hi there everyone, im new here so im sorry if i have added a topic the same as anyone else.
anyway, i have a 9 week old staffie boy, i have had him for 2 weeks now, he is great he loves to play and bite (im working on that) what i really need is any tips on training this breed. i already have a few people helping out but its good to get lots of info lol.
i really want to raise a well behaved dog as staffies have a bad rep which really is all the owners fault, i dont want to be on of those owners.

what im needing help with is, diesel play bites my 4 year old daughter, and now my 7 month old son has started crawling, i need this to stop asap. i have to keep them appart most of the day lol. any help on this would be great..
i would really like to know some tips on how and when to start training off the lead and also no pullin when on lead

im getting on really good with house breaking which im so pleased about, it has took me 2 weeks to get this far. hard work but worth it lol and also i have learned him to sit when i ask, i cant help laughing when he does though as his tail wont stop wagging while he tries to sit lol

any other stories on how you or anyone you know has trained pups will be great
thanks
cheryl & diesel

I don't know about staffies but i would suggest you find a good training class for him when he's had all his injections.
It's really important that he is well socialised at a young age and you will be taught how to train him to leave things on command etc.
If i wan any ofmy dogs to stop something i say 'leave it' and they know that their not allowed to touch what i'm telling them to leave.
You can teach this during play, give him a toy to hold and play with him. you hold the other end of the toy, stop moving the toy when you want him to let go then wait for him to relax his grip on it and at that moment remove it from his mouth and say your command then give him the toy back after you've rewarded him. you may have to wait a little while for him to relax his grip but he will soon enough, it's just catching the moment.
The other way you can do this is put a tasty treat on the floor and have your pup on the lead, walk past the treat not close enough that he can grab it and as he goes towards the treat (which he will) say your command and walk past. keep repeating this and reward him each time he goes past.
All these things take time but he will soon learn the word your using as long as you keep the training up. try and take a few minutes two or three times a day to train him. lots of short training sessions are best at this age as they get bored. Training will also use some of his excess energy as they have to think what their doing.
as for training him off the lead you will also learn this at training classes but you can practise this in the garden or house by using a command when ever he comes towards you, i say 'come' , they soon associate the word with coming to you but practise it all the time and keep some treats in your pocket to reward him.
i'm sure there will be some staffie owners on here soon to help.
good luck you must have your hands full with two young children and a puppy.    

Hi Cheryl & welcome to the forum

you're going to need eyes in the back of your head with such a young pup and two very young children :) 

Re the biting, mouthing and any accidental nipping, have a look at this LINK which is very useful in overcoming this behaviour and also has further links to commonly occurring yet minor problems with young pups during adolescence. 

TBH the 'bite inhibition' element is something for the adults and any adult visitors to the household to follow - personally it's not something with which I'd get your 4 year old involved in as really she is too young and the pitch of her voice plus the fact that children move quickly and eratically can over excite already easily OTT puppies - which is about 99% of them :)

Discourage too much playful interaction with the children and all of it must be strictly supervised.  If the puppy is becoming over excited, teach your child to ignore it - pups soon learn when repeated often enough what they've done which haults play - this to a puppy is a major incident because they love to play :)  Official 'time out' is helpful too - leave the puppy alone if becoming too boisterous and not settling using the methods in the article.  Better that you and the children 'leave' the puppy rather than remove it from the room - any interaction (which includes lifting away and putting into the kitchen for example ) is a positive response to attention seeking behaviour :)

Bear has offered some useful tips on initial training - I agree that finding a well run puppy class is invaluable for almost all pups and especially ones of breeds which, sadly, as adults are often discouraged by other dog owners from playing together :(

I'd recommend trying to get your pup to walk to heel in the house and garden off lead so that he learns the basics without feeling restricted.

As with any training it requires patience, keen observation, a multitude of treats, oodles of vocal and physical praise and consistency - sounds easy LOL - probably not, but you'll get there  :-D  Train for very brief periods only as puppies are easily bored, distracted and/or tired so best to get a good result over three minutes say and stop 'on a high' rather than try to do too much for too long and the puppy become confused and we become frustrated!

