I have a 12 week old staff bitch who is very confident and does not react well to being told off. When I tell her no very loudly (normally when she is nipping me) or try to take away the object that she should not be chewing, she turns on me snarling and growling very agressively and goes for my hand. I am very worried that we have got a staff with an agressive streak, we deliberately got a female as they are meant to be more passive but this seems not to be the case. I would not be so worried if this was just normal puppy behaviour that she would grow out of (although to me this seems to be abnormal for puppies?) but I really worry about her doing this when she is fully grown as that will really be very frightening behaviour. I love her so much and my partner and I are trying to do everything right - she is not allowed on furniture, we go through doors first etc etc - but I really worry that this is an agressive streak that she has been born with? She seems to be trying to push us as far as she can get away with, when we say no, she keeps doing it again until we end up with the behaviour I have described above. I would really appreciate advice on whether this is unusual behaviour for a puppy? Many thanks.

I have no experience with Staffs, but we had a similar problem with our Aussie puppy. She would have what we called a 'hissyfit !" and would bite wildly at us when told her off, I think that she got over excited. We picked her up by the scruff (don't take any notice of the yelping, she won't like it but it won't do any harm) and lifted her front feet off the floor - also saying NO very firmly. After a a week or two, she had stopped doing this completely.

Daisy

I have the same with my Dane puppy... he gets too excited and forgets himself. I've taken to putting him out the room. He didn't bother at first when I put him out, but now he does. He calms down and when he comes in he is back to normal

Good luck
Chloe

Daisy and Chloe, thank you both for your replies. We have already tried the scruffing (and boy does she yelp!) but that has made no difference to this problem. I have not tried putting her out, I will try this. But did you both have this agressive snarling with your pups? It is not so much the biting that I worry about because pups do nip, but it is this nasty growling and snarling that I find so disturbing...

I wonder if you are trying too hard? :)

YOu are following pack rules and maybe feel your bitch is trying to dominate you - and that therefore you have to physically dominate the pup. The trouble is that this IMHO can cause a very vicious circle and now you are in danger of damaging the relationship with your Staffie :(

My advice would be to stop any physical punishment, as I am certian that in your circumstances it is making things much worse. She is very probably growling at you now because she is in defence mode and, frankly, scared :(

If she was truly aggressive, she would not yelp when being scruffed, she would attempt to turn on you, growl as she was scruffed, and keep attacking.

If she is genuineley aggressive ( and staffies are just so excellent with people it would be unusual) then it must be hereditary (but I doubt it) or else because she has something physically wrong with her that needs a vet checkup.

Please do get a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen BAiley - try www.crosskeysbooks.com or Pets at Home sometimes has a copy - and you will be given the wonderful gift of understanding your pup and why she does what she does.

Also read anyof John Fishers books, i highly recommend "Why Does My Dog...?"

Also if you can get to a very good puppy socialisation class, you will get hoopefully good advice on teaching bite inhibition and puppy biting. Staffies do need dog socialising anyway :)

I agree leaving the room/calmly taking the pup out each and every time the pup bites works, my TErv was known as "the Mad Bitey Puppy" in our house, and she was, especially with her herding instinct to nip and dodge, bless her:) So if it works on her, it will work on any dog or pup.

You do need patience but also a bit of confidence in yourself, I feel from what you have said you are losing confidence and reading the suggested books will get that back as you will start to understand the "whys".

For the moment i would try to relax, enjoy her, don't get into any confrontations (this is not backing down - it is being sensible. ONce you understand how to react and train, you will find she will start to obey) ;)
Give her her own toys and if it is possible, just play very gently with her and let her have fun with you. If she nicks stuff or "steals", for the moment, distract her by going into another room and maknig a noise, rustling something, or ring the doorbell. Also keep a long trailing lead on her when in the house so that if you feel it is at all necessary, she can be pulled calmly away from anything dangerous.

Good luck :)

Lindsay

Melanieg I am sure Mr Murphy will catch up with this thread soon he is the bullterrier man here ,
He might if you ask him nicely email you some info , now he has his new pc , lol Mari

Melanie, seeing you have tried most things that we all advise, try this, when you are going to take something off her that she should not have, say Leave, and have a titbit in your hand, if she drops what she is holding give her the titbit and say, "clever girl", (even let her smell the titbit)this also works with food agression, if you try and take away the food bowl while she is feeding the best way to avoid any growling is to put in some titbits while she is eating her food, that way she wont worry if anyone puts down their hands when she is feeding, i.e. children. I always do this with puppies and they soon learn that you telling them to leave, means they are going to get something nice. this also works with the kong for crate training, my puppy runs to her cage as soon as I pick up her kong I only give the kong when I am going out, so I dont have any problems with dogs barking or crying. I have the kind of neighbours that would soon tell me if they are barking. !!!!!

