Beautiful Staffy Plays a bit Rough with Other Dogs.... (PHOTO)

Hello my friends!

I am new here, and I am so glad that I have found your resource, it really is a pleasure to be amongst so many other people that love staffys. Thank you to everyone who makes this place so wonderful

I have a 17 week old staffy called Maui, and we have trained him extensively. As suggested by some of your members, every moment is a training opportunity, and so we have really lived by that motto. When it comes to obedience, he is definitely top of the ranks from what I have seen. Here's him being a bit cheeky



However... He is our first staffy and we are not entirely sure what is 'normal' when it comes to play, as I know that staffys are put together differently than other dogs.

Our local dog park in London has a lot of typical, family dogs. Spaniels, labradoodles, labradors, dachshunds, collies etc. Our pup is not outright aggressive, but as soon as we let him off the lead when we get to the other dogs and their owners, he goes straight for the fluffiest dog, bowls them over, tries to stand over them and sometimes will latch onto their jowls or ears. He does not do this in a blatantly aggressive manner eg barking, growling, biting hard etc, it is more play-like. The dogs that he latches on to have never yelped, and Maui always lets go when I command him to, and more often than not, the other dog will come back over to 'play' and the process will repeat. However, obviously to the other dog owners, they perceive this as aggressive and violent, and to be honest, I do find it embarrassing. He is also getting a bit of a name for himself for doing this, and the common misconceptions around staffys don't help either

There is a small collection of staffys and other 'pit bull-type dogs' (I know in the UK staffys aren't classed as pitbulls, I'm just using the grouping as a reference), such as bully xl's, am staffs, and bull terriers. These dogs and their owners don't mind how Maui plays, their dogs give as much as Maui does. Some have told us that it is just how staffys play, and you just have to accept that.

My questions to you beautiful people are: Is this common behaviour for a staffy, should we be correcting this, and if so, how?

Thank you so much for your time, I really do appreciate it!

Hi & welcome to the forum

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Hi from me & Katy, welcome to our forum Maui is a handsome young man Staffies are rough in play & very vocal, people with the fluffy's are terrified their precious bundles are going to get hurt! He's not being aggressive just being a pup. I would suggest keeping him away from the little fluffy's & let him carry on playing with the bullies, he will have more fun as the owners won't be panicking

Hello!

Yes he is very handsome! Ok, thanks very much for letting me know and for giving me advice, much appreciated!

Thanks!

Hi. Our little Bonnie is exactly the same. Good as gold out walking on the lead. Has to "say hello" every dog we meet. She's jumpy but very friendly. However when on her lead she does that pinning down of other dogs. Like you said. I don't think it's aggressive but other owners do worry. For example our friends French bulldog got pinned down and our friend did get upset. Even though no harm was done. It does seem that she works out she's stronger and then tries to dominate. Hopefully there is nothing to it. She's soft as a brush on a lead and straight on her back for belly rubs whenever we are out walking so I'm not particularly worried.