Help. Aggressive 14 month male

2Auggie_Boy

We have a beautiful 14 month male named Auggie, we picked up at 8 weeks. Auggie is our first ever bull terrier. We have alway raised Sharpies, who are very easily trained and very mannered. With all of Auggie's enthusiasm and happy go lucky attitude we were very laxed with him so as to not break his spirit. Our female sharpie is an alpha dog and she gaurds the food dish, which I now believe has contributed to Aggie's aggressive manner with food and toys. We have had our daughters 2 dogs join the family over the summer, a Boston terrier and a mix terrier both males. Auggie has had Clyde as a buddy since he was 5 month. They have always played well, however in the last month Auggie and Clyde have had several bad fights. Clyde has had to have staples.
Auggie seems to become aggressive for no visual reason. He growls, and his hair is standing on end. If any animal is around he lunges and begins a fight if we don't catch the attitude in time. He Has resently growled at my husband for no apparent reason, then when husband tried to calm him he got up and left with ears pend down. I keep trying to pen down the possible reasons for this unpredictable aggression. My family believes I'm just trying to find excuses, however I've raised many dogs and there is always a reason. Any help is greatly appreciated

JParanee

I have 2 13 month old syblings

They show aggression at times to one another and their dominance rotates on where they are at in the house

Sounds crazy I know

They do not exhibit this when I'm around as bad and I can control it verbally when I'm present but my wife has issues

It only happens when one is jealous of the attention one is getting or when someone comes into the house and they are both viaing for attention. I can correct this verbally but she has issue

I was away for a few days and they were getting out of hand as in when I'm there they can eat next to each other etc.

She was having issues so she was feeding them seperatly which was leading to more issues

I do not beIieve that you should cater to dogs whims so in my mind she was just making things worse

On my return I feed them together etc and all is well

I told her she needs to be more assertive and not let them get into situations that will stimulate issues if she is not prepared to correct those issues

These dogs are old school pits and they will when given the lead assert themselves

You need to correct bad behavior and if you are not capable of doing so don't let the dog get into a situation you can't handle

I do not hit or advocate hitting dogs other than the occasional swat on the ass but as soon as a dog acts up I do believe in putting them on leash and working them thru their obedience drills to assert my position

This is coming from someone that has raised many large aggressive animals such as a pair of male Dogo Argentinos and Rottweilers etc

Only in one situation I had two male rottys that hated each other and would rather die than be together if they saw each other it was on and they had to be separated constantly

It sucked and there was no way to correct it

BulliesofNC

I wish I had a nickle for every time I have seen a similar post like this one. There must be at least 20 different posts on this Forum alone that pertain to concerns regarding aggression / dominance from their Bull Terrier. 99% of these posts are all coming from owners concerned about the negative behavior of their Bull Terrier which are between the ages of 6 months to 18 months. It's clear that some Bull Terriers go through a stage in their adolescents which is prone to this type of negative behavior.
Instead of regurgitating my recommendations again and again every time this subject surfaces I encourage you to run a few searches within this Forum using keywords like "aggression" or "dominance." Or just browse through some of the topics in specific categories that apply to behavior issues.