Young Cane Corso With Multiple Red Flags Regarding Aggression

Hi Sally,

I’ve made some notes and inserted them where appropriate below.

Sally wrote:

We have worked hard using treats, collar warning, verbal command, distraction, and 150% percent alertness on my part…

John Wade replied:

In most instances, the Cane Corso is a hobby-level of commitment as opposed to a pet level. In my experience, much of what you describe above is a byproduct of being subjected to training ideology as opposed to behavioral science and common sense. That ideology being the All Positive/Purely Positive/Force-Free… .”, ideology that began in the early 1980’s.

Just as a $50 bill can influence my behavior, treats can influence a dog’s behavior. However, where things fall apart is when somebody shows up with a $100 bill and for any dog, let alone a Cane Corso, life has a lot of hundred-dollar bills. The idea that you can teach life skills using this ideology is both scientifically sound and devoid of common sense. If my parents had restricted themselves to the teaching of life skills similarly, I would most certainly be dead in jail. Whether your parent is shaping life skills and a child or a dog owner, you’re going to need more of your tool bag.

What little shaky science there is to support ‘All Positive/Purely Positive/Force-Free …’ clearly indicates it was intended for applications where the environment around the subject is under the handler’s control at all times. The rat’s maze, the Orca and Dolphin’s Aquarium, an obedience competition, the agility ring, etc. Hardly real-world.

Training should be almost all positive. Can treats be used to add a positive? Yes. Is it wise? For obedience – very rarely. If you’re aiming at a Cane Corso’s or any dog for that matter, stomach to teach and form a relationship, you’re missing the best part of canine companionship.

In any event, totally inadequate for any Cane Corso I have ever met or worked with and one of the primary reasons so many are euthanized. Even the polar opposite and also highly flawed, ‘Might Is Right’ approach does less damage.

For more on this read my eBooklet – What Are The Different (and best) Puppy and Dog Training Methods (ebook)

Sally wrote:

 

… to see the passing by the dog before him and I can say 95% of the time he obeys my order of ‘Ignore’, and have a good outing. When he doesn’t, I am mostly able to grab him, so no one is hurt.

John Wade replied:

It’s not that one needs to seek perfection in every aspect of our canine companions’ behavior, but certain things should be non-negotiable, but some things should be “No Matter What”. If you asked me, ““John, is your girlfriend faithful to you?””, and my reply was, “95% of the time she ignores other men, we can enjoy ourselves out in public. When she doesn’t, I am mostly able to grab her, so no one is hurt.”, you might think I had a skewed sense of relationship priorities.

If your dog is behaving in the manner described, he has no business being in these settings you are repeatedly exposing him to, as he, and you, are clearly not yet ready.

 

 

Sally wrote:

He is only walked on a very short leash with a handled collar and a prong. Most of the time, the leash is relaxed.

John Wade replied:

A short, tightly held leash attached to a prong collar is nothing more than the other side of the flawed coin offered to companion dog owners regarding companion dog training. This seems more akin to the ‘Might Is Right’ approach to companion dog training. Your relationship is the real leash. A physical leash and collar are merely your emergency brake. Not the other way around.

I suspect you’re in environments you have no business being in (yet). I’d be willing to bet that your Cane Corso could not walk on a loose leash around the inside of your home (without triggers) for one minute. You need to teach “Heel” more incrementally if you are to succeed. Would you teach a child to do geometry at the gateway into Disney World? You’re just setting yourself and your dog up to fail. Get out of the deep end of the pool until you learn how to swim properly in the shallow end. In other words, teach your Cane Corso that you are the teacher. Then teach him that you’re not asking him to ‘Heel’ in a calm environment. You’re telling him to “Heel”. Then in bits and pieces add real-world contexts and give him a chance to figure it out that you mean “No Matter What”. Read my book – ‘Healing The Heeling Problem – (ebooklet)‘

You may be making matters worse by using a pinch/prong collar in the context you are currently using one. If you pinch me as the pinch/prong collar you’re currently using, without a clear context every time my aggressive tendencies are triggered in an environment where those tendencies are very likely going to be triggered multiple times each and every outing, are you going to extinguish or fan the flames? It can and does go either way.

