Door issues (I can't stand the noise anymore!)

Hi All,

I've been a member of this forum picking up hints and tips over the last 12 months or so but have never posted. Before I ask for guidance I will explain a little about me and my dog.

His name is Pullo, his a 3/4 Staffy and 1/4 Labrador. His 6 years old and very energetic. I have had him from a pup, and was mine and my partners baby until we had our daughter 16 months ago. His got a few issues to say the least, which have always been there even before our daughter came along. We have put up with them for 6 years but with our daughter now here things have become more difficult for us, him and our relationship. I'm aware a dog can only be as good as it's owner, and with him being my first dog I have had a steep learning curve. I admit that I did not know what I was doing when I had him, and that I have to take a fair portion of responsibility for his issues. But things have become that bad to a point where it's crossed my mind about finding him a new home. I do not want this as it breaks my heart. His part of the family and I need to do everything I can for him before I resort to that.

Like I said he has a number of issues, all of which have been there before my daughter came alone. I need to work on these one at a time and by far the most frustrating is the noise he makes when being shut out of a room.

Since having our daughter we have had to restrict her and subsequently his access to the whole house with stair gates etc. If you close a door, or stair gate on him he goes crazy. He bites at it, and makes this strange noise which the neighbour have described "as if I'm strangling him." Once you then get him behind the door, or stair gate he constantly makes this strange churping (like a bird) and grunting. It's annoying when you have guests (which he won't leave alone, but that is another issue) or trying to watch TV. He will even stand at the back door, waiting to go out for a wee. You can open the door and let him outside and go to close the door behind him and he'll attack it. He will the pace up and down the garden for a bit before doing his business and then back to the door making lots of noise.

I understand his point of view, his being separated from the pack etc, but I can't have him running round, knocking our baby over, and jumping all over the furniture and guests.

I really need help in resolving this, whether it be advice on calming him down round our baby and guests (but I still need to restrict his access to parts of the house), or stopping his attacking the doors and making that awful noise.

I know this is probably three issues, but I suspect they are related.

Like I said, I am at a loss. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Scott

(p.s. Sorry for the long email and there will probably more requests for advice to come for other issues)

How much exercise does he get ?? What are you feeding him on ??

To be honest, not a lot at the moment. I'm currently training in London and my partner works full time. Since January, his only really been walked once a day at weekends for about 20-30 minutes at a time. Again, being honest, before then it wasn't every day (but at least every other).
I realise I need to get in to a regular routine, but I can't do much until I return from London.
I've walked him for 8 hours when on holiday, days out etc, but his the same when he gets home.

Food has had to be changed recently because he went through a period of being sick. He now eats Aldi sachets, and Bakers biscuits. 1 sachet morning, a medium bowl of biscuits when my partner gets home and another sachet at night. Before this he ate various brands or meat and biscuits.

This behavior has always been there, no matter how much he is walked or what he is fed. At least I've never noticed a difference.

well first thing I would say is get the food sorted out to something decent , Bakers is full of additives that you aren't allowed to give people I really don't know about Aldi Sachets but enerally supermarkets own stuff is mostly rubbish
http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/dry_food personally I use Wainwrights from Pets a t Home which isn't on this list.
Proper regular exercise and a decent diet will help you loads , generally a tired dog is a happy dog, and behaviour doesn't just change over night , this is something that he's been getting worse at and it hasn't been corrected.
You should also be working on his training , not isolating him because he is a handful you should be training into him some good behaviour.

As others will say all dogs actions are behaviour you have to show him what is acceptable and what is not , but you have to run before you can walk .

A dog his age should be on AT LEAST 2 45 min walksd a day

Could you get someone who is able and willing (and paid if necessary) to take Pullo out a couple of times a day and give him a good walk?

Difficult issue you are having but have to agree with Dave, the foods you have listed have ingredients known to cause hyperactivity. It could be a big part of the problem.

The exercise is vital tbh. My boy is very good, but only when sufficiently exercised. If not he is a little uncontrollable demon!

If you are finding it difficult to get time for exercise maybe you could think into a dog walker?

