I have a 5 month male cane corso and we live in an apartment on the 2nd floor. For the first 3 months, we had him balcony potty trained until he was able to get 2nd and 3rd round of shots to prevent the risk of parvovirus. He’s been using the bathroom outside for a couple of weeks and he caught on pretty quick. BUT, whenever we leave our apartment to go down the stairs, he will bark and let out a light growl if he sees a stranger. He doesn’t show he’s teeth nor does his fur stand up and it’s pretty easy to get his attention focused on something else. Once somebody takes the time to let him sniff them, he’s all for wanting to play. And if we have friends or family over, he never shows any aggression and just wants love. It’s only if we’re outside the apartment. On another note, if he sees a dog, he goes ballistic, constantly barking and pulling very hard at the leash. We’ve been rewarding him for good behavior and it seems to be helping, sort of.

Today I was walking him outside and an off-leash pit bull came running towards him full force and stopped when they were touching noses. The dog jumped on my pup and my pup pinned him down by his throat. The pit bull was 2x the size of my dog my which really surprised me. The dog saw it’s owner running after him and he ran off. I didn’t want to discipline my dog because I felt like he was doing what any dog would do to protect its owner from a random dog running towards them. He let go immediately after a couple seconds and the dog didn’t cry. But now, I’m terrified it’s going to happen every time a dog approaches him. Has anybody else been able to help their pup with this kind of behavior? He really is a good pup, I think he’s just really scared of strangers and other dogs.

Here’s a picture of my boy, his name is Klaus. I’ve been a huge fan of The Vampire Diaries since the day the pilot episode aired, so if you know, you know.