My bull terrier is becoming more aggressive and she's not even 5 months

ghost

My female bull terrier puppy (spayed) lives at home with two older miniature dachshunds (ages 10 and 11, both neutered).  My puppy has been good during meals for awhile until about 3 weeks ago when she ran and attacked the 11 yr old wiener dog that is about 11 lbs.  The wiener dogs would eat first and she would watch closely and wait for them to finish.  Then she eats after.  But now, she growls at the wiener dog if he's in her sight.  She was never possessive with toys or bones/treats until last night.  She had her own bone and the wiener dog had his bone a few feet away.  All of a sudden she stopped chewing her bone and ran and attacked the wiener dog on the neck and did not let go. My bf told me he had a hard time opening her mouth. She did not release the wiener dog until she was held up in the air.  He has never heard his wiener dog cry like that before.  He was the older, smaller wiener dog but he remained alpha for 10 years. I watched the puppy everyday but i left 3 days ago and is now out of state to look for a job.  The only other thing that changed is that the puppy has been going to doggie daycare for the first time for the past 2 days.  What is going on with my puppy? What should we do?  She seems to become more aggressive as she grows.  I am afraid if it gets worse we would have to separate them for good.

exiled

How long has she been spayed? 

That sounds like some big changes over the past few days for a puppy...you being out of town and her being in doggy day care for the first time concurrently.  Finding a job is extremely important, so you must do what you need to do.  Has the doggy day care facility given any feedback to you about which yard she's in (large, small, mixed) and/or how she's adapting?  Does she go to doggy day care with the other dogs in the family or on her own?

From your comment, I get the impression that the dog she took the bone from yesterday was the alpha, and that the alpha eats while she waits.  Just wanted to be sure it was clear in case others have some insight about the effect that might have on her behavior, if any.

She's pretty, and that's a gorgeous picture.

ghost

Thank you for the doggie compliment.  The puppy (Ghost) was spayed a month ago, 4 days before she turned 4 months.  I have been watching the doggie daycare webcam.  On her first day, she was with the big/active dogs.  She was playing for hours and got tired at the end.  She was there for 10 hours.  On the second day, she was in the big/active dogs again but was later switched to the smaller/more relaxed dogs because she was so tired, walking all slow.  She looked like she got along with the other dogs. 

 The one she attacked was the alpha dog (Peanut), which is the wiener dog with the broken ears in the back of the picture.  The other wiener dog (Pickle) doesn't usually get close when she's eating so she hasn't growled at him while eating dinner so far.  Also, Pickle is slightly bigger than the Peanut and is friendlier.  He was on the sofa at the time of the attack.  So both the BT puppy and the alpha had their own bones to play with while on the floor in the living room.  That was normal thing for them for a few weeks now.  I do admit that the wiener dogs get a little possessive with their bones and meals sometimes.  They would growl but never bite down another dog's neck the way Ghost did to Peanut.  

exiled

I forget where it was, but I remember coming across an article that I started to read about the meaning of dog eye contact.  Admittedly, I got a little bored reading it and didn't finish it, but it was talking about how little slight changes mean a lot, but we wouldn't likely perceive it.  I don't know if any of this is true or not, but I started thinking about it reading your comment and visualizing Peanut and Ghost with their bones.  It's so hard to tell what triggers events sometimes...sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it isn't.  I guess it could be a vibe that Peanut gave off that Ghost picked up on, or maybe Ghost just lost it after a day at doggy day care and was tired, or maybe even something else?  Do you have a gut feeling?

philsergeant

Very hard to diagnose, for anyone, with the amount of input, although valuable, that you have provided... All we can do is make suggestions as to the cause, and you'll need put together the pieces..... First of all, beautiful girly~ Ghost, those other hairy things look cute too. :-).
Second, she has had a lot of changes going on in a short period... Spaying, Day Care, you away, changing eating arrangements.... She could react to all of these happening simultaneously or just a couple.  I am guessing that when there are no treasures around there's no issue? So therefore no treasures, including meals, unless you are standing over them constantly. So therefore no "free bones" unless they are under your nose. If she reacts badly there must be swift and significant reprimanding.... Pinning is best.  She needs to learn it's wrong, if she hasn't already been taught this, then she can't be expected to know automatically.  If she is taught to respect the space and treasures of others, she will learn, but it will take time.  If you get frustrated it won't go away and then your fear of not being able to keep either her /or the fur kids will come true. Does she have any other well-supervised (eagle eye) exposure to other dogs?, I don't mean the day care, that's not really supervised... I see the beach in the photo, dog parks?   If there's no problem at those locations where there are typically no treasures, then it's a matter of the treasures, which means standing between over them at mealtimes and correcting.  Tell me if I am reading anything wrong. .... (Sorry, but just on another matter, why anyone would spay at all unless for the dog's health sake?, let alone so young... your males are fixed?).