I would wholeheartedly agree with those above. He would definitely benefit from a healthy routine of plenty of exercise and good quality food. He would need a bit more exercise though, if you could up his walks to 2 45 minute walks a day or even more I'm sure you would see an improvement in his behaviour.

If you could also change his food to something with a higher protein content and a better quality all round again you would see even more changes for the better in his behaviour.

Does he have chew toys and games for in the house for when he is left alone, stuffed Kongs are great as a boredom deterrent, along with a stag bar to chew instead of the door.

When you have guests have you tried to just clip his lead on until he is calm and then able to meet them ?, ask them to get him to sit for a treat too, when he is calm.

http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/dog_walking_your_staffords

I think you can answer your own questions. He is bored and hyper on bakers!

SP36 wrote: Since January, his only really been walked once a day at weekends for about 20-30 minutes at a time.

Needs far more exersize! Along with the food.

Only to reiterate what others have said the food he is on will have a massive impact on his behaviour as will the lack of exercise or routine

Also sounds to me like he has separation anxiety if he is crying and going mad when you shut him in another room, which if he was used to be your full attention is new to him.

You need to work on his SA by putting him behind the baby gate or shutting the door for a few seconds at a time, go back in and give him a treat once he's calm, repeating this and building up the time so he gets used to being shut out but he knows nice things are coming when you let him back out

SP36 wrote:To be honest, not a lot at the moment. I'm currently training in London and my partner works full time. Since January, his only really been walked once a day at weekends for about 20-30 minutes at a time. Again, being honest, before then it wasn't every day (but at least every other).
I realise I need to get in to a regular routine, but I can't do much until I return from London.

Oh my goodness. No wonder he's badly behaved - he's frustrated to the point of madness! Add that to truly bad food (which you'd have seen about if you've been reading the forum for that long) and you have a recipe for disaster!

ella wrote:Also sounds to me like he has separation anxiety if he is crying and going mad when you shut him in another room, which if he was used to be your full attention is new to him.

You need to work on his SA by putting him behind the baby gate or shutting the door for a few seconds at a door, go back in and give him a treat once he's calm, repeating this and building up the time so he gets used to being shut out but he knows nice things are coming when you let him back out

As Ella says, you need to carefully tackle his seperation anxiety - but this can only be done bit by bit, together with decent food and much, much more exercise!

Thanks for all the replys guys, I appreciate it.

I acknowledge that I need to take more responsibility with him. I'm going to look in to a dog walker for the next few weeks while I'm in London and crack on with a walking routine when I am back.

In terms of toys to stimulate him, he ends up destroying them. We buy the supposedly indestructible ones, and spend £50 a time on a couple of "tough" toys but they don't last long. His only got a few left, we just can't afford to keep replacing them every few weeks. But I realise the destruction is probably out of boredom and frustration.

I was thinking of putting a dog flap in so he can access the back garden while we're at work, what are peoples thoughts on this?

In terms of food, I have never heard of any of the brands on the recommended food page linked in a post above. Do people have a particular preferred brand? Also, what ingredients should I be looking out for? Which should I get and which should I avoid?

I also notice they are all dry foods, would people only recommend feeding dry and not meat?

I think James Wellbeloved is the best all rounder personally. Has all you'll ever need in a food and is a sensible price. Some foods are extortionate and aren't worth it IMO.

I don't like the door flap idea for the simple fact the dog theft had blown through the roof as of late.

A dog walker would surely help. A good food will help, massively.

I wouldn't go for the dog flap for the simple fact that dog thefts are unfortunately all too common, I wouldn't take that risk, myself.

As for toys, you can get him a StagBar, they're deer antlers from Pets At Home or you can buy them online. They last a good few weeks.

For food, I feed Loki Wainwright's and have never had any problems with it, it's a good quality food at a good price. People here also feed James Wellbeloved, Fish4Dogs, Arden Grange, etc. Basically, stay away from anything that has cereals as the first ingredient, or anything other than meat (preferably a named meat, ie duck).

