unbearable walks.

Silva's walks are just getting worst and worst. besides the sniffing thing he has now decided to start dropping to the ground and refusing to budge. he has done this in the past but on very few ocassions and they havent lasted long.
Now though they can last up to 10 mins then 1 min later he drops again ( this is only 2 mins into the walk). If you do try to pull him up he turns nasty and just starts bitting your hands and tearing at the lead. Even when on a check chain he will pull all the same stunts and will fight it till his last breath.

I understand he is at this 'teenage' stage and will be testing boundaries and will end at some stage, so i am keeping that light at the end of the tunnel shinning. But it is at the point were i dont want to walk him anymore because not only the embarrassment but the fear he is causing the people that see it. I know he is a gorgeous loving dog just going through a bad stage but all people see is this vicious dog bitting the hell out of its owner.

I just dont know what to do.? We are constantly giving praise for good things that he does but he doesnt care for affection at all. He will respond to treats but what he has realised that he gets rewards to stop doing naughty things aswell as just doing good things. For eg, he will go to attack the cat just so he can respond to 'leave it' and get a reward.

I just dont know how to gain control again with out having to resort to older techniques of submission. Even then i still dont think they would work.

HELP ME..

p.s sorry for the novel..lol

Patience, use treats as a reward, never give them for anything else. He will learn, and I know it can be frustrating. Does he get any off lead time yet? There are many games which teach mind focus. Just takes a little firm training Xx

yeh he does get off lead time, but we have had so much rain lately that every place we would go to is flooded or just a mud pit. I can only take him to enclosed areas as his recall isnt the best, which kind of limits us.
That did actually cross my mind today that maybe he was getting a bit cranky about being stuck on a leash all the time.
maybe i might try a change of walking location till the rain clears up.?

Being here I'm not sure how bad it is there but throw on a pair of wellies and get out there. All stimulation is great especially at this age, and get him out as often as you can.

You have to be the most exciting thing to him, even if you look a wally doing it, things will fall into place but it takes a little effort and a lot of will

Have you ruled out pain? Even lung/heart/inside pain?

also staffies are very bad in the heat, so its summer there, so he may just be too warm. try walking at dusk and dawn times?

Its definately not a time or heat thing. I usually walk him in the cooler periods of the day. He seems fine running round the house and stuff so I wouldnt say its pain.
It might just be that he is bored and wants more then just to go for a walk around the same old neighbourhood.
I will brave the mud pits tomorrow.lol

thank you all for the advice...

Do you use a harness or a collar?

Hayley wrote:Do you use a harness or a collar?

I usually used a check chain and we also have a harness we use also. I switched to using the harness only, just before this started happening more frequently. I have switched between checks, harness, collars to see if he responds better to one or the other. but theyre all the same. The harness is handy for picking him up though.lol

I tried to take him to our little off leash area (its 300meters from my house) just before. Made it about 20 meters and he started laying down. I had to come back and get the car just to drive 30 seconds down the road.lol

I think he is just a stubborn and extremely strong willed little puppy who likes to 'try' and have control ( at 23kg though, i cant call him little).

Have yoiu taught the watch me command yet? When Suki doesn't want to walk we will hold the treat in a closed hand and let her have a sniff and she will follow

we have been working with leuring (hope thats how you spell it) getting him to follow the treat. But he just gives up if he doesnt get it quick enough.lol
he doesnt work for treats, the treats get him to work.

I have been doing a bit of research on training and dog psychology today and came across a michael ellis. Has any one heard of him? Alot of it is reward based training. But i think he originally came from a correction based training style.
I am kind of worried that all the correction i have been giving Silva has actually done more damage then good. Maybe thats why Silva is so stubborn now and refuses to comply. he's still only young so i hope we can fix anything negative we may have done.

I hope this may encourage you a little as we had a similiar problem with Zoey. I'm not sure how old Silva is but Zoey is 9 months now and thankfully has started to get over whatever her walking issues may have been, but it did go on for quite some time. It only ever happened at the beginning of the walk until we got passed most of the houses, which probably meant that perhaps something between our house and the end of the street had scared her, but then she never had a problem on our way home in the same section! Once we got going the rest of our walk was stress free and she loved being out and about.