ghost

hello everyone thanks for the replies. ghost has gotten food aggressive with the same wienerdog a few weeks ago. we consulted her puppy class instructor and google for info. both seemed to say just keep them separated at meal times. yesterday was the first time it happened over a bone and I don't want it to continue or escalate to toys etc. she has no issues at the dog park, her daycare is supervised its like a constant dog park with many different dogs and a staff member always watching in the room with them. never got a bad report and she seemed great and super happy on their web cam. Im going to consult a more serious trainer tomorrow (my first day off since) but like to hear input from other more seasoned BT owners thanks


As for spaying, we were always planning to spay her. A lot of dog places require for them to be spayed/neutered in order to join. There was also an offer from the county that they will spay for free before the age of 6 months.

BulliesofNC

Personally, I feel that giving a Bull Terrier a bone often brings out the Devil in them. I'm not saying all Bull Terriers are like that but many will agree that they notice an immediate change in behavior when giving their Bullie a bone. Some will take off with the bone and immediately look for a private place to eat it away from people and other animals as though they don't trust their own behavior. Others will eat their bone wherever they please but don't wish to be bothered while they're eating it.
I don't take any chances with a couple of my Bullies when I give them a bone so I will throw the bone in their kennel and shut the door. Our female, Kolohe, loves bones but if I give her a bone and she has no where to go hide she won't even eat it. It's like she gets nervous and knows that she has the tendency to become very protective over the bone. She also knows if she were to even let out a faint snarl to another dog I'd be all over her. Knowing this, she will either go straight into the kennel, in a closet, or some other place where there's little chance she'll be interrupted from enjoying her bone. With food she's perfectly fine but bones turn her rabid and nervous.
Although I don't have any Bullie with food aggression I still don't feed them with bowls side by side. Again, they enjoy their food almost as much as a meaty bone. Simply separate them so they aren't tempted to defend their food and develop food aggression. They don't want to be mean or aggressive and it's easy to prevent it by feeding them away from each other and providing them privacy when eating bones.

philsergeant

So how is Ghost doing now two weeks later.?

ghost

Thanks for a great response BulliesofNC! The bones definitely brought out the devil in her we never experienced before.

As for her update. She always eat separately from the other dogs. No one is allowed to have a bone anymore. Not sure if or when we will re-introduce the bone again. No aggressive attack occurred after this.

She still hucklebutts at home but not as often. It gives Peanut anxiety and he goes after her. She just runs away. When Peanut tried to go after her when she wasnt doing anything, she got up and squared off with Peanut. No fighting occurred though.

She continues to go to doggie daycare and made lots of best friends. The owner himself even said Ghost is the best bill terrier he's met.

She goes to the local dog park as well. She loves playing with the bigger dogs. When a big dog doesn't like her, she will try numerous times to get their affection. There's a German Shepard who almost bit her a few times at the dog park. After a few weeks, she ended up cuddling with that same German Shepard.

She is mostly very sweet and friendly. At times she can be cranky and a bit of an asshole. She doesn't usually play w smaller dogs. When she does, they bark to let her know they don't want to play. She would continue to bother them anyway. She does this with Pickle.

Overall, shes doing very good. Hopefully we don't her devil side again. Unless she's protecting all of us.

philsergeant

Well, it is so wonderful to hear that you and he have made such great progress....  our two sometimes 'snapped' over bones previously and we try not to let them have them unsupervised... every now and then one has one and the other frequently just chews the other end.... so hopefully it's a phase they have grown out of.... I find Bullies want love more than anything else.... if they get tons of that, nothing else seems that important.... wait?... aren't humans like that too?