Big decision
Almost a year ago, I set off to Leeds to buy a puppy. After an awful lot of research I decided that a presa canario was what I wanted after I fell in love with the dog in the link. I returned with Bane, my 8 week old puppy after a lovely day playing with all the puppies and falling in love with Major (Bane's dad) whose looks and personality make him the poster child for large, calm dogs.
Lots of people in my life were quite concerned about the large quadrupedal killing machine I was bringing home. Fortunately, after actually meeting him everyone has changed their minds. However, I took my job of raising Bane to be a calm, well mannered dog, quite seriously and began socialising him from day one. I have been really lucky to find an awesome group of people to walk and train Bane with. It's been great fun learning how to handle a large dog and I thought I would write up some of the things I've learnt.
Raising Bane
At first, I concentrated on teaching Bane the simple commands everyone does: sit, come, lie down, stay etc. As everyone seems to find out quite quickly, your dog will come to you 100% of the time inside the house or garden, but perhaps a little less than that when you actually want the to - like in the park! My socialisation seemed to have worked a little too well and Bane would be too excited about playing with other dogs to listen to me. So i got some private tuition for him from a fabulous dog handler. I learnt to control Bane's excitement before he got to the other dogs and show him how I wanted him to interact with other dogs. This meant I had to be super calm during the interaction and not tense in case Bane ran off playing with another dog. The best piece of advice I got during this phase was "put your dog in as many challenging situations as you can and will him to do his worst, then you can correct his behaviour". Having the confidence to let your dog make mistakes and knowing you have the tools to correct any unwanted behaviour really speeds their training up and I definitely believe it strengthens the bond between you and your dog.
A lot of the tools to correct your dogs behaviour seem centred around keeping your dog calm during a given interaction. Stopping Bane being excited and rushing over to meet a new dog has dramatically reduced the amount of times he gets told off by another dog and increases his ability to listen to me when I want him to come away. On the pack walks we go to, each one starts off with the reminder "excitement is the biggest cause of fights between dogs".
It takes two
The next phase in what was really my training, not Banes, was to realise that it's not all about my dog. Up until recently, I'd really focused on having Bane do what I tell him. However, I noticed that Bane was an absolute prince on the pack walks amongst lots of other well mannered dogs, but out in the real world, he was often attacked by other dogs or people would create confrontational situations with him. For example, a man once shouted at me to get my dog on the lead, because he didn't want his family to have to walk past my frenzied killing machine. I should point out that at that moment in time, Bane was away from the path, oblivious to what was happening, sniffing his way through the undergrowth. I reacted in my own standard way, by explaining that if the man continued to shout at me the dog would be the least of his worries. Bane immediately sensed the confrontation and raced over to protect me. He placed himself between me and the man and barked his warning. I slipped a lead on Bane and walked off, however, I later realised that I should have taken control of the situation earlier.
So now, when I walk Bane, my focus is less on controlling my dog in a difficult situation and more about managing each situation so that Bane can just act normally. I have found it to be a really effective method for having a nice walk and it's quite easy to do once you get past that typical British reserve. There's a tendency for two people walking past each other not to speak or make eye contact. I think this makes their dogs think that it's up to them to take the lead then. If the owner of the other dog is a bit afraid of dogs, this can make their dog more protective and less likely to be happy if Bane wants to say hello. So, rather than let the dogs take the lead, I'll give a smile and say hello, perhaps make it clear that Bane's friendly. If that relaxes the other person, the dogs will follow suit if it doesn't then I'll call Bane over and put him on the lead.
I've also found that asking someone if their dog is friendly is a good opener. If the owner greets you with a cheerful response, I've always found the following interaction between the dogs to be friendly. I've also found that it sometimes jolts the other owner into action, a couple of times I've had the response "she can actually be a bit snippy sometimes, I'll pop her on the lead mate".
Survey of one
Obviously, these are my thoughts having reared a dog to the grand old age of one :) so I'm not claiming they are universally true. I do however, thoroughly recommend pack walks, socialisation and not getting a dog unless you plan to spend lots of time enjoying it!
I feel I should mention at this point that I actually have two dogs now, Bane and the lovely Silver - who came pre trained. However, everything I've said about walking Bane seems to apply to walking Silver too, especially the parts about setting her energy levels.
