Save me from putting my dog up for adoption please!! (staffy probs)

DamagedTrax

Staffords are dogs that want to be around humans more than most other breeds. if you want an outside dog they arent the way to go as they can suffer anxiety if away from their family.

To train him, start with his crate in your bedroom for a few night, gradually move it out into the hall way over the space of a week or so, always leaving your bedroom door open so that he can hear and smell you.

Then, just keep moving the crate closer to where you want him to sleep. also, locking the crate door at night time isnt a good idea, its much better to give him the freedom to move about the house. if he's awake then let him go do his own thing.

mel94

I have not read through all the replies but basically the problem is Staffords DONT do well as a outdoors dog! They become bored and destructive!

The research that you have done on buy and sell is not proper research! You should have contacted breed clubs..... went to breeders homes to see their dogs and the way their puppies have been raised see the mother(not always possible to see the sire) and make a informed decision on a well balanced puppy!

Sending him away to be trained isn't good either.... This is a critical time for bonding with your dog he gets to know you and you get to enjoy him being a stafford and learning all his quirky ways.

The breeder should have told you that staffords don't like segregation they need to be part of the family! They love nothing better than being in the middle of it all.... they love their runs and walks but would also be quiet happy to lie on the couch beside you getting belly rubs! Not being left in the garden or locked away with a bone!!!

Staffords can be chewers as puppies so like others have suggested get your puppy a crate! Get vetbed rather than a fluffy bed the pup would have great fun chewing up! Buy Kongs and Nylabones to keep him occupied while your busy but must importantly GIVE YOUR PUPPY THE LOVE AND AFFECTION THAT HE IS CRAVING!!!!!

The Sweeper

maggiepip wrote: »

Personally I feel tethering a dog in the living room would just be counterproductive - they get so pleased to be released they just go even crazier when free.

It works really well if you do it properly. You don't tie him up in the living room and leave him there. You tether him while you're in the room, watching TV, to help him settle. You need to tether him out of reach of everything. I attached a D-ring to the skirting board in my living room and clipped the dog's lead to it when he was unruly. He would have to settle, and once he'd settle he'd be allowed off the lead. If he revved up again, he went back on the D-ring. The best thing was it meant I could leave the living room for two minutes and come back without him getting into mischief. They learn very quickly that they only get off the D-ring if they're calm.

AE86JAY wrote:

Keys banging on a table seems to stop my lad a lot of the time I might work a training routine around that for a while and see, thanks for the reply!

Hey OP, that won't be the solution to all your ills. You're concentrating on how to stop your dog doing stuff - you need to come at the problem differently. You need to figure out how to motivate him to only do what you want him to do (as opposed to focusing on stopping him doing things).

I have a 30kg bull breed mix. He's now three and a half years old and he is a fantastic dog. When he was a pup he was a total bollix. There's just no better way to put it. Sometimes I reflect on our puppy time and think to myself, ah he wasn't that bad, and then one of my friends will remind me. Seriously. They can remember.

He was destructive, unruly and incredibly headstrong. He picked up commands quickly, but he was hugely reactive to other dogs and so on and when he hit his teens, he simply did nothing he was asked. Plus I wanted to do only positive training and went to positive training classes, but he'd spit the treats out and continue to maraud around the place. (Eventually one really excellent trainer had enough of him in a class and took the lead from me and gave him three sharp leash check corrections just to get him to calm the eff down. I was so grateful to her. He genuinely needed it. But you can't do that forever, and it shouldn't be your go-to move.)

If people have had 'good' pups and dogs, they might not realise what it's like to deal with the juggernaut that is the bull breed puppy. 'He's just a pup' is entirely true, but that doesn't downplay the disturbance, upset and sheer whirlwind of mess that a really high revving bull breed pup can bring.

Things that worked for me:

TETHERING. I tethered the dog on a slack lead to the belt on my jeans while we were in the house. He moved when I moved. He stopped when I stopped. I had treats in my pocket. I was trying to integrate my dog with my six cats, so I needed him not to chase. I also tethered him to a D-ring in the living room as I described above. I only had to use that D-ring for a week before there was a change in his indoor behaviour. I wanted my dog to be indoors, but I wanted him to behave. This was part of getting to that point. He's now a house angel.

MOTIVATION. I had to find what motivated my dog. It certainly wasn't treats - yes, indoors, without distraction, he'd work for food rewards. Outside, he wouldn't have a bar of my treats. I could have the best, smelliest, most excellent food and he'd actually turn his face away from it. I eventually discovered my lad would focus on my face and maintain solid eye contact like a frickin laser beam, regardless of other distractions, for a tennis ball. Training at home: food treats. Training outdoors: toys - tennis ball and tug rope.

