Please meet Troy. The story so far...

First topic message reminder :

[Not put in media as not solely pictures]

I picked up Troy today, a Staffy of 15 months from his previous owners at around 4:30pm. I felt bad on the drive back home as he was whimpering to go back to his old family

He did settle down on the drive and stopped whimpering for a while but would start every now and again.

Got home for around 5pm or just after, not sure..and I took him for a long walk, maybe a hour or so which is when my GF got home. We took him in the house, left him run around and check all the rooms etc and take in his new surroundings. After 30 minutes or so I fed him. It was suggested to leave for about a hour before feeding, but he had not been fed all day by his previous owner so was starving.

He seems to be drinking a lot of water, so I have walked probably another 3 times since getting him home. He has done lots of pee's but no poops. While on walks I saw no other dogs or animals. He walked past men and woman fine, BUT kept trying to turn around and pull me in the direction of an asian lady behind us. He was not growling or anything like that, but the previous owner advised he does not like asian women for some reason but is fine with asian men!? What can I do about this?

For some reason, even after being in the house for some time and being walked a lot, he peed on my living room rug, not sure why as the previous owners advised he was house trained. I did read here from another member that their dog peed once and and once only in the house the day they got him. He didn't run around sniffing and Ccock his leg though, just went on the carpet out of nowhere so not sure what this could mean?

I gave him some toys to play with and a bone, he loves playing tug of war and me swinging him around etc. His temperment seems great, even when chewing on the bone he would let me pet him and take the bone. He would even come to me with it and chew it while in my lap. It seems that he likes having a lot of affection and is always coming for cuddles and reassurance.

He follows me wherever I go and his recall ain't bad, he comes to me when I call him in the house. He does like to follow other people around too though. Not sure if it's for security, being nosey, thinks they are going for treats or if he thinks they are leaving the house and taking him back to his previous owners

So he seems great so far. The only negative things as of today...but yes it is VERY early, is the peeing on the carpet and when my brother and his GF came down, he growled at my brothers GF. However, I think this may of been our fault and not Troy's, as they simply knocked and walked into the house rather than me letting them in and reassuring Troy they were okay. So it was possibly a teratorial thing? Any advice on that would be great.

So, I told him NO and everyone sat down. He went and said hi to them, the patted him etc and all seemed fine. I played with him as normal and he chewed his bone as normal and didn't care they were there.

So they left and I have put him in the kitchen which is going to be is sleeping place. He has been whimpering and scratching at the door for like 15 minutes, but as I type this he appears to have stopped now and has hopefully gone to sleep! Feels really tight letting him cry...

I have to leave the house tomorrow for about 2-3 hours. Do you think he will be okay by himself with some chew toys and the radio on etc? It's Go Karting for my friends birthday which I totally forgot was tomorrow!

There are just a few concerns / questions I have, but here are some pictures first:








And had to upload this one. It's like he's saying 'touch this bone if you dare.



Now just a couple of potential concerns. Looking at the pictures it is hard to tell as they are not great, but do you think he could be a little under weight?

Secondly he has two small bald patches on the top of his head. Not as bad as pictures look. I looked on the internet and read it could be several things like:

Mites
Flea bite
Allergic reaction
Alopecia

I am going to book him into the vets for a once over, booster jabs and working etc but thought I would ask anyway. Here is a picture.



Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Here is the link on bloat

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t11484-bloat?highlight=bloat

I'd never heard about it before reading this article. As for the It's me or the dog, I've just found it both series are on 40d, so get the internet going with the dog and watch together so to speak :-)

shakespearesdog wrote:

So, will letting him sleep in my room aid things or make his anxiety worse when I start to leave him alone?

I don't think it will make things worse. He'll get used to knowing that the basement means you're going out and won't be there. He can hear you in the house from the kitchen at night and he's probably wondering why he can't be with you. My dog gets far more upset being separated from me in the house then when I'm not actually in the house. Any reason he has to be in the basement when you're at work or are you just worried he'll wreck the joint?
My dog doesn't touch anything and I don't leave toys for him either, he just ignores them. He was terrible to leave when he was a puppy but he completely mellowed when he hit about 15/16 months.

I don't know if he can hear me in the house as I'm on the 3rd floor but I see what you mean.

He never chewed anything in the kitchen Over night but yeah, as I dont know him properly yet I'm not sure if he would chew anything in the house.