There are several great owners of SBTs on forum who I'm sure will be able to give you some invaluable breed specific tips but HTH meantime.
best wishes, Teri

Hi their i myself have just been looking for ringcraft classes in my area and i came across this very usefull site hope it helps theirs lists of all the differant classes here all over the counrty good luck hope you find a good one, http://www.bestofbreeds.com/clubcorner/index.htm
puppy training classes can be get fun and worked very well for my bully,

Hi there, I have been taking my pug puppy to Good Citizen classes and they have been brilliant! They have just helped me to learn how to get Miley to do things and she has done brilliantly. It is her last class tonight, I have just taught her to Roll over and she is doing it perfectly! Hopefully she won't let me down tonight and we'll pass. Good luck with yours! x

best of luck for you and miley :)

i have threee staffis and if i wanted them to stop doing something i didnt want them to do i would have a litlle plastic fizzy pop bottle with a few tiny pebbles.rice,etc inside and near to hand to be honest i put a bottle in everyroom in the house the dogs are aloud in so they are always near and handy,if u shake the bottle once he should stop whatever he/she is doing right away as this i think is a noice of shock to them.maybe it may worki for you i dont know but its worth giving it a try isnt it?donna

Hi, you may want to check out classes here - they are meant to be very good:

http://www.puppyschool.co.uk/uk_train.php

and another option is http://www.apdt.co.uk/choosing_dog_trainer_uk.asp

Lindsay
x

im no proffesional  just an average person giving my iown personal opinion on my dogs.thanks donna.x

I wouldn't use any pebbles in a bottle to frighten a pup this young.  JMO but at 9 weeks he needs calm reinforcement, not something to scare him.

its not meant to scare him its just a tacktick you aint gota shake it hard just gently

like i said i aint to pro just an average person and i just thougjht maybe its an idea i used this tacktick and it didnt scare my dog i no longer have to use this tacktick as i no longer need to.i got that idea when my dogs were pups off of dog whisperer i dont know what you lot may think but i genually think he is very good and watch him all the time on tv.

I think your find there's alot of people who don't like the Dog whisperers ways of training on here but i maybe be wrong. 

> I think your find there's alot of people who don't like the Dog whisperers ways of training on here but i maybe be wrong. 

Not wrong.

> just thougjht maybe its an idea i used this tacktick and it didnt scare my dog

thats how it works though, they stop because they hear a scary sound.

I was told by my vet to get a waterspray and spray the water in its face everytime it does something you dont like.

> I was told by my vet to get a waterspray and spray the water in its face everytime it does something you dont like.

> I was told by my vet to get a waterspray and spray the water in its face everytime it does something you dont like.

i really hope your vets good in other ways...

I was told by my vet to get a waterspray and spray the water in its face everytime it does something you dont like.

Unbelievable ... :(

Best always to train for what you do want, not punish for what you don't  - which, after all, doesn't teach the dog what is required.

oh rite ok thats fair enough i didnt know that,why do you think lots of people dont like dog whispers ways of training,do yu think i should avoid taking on board what he is training then?donna

i have tried th water spray too and it does work.donna

Watch his programmes for entertainment only. Don't copy what you see on the TV - it's heavily edited and doesn't show what really needs to be done.

You wouldn't think you could drive like The Stig just from watching him on Top Gear, would you? You'd need hours and hours of specialist training.

If you were sprayed in the face with water every time you did something somebody much bigger than you (speaking a language you did not understand) didn't like, you'd stop as well -but would you be happy?

dont know if ive posted rite but my bitch is 2 days before her due date in giving birth ive monitored her for a week as her behaviour has changed and after 3 nights of wrestless sleeping with her she is finally panting so goingto go for now as it seems to be going well will let you alll no how we get on take care all.donna

Her behaviour will change often until she has her puppies, hope you are not using the water spray on her ;-)

firstly thanks i do no that n no no waterspray sorry to dissapoint just a club hammer lol there are some rude sarcastic people in here i must say.talk about ruin an exciting moment many thanks.

hi donna ive got 6 staffies and i trained all of mine wiv a shaker and ive also used the water spray in which my vet suggested to use, i found it worked well! i agree wiv u bout ppl on ere being rude we only come on ere to get help and advice and u get knocked for it! gd luck wiv puppies hope all goes well!  nicki

omg thankyou very much nicki i feel a little bit better now that i have had a good a nd posityive reply .thanks.donna

i agree wiv u bout ppl on ere being rude we only come on ere to get help and advice and u get knocked for it!

Why ask for advice if it isn't going to be taken? Everyone has replied (and nobody has been rude) explaining that rattle bottles and water sprays is NOT the way to train a dog. There are far better, far kinder ways. Why train a dog with fear -do you both want your dogs to behave because they are scared of you?

>Why ask for advice if it isn't going to be taken?

It's strange - people expect to correct their dog's behaviour (using all sorts of methods, humane or otherwise), but really resent having their own mistakes corrected, even verbally. A lack of empathy, methinks.

hi donna ur welcome! have u got all bitches or both? ive got 4 dogs 3 entire and 2 bitches ive read many of ur posts on here and i agree wiv alot of the things u say we're just average ppl who love our dogs and want the best for them

advice is always taken on board but there are lots of people willing to give lots of difo advice so you telol me how do we knw wivch person to take advice from when there are many opeeps giving advice.thanks donna

i do take ur advice on board and my dogs   arent trained wiv fear and there not scared of me!

thanks for reply i have 2 bitches and one dog.,

and i understand you empathy

my dogs   arent trained wiv fear

They are -you said you trained them all with a rattle bottle. That's not training, that's just scaring them into behaving.