TRAINING. Lots of training. 20 minutes every morning of cycling commands. 20 minutes every evening of cycling commands. Training all through the day where I'd reinforce the basics and anything new we'd just learned. By 'cycling commands' I mean 'sit, lie down, right down (for flat on his side), now sit up [reward], lie down, sit up, [reward], wait ... come on [reward], now go away (send him to a spot, then distance commands) sit (at a distance), lie down (at a distance), wait ... come on [reward].' Drills, just like that, 15-20 minutes. He'll be knackered at the end of it. At eight months he might only make it to 10 minutes. Don't underestimate how exhausting obedience drills are where you make your dog concentrate.

You can also train through nuisance behaviours. My dog doesn't nuisance bark. When he 'found his voice' aged one year, I taught him a 'speak' command (mark the behaviour as they do it, and reward it). Teaching him to bark on request also meant I could teach him to stop barking on request.

ROUTINE. I established a routine - breakfast - 30 mins - a walk and a play. Those would generate a poo and a wee. Then he could be left indoors for a number of hours without creating a mess. Evening was dinner - 30 mins - a walk and a play. If it's too wet to walk, play ball in the yard. Play tug of war in the garden. Leave it a half hour for the food to settle, then gentle exercise to prompt a poo and a wee. Then he could be left indoors overnight with no problems. Routine reduces anxiety, which can help reduce nuisance barking. Your lad may bark early because he just isn't able to wait for a wee, or otherwise wait to fit in with your routine. You may need to compromise on this one - if he wakes at 6am and you don't get up until 7am, meet him in the middle somewhere? 6.30am? 6.40am and 20 mins of obedience drills to start your day?

CONSISTENCY. My dog gets away with nothing. NOTHING. EVER. Even when I'm exhausted. I allow my dog up on the sofa, but he has to 'request permission' (comes up and places his chin on the sofa and looks at you, ears pricked). He's never allowed up without asking. NEVER. If he ever tries (and he does, every few months), I order him off the sofa ('NAH-AH! Get down!') and leave him a couple of minutes. Then I invite him back up. Same with doors. He's not allowed charge through doors. He has to sit and wait. If he charges through, he's made come back and sit and wait. Every. Single. Time. If you're consistent, then ' corrected every single time' actually means 'the one occasion in five weeks where the dog is disobedient, he is corrected'.

BOREDOM. Boredom is your enemy. Boredom cost me two barbecue covers, a pair of high heels, every bed I bought him for the first 18 months, well over 100 potted plants, a silk top, the power cords for my husband's surround sound system, a pair of expensive flip flops, and holes in the garden that cost nearly a hundred bucks a time to backfill and reseed when we moved house. Boredom fighters include frozen kong toys - I'd fill a kong with raw beef mince and then freeze it. That bought me 45 minutes right there. Obedience drills helped fight boredom. Channeled destruction also helped fight boredom.

CHANNELED DESTRUCTION. Yep. Every so often we'd let the dog destroy something. It was always something specific (he can't tell the difference between an old shoe and my good shoes, for instance). Pizza boxes worked well for us. Order pizza. Eat pizza. Throw out the food so there's just the smelly cardboard left. Head out into the yard. Help the dog utterly destroy the box - pizza box confetti. Clean up the mess. Watch as, back indoors, he snoozes in expended happiness. Supervised destruction of an empty plastic soda bottle was also very popular. He was like a trash compacter. I'd take off the lid, the plastic lid ring and the label and give him the empty bottle. It's noisy, but you've gotta let your dog be a dog.

NOISE. Never underestimate the power of a quiet radio in the background at night when you're trying to get your dog to sleep in the kitchen. Dogs hear every snore and snort and roll over in a silent house. A low, quiet radio hum can help to normalise the creaks and noises at night. Some years ago I started to leave the radio on for my pets all day while I was out, instead of leaving them in a silent house, and I saw a marked reduction in edginess and anxiety.

YOUTUBE. There are a LOT of dog training videos on youtube. Don't search for 'training a staffy' in case you get one of the morons who supports pack theory and is trying to make their dog 'tough'. Search for simple things like 'teach your dog a sit'. Watch some of them. You'll quickly spot the really clever ones that show you how to teach some extended 'tricks' by building command blocks and showing the dog how to move by making him follow a treat held in your closed hand. Some folks dislike tricks - I find them very useful for wearing a dog out. Another example of how useful they can be: I taught my dog a lie down / right down / roll over command years ago, so I can get him to drop, lie on his side and then lift his legs to expose his belly and stop there. He recently had a heat rash which could have turned into hot spots. We went to the vet and instead of having to wrestle 30kgs of dog on the exam table or the exam room floor to see his belly, three commands later and he's lying on the floor patiently with his legs in the air, showing the vet his sore armpit. Result!

There is hope for you and your dog, OP, but you HAVE to change your approach. If what you're doing now isn't working, STOP. Come at it from a different angle.

Last thing - at eight months, your dog is a teenager. He's going to be obnoxious for the next 10 months. Got it? Ten more months. Until October 2014, your dog will be a pain in the hole. Accept it. Work around it. Eyes on the prize - Christmas 2014, if you play your cards right, this dog will be a brilliant dog. Remember what you were like as a teenager? Dogs also go through teenage years. Some are worse than others. (Mine was a nightmare.) Persevere. It doesn't last.