If I keep letting sleep in my room and there are occasions when I want him to
Sleep elsewhere, could this potentially turn out to be an issue?

Sleeping arrangements are up to you. Suki sleeps with us but when we first got her she slept in the crate for a week until she understood the rules.

Even if you think he can't hear you, he might be able to. Dogs have excellent hearing and just seem to know. I also have my dogs sleep in bed with us and they seem to ignore toys when left home alone. Every situation is different and you need to get to know Troy and his propensities. You'll figure it out.

Gee wrote:Yeah I understand. It's still very hard leaving him, I'm dreading bedtime tonight!

He winless and scratches at the door, follows me EVERYWHERE around the house.

He whimpered when my GF went into the shop too, but if you walk him he forgets.

He still whimpered a little bit in the house when I am just relaxing, should I comfort him or ignore it? Also should he be scolded when he does something wrong? He jumped up and knocked over a table spilling coke all over my sofa. And before I forget, for those that feed once a day, how big is the meal, do you weigh it or go by handfuls etc?

At the moment he's feeling very insecure so he'll whimper when one of you leaves the room & he can't check on you. He'll start to relax when he realises that you always come back!

If he does something wrong, by all means tell him "no" but you then have to give him a positive command to balance it. So, if he jumps onto the table, for instance, you'll say "No, get down" and as soon as he gets down you could say something like "sit" and when he does, give him praise.

The feeding is a bit difficult for me to comment on, because whatever I feed my dogs it will always be twice a day, about an hour or so after a walk. I notice that you say he's on Wagg. I know there are people out there who use it & think it's great, but it really isn't a good food - far too many fillers & cereals. Have a look at the dry food recommendations on the forum (I think someone's already posted the link).

Hi guys,

I'm going to keep this topic going and answer questions in due course. For those interested in developments with Troy, you may want to see here:

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t14494-troy-the-saga-continues-depressing-update-inside

jstaff wrote:Sleeping arrangements are up to you. Suki sleeps with us but when we first got her she slept in the crate for a week until she understood the rules.

Sleeping in my room is fine, he does snore a bit though lol. He stayed in there last night and didn't get too excited and did both toilet duties outside and not in the house which I am happy about.

Only thing in was getting at, if he gets so used to sleeping in my room, will he play up if I put him to sleep elsewhere on occasion?

bbimson wrote:Even if you think he can't hear you, he might be able to. Dogs have excellent hearing and just seem to know. I also have my dogs sleep in bed with us and they seem to ignore toys when left home alone. Every situation is different and you need to get to know Troy and his propensities. You'll figure it out.

Yeah you're right. Silly thing for me to say considering their great hearing. He does chew bones and try's getting into his Kongo and things while I'm hear but I think he might ignore them when I'm gone. We'll see.

Caryll wrote:

Gee wrote:Yeah I understand. It's still very hard leaving him, I'm dreading bedtime tonight!

He winless and scratches at the door, follows me EVERYWHERE around the house.

He whimpered when my GF went into the shop too, but if you walk him he forgets.

He still whimpered a little bit in the house when I am just relaxing, should I comfort him or ignore it? Also should he be scolded when he does something wrong? He jumped up and knocked over a table spilling coke all over my sofa. And before I forget, for those that feed once a day, how big is the meal, do you weigh it or go by handfuls etc?

At the moment he's feeling very insecure so he'll whimper when one of you leaves the room & he can't check on you. He'll start to relax when he realises that you always come back!

If he does something wrong, by all means tell him "no" but you then have to give him a positive command to balance it. So, if he jumps onto the table, for instance, you'll say "No, get down" and as soon as he gets down you could say something like "sit" and when he does, give him praise.

The feeding is a bit difficult for me to comment on, because whatever I feed my dogs it will always be twice a day, about an hour or so after a walk. I notice that you say he's on Wagg. I know there are people out there who use it & think it's great, but it really isn't a good food - far too many fillers & cereals. Have a look at the dry food recommendations on the forum (I think someone's already posted the link).

Thanks for the advice. I'm looking into another food today and gave him boiled chicken this morning, check my. Other thread to know why if you haven't already.

He ran upstairs with his Kongo chew without me this morning and chilled for a little while, while I was still downstairs. Do you think he is getting a little bit more comfortable with his surroundings?

Need to post something at post office tomorrow, will be about 25 mins. I may use thisbas another test run for leaving him again. I absolutely hate it though.