Dog Aggressive Staffy - Old girl....

Hi hope you can help - need a little advice and reassurance!

In June my partner and I adopted Chloe, @ 9 years old staffy cross from a local dogs home.  No history, except they told us that she was "okay" with other dogs and when we saw her first she was in a run with another large dog.  She's a big daft puppy at heart, who will obey when either food is involved or she feels like it!

We love her to bits.  We are careful as she suffers from separation anxiety not to fuss her too much in the morning/when we come back.  We feed her mostly RAW which she likes.  She's been checked by the vet.  She whines when left for a short time and at night when she is locked down stairs with plenty of water and her Kong. Rarely barks.  Loves everyone who comes around.  Lots of walks with us.  Large garden to play in. Not caged but has "safe" zones in the kitchen and sitting room that she sleeps in.  Been working with a behaviourist - but not one that's worked with Staffy's before.

But she is dog aggressive.  In the beginning we let her off her long lead a few times and that led to her pinning a few smaller dogs down (including the neighbours yappy white thing  ) Proper pinning and teeth bared. Very scary but I easily pulled her off - and then after some more pulling she wants to run home....

We thought maybe it was just small dogs and have kept her on the lead since (about eight weeks) but there is no improvement.  Any dog that she passes she will jump towards, any dog in the distance she will pull towards.  She mostly yelps, but also barks if very close or if she has met them before.

She even behaved like this to the behaviourists "fake" dog.  

Today we passed the neighbours gate and the little white dog was out and started barking - she leapt at the gates, really barked and acted very aggressive.  Partner had the harness and I had her collar and we walked her further down the road but she was presenting every sign.  I would add that neither of us felt concerned for our safety - but if she had got hold of that other dog......I think she could have done some real damage.  

A couple of days ago we passed a Great Dane, the owner making him/her sit quietly so we could pass on a narrow canal path  - again she lunged showing aggression - this time, no provocation.  Again, we easily pulled her back with no fear on our behalf.

Two questions?

1) Do you think she will ever change with reassurance and love? and if not, what do we do? Apart from feeling really tearful/fearful.

2) Now I know this sounds like a crazy idea but ....My Mum has met her and we are due to go down to stay this weekend (150 miles away).  Problem, Mum has two small dogs, both yappy.  Happy to put Chloe in her Baskerville that we got for going to the vets (she doesn't seem to mind) but can I trust that will be enough?  She's very strong.....Just really got the fear after the last few altercations.

Thank you.  Em

It isn't something I have experienced but some dogs are just DA and they will never change, but you will learn to manage it. We have a member Ella that rescued her dog Chance and he was/is DA and she has trained him so well, he also lives with another dog Harvey. I am sure she will give you some tips as will others

Ps maybe you could come and introduce yourself

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

My dog is the same!! You could have been writing about her!!! I am considering buying a muzzle but I know this will upset her. I called the training classes and they were not happy to take staffies. I am so glad to find someone who has the same concerns. Please please let me know how you get on!!

sasha is nine now and is also DA,she was ok with other dogs when she was younger and then she got attacked,when she was around 2,she was then tolerent of other dogs but then was attacked 18 months ago again(this time quite badly)now she hates them,long as they leave her alone she is fine,its some thing as a owner you learn to live with,i think i
ave grown eyes in the back of my head!she runs off lead in the fields but soon as i see another dog she is straight back on the lead,i do make her sit calmly when we pass another dog and praise her for not reacting,i do feel a bit sad that she has'nt got any dog friends but she has lots of human friends to play with her  

Thank you for sharing your experiences, we are suspicious that she may have been attacked at the dogs home or on the streets and this may explain the behaviour. Alternatively she may always have been DA....We wish we knew her history.....

We live in a very suburban area so there's no easy way to avoid other dogs...we too have become very vigilant...but it's not easy.

no its not easy,try and teach the 'watch' command,get a small treat and tell her watch and when she looks at you give her the treat,keep doing it with her until when you say watch to her she looks at you and you know you have her attention,when you have to pass another dog,tell her 'watch' and hopefully she will be more interested in you and getting a treat that she will ignore the dog  

Thank you Stella, I'll keep trying. The problem is that only time that she's not constantly watching us is when another dog is around. She also shows no interest in treats when she is on walks or alert to other dogs.

This is the girl who is constantly on "hoover" duty at home........

how about a squeaky toy?that some times gets their attention.i think they are all little hoovers  ,good luck and keep at it,Chloe looks a gorgeous girl by the way  

I don't have anything to add but can I just say looking at her in your profile picture she's gorgeous! Good luck with her

Just to add support, my dog is unpredictable with other dogs so I just let him off when there's no other dogs around and his motivation tends to be a ball rather than food so maybe try a toy if she's not bothered about food

Our Roxie is exactly the same. It is just something we have had to manage. She is very ball obsessive and this has worked in our favour in that if she is in a field and we are playing ball, if there is a dog in the distance and they show no inclination towards running towards her, she will ignore the other dog to play ball. This may work for you also, as indicated above. I am extremely vigilant and just accept her limitations and deal with them. She is also lovely in every other way and at home she gets on fantastically with Maisey, our other staff, but we cannot allow any other dogs in the house  

Hey sorry to hear your having a hard time.

Janey has it spot on some dogs regardless of training will be DA no matter what! it's just a case of managing it.

