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Save me from putting my dog up for adoption please!! (staffy probs)
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There's a lot more experienced people here than me so I'll just tell you my experience-
My oldest dog is a jrt crossed with a collie and the yappiest most energetic dog I've ever met!!
As a pup he drove me insane and like yourself I asked for help. The advice I found worked was this-
When he barks make a loud noise to catch his attention (for me shaking an empty bottle half full with some stones from the fishtank worked) the instant he stops barking give him a high value treat (ham or chicken worked best). After a while of this I replaced the 'noise' with saying 'that's enough' in a firm calm voice and again treating him when he stopped.
Now he is 4 and will still bark at everything but instantly stops when I say 'that's enough'.
I also trained him to bark on command which allows him to go crazy at the right time.
Hope that helps
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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!notjustsweet wrote: »There's a lot more experienced people here than me so I'll just tell you my experience-
My oldest dog is a jrt crossed with a collie and the yappiest most energetic dog I've ever met!!
As a pup he drove me insane and like yourself I asked for help. The advice I found worked was this-
When he barks make a loud noise to catch his attention (for me shaking an empty bottle half full with some stones from the fishtank worked) the instant he stops barking give him a high value treat (ham or chicken worked best). After a while of this I replaced the 'noise' with saying 'that's enough' in a firm calm voice and again treating him when he stopped.
Now he is 4 and will still bark at everything but instantly stops when I say 'that's enough'.
I also trained him to bark on command which allows him to go crazy at the right time.
Hope that helps0 -
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OP you wanted a staffy and you got it
They are well known for being energetic and can be disruptive when bored. My advice would be:
Bring the pup indoors, these are not outdoor dogs and do not do well outside. It's not just the fact their not built for temperature extremes, but emotionally, they really are people dogs. They need to be with their families. I understand that as he is at the moment, this is difficult but he will never just "know" you will have to start somewhere.
Buy your crate, or block off a utility room for him with a baby gate. The crate or room, if introduced properly will help with the barking and will really help with the 6am wake ups - if it's worked on, again he will never just "know", you have to start somewhere. (introduction of the crate/room should really be done properly so be careful not to rush it, the 6am starts will have to be phased out but in most cases can be done relatively quickly once he's settled in his room)
Start from scratch with training, make it enjoyable. Having a dog should be a joy, yes there is give and take, you have to consider your dog in everything, but overall, it should be more fun than hassle. If it doesn't feel like that at the moment, take a step back and think about how you can make it right. Do something fun with him, agility, obedience classes (which you take part in too), scent work, canicross etc.
Try to teach your dog that what you want him to do is beneficial rather than just expecting him to do it because "you're the boss". He doesn't care - he will do what works. Whatever he is doing, he is doing it because along the way it worked for him.
Staffies are an amazing breed and I will never be without one. However there are hundreds dying in pounds every week. Take a deep breath and commit to not allowing your dog be one of those. He doesn't have to be. I promise your problems are all very sortable if you can just take a step back, start training now and give the pup a chance. Also be aware that 8months is a difficult age with most dogs, so take heart in that. 0 -
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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.0 -
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.0 -
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.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 29920
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.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 29920
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
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