5month old puppy- I need help please!!

Hi All,

Hoping someone or alot of you can help! My Staffordshire Bull Terrier Puppy Brian is 5 months nearly 6 months old. He has always been very loving which is fabulous, but recently he's really very 'hyper'. He jumps up alot, and tries to hold on to our legs with his legs. Also we gave him a marrow bone and some chewy bone things, and when my partner tried to take it off him he growled nastily. I told my partner we need to remember that Brian can't talk and I'd be annoyed if someone tried to take my dinner or treat off me.

He growls really nastily at times & it's not nice. Like I say he is so loving and when we let him out of his cage in the morning he licks us so much and loves to be stroked and tickled. He is also really hyper, but he is a puppy, will this calm down when he has 'the snip'?

He also bites alot, but not nastily, just like he's teething, but it hurts so much!

I need to get this sorted whilst he is still little else my partner wants to sell him. Hoping someone can help or give me some tips! If you need anymore information to help please let me know.

I really want to get it sorted as I dont want to sell him.

Thank you

Lucy

Hi &

Welcome to the staffordshire bull terrier niceboard. We are pleased you have decided to join us, and hope you enjoy your stay. We hope to see plenty of pictures of your staffordshire bull terriers or any other breed you may have in your household

If you would like to enter your dog(s), puppy(s) or another pet(s) you may have into our Monthly Competition, voting starts on the 20th of every month, if you are lucky your dog maybe placed on our Hall Of Fame page on our website.

Just one last thing before you look around could you please just have a quick look At This Poll, we would love to know how you found us.

Here are some links that will get you started with the website:-

Please read the Forum Rules before you start posting.
Here are a List of Tutorial & FAQs that will help you around the forum.
You can ask for Help here if you are having trouble doing something on the forum.
If you have any ideas to improve the forum please let us know Your Feedback Here.
We have a Website with alot of information if you would like to view it.
Make a Donate to help us to keep us improving our forum and website.

Hello and welcome from me the wife and marley
someone who has had experiance or a better knowledge of puppy aggression should be along soon. but as for castration, there is no proof that this alters a dog's behavior at all and generally isn't recommended before 18 months old
http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/stopyourstaffypuppybiting.html

Hi and welcome from us and Suki.

The behaviour he is showing is quite natural and can be eliminated with proper training, patience, and consistancy.

The energy levels are always going to be high. He should be walked 5 minutes per month of age twice per day. Mental stimulation such as training sessions and looking for treats will help funnel his energy into positive activities.

For the biting he is both teething and seeking attention. For the teething aspect make sure he has plenty of frozen treats or toys on hand to help with the pain. Sliced sweet potatos or carrots are great and low in calories.

For other biting or jumping he is seeking attention. Turn around and ignore him each and every time. He will come to associate the behaviours with getting the opposite reaction that he is seeking and stop. You and every one else in the house have to react the same way each and every time.

Make him sit and wait for his food at each and every meal. This will help with patience. You can pick up the bowl and make him wait a bit and then replace and the behaviour will rectify itself over time. You should also start to work hard on the leave command at this stage.

Mine were both neutred at 6 and 7 months and it certainly didnt "quiet" them down lol they were just as mad as ever, i neutered for different reasons tho

Hi and welcome from me, Millie and Bella

I was about to post about making him wait before getting food and I saw jstaff already had Bella was like that over food and that method worked with her. it doesn't happen overnight and takes a bit of patience and repetition but it does work.

hello and welcome from me and billy

Hi and welcome to the forum from Rocky and me.

I have attached below some guidelines which may help with the biting side of things:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/stopyourstaffypuppybiting.html

Its should all come together with time, patience and persistance.

Thank you so much everyone! We have both had dogs all our lives & I love staffies but my partner wasnt keen until we had Brian! I really want to keep him and I hope that we can due to all of your help! What should I put in the freezer for him?