Irene,
That's what I did when Cava was little and he had something I wanted, had something nicer and called him for swappsies, now he will bring me a bone or anything he has in his mouth and give me it,
Anne

Excellent advice Irene, that is extremely good advice and it does work very well :)

When I was visiting people with dogs who refused to give up objects, or who growled, when asked to do so, they were always given this advice bythe behaviourist and it never failed with any dog, when done as directed :)

My pup had an obssession with socks because it was the only object I tried to wrrestle off her, (against my better judgement, i just had an impatient moment when I was stressed) when she was about 15 weeks, we actually have a photo of her looking extremely sulky on my lap with the sock in her mouth. I have to say her expression was so funny we all fell about laughing :) we just couldn't help it!

We did the "swapsies" method and now she will bring any sock to us and happilygive it up. Believe me, this was a huge step forward for us as she really did have an obsession with them, clean or dirty, and would take them from the washing line, the radiator, the laundry basket, anywhere......

It also meant we didn't spoil her retrieving potential by telling her off because she had something in her mouth :)

Lindsay

Hello Melanie

I have a 15 week old female Irish staff and a ten month old male also. The behaviour you are describing is relatively normal for a young bull terrier. At 12 weeks old it is still a bit young to take a serious telling. I always find the females of the breed to be the dominant ones and are a bit harder to train. At 15 weeks mines is starting to listen to a telling off now. Dont worry to much about it, your dog sounds fine. The advice you have already been given is much the same as I would give. I dont train with rewards though, as I find that bull terriers that are trained this way tend to look for treats for everything they do. I give my dogs treats when I feel like it, and I make them do what they are told with persistance. I will e mail you if you like as it can be a very long post.

All the best Mick

hi Mick
can you please email me as well. i am having the same thing i have tryed the above but it is not working. i feel this could be because of Lady his mom being there. Bandit is getting much better now but i am worry that i will not get him out of this.

lorraine

Mr Murphy, could you please e-mail me with any advise you have on staff puppies upto 18 months old as you seem to know your stuff!

Having not had access to this site at the weekend, I was really pleased to read this morning a reply from you Mr Murphy as I was hoping that you would reply to me! I read what you wrote to a few other people on this site and was very impressed with your advice to them. Please do e-mail me, I would be very grateful for that. I am reassured to hear that you do feel that this is relatively normal behaviour for high spirited bull terrier pup.

Lindsay, thank you also for your advice. Actually this weekend we had a visit from 2 friends who work at Battersea Dogs Home (our last dog was a staff/whippet cross from Battersea and we have kept in contact with the rehomers who do such a wonderful job) and their advice was the same as yours - to stop the scruffing as that type of confrontation was not working. (Incidentally when I scruff her, not only does she yelp, she also does attempt to turn on me growling and tries to go for my hand still..) Their advice to me was that when she starts this nasty behaviour to just immediately leave the room for 5 minutes closing the door behind me and upon my return to the room that she is in, ignore her for a while. They did not even recommend putting her into another room because that would mean physical contact with her, just to leave the room myself.

I do have "The Perfect Puppy" which is excellent but I will also look out for "Why does my dog.." by John Fisher. Irene, thanks also for advice re getting Angel (I am sure that you are all laughing now re the rather ironic name!) to drop whatever she is holding in her mouth because it has previously developed into a tug of war session which is something that I want to avoid with her breed.

Regards to you all. Melanie.

Hi Lorraine/Danny/Mel.

Wil e mail everyone later as I am just having a look before I go out.

Regards Mick

I'm so glad things are now calmer, you sound much happier :).

From what you said your pup was unnerved by the hand coming towards her, she became defensive. I am certain there is no need to worry, it is also reassuring you have had advice from good friends who work in rescue kennels because they will be able to help out a bit :)

Have lots of fun,

LIndsay

Hi Lindsay

To be honest things are not calmer (yet!!!) but I feel a lot happier having found this website which I just discovered last Friday. I had felt so desperate and alone with this problem, but it is great being able to discuss it with fellow dog-owners and dog experts and to get different views and reassurance on it. And of course to have the support of the people at Battersea Dogs Home, in fact 3 days a week I have a dogsitter who comes to my flat for Angel as my partner and I can only take her into work 1 day a week each, and her dogsitter is an ex-Battersea rehomer which is great, as I feel completely happy leaving her with Ellie. Ellie continues our training and also socialises her a lot with other dogs which is so important for staffies. So we will make a true "Angel" out of her yet!!!

hi all
thank you for the advice

thank you mick

lorraine

Hi Mick

Hope you are well. Have not received any advice from you? Not being familiar with this site, do I have to go and look for it elsewhere on the site? Please let me know. Many thanks

Melanie

HAVE EMAILED YOU ALL. MEL/DANNY/LORRAINE.

