[NinaCaliente]

We recently added an almost-6yo English Bulldog to our family. We had a Bulldog in the past who we raised from a puppy (miss him), so we are aware of the typical bully traits, but this is the first adult dog we've taken on. We've had her for a few weeks now, and I've run into a few issues that I'm having difficulty with.

Our new dog (Bea) is friendly and housebroken, but she needs work on manners and basic obedience. My biggest problem at the moment is that she demands attention constantly. When I am busy doing things it is not such a problem: she follows me everywhere, right behind me (like her nose bumping my leg), but she's welcome and she's mostly just curious about what I'm doing.

The problem comes in when I try to sit down to relax, work on the computer, or do anything where I'm not in motion. She will then jump all over me, and start humping me if she gets a chance. When I make it clear that that is not okay, she will nip at my legs (not hard enough to hurt, but still unacceptable as far as I'm concerned).

She does not do this with my husband or my children, only me. I find this difficult to deal with because she does not know any commands; she doesn't seem to know what else to do with herself, so I want to be able to communicate what behavior is acceptable, but I've had minimal progress so far with "sit". She either doesn't know how to play with toys or is just uninterested in them. Chews and stuffed kongs hold her attention briefly (10 minutes MAX), and then she's back at it again. She does get a walk, but that is a work in progress too. (The problem there is that she lags behind and needs to be coaxed along - nervous in the new neighborhood perhaps, and not trained to heel - so it's tough to really get her physically worn out.)

I called the behaviorist at our local humane society for advice on how to proceed with this issue, and she said to sign up for a class in a month and just give her time to settle in. At this point I have resorted to kenneling her when I reach the end of my patience, but that's not teaching her anything. I know she needs time to adjust and get to know us, but after two weeks of this I'm feeling harassed by my dog! I don't want to establish bad habits. Anyone have any ideas???

Thanks for reading my novel!

[jesirose]

When she does play with the toys, do you reward her and give her attention then?
I work from home and I do allow Sadie out of her crate while I am working after she has gone potty outside. Every few minutes I look down and make sure she is playing with a toy and not anything she's not allowed to, and if she is, I reward her with lots of head scratches or a treat. If she is playing with something bad or my feet, I redirect to a toy and reward her when she plays.

[angel0430]

He is an old dog, so I guess it's going to be pretty difficult to change his behavior at this stage of his life but it is worth a try. And by the way I always wanted to have an English Bulldog but they are too expensive for me and i heard they are very delicate dogs.

[Dogstar]

I think kennelling her sounds like a good idea, to be honest- she sounds a bit overstimulated and like she hasn't had a chance to learn how to chill out.

What I would do:
-Start working on a ' go to your mat/bed'kennel' command- I prefer a mat or bed because I can then pet the dog while they are on it, which is highly reinforcing. "Control Unleashed" by Leslie McDervitt has great info about this and I think a lot of the focus/relaxation techniques might really help your dog.
-More exercise. She may not know how to play, but you can teach her. Try tug, try dragging a long strip of braided fleece and getting her to chase the end. Interactive play can also make YOU the bringer of good things.
-Institute Nothing In Life Is Free *now*- there's a sticky on this at the top of this board. Susan Garrett's book "Ruff Love" (fairly inexpensive on Dogwise.com) might also be useful. It's designed for pushy and/or 'dominant' (I am not fond of that word) dogs but it also works VERY well for integrating a new dog into a household where she's not quite sure where she stands.
-6 is hardly old- 6 is the prime of life. But a lot of these problems are just things that never got dealt with, so yes, you *will* have to untrain things. Don't stress- it's totally doable.

Two more books you might like are "Don't Shoot The Dog" (Karen Pryor) and "When Pigs Fly: Obedience Training For impossible Dogs" (can't remember the author.). The author of the second one has bull terriers and gives a lot of good advice on life with bratty bulldogs.