locking on

Top is a 18 month staffy. He is very active and romps and plays quite vigorously. Today he lashed out at a smaller dog. I have to say that he was right he had made it quite clear to the small dog and his owner that he was not happy with the dogs overly aggressive posture towards him. The troubling thing is he locked on to the dogs ear this is the first time he has been this decisive in his displeasure with other dog. Do I need to be worried that this behavior may be more frequent, and if so what measures should i be employing to prevent this from happening again.

Personally, id remove Kenny from the situation. Were they on or off lead? I always allow Kenny to meet new friends while on lead, aleast then if things turn nasty i have control. At the moment, Kennys on-lead at all time's as his recall is no- exsistant lol. I think you just need to be aware of your dogs body lanuage (please excuse the spelling) and others around him. Hope this helps

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If he is 18 months and this is the first incident I wouldn't be overly concerned. Is he well socialized? Here is a link on body language so you can understand the signals

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

Hi and welcome to the forum from Rocky and me.

As mentioned make sure he is well sociallised while still on the lead. Do you know any well socialised, quiet dogs he can meet to start with ?

Top is well socialized we spend lot of time with other dogs, he really enjoys this. The lock jaw response really is the thing that bothers me, scuffles happen but the over reaction concerns me.

Sounds like he will be fine. We only let Suki play off lead with dogs we are sure she gets along with.

hi welcome. staffies are notorious for "locking" which is why they make such lethal fighting dogs.

personally i would keep him on a lead until there are no dog around cause you can not predict this behaviour.

Hi...I also would keep him on a lead unless he with dogs he knows and is friends with, seea it may not be him that starts anything but he if he gets cross he sure as hell will finish it...and being a staffie owner ul get the blame

I would say that between 18 and 30 months is when they start testing the other dogs around - particularly males. I am not that experienced with sbt but have loads of experience with dogs in general. I think the biggest cause of aggression in adults is probably the owners over-reacting to this period of adolescence. As long as you disagree with any aggression at all - however slight - he will get his own reward through interacting politely with others and choose this option. Like already suggested, you can watch the body language and pre-empt any anti-social behaviour. He will look to you for guidance so I would say just be sure that you make it clear that you disagree with the behaviour if it occurs again and don't start avoiding dogs or getting stressed when you meet them, this will be easily picked up on by the dog and might trigger a bad reaction. He has to make mistakes so that you can correct them, otherwise how will he know what is acceptable and what is not? If it was another male that he argued with and he is not neutered then I would seriously consider neutering. Hope this helps
Julia

what do you consider anti social behaviour?

Posturing?
Growling?

I would never suppress these NORMAL reactions personally.
Often the case is, especially with EBT's and dobermans it seems, if you discourage these normal behaviours they will skip them and go straight to bite.
I havn't had a staffy in years but i have had EBt's, if staffies are similar to them in terms of biting, I would consider him locking on to the other dog as a concern, but I would not panic.

I recently was dealing with an EBT that had not been socialized properly (21 months old) that had the growling behaviour suppressed. He went straight for the kill instead and put a good few lacerations in another Bully. He was properly locked on also.

Not knowing the OP or the dog I couldn't say for sure, but if his dog warned the other dog enough it sounds like it is the other dog that is not properly socialized rather than his dog.
Like I said I wouldn't panic, I would keep an eye on potential escalation and move away if it gets sketchy. You can't account for other dogs and OWNERS behaviour but you can keep your staffy out of trouble which in my opinion is the name of the game.

Yes I completely agree.
A powerful dog without a warning growl would be a terrible idea!! Growling is normal social behaviour - but aggression is also normal social behaviour to dogs, it is just unacceptable to us.
I don't correct growls or warning communications - I generally just correct overtly confrontational behaviour in my dogs, and I also correct reactivity to other badly behaved dogs. I think that if they can learn to remain calm and ignore bad behaviour in other dogs (AND OWNERS!) then this is the best outcome. This can only happen however where the owner takes control of the situation so that the dog feels secure in the knowledge that his owner always has 'his back', otherwise the dog may feel he has to take charge of the situation and correct the other dog.
You're right about the owners too, I never realised until recently just how uptight some people get when they even see a bull breed. This then passes to their dog who goes 'oh we get tense around this dog' and so your dog ends up being the 'bad' one when it reacts. Stupid when in reality it was the human on the end of the other dog's lead that started it! This just means that we have to be even more aware than ever I suppose.
I wasn't suggesting at all that the dog isn't properly socialised, It is just normal adolescent behaviour if you ask me. But the consequences with a powerful breed could be more extreme - so yes I agree - keeping your dog out of trouble is the name of the game.
Julia