Rescue Staffy has started getting punchy!

Hi

We have an 11 year old staffy who is absolutely fine with dogs, people, kids etc etc and recently we adopted a rescue staffy. There are no problems between the two and our old dog is definitely in charge but not in any aggressive way, new guy has just accepted that old boy is the boss.

Unfortunately the new dog has 'issues'. He can't seem to understand that it's rude to rush up to dogs and push into their faces, wind them up and then start a fight. We have to take him out with a muzzle on which is not great for him and not what we wanted.

He's fine with humans and is very loving. We are taking him to a dog trainer to try to socialise him more but we live in a very rural area and meet very few dogs for him to start to interact with. We are starting to go to a 'socialisation' group once a month (the first one is in two weeks) where he will be muzzled and the other owners have dogs who have had issues but are reformed characters(!) so it's a safe environment for him to be in. It's a kind of rehab for borstal boys!

Does anyone have any suggestions of anything else we can do to try to get this lad to understand that dogs are ok. Just for info, the trainer says he's not been used for fighting or anything terrible, he just doesn't know how to socialise and probably never has, so when he gets an aggressive reaction he reacts in the same manner.


Thanks for any help.

What do you do when you take him to the park, what's the routine?

pansypots wrote:Hi

We have an 11 year old staffy who is absolutely fine with dogs, people, kids etc etc and recently we adopted a rescue staffy. There are no problems between the two and our old dog is definitely in charge but not in any aggressive way, new guy has just accepted that old boy is the boss.

Unfortunately the new dog has 'issues'. He can't seem to understand that it's rude to rush up to dogs and push into their faces, wind them up and then start a fight. We have to take him out with a muzzle on which is not great for him and not what we wanted.

Each time you allow him to do this he will get worse, you know he does it so please keep him on a lead so he can't, I find in this type of situation a long line gives my dog more freedom but I still have control. One day he can be seriously injured if he is allowed to continue with this behaviour.

He's fine with humans and is very loving. We are taking him to a dog trainer to try to socialise him more but we live in a very rural area and meet very few dogs for him to start to interact with. We are starting to go to a 'socialisation' group once a month (the first one is in two weeks) where he will be muzzled and the other owners have dogs who have had issues but are reformed characters(!) so it's a safe environment for him to be in. It's a kind of rehab for borstal boys!

There are some very good trainers who understand this behaviour and there are even more that think they can but can't. How do they teach the dogs at this class?

Does anyone have any suggestions of anything else we can do to try to get this lad to understand that dogs are ok. Just for info, the trainer says he's not been used for fighting or anything terrible, he just doesn't know how to socialise and probably never has, so when he gets an aggressive reaction he reacts in the same manner.


Thanks for any help.

Good teaching dogs in a controlled situation would teach him how to be a dog, I have fostered qute a few dogs that one of mine has taught to be a dog and talk dog, As I said higher up, do not let him off the lead to practice this behaviour, instead keep him on a lead, a long line will give him more freedom. Don't use a flexi lead, sometimes they don't lock and he will be able to get to the other dog. Also these leads keep pressure on the dog all the time and if used all the time a dog learns to walk with pressure on them, when put on a short lead they still need the pressure, many owners take this for pulling.