Thanks

Lucy

Frozen bananas or carrots are usually very good!

What are you feeding him at the moment? And what exercise is he getting?

Castration should not be relied on to calm him down, only training and patience will do that!

Ahhhh fantastic! I think he'll love those!

He has a bit of dry food mixed with wet food (puppy as reccommended by the vet!) He gets walked every day for about 15 minutes as he cant cope any longer and just lies down! (which is quite funny at the time!)

Totally not relying on 'the snip' to calm him down, alot of people have mentioned it. He's only having it done as we don't want puppies from him.

:-)

Personally I wouldn't neuter him until he's mature. Too many problems are caused by early neutering but as I said, that's just my own opinion.

Which food are you giving him? Which brand? It could be adding to his hyper behaviour!

How many walks a day does he get?

Sorry for all the questions!

If your not already doing so a second walk would help with the energy levels.

He gets 1 walk a day but I will try him with 2. He's on either Winalot or Asda's own puppy food!

One other thing, he's started to bare his teeth and his top lip goes as though he wants to bite. Does anyone know the best way to stop this?

Thanks

Lucy x

The second walk should help out alot. At his age I don't think he is displaying actual aggression.

Thank you so much for your help!

What should I do abour him bareing his teeth? It's usually when we give him a bone or something and want it back....we ask him to leave it which he does but then he bares his teeth. My Partner hates this!!!

Lucy x

Fieldy1990 wrote:Thank you so much for your help!

What should I do abour him bareing his teeth? It's usually when we give him a bone or something and want it back....we ask him to leave it which he does but then he bares his teeth. My Partner hates this!!!

Lucy x

If he bares his teeth tell him "No!" in a firm & deep but fairly quiet voice. If he growls or bares his teeth he doesn't get the item/bone back. If he gives it up willingly then he can have it back, or even better he can have a treat/something he values even more than what you've taken. Don't just take something off him & give him nothing in return (at least while you're training him) as he will be reluctant to give things up.

If I were you I'd try him on a different food. Winalot/Asda's own aren't the best quality, I'm afraid. Try feeding him a complete food that has meat as it's first constituent and has fewer fillers such as grains etc. Also, make sure there are no additives such as colouring/flavouring. Pets At Home's own brand (Wainwrights) is a reasonably good, fairly cheap food. Or something like James Wellbeloved or Fish4Dogs are also good.

Thank you so so so much for your help :-) I'll get him started on that.

Its so hard to know whats right and whats not right and what he should and shouldnt be doing.

How old is your Staffie?

Lucy
x

My staffy passed away a few years ago! I have an EBT now - that's him in my avatar! He's 3 years old on 29th April.

Hopefully, once you can sort his food out, he'll calm down a bit & the training will be a lot easier! That's the theory, anyway!

oh no, thats so sad :-( I love the look of your EBT :-) Very sweet! Whats his name?

Ahhhh thank you so much for your help :-) x

Fieldy1990 wrote: Whats his name?

Dempsey. After the boxer, Jack Dempsey

Hi and welcome. Great advice already given but if you still feel a little shakey on what to do, sometimes a consult with a professional helps to give you confidence.

Thank you very much! Everyone seems to know what they are doing :-)

Hi, I'm new here too but having a 5mth old Staff pup myself I thought I'd chip in, hope you don't mind
We found the food is a big thing with our pup going hyper, we were feeding her science plan which we got when we adopted her from rescue, but soon found this made her go loopy so we changed on advice from our local pet shop who is great, has a lot of information on nutrition needs.
We feed her on a food made local to us now, you are in same sort of area so maybe you can find it too, i'ts called Berrimans and we have found it a real life saver lol.
As for biting, I was getting really worried about ours about a month ago as she was getting quite bad, then I found some advice which worked for us, every time your pup bites or gets your hand in its mouth you yelp and take away all attention for a couple of mins then return to normal, do this every time and everyone in household needs to do the same. Pleased to say our pup no longer bites at all ! it worked a treat.
Now we get to enjoy all the good things a staffy pup brings, lots of cuddles love and licks
sry that was a bit long, but I know what its like when your pulling your hair out just wanting a happy well mannered ( as well as they can be lol) pup to love and play with

Hiya!

