Terrible Walk

I don't know why the second walk was the complete opposite to the first one, but it was. First, he was pulling constantly, and I've now realised that the Halti harness is completely useless. Then, he almost ran (and pulled me) into a busy road because he unexpectedly got scared of a flag waving about. He decided to ignore some people but pull towards some, we saw four dogs he wanted to pull towards (to his credit, he did ignore one of them though, which is great), and he ate a paper muffin holder wrapper thing. To top it all off, we met an old man that asked if he bites, and I had to say yes, but tried to explain that it wasn't aggressive, it was because he's young and thinks it's part of playing. He walked off before I even got a chance to explain, which upset me quite a lot, because I can't train it out of him. He doesn't bite people he sees often, only strangers, so I can't run up to random people and ask if I can let Loki bite them so I can teach him that it's wrong. So I feel like he's always going to be this dog that parents can never let their kids go near because he's the 'evil' dog that will bite them. It's just not fair, he's so friendly but impossible to teach him not to bite other people . And I'm sick of him being perfect at dropping and leaving things except when he decides he doesn't want to.

Worst of all though, is the fact that I know it's not his fault, it's mine, so now I just feel like I'm completely useless with the training. I'm not mad at him at all, just upset that everything went badly.

Tara please try to keep yourself positive, sometimes the training can take a while to sink in. My hubby is always going on about anything learned taking 3 months to be remembered. Keep at it I'm sure you will get there

Ah Hun its not you at all I am sure you are giving Loki the best training you can and sounds like you are doing everything right too me, He is still very young and mouthing although so frustrating too us humans is a normal way of dogs lives, staffies are very headstrong but mainly love humans and with consistent training he will come good, I am sure its just normal staffie excitement!! My Ava is 14mnths old and I have been around staffords all my life, but she was SO friendly running up too people and jumping up sometimes nipping, I use too get so frustrated but continued with her training keeping her on the lead doing as much socialising as I could, and I have just noticed over the last few weeks that she is so much better!!
So stay strong stick too the training lots of deep breaths lol loki will calm down soon x

Stay positive hun, sometimes they do go backwards but he'll get there ><

Ah hun, you'll get there, just keep at it, he is still very young.
I have similar problem, as in I have stopped Daisy play biting me but she still does it to other people and like you I'm not sure how to solve that. I tell my friends and family what to do when she does it but they don't....very frustrating!!

Thanks everyone everything except the biting is actually no big deal now that I think about it, just that everything added up. I just wish he'd stop biting other people, because I can't teach him that way, and I hate having to explain to people who want to make a fuss of him that he bites, and explaining that he doesn't mean anything bad by it. To be honest, most people don't mind, but I found it rude of the man today to just walk off before I could finish what I was saying. Ah well. On the plus side, all the Staff owners I've met have had similar experiences and make a huge fuss of him

I feel for ya Tara I hate walks like that, it's very deflating.

As everyone says, stay positive

Tara, Loki is still very young - not a year old yet. Everything is so exciting to him.

when you say he bites people, does he do it aggressively - possibly snarling or growling, clamping his jaws on?

Or is he mega-excited - jumping up and grabbing hold with his mouth, the teeth maybe touching and possibly even nipping in his excitement, but with no evil intent?

You will know your own dog and recognise the difference, the first scenario is "biting", the second scenario is "mouthing" - Crystel's advice is excellent.

awww tara do not beat your self up, one this you are is very persistent in every thing you do.

How about using a different strategy, have you thought about going to a park and sitting on a bench and waiting for people to pass by? and when people as how about rearranging what you say to them, explain that he is going thru a giddy teenage stage and what your doing now it training him on how to behave with strangers think that would be only way to meet and great?

When we took sonic to puppy class one of the exercises we did was to randomly walk up to each others dogs to give them a fuss....there were quite a few that mouthed so we were all told to offer the dogs tasty treats if they sat nicely and it seemed to work....that said they were all obsessed with the sausages lol!

Lynda wrote:Tara, Loki is still very young - not a year old yet. Everything is so exciting to him.

when you say he bites people, does he do it aggressively - possibly snarling or growling, clamping his jaws on?

Or is he mega-excited - jumping up and grabbing hold with his mouth, the teeth maybe touching and possibly even nipping in his excitement, but with no evil intent?

You will know your own dog and recognise the difference, the first scenario is "biting", the second scenario is "mouthing" - Crystel's advice is excellent.

It is mouthing, but I've always assumed that mouthing is when it's done softly. This isn't softly, this is more of an "I'm so excited and happy to meet you I don't know how to react...CHOMP." No evil intent at all, complete friendliness but expressing it in the wrong way.

Thanks Rebecca, I might try that. On the plus side, he's no longer biting family members we see often, so hopefully it'll just continue improving, because it's going to be a very long learning process for us both. Well, I'm feeling happier and not upset now anyway, Loki's being cute and loving

Lynda wrote:Tara, Loki is still very young - not a year old yet. Everything is so exciting to him.

when you say he bites people, does he do it aggressively - possibly snarling or growling, clamping his jaws on?

Or is he mega-excited - jumping up and grabbing hold with his mouth, the teeth maybe touching and possibly even nipping in his excitement, but with no evil intent?

You will know your own dog and recognise the difference, the first scenario is "biting", the second scenario is "mouthing" - Crystel's advice is excellent.

AH thanks Lynda I have owned staffies all my life and my family has had them spanning back over 80yrs, just know that feeling of frustration when you are dealing with a young excited staffie we all know what they are like x