What else should you know about adopting Bull Terrier puppies?
A balanced nutrition is the foundation of a healthy Bull Terrier
Health & Nutrition
Especially regarding the widespread allergy issues in Bull Terriers experience shows that prevention or improvement can rise and fall with the right or wrong nutrition. Wrong in this case means foods that contain high contents of grains (such as most low-cost kibble foods do). But there are also other factors to be considered.
They can exponentiate the problems, which is not only true for Bull Terriers.
To be on the safer side right from the start, it is a wise decision to feed a grain-free and high quality food to your dog. Wet in general goes before kibble, because it is closer to the natural historical nutrition of dogs – provided you choose a good quality brand. But kibble also remains an option, if choosing a good quality brand.
There are great resources for that. The website dogfoodadvisor.com holds a lot of very useful information available about dog foods and can help to identify the good brands.
Also adding vitamins, fish oil and maybe probiotics are a good idea in a healthy Bull Terrier diet.
Exercise
Bull Terriers are very agile and energetic. They need an outlet for their huge amount of energy. Walking them alone can not be considered exercise. You can of course walk your Bully, just don’t consider him exercised when you’re back home. UNLESS you try to make it real fun for him, he will probably not really see the fun in walking. The Bull Terrier needs interaction with his people and a lot of diversion and entertainment. This distinguishes them from some other, more leaned back breeds. The are often characterized as independent thinkers, even hard to train.
In my experience it all depends on how you handle them.
Your Bully will need consistency, knowing who’s the boss and who makes the rules. He needs to KNOW clearly what he is doing right and what he’s doing wrong and needs the time and chance to figure things out and adapt.
Bull Terriers are like raw diamonds. If you use the wrong polishing tactics you will only get a pile of carbon. If you use the right tactics and commit to LIVING WITH your Bully, instead of just owning A DOG, you will get the most precious and loving pet you can imagine as the reward for your efforts.
Find more tips on how to entertain your dog here
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Hello,
We just got a little miniature bully. And our concern is. He only plays with ball for a short period of time and don’t chase toys or people. He just laying down.;( is he ok? Bully’s suppose to be very active.
While English Bull Terriers are notorious for being very active, even for this breed the following is true:
Besides the disposition of a certain breed, activity levels also depend on several different factors, such as age, nutrition, health and environment (hot summer, cold winter …).
I would need to know much more details to answer your question. But if you really think that he is much less active than other Bull Terriers of his age I would probably recommend to get him to a vet for a check up anyway, just to make sure the little one is physically ok.
Hello I have my male bull terrier who jut turned a year now. We socialized him early as possible where he got along with all dogs, never bit back. Now for the past month he gets aggressive with dogs. He starts off wanting to play with them. When he plays with them for at least 30 seconds than he gets aggressive. Once we stop him he cries for the other dog. We can’t find the issue but this has been going on. He has always been a people and dog lover but now we are afraid I take him back to the dog park. Any ideas? THank you
Hello Ashley,
that is textbook adolescent Bull Terrier attitude. When maturing, especially males tend to really push their limits and challenge owners and other individuals in order to find out what they can get through with.
You did not describe the “aggression” in detail. So it is a little hard to tell from afar if you have already reached the point where your dog actually attacks and bites others or if he is basically “just” going over them, mounting and dominating them, no matter if male or female. If biting is involved I would first skip meeting other dogs in uncontrolled places, such as dog parks, and put all of my efforts into working on the issue under controlled circumstances, ideally with a trainer.
Basically, you are absolutely right about not wanting to tolerate dominance and aggressive behavior, especially when exhibited pro-actively by your Bull Terrier. At that age, working hard on obedience and your bond can help a lot, even if success may not be visible right away. Dominance needs to be interrupted every time immediately and playtime ends right there in order for your dog to learn that nothing good results from aggressing others.
If no biting is involved already and you know of any other dogs, he is getting along with an not trying to dominate them, maybe it is a good idea, for now, to limit playtime with other pals to just these particular dogs. All other situations – as it sounds to me from your report – should better be avoided and only be entered very carefully and under strong supervision in the future. Also I would keep a long leash on the dog and warn the owner of the other dog that yours tends to dominate others, before they interact. The leash enhances your chance to intervene early once your dog starts to go over the top again. If the next few very cautious attempts fail and your dog seems to continue escalating its behavior every time rather than dialing back a bit, like said before, I would skip dog parks and other gathering spots for dogs for a while altogether, because chances increase that sooner or later there will be a fight, once another dog does not accept being bothered by your dog. Bull Terriers are courageous and once challenged they often do not back out of a fight, even if they were the ones who started it by bothering the other dog.
Scientists say that dogs minds are comparable with the ones of a three year old child. And in my experience this seems to be true, sometimes resulting in irrational decisions.
You also did not mention if your dog displays the described behavior EVERY time with EVERY dog or only in isolated cases.
So, here’s another tohught to consider:
If it only happens now and then it would be a great idea to really monitor the situation closely when your dog interacts with the other dog and watch, if your dog is really the one starting things or if the other dog is for example nipping ears, going over your dog or in general also showing provocative behavior.
Also it is a good idea to watch owners. If an owner obviously does not care about what his dog is doing, think twice about letting your dog play with his dog. Because once things escalate you will be left alone with TWO dogs to handle and separate and in the worst case the only thing the other owner will have seen is your dog attacking his.