Course I dont mind need all the help we can get! Your little pup looks gorgeous :-) I'm so glad the biting thing isnt just our little Brian, he's so naughty!!!

His baring his teeth is just the only thing worrying us now! He loves people and other dogs! Where abouts are you from? Have you taken your pup to any training?

Lucy

Hi,
no we haven't taken her to training as yet, we are lucky to have a lot of dogs around us who all tend to walk together so she socialises well with them. She's amazingly inteligent as all staffies seem to be and picks up anything we want to teach her so quick.
With regards to the baring his teeth and growling, I would say you need to get that sorted as soon as you can because food agression will only get worse if you leave it, we had a slight issue with ours being territorial (can't spell it sry lol) and getting quite bossy but we were very firm with her and seem to have it under control now.
I think the main thing to remember is they are quite headstrong and intelligent so you have to remind them of their manners, they are happier when they know what is expected of them anyway as all dogs are

We help out our local staffie rescue now with dog walking and are considering fostering, they are such a beautiful natured loving breed, so misunderstood too which is heartbreaking when you hear the stories of how they are treated sometimes.
Will do everything we can to change peoples negative perspectives.
We had a staff x jack russel before this and she was just as loving, unfourtunatley we didn't socialise her as much as we should have with other dogs when she was younger so she got grumpy with other dogs being around her other than a select few, so thats an important thing to do too

Mine is 6 months old and from week one i got on the floor with my face very close to the bowl at feeding times just for a minute or two. i then moved on to talking his bowl of food off him half way through, again just for a moment,... that kinda got him used to me taking things back from him.

At about 3 months old he got his first pigs ear,.. he took it and ran and refused to let me near it, never growling or showing teeth though! Just saying this is mine! I practised taking it from him when he had been chewing it for a while. He will now gladly let me take anything from him now,..... EXCEPT when any food product is dropped on floor, he will hoover it up roughly 1.3 seconds after it hits the floor! LOL
Asking for a paw or that he sits before you give it back is a good thing.

Make sure you and your partner are both giving the same no command when he bites and u both have the same punishment for him.
Floyds last k9 has just came out last week, he was teething bad at 5 months,.. ice cubes seemed to help.

We have been giving Brian frozen carrotts and potatoes, he loves them and its helping his teething. Thank God!

He'll let me take anything from him but growls at my partner when he tries to take anything off him.

He's still really hyper, but what can we expect from a puppy really?
Thank you so much for all your help.


Looby, where abouts in the West Midlands are you? Wondering if our pups could get together to walk and play?

Lucy

Hi, I have a 7month old female called Maisey. who at one point has done exactly the same things that you have questioned about.

Staffy's are naturally 'hyper' and jumping up is something most if not all staffies do in their younger age. make sure Brian has at least 1hour of walking a day. more if possible. with staffies being so hyperactive, exercising them helps to calm them down and tire them out. also. spend about an hour a day playing with him. maybe purchase a 'tug' toy. giving him lots of attention and praise when he plays nicely with you.

If Brian bites you, whether playing, on purpose or just accidentally. cry out a really loud 'OUCH!' so that he knows he's hurt you. and do this every time he bites.

I recommend 'Harrington's dry food' after changing Maisey onto this, i noticed quite a difference in her behaviour. it's not expensive either. about £3 for a 2kg bag at tesco! It's not the best food going. but it definitely made a difference in her behaviour.

Maisey attended an 8week training course. with 'we train any dog' which is where I learnt most of my training methods.

Good luck!