Chance my ambull was/is very dog reactive as well as human aggressive so a handful to say the least!

Firstly if it makes you feel better do muzzle her out on walks the baskerville muzzle is IMO the BEST muzzle and thats what chance wears. Another i recommend is walking with a harness and collar on and use a double ended lead so one end on the collar on the harness so you have full control over all of her.

What i did with Chance is teach him the basic 'leave' or 'leave it' command at home, and when out on a walk when you see the dog in the distance you give the leave command and give a treat/praise whatever works for you.

If a dog takes you by surprise DO NOT react yourself that makes your dog react more! Just give the leave command and walk away from the situation with a quick pace do not allow her to stop and smell things, carry on walking until your a far enough from said dog that your dog is now below threshold and therefore stops reacting, praise/treat once she calms down.

Another thing is do you know anyone with a nice calm, unreactive dog? If so try to meet on a field somewhere to work on her threshold. By this i mean the distance you can get to another dog she can see before she reacts/lungs/barks whatever. The idea is to get the other person to wait or walk around with their dog and you let her see the other dog from far away (this can be so the other dog is literally a tiny dots ages away) and give the leave command, if she doesn't react then you treat. It's a slow process but working with DA tends to be, but you slowly reduce the distance between the dogs ideally so that she can the walk past another dog and that be below threshold for her reacting.

Hope that makes sense i rambled on then!

My little boy is nervous aggressive due to being pounced on when we first got him at 6 months he had never been introduced to other dogs apart from my girl just before we got him

We now manage him, he still goes off lead and as soon as we see another dog he's back on lead, he's still in training to remain calm but I end up shouting at other owners to lead their dogs (although not all listen)

Thank you so much for your replies.  I think we were thinking that we were the only ones and that was what was making it so much worse.  

Everyone around where I live seems to have friendly labs or little dogs and then we have Chloe - who is lovely but clearly is a bit different - not that people haven't been lovely even when she's had a bit of a go...but we can hardly have a cosy chat while she's on two legs yelping ....

I will try much harder with the leave command at home and on the walks. I think she can get better.

Thank you again I feel so much better - we have been admiring all your girls and boys - they all look very beautiful/handsome.....

Sometimes when we're struggling its easy to think we're alone, but that's rarely the case in glad all the fab replies have helped you feel at ease keep us updated how things go

When we first rescued our Rottie she was used as a fighting dog. At home we had Tim who was very Alpha dog. He was two then and since she was only a 15 month old little girl he made it clear he would not tolerate her behaviour and she submitted to him.

She is now nine years old and we have introduced three more dogs to our household but with care. We vigilantly avoided leaving them alone with her when they were pups (that same rule aplies with the newest pup- Tip) . As they grew older they learned to leave her alone unless she iniciate play. We use the "leave" command on walks with both humans and dogs and only Robert and me walks her as she is a strong girl.

She never will play with strange dogs as she still is DA with strange dogs and if we have to encounter strange dogs at walking or at the vet we keep her on short leash and use the leave or ignore command.

She will do anything for my husband as she adores the ground he walks on so if he tells her to ignore/leave she does exactly that. She obeys me too and we are pretty vigilant when we know there wil be strange dogs.

Be consistent as a household and be pateint. Most of all don't give up on her. As rescue dogs they have a long road to walk to trusting humans again but the love and devotion they repay you with is so worth the journey.

I too have the same problem and it is so reassuring that we are not alone. My Pepper is affectionate with us humans and will lick anyone that comes into the house, he just doesn't like dogs and it's such hard work on walks but well worth it when they snuggle up to you :-D

Thank you again.  I really am feeling so much better about the situation.  We knew an old dog might be challenging, and the only history she came with was that nobody wanted her.  Apparently she was fostered once from the dogs home but they only kept her a few hours (picked up at about 3pm - returned her at 10pm, because she whined)!!!!!!!  

As a few of us seem to be in the same situation I though I'd share a few of my thoughts and how I've had to change my perception of what makes a "happy dog" rather rapidly

Once we got our heads around the fact that she couldn't come off the lead (my other half - the softy  - still asks me if we can...the answer is always no) I did feel a lot less stressed.

Once I started walking in the open parks where I can see other dogs from a distance - again, easier...so that's no to the country walks with lots of corners unless there is two of us.  Genuinely I don't come back from a walk with a headache any more - we still find places for her to have a good sniff in.

I felt guilty that she wasn't able to run as she wants - however we have little runs with her, even chase pigeons with her, using quite a long lead and she really enjoys this.  

I do know that she gets so excited about her walks that nothing really can spoil it for her.  

And I've just realised that she brushed off the last dog confrontation with a good old shake, whereas 6 weeks ago she would have whined for ages.  It was me that worried for hours........

Now I understand that she may always be like this, or just make baby steps it really does feel that something I can handle.  All the advice here has been fantastic.

Not that there ever any other solution other than to handle it - I love my little darling, the Dogs home asked if we wanted to foster first - OH and myself looked at each other and told them there was no point, once she got home she was ours and nothing could change that...

Definitely use a good strong training lead, Chance has one thats about 10m long and it's great as he can't go off lead either.

When you get used to managing her, you will get more confident about walking in the country and other places on your own. 95% of my walks are on my own with both the boys, but i'm so used to Chance kicking off it's like second nature to me.