You keeping the leash short, rather than first teaching your dog to keep the leash slack, and gradually increasing the complexity of “Heel”, is likely also contributing to your problems. You may be putting your dog in a state of agitation and have him convinced that he’s going on patrol as opposed to going on a walk.

Sally wrote:

He had always been good with people.

John Wade replied:

Most are because that is the way genetics influence behavior when in the stage of ‘youngster.’ It changes often changes when they approach and explore adulthood. They are guard dogs after all.

Sally wrote:

Thanksgiving weekend, a runner insisted on squeezing by me and touched me in passing, and I did not think to prepare because Hans is always good with people. Hans got the runner by her elbow. Scared the $&@ out of everyone!!!

John Wade replied:

Red Flag #1

This is very common and one of the reasons I wrote the book about 5 most common mistakes regarding Cane Corso.

Sally wrote:

He recently developed a fear about certain spots in the house all next to doors. He won’t pass till I go and hug his head and pull while saying it’s okay. It often takes a few steps for him to be then happy and easy going again.

John Wade replied:

Odd, but some dogs in his age range do become inexplicably spooked. As long as they aren’t coddled and nothing too much is made of it, they seem to grow out of it. However, it’s worth looking into because the last thing you want is spooked Cane Corso.

Sally wrote:

My 4-year-old could always lay with him. 6 weeks ago one day, she startled Hans by falling into him to hug him during deep sleep, he warned her with growling and teeth all very quickly. He left marks on her face and only where the teeth contacted her teeth broke the skin. We have since trained the child about respecting space and reading body language, and nothing like that happened again.

John Wade replied:

Red Flag #2

If you have found a means of stopping a 4-year-old human child from refraining from being a 4-year-old child without traumatizing the child for life, you have a Nobel Prize in your future. Even if your child is 100% reliable in understanding the list of do’s and don’ts, visiting children will be less reliable. Yes, children can in time learn what to do and not do around familiar and unfamiliar dogs; however, responsible dog owners make sure that DOGS LEARN TO BEHAVE AROUND CHILDREN.

Children need to be supervised around any dog under 3 years of age, and if there are no instances such as what you just described, you can relax (somewhat). I’m just guessing, but I suspect that now that your Cane Corso is moving into young adulthood, the foundation that you have laid, or it seems, failed to lay, regarding his position/hierarchy is behind the behavior. Working around this huge red flag by believing that changing the child’s behavior rather than the dogs often leads to further problems in breeds far less serious than a Cane Corso. I highly recommend you seek a better path or remove the dog from the household.

Sally wrote:

We recently left for a family holiday, and more events happened. The university student who we had to care for him and our home knew him well, and he loved her. She invited her family over for dinner. I had a training session about introducing strangers to the house with her, but of course, I was not there. Her mom came in, they did some treats, and Hans ( my Corso) seemed relaxed, so everyone relaxed till he leaped into the air and grabbed the mother by the arm and bit. He broke the skin on her arm through her coat.

John Wade replied:

Red Flag #3

Remember what I said about the value of treats? If they were so powerful an influence on behavior, why did this happen? They use “treats” to train killer whales, and in time (after at least 4 trainers were killed by the killer whales (never in the wild) and countless injuries and close calls. Treat training, as mentioned earlier, is clearly not enough.

Sally wrote:

We have always had my parents living with us as they help with the 3 kids. They recently moved away to a lovely apartment since the kids are getting bigger and no longer need so much care. We now have a tenant. She was introduced to Hans when we rented the apartment back in November, and it was all great! She came by to move somethings in when we were out of town, and he was fine at first but nipped her hand without breaking the skin.

We are now back, and this morning the tenant came out of the apartment, and I brought Hans to greet her. He was good at first, and all of a sudden leap up to her face. Did not really bite, but it wasn’t friendly at all and left two small marks on her chin… I yanked him off as I had him on very very short leash and reprimanded him. Then he was okay and more relaxed as we hung around talking more. I gave my tenant his favorite treat to give to him in the beginning.

John Wade replied:

Red Flag #4

An indication you very likely have an increasingly dangerous living situation and very probably have far more dog than you can handle. Somewhere between 18 months and 3 years of age, and I predict sooner rather than later someone is going to be seriously hurt. Larger still, darker still and dripping in blood.

