Best Tips When Caring for a Cane Corso

Chase here, perhaps you should know a little bit about Cane Corsos before buying one. If you already have one, this post will suit you too. Cane Corsos come from Italy. They are a very popular watch dog in Italy and also play the role of watch dogs. They are used in Italian police work. That being said, these dogs are fairly trainable, docile, protective, and make great companions. These dogs are not asinine, lazy, or fainthearted and are therefore not for the novice dog owner. I rarely come across owners that are tired of having a Corso. I do come across owners that are having problems controlling their dog, but most owners are elated to have these dogs. These dogs show respectable owners affection, loyalty, and obedience.


In my experience I've owned a total of four Cane Corsos my whole life.  I own two now, and the other two are dogs I've bred and have given to other Corso enthusiasts. Zeus and Hades, the two I own now, (named after the Greek Gods Zeus the God of the Sky and Hades the God of the Underworld), are puppies. I've never really liked raising puppies, I mostly owned matured adult dogs because puppies come with their own set of challenges. Caring for a pup Corso is comparable to raising any other puppy, but the breed does have some distinguished characteristics that you should be aware of: for this reason I've found this nifty little chart that is very accurate according to my experience and knowledge.

Look at Weaknesses, Not Strengths
So based on this chart, you want to pay attention to the areas that the Corso breed scores low in. Neglecting these areas are where many people find problems with the breed. When most people see a dog they want, they look at the plus side and opposed to the downside, or rather, they won't take into account the whole Character Profile of the dog. Just because you favor a dog that is perhaps athletic, intelligent, and quiet, doesn't mean you are a good match for a Siberian Husky or an Alaskan Malamute. Yes these dogs are very athletic, very intelligent, and considerably quiet, but the require top notch grooming, they demand time, and they aren't initially a breed that will tolerate you having company over every day. A great example is if you work a nine to five, live in a studio apartment, and are always throwing parties, positively a "snow dog" is not the dog for you. So in looking at Cane Corsos, here are some questions to ask yourself that target the weaker points of the breed.

• are you constantly changing your location or lifestyle? (adaptability)
• do you live in an apartment? (apartment friendly)
• do you have cats or other animals that dogs don't generally get along with? (cat/animal friendly)
• do you live in an urban environment where your dog will constantly be exposed to strangers? (stranger friendly)
• Do you have the time and patience necessary to devote to their playful nature? (playfulness)

These are certainly crucial questions to ask yourself that can be the deciding factors in whether or not you choose a Cane Corso, and/or what lifestyle changes you need to make to accommodate this breed's characteristics. A lot of times behavior issues in dogs don't stem from a lack of training, but rather from the owner failing to consider the characteristics -bad characteristics esp.- of the dog.

Moderate Your Dog's Biting
Despite what most dog lovers think, that dogs aren't biters, they are. Dogs have teeth for a reason. They pick things up with their mouth like we do with our hands and when use the hell out of our hands right? Dogs use their mouth, they bite! You have to moderate your dogs biting! You must condition your dog to bite what they are supposed to bite. As a puppy, especially a Corso puppy, your dog will try to go after everything! They're curious, it's not their fault, so have patience, but do NOT count this as a cute, harmless act. If this behavior progresses, it will most likely turn into untamed aggression due to a lack of guidance, which signals to the dog that they can do whatever they want. No guidance = no order, and this can lead to a big problem when your little puppy grows into a big dog that has the capacity to cause seriously bodily harm to people.

The best remedy for a dog's uncontrollable biting is consistent attention and discipline. If you're a working adult, hire an accredited trainer to watch your dog during the day to make sure your dog isn't biting things that they shouldn't bite. This is crucial because small problems often lead to big problems. Someone once said, "the chains of habit are too light to be felt before they're too heavy to be broken"; break habits at first sight. If you have someone home or have the schedule flexibility or job flexibility to watch your dog during the day or while you work, monitor what your dog bites. Try associating disciplinary actions with biting. For example, Zeus used to love to bite shoes, so what I would do was secure a pressure operated low powered zapper (you can get these at 5 Below or Party City as gag-gifts) in the lace of my shoes........it worked. It worked because, even when I wasn't around to ensure the consistency of punishment for Zeus's unwanted behavior, the stationary zapper assured me that every time Zeus bit my shoe he would be disciplined. The reason this worked is because I ensured consistency. Consistency is the key to bad habits. As a mater of fact, no consistency is better than intermittent consistency. Intermittent consistency confuses the dog. If  every once in a while the dog gets punished for doing the same thing she does everyday that he normally doesn't get in trouble for, she doesn't know what she's getting in trouble for. Inconsistent/Intermittent discipline will confuse your dog, and since the dog won't associate your disciplinary actions with their bad behavior, the dog interprets your actions as random acts of aggressiveness, adversely causing your dog to respond with aggression or fear (most likely aggression considering the breed).

