How To Raise a Cane Corso

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When you get a Cane Corso you must first consider if you can handle the breed. I dont recommend the breed to first time dog owners. People should know dog psychology and have tried to train dogs previously. The CC needs a lot of attention, physical and mental stimulation. You must have a few hours to exercise your dog every day. A Corso is not the kind of dog that you can just put in the garden and do nothing else. He must come out of his own territory. He needs to meet different people and different dogs in all kinds of situations. If you can't live up to this or you don't want to spend this much time with your dog, then forget about the Cane Corso.

Training Your Cane Corso

The training of the Cane Corso is one of the most important factors when you raise it. The Corso is very intelligent and obedient by nature. To succeed with your dog you have to be gentle and firm. Shouting and negative stimulus is not the way to raise it. You have to give your dog love and affection and in a friendly way explain the dog how you want it to behave. Meanwhile, you have to be firm and show it that you demand total obedience from it. Whenever an order is given the dog has
to obey - no matter what. Therefore you must never ask too difficult things from it! The difficulty of the training must gradually develop as the dog develops!

During its growth the Cane Corso passes some hormonal phases where it's less responsive to training. In these phases where there is a low level of mental contact between you and the dog its better to skip training until the dog responds better. This is very important because positive reinforcement is important in the training and the dog must always like and love to work with you.

It is very important that the dog never gets overexcited. No rough playing is ever allowed. If the puppy gets too excited you have to immediately calm it down. The Cane Corso should always be calm - just imagine the harm a grown up Corso could cause while playing rough games!

A Cane Corso is very trainable, and needs training. You can do ANY kind of
training with the Cane Corso. Obedience training if of course is an absolute must! But you can also train Schutzhund, agility, hunting training and tracking with the dogs. The Cane Corso loves to train and doesn't care what kind! While you train the dog you also have an excellent possibility to let it play and fool around with other dogs.

During training never force the dog to do things it doesn't like. The Cane Corso is intelligent, but you are always more intelligent. You can sure find another method to fool the dog to do the things by positive stimulation. Here is an example:

Once while obedience training Delea when she was young, our trainer brought
the calls to an agility field. Delea was scared of passing through the tube. I tried to crawl into the tube and call her from there. That helped a little, but still she wouldn't walk in there alone. One thing that Delea really loves is tracking things. Therefore we started letting her find treats in the grass. She became very excited and soon she walked into the tube to search for the many treats I had placed there.
After five minutes she had completely forgotten her fear for the tube and ran through on the command PASS. It took me a total of ten minutes to learn her this command. If I had tried to force her through the "tube", I would never had succeeded.

Socialising Your Cane Corso

The Cane Corso puppy is both a friendly and aggressive by nature. It is your job to socialize it as a friendly dog so the dog will never show aggression except in the cases where it has to protect its family or property.

The Puppy is both curious and suspicious. Strange objects or sounds that it never heard before or people acting strange (rollerskaters, disabled persons in wheelchairs etc) will attract its attention immediately. In each of these cases the puppy has to learn that it is not dangerous and means no threath to neither the puppy or you.

Let it get used to all kinds of environments. Bring it out in the nature, walk it in the woods, on the beach, but also in the city and let it get used to traffic and the hustle and bustle. Car train it. Walk it whenever possible. Let it get used to other animals like cats, birds, etc. If you have the possibility, take it to stables to see large animals like cows and horses. Do this when the puppy is small. The older the puppy the harder it is.

The puppy will then learn to feel confident with almost any situation in any environment. It gives the puppy a lot of mental stimulation and it will be very tired afterwards.

Avoiding Fear

LLet's say the puppy sees a parked motorcycle and gets either afraid or cautious. Get close to bike yourself. Don't force the puppy over there but put some treats on the ground around the bike. When he is confident staying close to the bike, put some treats on the bike. Praise him as soon as he takes them and then give him time to study the bike and discover that it's just an inanimate thing which isn't dangerous at all. Next time you pass a bike he wont even notice it.

When it comes to people and children take it very easy. Never force the frightened dog over to them! Talk with the person whome must ignore the dog (in the beginning let a friend unknown to the puppy help you). Slowly, curiosity will push to the puppy to the stranger by himself. After a little while let the person kneel and give the puppy a treat and caress it. Remember to praise the puppy. Continue this way until the dog is perfectly confident with people. In the case of strangers,
explain to them that they should not lean over the puppy and appear dominant, give them a treat to give to the puppy.

Most important is not to force the puppy into anything. Let him walk by himself. Appear calm yourself, dogs are the best "stress-o-meters" and will immediately feel it if you are nervous.

With Children

Molossers love kids by nature. Usually the puppy loves to play with kids and kids love to play with puppys. If the dog does not show any sign of fear of children bring it together with children and let them have fun together. Keep an eye on them so the kids will not hurt the puppy. Let the puppy meet children of all sizes. Walk it close to playgrounds - the children will soon come to meet the puppy. Don't let
the puppy get surrounded by too many kids. if the puppy has had enough it should have the possibility to escape.

If the puppy shows signs of fear, you have to train it to meet children. Use the above mentioned method for getting used to strangers. First with big children to whom you have previously explained how to behave with the dog. As the dog gets more comfortable with children, gradually let it meet younger children.

With Other Dogs

Delea and araldo playing with Old English Sheepdog, west Highland White and Ridgeback

Cane Corsos are dominant towards other dogs! If you don't socialize him with other dogs right from the puppy age (and during the rest of its life) you could have problems with aggressiom towards other dogs when the dog grows older. The Corso is not a dog that provokes other dogs to fight but once provoked by another dog he will react immediately and powerfully. In these situations it is very important that the dog responds to the commands NO or STOP. Let him know that you in no way will tolerate fighting. Try as much as possible to use positive and distracting methods. If you see a possible problem (A strange dog provoking your dog), tell your dog NO and praise him, distract him with a ball, toy or treat and praise him. Quickly walk away from the problem. (If the other dog follows you and the owner will not stop his dog tell him that you will let go your Corso and that his dog hardly will survive it. This usually helps.) Once you are away from the other dog do some light obedience training with your dog and don't forget to praise him! It is very important that you are not nervous, which will make your dog extra protective.

Delea and Araldo with one of their best friends, "Godtfred", the giant Schnauzer

 

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