Re: Bite inhibition problem in 21 month old English Bull terrier help required

[Mathew Vandart]

Thanks very much for your answer Mike. I am afraid you have confirmed what I already suspected :(.
which is terrible when you consider he was a stud dog.

I have a few more questions if you don’t mind.

What is a breaking stick?

I keep him in a secure pen which is 16ft by 16ft has insulation in half of the cover an the other half is covered with transparent plastic. He has a nice kennel, a shallow water tray for him to lie in on hot days some chew toys and a comfy bed.
Is there anything else I need to provide for him, he is going to be in there for long periods at least until he properly accepts the muzzle.
He is at the stage where he has it on but is rubbing it on the floor and trying to paw it off.
He can see me training dogs and playing with my own dogs from his pen, he mostly ignores them or just watches from his pen but if they get into a minor squabble with growling and snapping (my dobermans are siblings) he gets into a ‘Bully whirl’ if you get me, spinning around and getting hyper.
Is it wise to let him see things like that? Or should I make another pen in a place that is less active?

I am having a very hard time of this as I hate to see him penned in, I just don’t normally keep dogs in pens for long periods (it was a pen for dog holidays) he is so nice with humans it’s heart braking.
His main motivation is petting which I think may have come from lack of it, have I got that right?
I think he might be getting a bit depressed.
I need to take him out in the real world for a walk or we are both gonna go nuts, there is only so much walking one can do in the yard.
He nearly broke my wrist on the way home from the breeders which was 250 miles away. We were stopped for a rest, he saw another dog and started jumping up in the air and then spinning. He only had a harness on as this was what he came with, and obviously while I was trying to control and calm him down he spun, there was no way I was letting go of an unknown Bull terrier that was acting up so my wrist rotated right round, luckily I am pretty bendy.
This was the first warning sign, although like I said, there was no aggression, growling barking or anything so I assumed he was just a hyper dog that had not had enough balanced discipline.
We were very wary when we decided to introduce him to our dogs and we took our time over it. He was not behaving in this way when he met them.

How do I tackle this situation?
He will have a harness and a collar on so I can really restrain him affectively.

Would my dobermans would be good playmates as they are pretty much perfectly obedient and trust me to make decisions 100%?
Although they do occasionally fight (not like him but snapping and growling with each other , you know like sibling dogs do) they will snap and growl at him and other dogs if they piss them off but nothing serious just normal warnings.

I think my wifes bull terrier had alot to do with the trigger. did you watch the video I posted? I could do with an expert interpretation of body language in that.

Another thing I noticed about his interactions with humans is when people are arguing (this situation is causing a bit of stress in the household) he gets all ears back about half way, tail goes down but not between his legs and he backs away just a few steps into the pen.
When you pet him on the top of the head (stroking not like patting)he also goes ears flatish and lowers his head.
What do these signs mean?
He has just come from a house where his owners split up which I assume went with alot of arguing, do you think he got kicked or abused as a result of these arguments? just speculating here.

Here is a vid of him interacting with people, this was his default until he got into the fight. He still behaves like this but not all the time, sometimes he will come over to you but is not waggy tail until you say something to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k63s52dIwgY

When I broke them up, or realistically when he let her go, he got squirted with the neighbours hose, was this wise (so did I) lolz, I didn’t ask the neighbour to do it he just took it upon himself, he was just trying to help.
I obviously reprimanded him, not harshly physically but verbally ( I was pretty amped at the time) harsh verbally for me basically means I swore at him alot but not yelling but obviously pissed off.
I did this while I held him by standing over his back holding his collar and pointing him away from the other bull terrier till he calmed down and Kath took her away.
It took maybe 10-20 secs for him to calm down.
Was this the right thing to do?

I have alot of experience with TRAINING dogs but not alot rehab skills and experience of this intensity. The only other case of aggression close to this I have dealt with personally was a doberman male that gave plenty of signs before he lost it so it was easy to get in there before he kicked off.
I used obedience treat rewards and controlled play sessions with my dobermans to get him right. He has so far not got into another fight since he went to his new home.

We can’t afford a rehab expert and to be honest after watching your vids and reading this site I don’t trust them anyway, they don’t know this system and would probably be all treats and harsh corrections anyway, so we will have to do this all ourselves. I want to get his nuts chopped off, especially now after there is more than one person thinking it is genetic, but my missus doesn’t.
You see after we were told a pack of bullshit by the breeder Kath had specifically got this dog to stud out (bumpy the dog is neutered) as there are many EBT breeding kennels in the area we live, none of them have reds so he would make her a mint.
Would cutting his balls off affect the outcome of dog/dog interactions at all or is this just a myth?
I’m sorry about all the questions its just I really need to formulate a plan as I have a business to run and the sooner I get my plan together the sooner I can start in earnest and the sooner I can get back to actually carrying out business. I know this sounds harsh, I also know this is not some bullshit dog whisperer overnight fix, but I have kids and more dogs to feed, I have taken nearly a week off to keep an eye and to start his obedience skills learning.
I just need a plan so that I can see progress towards a goal.
Any help at all towards this plan will be greatly appreciated.