Pretzill

The Sweeper some interesting and thorough points there. I can't even imagine the concept of tethering though I have three dogs BC's all with their own little bollixy ways at the moment

Puppy's mad half hour has morphed into two hours - despite walks, playtime etc - the 3 yr old is getting great craic out of reverting to puppyhood with said puppy during the mad half hour and both are turning my elderly lad into a grumbling barky nervous wreck! However even in the small space we share the main things that makes the madness bearable is keeping calm, letting them cavort, allowing their elder the escape clause of another room until like now they are all exhausted and out for the count! The good thing is despite losing the odd sock as a pull toy puppy is distracted f destruction. Hopefully for the OP his guy will settle with time. Boredom is the worst thing for any animal left alone.

The Sweeper

Pretzill wrote: »

The Sweeper some interesting and thorough points there. I can't even imagine the concept of tethering though I have three dogs BC's all with their own little bollixy ways at the moment

Yeah I needed a restriction but for a variety of reasons I couldn't and wouldn't crate train. (My dog was a rescue and he was confined to the boot of a car in his own mess for some weeks - still hates restricted space now - crate training would've been inappropriate and torturous.)

Tethering isn't a fix all - you cannot tether your dog and leave him. It's a control for while he's in your presence. We graduated from tethering to established mats and beds around the house - 'on your bed' or 'on your mat' is a universal command in our house. I can go to the beach with my dog now, put a beach towel on the sand and say 'on your mat' and send him back to that beach towel over and over. Those are sanity-saving commands.

anniehoo

The Sweeper wrote: »

YOUTUBE. There are a LOT of dog training videos on youtube.

The Sweeper what is your opinion on Victoria Stilwell and her eHow series' on Youtube?

Considering Caesar Milan was a huge influence on many people,would you consider her Youtube videos a good way to teach your dog "positively"?

The Sweeper

anniehoo wrote: »

The Sweeper what is your opinion on Victoria Stilwell and her eHow series' on Youtube?

Considering Caesar Milan was a huge influence on many people,would you consider her Youtube videos a good way to teach your dog "positively"?

I've watched some of them but I don't think they're the best ones out there. She uses her own dog, Sadie, a lot and I think you don't get a true feel for the interaction because her dog completes the action before the command sometimes (from what I've seen). Her approach is good but the videos don't reflect it as well.

There's a girl with a blue merle Aussie sheepdog who's a bit weird but really good from what I recall... Must look her up and see if I can find a link...

Kikopup is her youtube username.

DeVore

Ok this might seem a bit mental to some people (OP included) but here's how I solved the problem.

I like to sleep late. Very late. Like 10am. So getting up to let Josh out was a pain in the nads. He didnt bark in the morning (mostly because like me, he stays up late too) but if he heard me moving around upstairs he would whine and bounce off the door. Literally, bounce.

I got a local handiman to put a pet flap in and then I cut the side out of the crate and this is what we have now...



This is going to seem nuts to a few people I guess.. but it has really really worked for us both. He sleeps inside but he still has access to the garden. I can block access (with the pet-flap door) and leave him have his bed and access to the house with me... or on the rare occasion he is being a little bollix, he has to do a 5-30 minute time-out when he is put in his crate AND the petflap is locked. Thats pretty rare these days though.

This is a crazy solution maybe but it really really works for us. I worried at first that he would come to be used to the freedom and any time he was constrained in a crate for real he would flip but that hasnt happened (he goes to Beabeg and loves his crate up there).

Josh has gotten used to me getting up at 10 and doesnt bother me unless it gets to about 11 when the whining starts
But even on the weekends, he doesnt mind as he can wander the garden on his own.


I dunno if this is an option for you but its certainly the best decision I made around Josh this year, its really worked well for us.

The Bishop Basher

DeVore wrote: »

I got a local handiman to put a pet flap in and then I cut the side out of the crate and this is what we have now...

<snip quoted picture>

Love this !! Been thinking of doing something similar for a while now. Seeing that it works has spurred me on a bit to do it.

OP - one trick with the kongs if they're not lasting long enough is to mush up food, stick it in and freeze it. Keeps our lads busy for hours.

The other tip with the crate is to put an item of clothing in that you've worn.

Apologies if these have been suggested already, I speed read through the thread but just thought they might be worth mentioning.

Best of luck. You'll get there in the end and it'll be so worth it :-)

DeVore

Swanner... he LOVES his crate (he actually gets very weird if I go in to clean it!). I really recommend this, its saved me a lot of trouble in the mornings.
One point to notice in the construction is that down at the bottom I've fastened the crate to the wall so that when he clambers in or out he cant push the crate away from the wall and get a paw stuck or anything.
I used small climbing crampon's and that keeps the whole thing solid.


The only issue I've had with it (which would be true of any pet flap) is that sometimes Josh tries to bring things through it. He tried with his over-sized tug rope and he (and it!) got stuck. He got very distressed by that and hasnt tried it again!


Sweeper!!
Josh definitely likes your new game