Pastimes
Walking
Tug of war
running,
Fetch
We have had our Bullweiler for around 6 months. He was extremely nervy and still runs away from other dogs and is deathly afraid of our cat. He was initially scared of our very old Schipperke, but became best friends with him and would follow him around all day trying to get him to play and play fight. He would let our Schipperke bite his face and body and ears and never bite back hard and would just wag his tail and put his head on the ground and his bum in the air with his tail wagging.
He is also scared of hoovers, scared of you holding objects like poles or carrying boxes, skittish around large noises.
Most western lines of Rottweilers and American bulldogs are horribly bred, with zero temperament testing. Our dog is from German working Rottweiler lines, imported and bred in the UK. The American Bulldog was a house pet and from non working lines.
Despite his skittishness, he is very good as a watchdog, he will bark like a dog possessed at anyone walking passed the house, delivering mail, hopefully his skittishness goes away with training and reinforcement, but he will likely always be a skittish dog to some degree and most mixed dogs have this issue, as mixed dogs are almost never bred by people who are breeding towards a temperament.
He is good with people, soft even, out of the house he is soft and will either avoid or let people stroke him and wag his tail.
He needs lots of exercise, at 10 months he needs at least 2-3 hours of exercise a day to not become destructive. This seems common in the crossing. They will steal anything not hidden, eat food, bottles, boxes off the kitchen counter, steal pebbles from the garden and try and eat them, even try and eat poop.
Extremely food motivated, not too bothered about toys, he enjoys them, but really food is king. Bones, chews, thick rope to chew, kong with peanut butter. I taught him to sit, lay down, upsit, shake a paw, stay, jump up and fetch in about 3 weeks. Since then I don't really bother with that kind of stuff but have had to focus on the walking.
The larger boned bully-er Bullweilers seem to all have a tendency to pull like a train, no matter how many hours you do the whole stop and wait them out, bribe them with treats, positive reinforcement routine.
We tried harnesses, flat collars, slip leads, head leads, body loops etc. He still wants to pull. Eventually we gave in to our trainers advice and got a prong collar. Instant stop in extreme pulling, still wants to walk ahead, but does not pull forward.
Off lead he is great, good recall, runs around like a nutcase, lolloping, spins around and runs 300 meters away, then bombs back to you as fast as he can.
Protectiveness, is an interesting one, despite being a massive fearful wimp, he certainly does have some protective instincts.
Our older dog was knocked over by a rambunctious young bully breed dog, they got up and the dog did it again. Rolly ran over, barked, growled with raised lips, stood infront of our dog with legs back and chest out, the other dog ran away.
A second example is a man let his two young pitbulls off leash on the park and they ran up behind us and jumped on our smaller dog, he snarled and growled and chased one away and ran around barking until the owner put them on their leads.
He also barked and snarled at an old lady who walked into our house by accident, thankfully I was home and nothing happened. Not sure anything would of, but potentially he would defend the home from an intruder.
Last word of warning, I and the three other people I know with Bullweilers,all have issues with them opening doors. Our dog has figured out how to hit the keys in the doors and unlock them. He can get out and if he does he is prone to barking at people who come near the house.
We have had to install safety locks to avoid him doing this and despite that he still wants to be out front, despite us having a large back garden and giving him daily runs and walks and play.
Shedding is kind of an issue. So much so we shaved him thinking he had a serious condition, however we were told he simply had poor quality hair from the home we got him from. His coat has come back but is currently patchy, don't shave them and know their hair can look bad and split, but it just grows coarse, it isn't a health issue and shaving them can ruin their coat for life.
Overall I absolutely love him. He is super super super velcro, if you go to poop, he goes, if you go to bed, he goes, if you do the garden, so does he.These dogs need someone with them most of the time, they are super attached to one person and no matter who walks them or who feeds them, that one person is their life.
I broke big toe and middle toe and ripped open my foot and received very deep lacerations meaning I couldn't walk for two months. Someone else walked, fed and spent most of their time with him, but he would always want me, want to sleep near me, choose to sit near me over them and would run back home to find me during walks.
Once they bond with their person, they become attached more than any breed I have ever known.
They like rough play, he loves wrestling, i let him mouth me but I have a stop command of Calm, once I say it he stops instantly and just licks me or sits. Never feel scared of him and the rough play has boosted his confidence considerably. He started so skittish, but with the daily socialisation, the walks and roughhousing, he is slowly becoming confident and more used to excited dogs and strange people and less prone to flight, or fear aggression.
Last thing is lapdog syndrome, they will try and sit on you, lay on you at night. Our boy is about 110lbs at 10 months and he sits on everyone, friends come over, sitting on you or attempting to while battering their leg with his tail so hard it leaves bruises.
People fall in love with him and we have had several people, including our vet take a picture of him to show people.
TLDR the rambling:
Great loving velcro dogs, athletic, often fearful and skittish of other dogs and or people. Sheds fine hairs, steals items, food motivated, great watchdog, get attached to one person.
4 years, 10 months ago
