Nipping, jumping and rough play in adult Bull Terriers

Dog owners frequently contact me with questions. An all-time hit are undesired behaviors in dogs of all ages. I have taken one of the recent request for advice as the basis of this essay, because the problem situation seems to apply to a lot of situations owners experience in one way or the other.

Dog owners often find themselves confronted with are undesired habits of their dogs, which can show in a variety of behaviors. Bull Terriers are little bull dozers even when they are happy and just want to make fun or show affection. And when young they come with a bunch of quirks in addition, such as nipping and roughhousing, which are all too typical. But that does not mean we have to accept them as the owners.
We all know that the best time to work on those undesired behaviors is as early as possible while the dog is still young and has not settled into routines and behaviors yet, in order to avoid bad habits from developing and establishing and our dogs from taking them as “normal behavior”.

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I am afraid that my Bull Terrier will become an aggressive dog

This time I’ve taken this desperate cry for help from Ruby to write a few more articles about the “wild puppy days” of a Bull Terrier in order to help other owners who are experiencing exactly the same problems as well.

“Hello, I am having a hard time trying to train my 4 month old bull terrier, Pluto is his name. He is full of energy and I have a few questions to figure out how to make him stop acting up. He is always ripping the carpet in my house, He starts to get crazy (happy and excited) when he sees people, or other dogs, he doesn’t stop barking even if I speak to him in a calm voice, and in the car he will continue to bark at me or try to get on my lap. I really want to get some help on how to train him because I don’t want him to get out of control when he gets old or become aggressive. Please help me.”

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How to stop excessive chewing in Bull Terriers

A very typical behavior for puppies is using their mouth to explore the world around them.
Parents of a baby or toddler probably know the situation: Everything needs to be secured. Besides electricity, risk comes especially from small objects that can be swallowed.

Just as babies, puppies do explore the world around them mainly using their mouth. This is even more important to know, because despite babies, who at some point stop using their mouth and start using their hands instead, puppies will continue to use their mouth when exploring even when they mature.
We all know that dogs can’t learn how to use their paws to grab and hold things the same way humans use their hands for. But even some dog owners are not aware that this is the reason why the mouth remains the dog’s “hand” even through its entire adult life.

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Roughhousing in dogs – How to control my Bull Terrier

Many owners have dogs that love to play. That is especially true for Bull Terriers. But these rugged little power packs can be rough players and pretty destructive.
Especially when they initiate their very special way of “letting it out” in the so-called “Bully run”. That’s when they start throwing their butts around, circling around you or the room, bouncing themselves against and off walls, furniture or shinbones and often also start nipping like a snapper turtle. Even older Bull Terriers tend towards such sudden and often unexpected outbursts of energy that sometimes seem to be hard to get under control.

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The “stop command” – remotely control your Bull Terrier

Stop commands are one of the most common misunderstandings between dog and owners, because many people just assume that the dog understands a firm “NO!” without ever really teaching them what it actually means.

The fact that this command is used to control many different kinds of situations does not make it much easier for the dog.
Luckily in many situations our Bull Terriers or other dogs do understand the meaning over time.
Because after experiencing certain situations and the tone of the voice repeatedly they can eventually count one and one together and learn the meaning of “NO” on their own.

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