Rough Play or a sign of aggression???

ACES5

In the last month we adopted a 2 year old male Bull Terrier and a Female. Both are fixed, but the male is persistent in humping her and also bites at her neck and back. We are consistent in giving a stern no and seperate them when it gets rough, but it seems as though the more I seperate them the worse it is when they are together. The two of them can lie quietly in a room together, but the next minute he seems to be picking on her. She does not show any aggression back nor does she shy away from it, infact she seems to bring it on some of the time, Is this behavior normal? and how do I get it to stop? What causes this?

As a side note, We have another male in the house, an American Bull Dog that does excellent with both dogs.

philsergeant

He is going to need some serious discouragement, the second he starts any nonsense... at that age it'll probably take you a couple of month's of constant intervention but he'll learn if he knows it displeases you.

jcurtis

Sorry IT SEEMS HE WANTS TO PLAY. SO SET UR RULES AND FOLLOW THEM miss had ALL THAT NORMAL PUPPY STUFF BITING NIPPING. SO I MADE A GAME I CHASED HER ARIUND COFFEE TABLE now SHES TEACHUNG THE ROT AND BIANCA. I HOPE THIS DOESNT GET MISINTERPRETED miss plays with the rot. IT LOOKS VISCOUS BUT THE ROT LOVES IT. I PUT MISS STUDDED COLLAR ARIUND HER NECK I have videos U CANT SEE THE ROT THOUGH....THESE BULLIES R GOOFY I LOVE IT. MISS WILL AGGRAVATE THE HELL OUT OF BIANCA WANTING TO PLAY. sometimes she will MOST OF THE TIME SHE SOUNDS LIKE SHES GONNA HAVE A HEART ATTACK. VERY VOCAL. I let miss lick me SO SHE KNOWS HOW TO USE HER MOUTH. CAUSE THEY GOT BIG MOUTHS. after me sticking my finger n miss mouth one tooth got my nail and its n the process of falling off...the pup bites miss and miss will grab her ear with her little front teeth and drags her ten feet....AFTER LEARNING THIS IM WANDERING IF ITS REALLY AGGRESSION OR PLAY.
My daDS FACE WAS PRICELESS WHEN HE SAW HOW MISS WAS TEACHING NEW PUP TO RUN AROUND THE COFFEE TABLE I did that to play with her CAUSE SHE HAD NO ONE TO PLAY WITH.
SO remember ur the BOSS SET UR RULES AND WATCH THEM. I still watch miss I'm afraid WHICH I SHOULDN'T BE BUT JUST IN CASE

philsergeant

Bullies are more than playful enough without needing to be encouraged to do so... Often encouraging them brings out an over-active response. Yes they can be very vocal and, to the untrained eye, they can seem vicious in their play. Our Isabella often sounds/ looks like she is going to tear Marco's heart out, but she just throws her butt at him and pulls on his legs viciously without even leaving a scratch. He knows better than anyone that she is just trying to sound like Spartacus and he goes along for the fun.... If they are well managed they will always know where to stop... but if you make them seem that you want them to go crazy... they sometimes will.

jcurtis

Lord no. ID CRAP IF MISS WENT CRAZY. IM THE BOSS. I mistakenly thought miss was being aggressive. THEN SHE STOLE A BONE AND TEASED THE OTHER AND RAN AROUND THE COFFEE TABLE. THATS WHAT I DO SOMETIMES IS CHASE HER. Yea. Bianca IS REAL VOCAL I hope miss don't GET AS LOUD AS HER.
HA PHILSGT. I READ ABOUT UR MARCOS HEART SHAPED NOSE. UR A SUCKER LIKE I AM FOR THOSE HEART SHAPED NOSES.
When my dad saw miss teaching the rot TO PLAY THAT LOOK WAS A MILLIIN $$ FACE I told him today THAT HE DIDNT REALIZE HOW SMART MY BULL TERROR WAS. I had to watch them and I noticed miss not biting her back. MISS TOLERATES THAT PUP BITING HER.
THERES NO OTHER DOG LIKE OUR BULLIES.
Sorry I suspect some bulls r aggressive I WAS SHARING MY MISTAKE. ITS BETTER TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE. I don't want ANY OF THEM HURT. BOY THESE BULLIES MAYBE SHORT BUT IM N AWE OF THE magnificence OF THEIR HEADS.
I CANT WAIT TILL DAD TAKES HIS POOP MACHINE HOME....NO OTHER DOG POOPS LIKE A ROT. and their NOT AS SMART AS A BULL.
WHEN miss was a pup shed bite me. And SHED GET A GOOD ONE IN I SUSPECT NOW SHE WAS TESTING ME. SO I'll keep watching them CAUSE IM THE BOSS I have to remind myself of that.
Miss is a goofy Turd. IM SO PROUD OF HER.
HUBBY SAID THE VETS OFFICE WAS BRAGGING ON HER BEAUTY. yes that was my mistake

ACES5

That's for sure, There is no need to lead this breed to temptation they can find it themselves. I scold him then I am scolding him for the same thing 5 minutes later, so there is constant intervention, but he does seem to be listening to my command at least at the spur of the moment, some training and I think alot of his bad habits will be curbed. You can tell he just wants to please me he just doesn't know it yet.

I have to remind myself I am the boss too, but they are like a sour patch kid sour and sweet and it's hard to be hard on something that sweet lol, but then they go all coo coo and of course it's back to no, no NOOOOO!!! 

You don't have to tell me about their big heads, Ace, my bully swung his head around and chipped my tooth, I don't even think he felt it. 

Anyhow, he doesn't play as hard with my bull dog just the female. She seems to enjoy it, but he did leave a couple marks on her around her neck, I think I will try the studded collar to deter it, that seemed like an excellent idea actually. He hasn't broken skin lately on her either, but he is persistent on humping and biting her back. So I would really like to put a end to that.

Djammy

@philsergeant
I could not have put that in better words. Bull Terriers truly are playful enough on their own.

And they can get really hyper, if encouraged.

We usually handle that with care.

But sometimes, it's just so much fun to see how they can get overboard, run, jump, hucklebutt and are just pure joy.

Every now and then we need to watch the full register. And they just LOVE when they are allowed to go crazy.

Of course, we protect everything we can then, because when Bullies fly, no teeth are safe!

Quinnofhearts

As much fun as bullies are, all of them must know when enough is enough! The key as an owner is also learning when enough is enough.

When Quinn was a baby it was me teaching her what was and wasn't allowed. She had to learn the basics, no bites, no jumping, no chewing things, etc. After that, it was ME learning about her. At 6 months she was in her first fight. After it happened, I realized that her body language should have alerted me that she was not comfortable with the other dog, and I could have prevented it. Now I know the difference between play growling and anger (a bull terrier's growls can sound fierce when they really aren't), when she's had enough of any kind of play, when she's scared, or when she thinks she's being a big tough gal. Now that I understand her, it's back to me teaching her. What is proper etiquette for a treat? When is she playing too rough with dogs? When is it time to settle down with people? Always learning...

You dog is a bit older, but you've still got a lot of learning to do. Keep with the consistency! It's the best thing for a bull terrier. And make sure they know you mean business. I've got a "momma" voice that my dogs knows she's in trouble. It may take a while but stick with it.
Also it sounds like they might be bored. How often do they get to run? Play with *other* dogs? Play alone with all of your attention? Even though you have three dogs, be sure you give them lots of exercise and individual attention. They'll get it eventually, don't worry.