my 15 month old staff bitch keeps taking out material, like towels, what are used in her basket as a bed, out and starts to rip them up. she grabs them and starts shaking her head viciously, eventually destroying them. if i try to grab them of her she just fights back and takes it as a tug of war game....which believe me seems almost unbeatable with the jaws of a staff

the only way to get her off the towel is either to get a dog treat so she sits down, because being the obedient dog she is, or to let her hvae her fun with it until she gets bored and walks off.

the problem with the treat is that she will start fighting for the towel because she thinks she'll get a treat for doing so, and therefore does not know she is doing wrong, and will carry on doing it.

shouting at her seems to only make her think it is part of a rough game and does not take it seriously, again giving her a small hit does not hurt and she still thinks this is a game!

what should i do? fight her for it, shout at her, leave her, or give her a treat? or should i try another approach???

thanks in advance

dan

i grew up with a staffy as well as a collie and this is how we resolved her problem which was much the same ....

when she had her towel we would grab the other end and if she started to shake it away then we would drop the towel imediatly and walk away!

we would continue to do this until she learnt not to play when we got the other end then we would say "sit" and "paw" and then if she did what was asked we would produce a titbit for which she would have to let go of the towel to recieve.... with me so far?

then gradualy after many times of doing this for her to let go we would gradualy not say "sit" and "paw" but just "sit then eventually when getting hold of the other end she learnt to sit on her own accord and then we would produce the titbit (with out saying aword) then as she was letting go of the towel we would say "leave" and we would continue this process until she caught on ...which didnt take long... it was actualy the easiest part ...lol

and then we took it one step further and when ever we saw her go for her towel to play with we would call her quickly to divert her attention (very excitedly... jump up and down and look like a silly billy if need be ...do what it takes to divert attention ..but only in a good way) and then after doing that many times we started with each time instead of diverting attention from the towel we would say "no" very sternly so she would be shocked at your dismay and then she would run to us for the next step the titbit at which point she would get the best fuss ever for doing as she was told :D
then of course eventualy we withdrew the titbits and just settled for a big fuss and some daft baby talk ... and woula problem solved lol

its was a long process but we found that it was needed with her she was very stubborn compaired to our collie which learnt after the very first "NO" not to do it :)

best wishes jo x x x x x