Rather try to find people, whose dogs are getting along with your dog an who are aware of the risks, who are actively involved with theirs dogs and willing to work on the situation with you.
One more thing to keep in mind: Some Bull Terriers have a general tendency to develop aggression or an aversion against other dogs. Right now, honestly, your situation does sound more like just adolescent quirks. But it might as well turn out that your dog is just not compatible with other dogs.
Things should not accumulate to a serious fight to make that clear. There are lots of other preceding signs.
General incompatibility is a possibility that should be kept in mind but if it should turn out to be the case, it would still not the world’s end. It just needs to be considered and handled and your dog needs more human play pals in that case. 🙂
Hope it helps a little.
Dorothea
Hello, fantastic website and source of information!
Our 2 year old EBT dog Ruffus ( male ). We only have had him for 4 months now and the seller said he was great dog and he is 99% of the time, but when he is sleeping and you step near him he instantly awakes and snarls and barks very aggressively. My children and husband are now terrified, the thing is, this only happens if roused from sleep. So, the trigger is, if sleeping on his bed or on the sofa and someone affectionally strokes hime then he will go into a terrifying fit of rage that seems to lasts for a few seconds.
The thing is Ruffus shows no aggression around food or toys. When we bought Ruffus from the seller, Ruffus had his tail docked. I’m now wondering that the seller was aware of this and my research leads me to think that Ruffus was possibly an OCD tail chaser and now is possibly showing signs of sudden onset aggression.
Can you help
Hello,
this is one very special topic I have been considering to write an essay about, just because I keep hearing these stories from Bull Terrier owners all over.
Sadly, I am so packed with work right now that I will need to find some time first.
I’ll try a short answer here today. First of all, my girl did it all. Pout, growl, act mischievously and she still does by the way. That’s just how they are.
Everything you are describing is not unusual for a Bull Terrier and, yes looking at it that way your breeder should have known that. But I do not see any negligence in not warning you, because this is not abnormal aggression in my opinion. This is the Bull Terrier’s temperament.
The following is my own experience and opinion. This is the only thing I can tell you. You will have to evaluate yourself if that makes sense for you and draw your conclusions for your future life with the dog.
My last girl, Fancy, did have the very same thing for a while around the same age. She even jumped up and started chasing my feet while still half asleep. However, she never hurt me and it stopped at some point. Now, with Mila its different. She has been moody from the beginning and has never stopped. She is 6 years old now.
For example, when she is sleeping and my husband or I shove our hand underneath her body or even only try to stroke her, she seems startled, growls like a monster and her whole body stiffens. She looks and sounds scary then. Every stranger would probably think we are only seconds away from being hurt really badly and call us crazy for staying near her and continuing to stroke her. She usually calms down once she realizes it’s us. She has never ever once hurt us (that she only does when she is happy and tries to knock out our teeth out with her head or butt :-))
The way we see it, this aggression out of a sleep situation is actually a good sign.
It shows that your dog obviously feels safe in its environment and is able to really let loose and sleep deeply when resting. Usually dogs don’t sleep very deep because they always have one ear “wandering” and eavesdropping for any dangers. Guarding is baked into a dog’s DNA, especially when it comes to these dogs and their families.
Mila often runs in her sleep and seems to dream very vividly. She is a good sleeper.
Many Bull Terriers, once they have committed to their home and family usually become pretty territorial, which could explain the harsh reaction after the dog gets startled in its dreams. But that also means that she is basically protecting us and our home when acting like this. The first few times I admit that I also was a little puzzled and afraid that this could become a problem. But it never did. I realized that never even once Mila has tried to really bite one of us. She is just “warning” really loud in her “voice from hell” 🙂
Now, I don’t know how you experience the situation yourself with your dog. But I have a feeling it could be similar to ours.
It feels scary, I give you that. But maybe try to observe very closely, how far this “aggression” towards you really goes and draw your own conclusions.
Maybe it helps to look at your dog like we see ours: A grumpy old grandpa-toddler in diapers throwing a fit, tyrannizing the entire family and yelling at you at the top of his lungs while swinging his cane at everyone when you dare to wake him up. 🙂
As for the topic of safety first, I highly recommend to put some rules for the family members and especially the kids in place, just in case the dog one time does not recognize in time that you are not a dangerous intruder to the home.
To avoid the situation entirely, talking to the dog or call his name a few times and waking him up BEFORE touching him could be one very easy remedy.
My husband sometimes fails to wake Mila up with his deep voice and sometimes even mine does not work. But when I use a high “baby voice” she is up promptly.
That is also something in a female’s genes. High pitched noises such as the ones puppies make, wake them immediately while low noises don’t necessarily.
I don’t know if this also works with male dogs. But you could just try it.
The kids should never be alone with the dog and should be instructed not to interact with the dog when it’s sleeping.
Bull Terrier are little wrecking balls and yes, they do stupid things, just as kids do.
But sometimes to me it merely seems to be a question of how we as the owners manage a situation and not really about a sick or bad dog.
On the other hand, aggression of course can also be a health condition, which would be much harder to deal with. But in my experience not very many dogs do suffer from this. In most cases these are behavioral issues or like described above just unlucky handling of a situation.
If you want to rule out health issues, I recommend to see a vet, of course.
Bull Terriers are such wonderful and special dogs, funny and affectionate and the best companions you could ever wish for, so committed to their family once broken in. It’s SO rewarding!