Help with staffy! Please?

Hello all., I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer some advice?

My Quartz is now 18 months old, and he is an endless sack of energy. Very healthy, and he knows his commands well (with a few tricks). He is walked a few miles a day and given the freedom to bounce about...

The problem is, when we walk he is a puller...normally we can handle it, but when he gets wind of another dog, he goes absolutely mental! (He wants to play...he is very dog friendly) I find it really hard to control him when he is trying to drag me over to the other dog. I try to make him sit, or turn the other direction (even tried food distractions) but it won't work, he simply ignores me and pulls on. I have fallen over a few times pulling him back.

The most upsetting part for me came a week or so ago. A neighbour had a staffy bitch off lead whilst I was outside my front door bringing Quartz in from his walk (had key in hand and everything). He let his dog wander over to him...Quartz starts pulling to get to her. She growls and he growls and barks back. The neighbour proceeded to scold me, that my dog was being aggressive, is badly trained and it is dangerous to have a dog like that. I went in and sobbed my heart out!!!! Can you please help, I want to be able to walk without him dragging me over at the sight of another dog!

Thanks in advance x

Hi

How many walks a day is he getting?
Also is he on a collar or harness whilst out for a walk? Might be worth a try with a harness if he isn't currently using one as this can help with the pulling, I found it worked wonders when I swapped from collar to harness
They do tend to get extremely excited when they see another dog! But with constant training with Rocky we are going with a 'watch me' command where I ask him to sit or drop and watch me to gain his attention, this is best taught in less busy areas first and then introduced on walks!
In regards to your neighbours dog, you did absolutely nothing wrong, Quartz was on his territory....and the other dog was off lead!! Quartz was clearly defending himself, and I would take no notice at all of what was said!
I hope this helps

xQuartzOnyxx wrote:

The most upsetting part for me came a week or so ago. A neighbour had a staffy bitch off lead whilst I was outside my front door bringing Quartz in from his walk (had key in hand and everything). He let his dog wander over to him...Quartz starts pulling to get to her. She growls and he growls and barks back. The neighbour proceeded to scold me, that my dog was being aggressive, is badly trained and it is dangerous to have a dog like that. I went in and sobbed my heart out!!!! Can you please help, I want to be able to walk without him dragging me over at the sight of another dog!

Thanks in advance x

If Quartz was still on the lead during this then the other dog owner was at fault not you, please dont let this incident upset you. The other dog owner let his dog wander over to yours not the other way around.

Do you use a harness or collar and lead? Have you considered using some kind of halti or similar devise for walking Quartz ?

To help with the pulling - a front attach harness may be an option for walking .. they remove the 'gain' the dog gets from pulling by turning the dog back into you when they do pull. Another option is a head halti which can be useful for pullers - you will need to ensure that this is fitted, learn to use it correctly and give your boy some time to get used to it. I personally choose to use a rear attach harness and collar on a double ended lead.

I found that a 'leave' command works well to prevent dogs trying to pull toward other dogs. It is a command you will need to work on at home first, then move it into the yard and onto walks ... takes time but a strong 'leave' command is worth its weight in gold!!! As Maria said above, it can be used with a 'watch command as well, which will also need to be trained in the same way.

Have you, or would you consider, attending a training class? It can be really useful to have someone work through how to train, develop and strengthen commands

Thanks for the replies,

We have a halti which he HATES. He spends half of his time rubbing his nose against the floor trying to get it off (I have had to patch up his nose on numerous occasions). We have a short lead, and an EZ dog lead (with the bounce in it) which are used for his collar (regular cloth collar). We also used an EZ dog harness when he was younger - perhaps we should dig it out and have another go.

I like the sound of the 'watch me' command...I do fear he won't listen because another dog > obeying mummy! I have tried 'sit!' and 'down!' but he just gets back up again when he sees the dog.

It definitely does take patience and persistence, they can be very stubborn at times, but with constant training back to basics, im sure Quartz will learn it in now time, as Kell said above, might be worth staying in the yard where there are no distractions and teaching the sit and watch me commands as well as other techniques mentioned, then out onto walks!

xQuartzOnyxx wrote:Hello all., I was wondering if anyone would be able to offer some advice?

