help/advice needed please

jimmy

Hi all im new to the forum and hope this is ok to post here we recantly got a 3 year old female bully just shy of a week now everything was great she is great with the children 10/16 great with my other dogs but in the past few days shes changed around my wife and son examples my wife going into the kitchen open the oven door washer or dryer door she goes mad at her like nudging and growing if i do it she don react at all also when my wife goes to mop the floor she will attack the mop handle and again growling its now at the point where my wife is scared of her she as also started to not let her in to the kitchen at times and when it comes to leaving the kitchen and closing the door she bites the door and growls whilst its being closed again she dosnt do it with me its just my wife and son when im in the kitchen with my wife shes fine she goes to her waggs her tail has a fuss but as soon as she goes to leave thats when she goes nuts her prevoius owners wernt home a great deal so she had been left with another dog for a good 6/7 hours a day ive rang the vet i use with my other dogs she due in next week for a full set of jabs as the last abs she had was the puppy ones so its a fresh course  she will also have a health check and after the 2 nd jab we are going to have her spayed 

any help or advice will be much appreciated feel free to pm and sorry for the spellings 

JParanee

Hello and good on you for adopting a dog

She is exerting some dominance over your wife and son

She accepts you being the dominant member in the house but not the other members

If your wife is showing fear she will only amp this up

Imho you need to seek out someone to enter the whole family on an obiedience course and have the whole family take part in the training and working the dog

This should put things in order if done correctly

jimmy

Hello and good on you for adopting a dog

She is exerting some dominance over your wife and son

She accepts you being the dominant member in the house but not the other members

If your wife is showing fear she will only amp this up

Imho you need to seek out someone to enter the whole family on an obiedience course and have the whole family take part in the training and working the dog

This should put things in order if done correctly

hi thankyou for the reply she has my wife not even wanting to come home now and dredding having to go into the kitchen etc she is very scared after the mop handle attack i dont get it she still goes to my wife tail wagging has a fuss then as soon as my wife goes to walk out of the room she just turns into another dog

lbarton

Yes - get started on obedience training with a trainer ASAP.  Your wife and kids have to begin asserting their dominance with her.  We had ran into the same thing with Ruby.  Simple obedience training reminds her of her place.  There are several dog trainers that will come to your house so your whole family can work on it.  It helps because you can actually show them what she is doing and they can help with ways to handle that.  Ruby has a major malfunction with our vacuum - part of her obedience training involves us turning the vacuum on and using commands and such to back her away from the vacuum.  It sounds like yours may have something similar with the mop.  

philsergeant

This is a long subject and won't be handled in a few short posts. I laude the others that are suggesting outside "pro" trainers, perhaps they have had joy with them, but, personally I believe that counter productive. The dog needs to understand that YOU ALL are boss .... JParanee suggested that that the outsider involve you all in the 'conditioning ' and that will surely be better than that person doing it themselves... but I believe you need to overcome the fears yourselves and establish the relationship. "Something" has made your wife/ son afraid of the dog, if they don't overcome this fear themselves the dog will ALWAYS sense it. True the trainer may be able to dominate the dog to the point that the family members no longer fear... but best they dominate the dog themselves. I haven't heard in your report that she as bitten or threatened to bite anyone. Most Bullies 'attack' mops and vacs, we always turn it into a fun game {like there's nothing for them to be afraid of } and then teach [demand] them to not attack it... the 'fear' never completely goes away so ultimately they just stay out of the mop, broom, vacs' way... but it doesn't bother them. Everyone needs to control/ dominate the dog so she accepts her true role/post in the family... and you need work together... let your wife mop while you admonish.... you mop while your wife admonishes etc. She is new in the house and looking to attain position, she must quickly find out that that position is under your {loving} thumb.
P.S. On the spaying point, I wouldn't, definitely not now anyhow, it will just further erode her comfort level and screw up her hormones... won't be helpful.
This is just MY opinion, don't take it in isolation, consider everyone's input/experiences.
Good luck, a well controlled, well loved Bullie is a true gift.... and great job on accepting the challenge [I've yet to hear of a first time Bullie owner that didn't struggle for the first couple of months or more {including me} ... but 35 years later of owning Bullies, I'd never have another breed... be strong, write more.

Neil

Our male bull terrier does the same thing.

Mop, broom, vacuum, leaf rake, pool scoop net, trash can wheels etc...

If we had a kitchen door, i'm sure that he would try and get through it.

 It's a game to him, and we all find it quite amusing.

If you don't want the dog to attack the mop handle...then why not put it outside while you mop.

Maybe let her forage in the garden for some tasty treats while the house is being cleaned.

Remove the dog from the stimulus and give it some form of task.

BulliesofNC

She's definitely in need of some training along with your wife and kids. I hate saying it but I think you now know why she was up for adoption to begin with. Hopefully, she doesn't have a past history involving biting anyone but if there was it may not have been mentioned by the previous owner in order to achieve her future adoption.

At 3 years old she's certainly learned some bad habits with dominance in which she has gained some confidence with. Now is the time to get some good training with proper discipline that she will understand and learn from.