MICK

i have 2 staffy bitches both 13 weeks old they like to greet me when i get home from work which oftern ends up with there mouths around my arm (ouch) when this happens i tell them no and push them away oftern they will come back and do the same thing over again!!!! but i push them away telling them no again after this happens about 3-4times they stop the biting and great me with wagin tails and excietment jumping all over me :) i find that if u push them away from u the tend to calm down a bit but as they r still very young they dont quiet understand what u want from them but they will learn;)

I have to agree with Lindsay, you shouldn't be grabbing the dog aggressively or violently because all this will do is worsen the aggression. Remember, your dog is only 12 weeks old and the world is still very new to her. She's most likely very afraid of her new surroundings and her built in instinct to fight or flight causes her to want to defend herself when someone yells at her because she interprets this as a threat.

Although the scruff grabbing may work with some dogs, it may not work with dominant, "pack leader" types who have strong wills. Furthermore, a puppy at 12 weeks old who has just been separated from her mother is usually very apprehensive about the world around her and it is instinctively natural for her to want to protect herself.

I recall someone mentioned that your are following pack rules. In an ideal pack, the alpha generally doesn't resort to violence or aggression because doing so would cause him/her to lessen his/her status. Most alphas are usually confident and secure and really don't need to do it because everyone accepts him/her as the alpha. Basically, what i'm trying to say is if you keep on resorting to physical methods of correction, you may be communicating to your pup that your unsure of who is alpha and who is beta and you are trying to determine this by trying to physically dominate her. Furthermore, alphas usually make decisions in regards to necessary resources like when to eat, who eats what and when, etc. As a Human, you can establish your role as alpha by controlling all the resources within the house. For example, doggy wants food, sit first. Want to go out? Sit first. Want chew toy? Sit first. Want to go in the car? Sit first....well i think you catch my drift. This will probably help your pup recognize you as alpha. However, you must be persistent, confident, and stern. Otherwise, your pup MAY try to "challenge" you for the position. As soon as she learns that she can't win, she'll stop.

Physical corrections at the young and tender age of 12 weeks may deteriorate and damage your relantionship with your dog at such a young age. You may cause her to associate you with physical violence, and in turn, she may be led to believe that physical violence is an acceptable form of punishment. Consequentially, when she gets older she may try to repeat this method of correction on your kids or your neighbor when she becomes upset. Not good. Furthermore, physical forms of punishment sometimes causes your dog to percieve you as unconfident and irresolute. This may spell out a big problem for you when she reaches her "rebellious" phase between 4-18 months (some dogs enter this phase earlier, some outgrow it later than others, some never experience it, it all depends on your dog), especially if she has misconcieved physical corrections as acceptable.

What's my advice? Dogs are pack animals, and as a result, they are very social by nature. Socializing is almost a need for dogs, and therefore, restricting it can be used as a more effective and humane method of punishment for unwanted behavior. However, in your case, you have a potentially aggressive dog and i recommend a more passive and positive method instead. Avoid situations which could cause confrontations. If your dog growls or does anything nasty, ignore her instantly. Don't even make eye contact. You may even want to leave the room like someone else suggested as well. As she gets older and her brain continues to develop, i recommend upgrading to "stationing" the adolescent pup somewhere by herself for a pre-meditated amount of time with no social contact whatsoever. However, you may never even have to resort to any of the preceding information so try not to feel overwhelmed. Take it one day at a time, one step at a time. In the meantime, i feel you should shower her with love and praise and attention. Earn her trust and respect. Then, and only then, should you begin teaching structure and rules.

But remember, use positive forms of instruction. If you catch your dog chewing on her chew toy, don't ignore her. PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE! Dogs don't learn well through trial and error. It's your job to guide her and show her what's right and what's wrong. If she's chewing on the wrong object, replace it with the right object and praise. If she refuses to let it go, try ignoring her and playing with her toy by yourself. I can almost guarantee she'll drop whatever she's playing with and run to you and play with the object you have. That's your cue to inconspicuously take the wrong object away.

Well, i've made this post long enough and some people disagree with long posts so i'll end it here. If you want anymore advice you may E-mail me with any questions that may arise. Good luck and be sure to keep us informed with your progress!

Best regards,
Rob