Previous Owner's ....

Hey Guys,
My Lucy is a fantastic pup. Thanks to her previous owner's doing a great job bringing her up. Lucy was her first ever staff. I think she has done a marvellous job for 5 months but there are 2 things that need changing.
One of those things is the fact Lucy Hardly eats her own food, her previous owner said "Lucy hardly eats her own food, but she eats off our plates all the time" Lucy is good she doesn't actually jump up when were eating dinner...just sits there looking sorry for herself or starring at us lol I refuse to feed her off my plate and have told the boyfriend & my daughter not to and we stick to it. Hopefully she will get hungry enough to just go and eat hers. Is this the best thing to do?

The second thing is she was hardly walked. Saying this though she isn't to bad when outside...but deffo need to get her trained to listen by roads etc...worried me today as she was just going to cross the road when leaving the park when there were cars coming...I had a good grip of her so she wasn't in any danger but it was a wake up call to me just how little she was walked before.

I was wondering, she is quite a calm dog at home...and noticed after her trip to the park today she was a little different when I got her back home but settled eventually...is this simply down to her not being walked and just excited by her lil trip or is this something else? I know pups can struggle a little with listening outside the home with all the wonderful discoveries to made and training will help this.

I might just be worrying about nothing...but any advice would be appreciated


p.s sorry about the essay here lol

when you are eating your meal put her in another room or send her to bed. dont let her sit near the table. dont feed her any scraps from your plate even away from the table just give her dog food. put her dinner down and if she doesnt eat it take the bowl away after maybe half and hour to an hour. she won't let herslef starve she will eat it eventualy.

road sides when out on walks i tell the dogs SIT and WAIT

if she hasnt been out for walks the whole world is a new experience and she will be alittle giddy for a while but shoudl calm down once she gets used to going out.

basic training will help her and you and will be a great experience for you both also if you go to classes the socialisation is great too.

enjoy your walks and dont fret you will figure everything out and have a great dog soon enough

As long as you aren't feeding her off your plate and she isn't jumping up and trying to help herself she will eat her own food in time. She won't let herself starve but she might be stubborn about it for awhile.

It's also good that everyone else in the house follows the same rules for the dog so she won't get confused.

With the walks start the sit and wait commands in the house and add them to the walks. Don't cross a road until she does as you want and she will pick it up fairly quickly.

Thanks guys!!!

Yeah we thought that about taking her food away for 30mins - 1hr then putting it back. So we'll try that as well. Im going to book us on a Kennel club good citizen dog scheme with a local trainer to help with everything..I just think it would provide us both with a lot more confidence for when were out and about, and socialising etc...

We went on a walk this morning and she was good and tried the sit n wait by roads approach and it worked a charm so hopefully she will pick it up quickly...still needs abit more work but she'll get there.


Saw a lady walking her dog today and she said to stop her pulling on the lead we should get a choke chain collar...is that really necessary? I have a chain lead but i didn't like the idea of the collar but if its actually a good training aid then il get one...what do you guys think?

Thanks again btw you have been really helpful

i personaly detest choke chains they are horrible things. we have a half choke which doesnt close round the neck like a full choke chain does. also there are harnesses designed to help with pulling.

Yeah I was looking into it and id rather a harness tbf! hate the idea of a choke chain!

Quick update,

Lucy is now eating her own food well...she will still look for scraps here n there as my daughter drops a crisp or to but that's to be expected...we took her bowl away a literally a couple of times and she understood it pretty quick. Also her behaviour outside has improved loads to...just need to get her a harness, which im getting this Thursday and we're good to go...then we'll have our course in Jan to put everything straight

doing well!

hope it all goes well. sounds good so far

Kiki87 wrote:Thanks guys!!!

Yeah we thought that about taking her food away for 30mins - 1hr then putting it back. So we'll try that as well. Im going to book us on a Kennel club good citizen dog scheme with a local trainer to help with everything..I just think it would provide us both with a lot more confidence for when were out and about, and socialising etc...

Saw a lady walking her dog today and she said to stop her pulling on the lead we should get a choke chain collar...is that really necessary? I have a chain lead but i didn't like the idea of the collar but if its actually a good training aid then il get one...what do you guys think?

If you take up her food (good way to get her eating, by the way!), don't put it down again until the next meal. By putting it down again you're reinforcing the idea that she can eat what she likes, when she likes!

The Good Citizen Scheme is a great way to start training & socialising your dog, so go for it - you'll both enjoy it.

As to check chains, you don't need one! I'm one of the few people on this forum who doesn't think they're cruel if used properly and for training purposes only, but you don't need one purely for walking your dog, a flat leather or webbing collar or half check will be much better. If she pulls (I don't know if she does), then just turn around & walk the other way. Keep doing that every time she pulls & she'll soon get fed up with it - she'll start to watch you to see which way you're going & will slow down to walk with you.

Personally I hate chain leads! They hurt my hands & they're actually no stronger than a good quality webbing or softex (my personal favourite) lead. I use a 7' long softex training lead, and it's certainly strong enough for Dempsey - 31 kilos!

Glad to hear things are going well. Agree with Caryll as well on the check chains. If used properly for training purposes they can be a good tool. Far too often they are used incorrectly and end up causing damage to the dog or having them obey out of fear which is never a good thing. They should never be used for walks. If they are pulling just turn around and go the other way. You can also use a treat in a closed hand to get them to look up and take directions from you. Clicker training is also good for this. A halti harness is also usefull to discourage pulling.

Great stuff .. keep up the good work