Hi, I have a 5/6 month old staffy. If you can take him to dog training or a staffy club near you as its like going to the dog whisperer. As a family we have all went to this and it gave us a great understanding of what the dog is thinking and it also mixes the dog with others.
When we went to dog training bailey started to growl, when he wasn’t allowed to play, the trainer explained that that was his way of saying he wanted to play with the other dogs, which he did but only when the trainer was ready to let him. Bailey also growls when he plays or wants to play some times barks also.
We also make him wait for dinner by making him sit and let him go when we tell him, something the dog trainer mentioned was to give him some food from your hand. Just thought of a tip when taking something of the dog, use the word “mine”, when doing this reward the dog i.e. as nice treat so the dog thinks you are swapping what the dog has for a treat at first we nearly had to put the treat in his mouth. We also use “leave it” but use this with a stern voice, again we done this with a treat on the ground and holding his collar, when he moved forward you would say “leave it” until he stopped doing it. Pick up the treat and give the dog it or another treat but never let the dog pick it up.
As the others have mentioned if he jumps a lot turn your back, works with bailey.
The trainer that we use mentioned that the dog having the snip will not calm him down but will stop him trying to progress in the pack (family) and also stop him sniffing at every lap post, and other things like that.

Hope any of the above helps

Hi, I have a 5/6 month old staffy. If you can take him to dog training or a staffy club near you as its like going to the dog whisperer. As a family we have all went to this and it gave us a great understanding of what the dog is thinking and it also mixes the dog with others.
When we went to dog training bailey started to growl, when he wasn’t allowed to play, the trainer explained that that was his way of saying he wanted to play with the other dogs, which he did but only when the trainer was ready to let him. Bailey also growls when he plays or wants to play some times barks also.
We also make him wait for dinner by making him sit and let him go when we tell him, something the dog trainer mentioned was to give him some food from your hand. Just thought of a tip when taking something of the dog, use the word “mine”, when doing this reward the dog i.e. as nice treat so the dog thinks you are swapping what the dog has for a treat at first we nearly had to put the treat in his mouth. We also use “leave it” but use this with a stern voice, again we done this with a treat on the ground and holding his collar, when he moved forward you would say “leave it” until he stopped doing it. Pick up the treat and give the dog it or another treat but never let the dog pick it up.
As the others have mentioned if he jumps a lot turn your back, works with bailey.
The trainer that we use mentioned that the dog having the snip will not calm him down but will stop him trying to progress in the pack (family) and also stop him sniffing at every lap post, and other things like that.

Hope any of the above helps

Hi and welcome to the forum from me and Tilly

Benny is exactly the same, I'm currently trying being calm around him all the time, rewarding him being nice and turning round and ignoring him when he starts to bite

RoseSinger wrote:Benny is exactly the same, I'm currently trying being calm around him all the time, rewarding him being nice and turning round and ignoring him when he starts to bite

Your doing exactly the thing to do so keep it up, it does take a while but I promise it does get better

Come say hi :- https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

I was just going to ask the same question..I have a male called Bear...very barky and demands attention all the time. I cant leave the room without him barking for england..weeing everywhere and biting constantly. Its like having another teenager in the house going through puberty! He gets walked loads..seems to be the only time he is happy when hes off the lead. Loves everyone but will not stop jumping up and nipping fingers. He has started refusing to nap after walks and gets over tired and teasy. Thats when the crate is useful and ignoring the wining n barking for at least 10 minutes usually works.
As for the craziness....chews..chews...chews...feed feed feed. Hes growing quickly and will burn off calories at an alarming rate. His jaw is larging so he may be going mental as he feels this...teething sucks...Bear just loves biting soft toys so plenty of trips to charity shops for unwanted teddies...
Patients is key...x

Hi ya, welcome to the forum from Flo and me

Sounds like your doing most of the things I would have suggested, however, what food are you giving him? Some foods can make them hyper (think blue smarties and kids) so it might be an idea to try something else and see if there's any difference.