Could you please type proper words as I don't understand children's text speak too well.

marianneB are u rude to everyone on ere thats not to gd at spellin?

It's not rude to ask for proper English on a forum - it's not like a txt where you're paying by the letter, and the majority of posters are adults! Remember that, although based in the UK, this is an international forum, so it's not very polite to make incomprehensible posts. Please let's not give the impression that the British educational system is completely down the plughole!

It isn't rude at all.. Everyone on the board makes the effort, everyone makes spelling mistakes, but text speak on a forum is not really acceptable..

We have people on the forum who are dyslexic, and trying to read is hard enough without trying to decipher text speak..

asking you not to write in text, is a simple consideration for others

>we're just average ppl who love our dogs and want the best for them

I'm the same as you in that I am just an 'average' person who loves my dog and wants the best for him, that is why I choose to use reward-based training.
Of course adversive & fear-based methods work, but they work for the wrong reasons and IMO, adversives are chosen for the quicker effect, because the owner isn't prepared to put n the work that reward-based training takes, allthough, in the long-run, reward based training is more effective.

It isn't rude at all.. Everyone on the board makes the effort, everyone makes spelling mistakes, but text speak on a forum is not really acceptable..

And like I said, I don't understand half of it. I'm not British and I'm not the only one here who isn't and I'd imagine this makes it even harder to try to decipher what text abbreviations mean. Even so, sometimes when my British husband gets texts from his daughter neither of us can understand what on earth she's trying to say -so I'm sure there will be British people here as well that find it very difficult to understand.

Marianne, was that reply meant for me?

It was really meant for Nicki, Kay, I just used your reply as a quote -basically saying I agree with you and explaining why. Probably not making much sense!!

hi imbk im jjust using your reply and i hope you dont mind as firly new to this but my bitch is all settled now as since 11am shes been in labour shes done really well and yipee shehad 7 beautifull pups 6 girls n 1 boy.it was absolutly exciting scarey and the most beutiful dog birth in the world.everything went smothly,,alll pups doing well and mum being good mum n doing all she needs to do well.thanks everyone for being patient.donna.x

reading your post i dont think nicki meant it in a nasty way maybe she didnt realise its a international site hunni not sur tho just got bak from my dog whelpin gas far as i can gather its what us british people use as short text abreviations  but dont quote me on that just trying to help here.thanks donna.x

>as i can gather its what us british people use as short text abreviations 

Txt is a foreign language to millions of British people as well, so best avoided in public.

> advice is always taken on board but there are lots of people willing to give lots of difo advice so you telol me how do we knw wivch person to take advice from when there are many opeeps giving advice.thanks donna

Thats a valid question.

The advice the majority of us on here give is to not use aversives/unpleasant things, because these can go wrong and can do harm.

Using positive reward, and managing situations so the dog cannot make a mistake in the first place, does no harm and is highly unlikely to go wrong, generally when it does its something simple to rectify.

When punishment based training goes wrong, people get hurt and dogs die.

Thats why we stick to reward based things, hands off non aversive methods.

A puppy, as in the OPs case, will want to play bite, and a toddler and a baby to the puppy are suitable playmates. Neither the puppy nor the children can change their own behaviour because they know no better, so the children WILL squeal and wave their hands around and wind the puppy up, and the puppy will find these things exciting and grab for hands and feet and anything he can reach, in play.

Using aversives to cure this behaviour is dangerous for a lot of reasons.

Firstly the puppy when he is play biting is focussing on the thing hes biting.... the toddler. If he gets sprayed or rattled at he may well associate that with the child NOT with his own behaviour, and so he may begin to think 'toddler = nasty'. He may learn to fear the toddler and fearful dogs are very easily turned into aggressive dogs!

Secondly, dogs trained by having unpleasant things done to them have a much weaker bond with their owners in many cases and after a while, they do not learn good things nearly so easily, so it makes the dog harder to train.

If you have kids a good idea is to think to yourself - would I use this method on a 18 month old child (who is to all intents and purposes, similar to a dog, not brilliant at communicating, lacks self control, tends to grab for things and be captivated by moving things or funny noises).

I am guessing here that no one would rattle a bottle at a child or spray it in the face with water, and if you watch The Dog Whisperer.. you wouldnt do any of those things he does to a child either..

So why would you want to do them to a dog? (And dont tell me children are not aggressive or violent, toddlers bite, kick, punch slap hurl abuse etc just as a dog can, and just as a dog can... a child can also grow up to be a vicious killer..)