Bully Breed a Gentleman at Heart

A wonderful break through this weekend with training my Old Boston Bulldog!

As those who have been following my blog know, I have had a challenging year and a half raising my bully breed dog. I adopted Pablo as a 6 week old pup and discovered at 5 months that he had the “gaming” instinct, that is, he is instinctively super aggressive toward other dogs. If another dog shows aggression toward him or his brother ( a pug named Fernando) or any one of his family (humans) he will fight, and fight until the death, as a “gaming” dog is genetically bred to do. I have dedicated myself to working with Pablo to ensure he is a safe family pet. It has not been easy.

However, Pablo is a very intelligent and people-affectionate dog. He is never aggressive toward humans and is a rag doll with children (he is mauled during play by my daughters and friends regularly and he never so much as growls).

This weekend was a break through for me. I had resisted letting him “play” with other dogs other than my pug, for fear the other dogs would act aggressive and in turn, cause Pablo to act aggressively back. I did not want any seriously injured dogs on my hands. However, my sister arrived with her 3 dogs for a visit. Her dogs are friends of my pug Fernando and the four of them like to play together. We decided to try Pablo in the mix. Pablo was great! He was a little aggressive with the female (Roo–not pictured) at first as she is the most irritable on meeting new dogs. But after I buzzed Pablo with his Dogstra collar and said, “Enough!”, he left her alone and decided to play nice. He had a wonderful playdate with the dogs and wanted nothing more than to get the other dogs to chase him. I am so proud of my boy!

I know Pablo’s weakness, which is, other dogs that are aggressive with him or his family. I know his strength too: he loves to play with other dogs and is a gentleman at heart if not feeling threatened. Old Boston Bull dogs (with the gaming instinct) need understanding, discipline and TLC in order to play with other dogs.

I am so proud of my boy Pablo, he has come so far in his training. He really can be a gentleman with other dogs. He has already proved to me (since the day of his adoption) that he is naturally much more gentle with humans than most other breeds, he’s super intelligent, he doesn’t shed, drool or smell and he doesn’t bark much–he just might be the perfect dog after all!