My Quartz is now 18 months old, and he is an endless sack of energy. Very healthy, and he knows his commands well (with a few tricks). He is walked a few miles a day and given the freedom to bounce about...

The problem is, when we walk he is a puller...normally we can handle it, but when he gets wind of another dog, he goes absolutely mental! (He wants to play...he is very dog friendly) I find it really hard to control him when he is trying to drag me over to the other dog. I try to make him sit, or turn the other direction (even tried food distractions) but it won't work, he simply ignores me and pulls on. I have fallen over a few times pulling him back.

The most upsetting part for me came a week or so ago. A neighbour had a staffy bitch off lead whilst I was outside my front door bringing Quartz in from his walk (had key in hand and everything). He let his dog wander over to him...Quartz starts pulling to get to her. She growls and he growls and barks back. The neighbour proceeded to scold me, that my dog was being aggressive, is badly trained and it is dangerous to have a dog like that. I went in and sobbed my heart out!!!! Can you please help, I want to be able to walk without him dragging me over at the sight of another dog!

Thanks in advance x

This wasn't your fault. If he was on his territory and on the lead, while the other dog was off the lead, no amount of training is likely to solve that. The owner of the other dog should have been more responsible.

You could try using a no-pull harness, with an attachment at the front to draw the dog's balance away from the pulling. These have been found to be very effective when coupled with appropriate training. The 'Heel' command is very useful for walks.

Ceasar wrote:Hi Eleanor, the post won`t get out of hand as I won`t be posting here again. I appreciate that you took the time to educate us on the dangers of improper use of a choke chain.

What I do or did with my dogs, never hurt them.
I didnt strangle the dogs or kick them. I never had to do that. I never had any trouble with them on the lead.
They did pull and lunge a bit once of twice when they were younger and a little tug, a gentle tap of my foot and a No command worked for me.

All I was doing was offering up something different for the dog owner to try. I am not some monster who ill treats his dogs, but this is how I have been made to feel.

I won`t be posting again as I feel the forum is over judgemental to anyone that the status quo does not agree with.

We are a dog loving forum so if you think we are judgemental then its obviously not the place for you , the hardest thing is peoples perception , you say tap and in my opinion that is wrong anyway , someone tries it and it doesn't work so the tap becomes harder and you can see where it leads

More than welcome to hang around if you so choose but none of us are going to sit back and allow such posts without pulling you up about it

OP - not sure its for you but have you looked at the canny collar , I had great success with it on my boy as a way of keeping him calm to progress the training

Haltis & Canny collars are well worth a try. They don't suit all dogs, but some have shown really good improvements.

I use a halti on Rolo, he used to pull like a steam train and he used to try and rip his face up something horrid, it was because he was frustrated, but if you are patient and use treats for focus and reward they work great. Every time he lowered his head to scrape along the floor or lifted his paws to his face he got told "No", "watch me".. then when I get eye contact he got a good boy and a treat, he soon learnt that by turning to me, released the pressure and it wasn't so bad. They do take practice and you both need patience but they are worth it. Rolo only wears it now as added insurance against some of our local suicidal cats round here... they seem to think it's a good idea to walk towards a fully charged Staffy!   Good luck and I too really recommend getting along to some classes with Quartz, that will help him focus and walk better around other dogs and give you a bit more confidence in handling him, plus they are fun too

my bruno does exactly the same just darts towards other dogs, he doesnt pull anymore when on walks unless he sees a cat or another dog,

after months of corecting him sometime hell just walk past looking with his ears up and other times hell drag me down the road,

after watching him i think its got to a stage of depending on which dog type or sex the other dog is lately,

guess with continuing doing the walk the other way and just trying to get his atention to me will pay of in the long run

I use a gentle leader with Thistle, best thing I ever bought, she did try to get it off and would also back off when I tried to put it on her, but I just distract her with a treat and she 'tolerates' it now.