Dear John,
I have a 10-month-old Cane Corso. How do I get him to stop jumping on people and biting their clothes and shoes? Please help!!
D.L. Shenandoah PA
Dear D.L.
While I’m always interested in helping people with their dogs via email in some cases I believe it is ill-advised. Where inquiries involve certain breeds such as the Cane Corso I would encourage you to seek local professional guidance. Admittedly this is easier said than done as even in the training world many do not understand the breed and advise clients inappropriately. The Cane Corso is a wonderful breed but can be quite dangerous when in the wrong hands. They are not pets so much as hobbies and many end up euthanized before they hit the age of 3, particularly the males when their well-meaning owners fail to acknowledge that they have chosen to purchase a Ferrari as opposed to a Mini-Van.
Regards,
John
3 thoughts on “Cane Corso Problems”
At three years of age I do not understand why he would still be jumping and even still be chewing on shoes. I have never experienced that problem with any of my dogs who have reached full maturity. But I will tell you what I did to solve the problems that I had with my pups as well as friends and families dogs. So in order to solve the chewing of shoes you must have given him the idea when he was a puppy that it was ok to chew clothing and such which is why he continues to do it. What you have to do is watch him closely and the trick is to catch him before he can act because there is no way you will get your shoe back (unharmed) unless he knows the release commands. So every dog has signals these signals differ from dog to dog. My corso as a puppy used to love to chew on everything so in order to make her stop as a family we would watch her and if we saw her beginning to eye the shoe or I guess get ready to snatch it we would call her name so that way her focus was no longer on the shoe. Now if your dog chooses to ignore you then you have a bigger problem. That is when you will need to go up to your dog and do a slight tap on his body either on his head or on his back so that way he knows your there. If he turns back to look at the shoe again distract him with a toy so that way he knows he can chew on this and this only. You have to make sure you are consistent or this will never work. For jumping do not push him off of you if you do he will think you are trying to play and he will continue to jump because he is excited or he wants to play. So what you have to do is face your back to him and ignore him completely but stand your ground. If he continues to jump on you repeatedly and starts scratching you etc where it begins to hurt your or whoever then that is when you walk toward him forcing him off of you and forcing him to back off. With guests its much easier put him on a leash sit him down and when they open the door keep him sitting if he is about to jump do a quick tap but it has to be done at the right time. If he continues to jump tug the leash forcing him to face away from the person and do not allow him to look over or he will once again get excited. But the fact that he still does this says that he doesn’t see you as his leader but more of his friend. A cane corso owner must be strict with his/her dog but fair which means that he must see you as his leader or he will always try to challenge you and that will lead to problems with others.
Mathew (another Cane Corso owner)
The Cane Corso traces back as far as Ancient Rome. They are descendents of the Roman Molassian, a Roman war dog. In fact, the name comes from the Latin word, “cohors” which means “protector” or “guardian.”
This comment (above) is one of a series of spam comments sent to askthedogguy.com by one specific Cane Corso “breeder” spreading the sort of misleading information that cause so much damage to the Cane Corso breed. I say spam because they always include with this ‘sales’ material a link to the Cane Corso puppies they have for sale. I always remove the links because their comments as I say always have misleading information. This one is the exception, except perhaps there being to the best of my knowledge no such thing as a Roman Molassian. I think they meant Molossian as that is a thing. I approve the comments after removing their links so I can provide input as to the misleading aspects.
Please read this article before deciding whether a Cane Corso is a good match for you, and before selecting a breeder that might underplay the reality. Alternatively, buy the eBook I wrote:
The Problem With Cane Corso Breeders That Potential Owners And Everyone That Loves The Breed Should Know About
The Five Most Common Cane Corso Mistakes, How To Avoid Them And End Up With Your Dream Dog (e-book)
– John Wade (www.askthedogguy.com)
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