Be Great
   -Chase

2 Surefire Ways to Get Your Cane Corso to Listen

Most of the questions I get regarding disobedience from Cane Corsos come from owners that have given their dog too much of the former without the latter. By this I mean, it is okay to love your dog and play and do all of the affectionate things, but discipline is something that should be done just as consistently as the other activities you do with your dog. My newest client, Brad, would e-mail me with countless updates about his dog's unbelievably disobedient behavior. Below is probably the worst e-mail.

   "Hey Chase, this shit is happening again...like he doesn't even look at me anymore when I talk to him. 

I open the door from the backyard and he runs in bulldozing over Courtlend leaving him with scratches and scuff marks and I can't have him going to school like that...

Hell but that's not even the worst of it because the little runt shits all over the furniture all the time when I clearly allow time for him to go outside and handle his business....

Meghan's beyond tired because every night we go to bed I have to hear this bull about "you need to give away that dog because I cant live with him messing up the house, I always have to clean up after him on my lunch breaks and when I get off work. either he leaves or you leave with him" 

bro, I need some serious help"

Where do I start lol? So immediately I see one potential problem is that no one is home with the dog. His wife has to come home during her breaks and her off time, so no one is watching the dog during the day. Their dog, I was actually going to train, is still a pup so shouldn't be at home by himself anyway but there's ways around that that I will show you, and he's actually not as rambunctious as they make him sound, well at least around me he wasn't. This if because of two things. 

#1 Disestablish Companionship, Establish Authority, Reestablish Companionship

The number one reason their dog -and most likely your dog too- won't listen is because, to the dog, it's owner is an equal. to put this in plain sight, you have a greater level of reverence and/or fear from people who you start off seeing as authoritative figures rather than companions. For example, your boss represents authority, your friends represent companionship. When you're out say, drinking with your friends and you're tired, you can go home, that is your decision, your leverage, and your authority that allowed you to do. Now apply the same scenario to the workplace, now obviously you don't drink in the workplace (you're a bad-ass if you do), but say you're tired but the boss needs your group's project done by 5:00 pm sharp TODAY, you know you're not going home. As a matter of fact, you know you're not going home so much, that you won't even dare to ask the boss if you could go, because you know he will not let you. The same thing applies with your Cane Corso. Your dog respects authority first and companionship second, not the opposite way around. So to get on the right track you need to disestablish companionship, establish authority, and then you can reestablish companionship. The bullet points below will aid you with this process:

• Do not play our show love to your dog for one week straight (don't ignore, but don't show ease) This disestablishes companionship
• After the week is over, be very consistent and stern about what you want from your dog (be physical but not overly physical, and associate certain actions and or sounds with bad and good behavior) This establishes the authoritative figure
• Do NOT give your dog anything until your dog makes strong eye contact with you (make sure you are above your dog when doing this. Your dog should be looking up to you, not down at you) This will teach your dog compliance
• Once your dog has gotten used to your authority and shows so by  obeying your commands, slowly reestablish companionship by moderate contact, treats, and eventually playing. This reestablishes companionship

#2 Getting to Understand Your Dog

A lot of people know their dog and love their dog, but don't actually understand their dog. Like people, dogs respond strongly to people that cater to what they want and need. For example, if I were to have a conversation with you and somehow we migrated to the subject of chocolate allergies and I said I was allergic to chocolate, I would not be too fond of you if, say the next day was my birthday and you bought me a 1ft long Hershey bar. I would think that you weren't listening to me, and although in your mind it's the thought that counts, to me, all I can focus on is that I clearly stated I was allergic to chocolate and here I have a gargantuan chocolate bar laying before me awaiting consumption; I almost instantly build a disconnect between you and I with something that simple, because it's not the chocolate bar, it's the fact that you didn't listen to me. Dogs, amazingly pick up on this stuff. If your Corso doesn't like Purina Puppy Chow, and you keep giving him/her Purnia Puppy Chow EVERY day or other day, they're not going to be too willing to listen to you when you say "eat before you go outside".

I figured this out the hard way. One of my dogs, Zeus, a Cane Corso of course would never eat his food. My dogs get outside time after they finish eating dinner, but I noticed Zeus would never eat. So I decided to watch him one day to see why he wouldn't touch his food. I lowered his bowl, and just sat there and watched......If I were a dog, and I had to make a repulsive face, I would've made the face Zeus made lol. It's because he hated that God-awful Blue Buffalo shit I was giving him. I felt good because it was expensive, but ultimately it wasn't something he'd enjoy, and I was forced to realize that part of getting your dog to do what you want them to do is making it easy for them to do it. Turns out, the solution to getting Zeus to eat wasn't to assert my authority, it wasn't to force him to eat, it was to search for understanding and give him what he wanted. Now obviously you must use discretion with giving your dog what they want because you shouldn't give them everything they want all the time, but for this scenario, it was a simple fix to a complex problem. 

Enjoy!

   -Chase