes place. For the first time today, one of the mastiffs took herself off into the goat paddock and attacked the goats. No other dogs were involved or provoked this attack.
I would love the advice of a professional, but we simply do not have any dog trainers here in Ecuador, let alone positive ones. I am terrified that the mastiffs will start to attack the horses in the fields. We have now ensured our garden (which is 2 acres so they have plenty of space still) is dog proof so that the mastiffs cannot get out and cause trouble but I was hoping to be able to ride out with the dogs and exercise them when they are older, I do not want to have to keep the mastiffs and horses apart. I know that we need to work on our training more so that they obey the “leave†command or the recall when it is used but does anyone have any advice on how to de-sensitize them to the goats and horses? Or any advice on how to deal with their behavior if they are (god forbid) ever attacking and locked onto one of our animals again? How should they be reprimanded in such a serious situation? I understand that working against a dogs prey drive is difficult but this has only been happening for such a short period of time, I am hoping someone might be able to offer some training ideas to de-sensitize the mastiffs. Many thanks in advance.