You can feed him on the RAW diet, we have a few members here that do, but you'd have to do your research beforehand:

http://preymodelraw.com/how-to-get-started/

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t14787-raw-diet

SP36 wrote:Thanks for all the replys guys, I appreciate it.

I acknowledge that I need to take more responsibility with him. I'm going to look in to a dog walker for the next few weeks while I'm in London and crack on with a walking routine when I am back.

In terms of toys to stimulate him, he ends up destroying them. We buy the supposedly indestructible ones, and spend £50 a time on a couple of "tough" toys but they don't last long. His only got a few left, we just can't afford to keep replacing them every few weeks. But I realise the destruction is probably out of boredom and frustration.

I was thinking of putting a dog flap in so he can access the back garden while we're at work, what are peoples thoughts on this?

In terms of food, I have never heard of any of the brands on the recommended food page linked in a post above. Do people have a particular preferred brand? Also, what ingredients should I be looking out for? Which should I get and which should I avoid?

I also notice they are all dry foods, would people only recommend feeding dry and not meat?

Nice to see you are still around and we haven't scared you off , most important is you acknowledge your wrongdoings and time to move on ><
All the foods on the list are good and its a matter of taste and finance to a certain degree. As said before I feed my 2 Wainwrights as a good quality middle of the range food, I see from your previous posts about being in Cornwall etc you have done just dry before. At the moment Wainrights is on offer too if you buy online so normally £39 for 15kg it is 20% off so only about £32 , and they deliver free over £29 (just bought 2 bags for my 2 )

The tough toys aren't that tough unfortunately , 1 of the best toys I've found for mine is the Boomer Ball they will never kill it , but they tend to make so much noise with it then sometimes you wish they would . For a bit of 5 minute fun just go for some of the rope ball toys etc you can buy from the supermarkets at £2 a time , much better on the pocket

I would get him a boomer ball( as Dave says), a black extreme kong and a stag bar for him to play with

Sorry I've not visited this thread for a while but I've just returned from my work in London.
Just to update I've taken advice about food and have done a little research & really did not realise food can have such an impact on behaviour. I have gone for Wainwrights as this seemed the best balance of price & what Pullo needs. He had his first bowl today so I'll see how it goes.
On my weekends home I've been giving him a a decent walk at least once a day (sometimes 2) and been having games of tug with his favourite toy, occasionally up the park as well. I've also been trying to teach him to fetch (although he doesn't like giving the ball back). I've also been buying him Deer Antlers to chew on as well as filling up his Kong to keep him occupied if we are out for long. As well as trips to the back his also been to a car boot with us.
I've been re-reading a book called "Why does my dog...?" by John Fisher. Although I've read it before it's helped my to remember some of the natural pack instincts of my dog & how he see's the world.
His also no banned from the sofa so when he is allowed in the living room he knows his place in the pack.
Well now I'm back home and start my Job here next week I've got to transition this to every day, and get us both in to a routine. I've not noticed much change yet, his still hyper & noisy (although he is currently lying still at my feet), he still goes crazy when you shut a door on him, vacuum or people visit but I know there is much more work for us both to do & that what we have been doing still wasn't consistent only seeing him weekends.

Well I'll keep you all posted and now doubt I'll be asking more advise. But thanks to all who have had there input so far.

One step at a time.

The food should start to make a difference within a few days, as will the increase in exercise. The seperation anxiety is going to take a bit longer, I'm afraid.

If you take it slowly, and build up the time he's left behind a baby gate or in another room, then it will get better but you'll need a bit of patience!

With people, you can either tell visitors to ignore him completely until he's calm, or you can put him on a lead when they first come in, and only allow him to greet them when he's calm. Make sure that all your guests have treats handy for when he's calm & behaving well!

The book by John Fisher is good (he was an old friend of mine way back!), but quite dated. See if you can get hold of a book called "When Pigs Fly" by Jane Killion - it's a clicker training book, but it's full of common sense & let's you know you're not alone!

Hello, just wanted to say good luck and keep us posted, I'm sure you will start to notice things improving soon