I did turn around and go back home on a couple of occasions but just felt that I was giving in to her. I've even sat on the side of the road with her thinking she'd get tired of just sitting there! Eventually I just got tired of messing around with her, picked her up and continued on until I thought she'd be ok. I did this for quite a few days until she eventually would walk a little further and do that stretch on her own. Yes, it was highly embarassing and no easy feat, but she seemed to get the message.

She even did the same thing with my husband but was defininitely better on days when two of us could take her. Then the other person could go ahead to call and encourage her which really helped. Now I can take her on my own without a problem.

I understand your frustration! Good luck!!

Silva is just over 6 months. i did walk him with my daughter today and he did do a little bit better, mind you we did have treats to bribe him.
I have found there is one way he will absolutely refuse to go and another route that he puts up less fight. i couldnt imagine what he would be scared of though??
i have turned around a few times and gone home, but like you said i dont want him to think he controls everything.
I think i will just keep my pockets full of treats and keep up the encouragement when he does good. hopefully he enjoys walks again soon..
thanks for the advice.

has he got a favourite squeaky toy or something. My dog loves her squeaky balls and will do anything for them.

It is worth remembering that everyday objects which hold no signifigance for us can sometimes scare a puppy e.g. a washing flapping on a line. So you may never know what spooked him, but carry on with the treats but don't baby talk him as this will only reinforce his idea that there is something scary there. It must be something really scary to him to make him prepared to bite rather than pass it as that is very uncharacteristic for a staffy.

Maybe try walking him in a different area, do you walk on a hard surface or on grass?

Do you have fields near you that you could let him have a run around in ?

Does he have any doggy playmates to walk with to make it more entertaining for him?

Try giving praise as a reward rather than all the treats and see how things go. Please let us know how you get on.

Isn't dog psychology a tough one? stay the course, don't give up. i cant offer much as far as advice since i haven't experienced this one, but i hope it gets better. do let us know what works? Marley's teen time is quickly aproaching.

reuben wrote:It is worth remembering that everyday objects which hold no signifigance for us can sometimes scare a puppy e.g. a washing flapping on a line. So you may never know what spooked him, but carry on with the treats but don't baby talk him as this will only reinforce his idea that there is something scary there. It must be something really scary to him to make him prepared to bite rather than pass it as that is very uncharacteristic for a staffy.

Silva isnt a normal staffy though.lol
He has always been real bitey when excited or wanting attention. We have worked a lot on this and i know it sounds bad to have a 6 month dog that is still that way but he has come along way from what he was. So it is not totaly out of character for him to try and bite to get what he wants.

He actually did really well on a walk this morning. Mind you we went to the dog park before it though. He still refused to go one particullar way, and put up a little resistance when we past his off leash area, but besides that he listened really well.
I did take a different route along the way, so i am starting to think perhaps he was just getting bored and wanted something new. I let him kind of lead me at first and he took me straight to the off leash area.

This might sound crazy but he had a different look in his eye today. Its hard to explain, its like the look they give when working for treats but not as intense. Normaly he just walks in his own little world and i may aswell not be there. Maybe he was just happy for once.lol
and they say women are impossible to figure out..

ALSO..... One thing different today besides going to the dog park was, he didnt eat before his walk?
He has always been walk crazy so i have never paid attention to working around feeding. Maybe that is something to consider now he's eating more?

well we feel for you, me personally we only had resistant when we first started walking as a puppy not as a teenager.

I would advice the same as everyone and do not give up as like you mentioned this will show you he has won. I owuld say the same as janey get the mac our and wellies and get into the mud!!!

please keep us updated i know not been much help

Just thought i would give an update on Silvas progress.
Walks have improved heaps. He is still sniffing and pulling a bit, but if i walk him during light hours its not so bad. Its pretty dark at night in our area so he tends to sniff more at night. he still also has his little crazy pull on the lead fits when he wants to run. But that could be part my fault for allowing it when he was younger.
As for laying down he has done it maybe 3 times over the last few days. and it was purely out of just being a stubborn brat. But he gets up quickly knowing there could be a reward, even then, i make him walk a bit first before he gets it.
So its more or less a happy ending. I guess it helps to having a really food driven dog.

Well Done Glad to see walks are becoming more enjoyable