Sally wrote:

The afternoon meeting was with a very short growl and when I said no he was then okay. But I kept our distance this time. I just read your book on the Corso. I am sorry to have written this much. I need some guidance. Would you be able to help me?

John Wade replied:

If the book you are referring to is The Five Most Common Cane Corso Mistakes, How To Avoid Them And End Up With Your Dream Dog (e-book), you should be aware of some of the areas that need addressing, need addressing sooner rather than later. If you have difficulty finding someone experienced with Cane Corsos and this type of problem and still need help with this issue, book a Zoom consultation with me. The consultation is a standalone appointment. An optional very effective 10-day guided video follow-up (I monitor progress via progress and problem video exchanging) is available separately.

 

Sally wrote:

Hans was trained for obedience with a mastiff trainer, and I think it was a somewhat balanced training. I no longer work with him because he disagreed with my neutering Hans at 15 months when all dogs male hated him and he pulled me across the pavement so many times telling them he could eat them for dinner. No dogs were hurt ever, just my knees. Then this trainer pushed the idea of an e collar for recall and all correction. He has gone through two dogs in the past two years both became quite jumpy from the e collar, and he put one down and sent one away. I no longer feel right about what he tries to tell me. I didn’t want to add stress to Hans who seems stressed when he reacts to dogs and some humans.

John Wade replied:

Anyone can call themselves a dog trainer. It’s an unregulated industry. There’s more than one clue in what you’ve written that this is not what I would call a dog trainer. It’s not because he recommended an E-collar. An E-collar is merely a tool. In the right hands, they can sometimes play a role, but from what you’ve described, your “trainer”. For what it’s worth, tools are not problems until there’s a fool at the end of the tool. Sadly, there are a lot of fools at the end of this particular tool, and your trainer, if they’re making dogs “jumpy” from the E-Collar, falls into the category of fool in my book. In my experience, very few people use these collars correctly and cause all sorts of serious issues with them. They’re like a veterinarian’s scalpel. They can do a lot of good or a lot of harm. It depends a lot on the expertise and experience of the person using either.

Sally wrote:

I also have a trainer now who has helped me to redevelop a connection with Hans building the simple command of ‘ watch me’ keeping both of us calm and connected. Because the other guy made me stressed and afraid as well… and that was causing the dog aggression worse. The connecting has been very helpful. She is positive training based. She has been working with dogs for many years. She works with reactive dogs of all breeds.

John Wade replied:

The “Watch me!” concept has become quite popular recently amongst the all-positive-based trainers. It ultimately fails in those $100.00 scenarios mentioned earlier. Far more important than watching is teaching listening. When I say listening, I don’t mean hearing. I mean listening—no matter what. I think you still haven’t yet hit upon a trainer that actually knows what they’re talking about or doing.

Sally wrote:

I love Hans. He is an attached dog to me utterly devoted and tenderly submitting. I need to know that I have got this situation under control looking forward since I have many lives depending on me including his…

John Wade replied:

I believe that you love Hans. I also think that Hans loves you. However, if you believe him to be utterly devoted and tenderly submitting, we have very different definitions of a teacher/student relationship. I suspect he loves you but sees you in the context of a roommate and not a teacher or a parent. I also believe that if you transition him to seeing you and living with you as a loving authority figure, he’ll be a lot happier as well.

Final Notes

The Cane Corso is a very serious breed. Their genetics come from those Molosser breeds allegendely sometimes bred for killing people in wars and hunting boars, etc. and as much as I love the breed, I love you, your children, their friends, your parents, friends, and other family and anyone else that crosses paths with Hans FAR MORE and you should too, so I take, and recomemend you take this very seriously.

Dog training is similar to painting from a naturalist perspective. For the image on the canvas to compare to the naked eye, you need to paint from a pallet with all the appropriate colors. You are very likely painting with some of the right colors. That’s not enough. In any event, from what I’ve read above, it appears that you’re leaving many colors out and added some that should not (at least yet) be in there.

If you continue to have difficulty finding legitmate help for your dog you can book a Zoom consultation with me. The consultation is a standalone appointment. An optional very effective 10-day guided video follow-up (I monitor progress via progress and problem video exchanging) is available separately.

Regards,

John ‘Ask The Dog Guy’ Wade
Embracing Science and Common Sense