extreme play or aggression?? on walks towards me

Hi,
I have been having quite a few problems with Oscar since the off but i am having a revival of an old issue i thought had resolved.
when out on walks Oscar becomes what apears to b very aggresive towards me, somtimes it starts on his lead with him jumping and bunting his nose on my hand holding his lead this will then escalate to full on bitting and jumping and bitting me. We also have a fenced of secure area in our park where we were letting him off lead to have a race around, he always seems to have alot of energy to burn so thought this was a good way for him to let off steam and that it may help with other issues we have in the home, however he loves playing a game where he races round like a wild thing being chased or chasing us ( tho we stopped with tge latter cus he gets too rough and bites if he catches u which is 9/10 times)  he loves being off lead but im getting to scared to do it as it always now initiates a bitting fit where he starts off just looking over excited and even play bows now and then through it but then he will jump and bite run back then lunge again anf bite somtimes high enough to reach a shoulder and altgough he has never broken skin they leave small red marks even a bruise in the past and they hurt.  If this behaviour starts in the house i feel more confident as we can lead him outside for time out or remove ourselfs from him for time out but obviously out on a walk this cant happen so i end up in a physical one on one of trying to hold him to stop the biting even forcing him to lay down til he is calm which im sure is actualy making this worse as he is stronger than me and im sure he knows that.  I am deeply upset vy this as i feel like im letting him down terribly, we love him to bits but im so worried where this is going.  People stop and s
tare as he looks so out of control some man even shouted while i was trying to control him that ' i was raising a murderer' (  has anyone ever had this sort of behaviour from their staffy? Im really hoping im not alone and this is somthing i can work out. Thanks in advance, Michelle x

Hello! Oh dear, what a little monkey. Would be helpful to know a bit more if you don't mind; firstly is Oscar rescued or did you have him as a pup? What is his background, has he always done this?

Hi thanks for getting back to me Oscar is 10 months old nearly, he hasnt been neutered yet , and we have had him since he was 6 weeks. He has done tgis befor to me when he was about 5months to the extent i was scared to walk him and stopped, my partner and son took over the walks as he doesnt really do it with them and after a few months i think he sort of forgot he used to behave like that. However recently my situation changed and my partner is no longer living with us. This ment i had to walk him plus on my two days at work i asked my sister to go inand walk him miday for him as he would b on his own other wise until i came home. On this one occasion when my sister took him out she took my daughter wgo is 11 and let her run with him on lead, Oscar started jumping up bitting at my girl so my sister stepped in and he did the same to her since then ever time i have walked him he behaves like this once more. He does do this in the home when i tell him to stop unwanted behaviours such as humping sofa etc but i can normaly get him to time out indoors but outside im at a loss and as i mentioned earlier he is too strong for me to physicaly restrain so i cant think what to do about it. I love him and really want to work it all out, he is good at obidience training and has passed his first stage at training school, my trainer there feels that its a problem with the terrier side of him im experiencing but im not even sure what she ment by that.

I'd imagine that what she means by the terrier side is that they can be quite impulsive and feisty! My foster dog Max sounds to be quite similar to your boy; though he doesn't jump up and grab me, he gets way too overexcited by the smallest things and will lunge/air snap/bark at me and then grab hold of sticks/branches/trees and loses the plot onto them, throwing them in the air, screaming and thrashing around! I would imagine that the reason for restarting this behaviour is the change in routine, and he's more than likely picking up on your nervousness.

First things first, I wouldn't allow your daughter to walk with him in public anymore, not because he's "dangerous" but just because it sounds like he can't control his excitement/behaviour in those circumstances and he may hurt her without meaning to. Was there any reason that you took him home at 6 weeks? Has he always had problems with mothing/bite inhabition? Other than restraining him how do you usually react to his biting?

I know this must sound very irresponsable and i wish i knew then what i knew now but Oscar is our first dog and i bought him from a laidy who had 9 puppys and she said they were ready to leave and needed to as the mother wasnt managing them anymore, we viewed him at 4 weeks and put down our deposit with plans to bring him home at 8 weeks, ( i had time booked of work in prep) i stayed in contact with the breeder then with updates and she said at 5 weeks we could collect him as mum wasnt coping, i was unsure and couldnt get time off as i said any earlier than 6 weeks due to work comitments so i brought forwards my holiday and collected him at 6 weeks.  He has always had some ammount of problems mouthing and bitting but this has slowly improved somewhat and now when he opens his mouth during play or fuss i remind him 'nicely' and ge closes his mouth most the time and we practice him letting me do things that normaly instigate a bite or mouth and remind him to b nice.  My ex partner was much firmer with him and he did listen to him but i would say he was maybe to harsh or maybe not and thats where im going wrong.   We originaly tried a number of things advised from different people we spoke to including forcing him to lay down instead of bitting ( i now know what terrible advice that was) i now leave say 'no' and leave the room and shut the door on him for a few mins but if thats not possible as in some rooms hes distructive if left in there for time out i take his collar and push him outside, the latter never feels a smoothly done as he bites at my wrist as we lead him away cus we have to hold his collar and i have to use alot of effort to move him out the door. Sounds terrible doesnt it but i really do want to do the right thing and know this is somthing i must of done wrong and i feel awfull that hes now an adult dog and still doing it.

I should of said about the bitting on walk bit aswell, on these occasions i canot time him out so i try to remove my hands to start with and turn my back and then if he continues jumping and biting i have to try to catch hold of him and force him to sit looking away from me to avoid his mouth and somtimes i have to make him lay down til he gives up, in all honesty this isnt working so i dont put is in the situation unless i have to and i try to make sure someone else walks him with me such as my son as hes much less likely to start it.

Very often a breeder will say that the mother isn't coping to get rid of the puppies earlier than they should really go. The time they spend with littermates and Mum is so important, they learn so much from both that is difficult to learn elsewhere like bite inhibition thus making the owner have a very tough time of training all the basics to the puppies. 8 weeks would really be the minimum age for them to leave.

I wish i had educated myself more on that side of things, i looked up breed info and that and liked the sound of the staff as i wanted a family orrientated dog and we r fairly active so i was sure we cud meet that side of things but i just never thought a breeder would do that, i obviously know now and also the implications this has had on Oscar becoming a rounded dog. Just hope i can sort the muddle out now.

We are all here to help and support you now, try not to dwell on what has already been done. Please don't be afraid to ask for help, that's what we are all here for.

Daisy used to do this abit (still does very occasionally) gets over excited and starts jumping up at me, biting the lead etc so I make her sit and have a time out, we then carry on and if she starts again another time out, and just repeat that until she starts walking properly again.

Thankyou everyone and Sazzle it helps just knowing that there are other dogs out there that are a least similar to Oscar and people have been able to work through it I think for me a large part of the concern is what it could lead to if i dont know what im doing and get it right. We have recently purchased a muzzle that at the moment we havnt used we are just lettling him eat treats out the end ofit but im hoping slowly that may b an option so at least im not to scared when we are out as im sure he will b picking up on that which cant help at all.

What Kathy is saying it very true unfortunately, and missing out on those early experiences can really affect the dog, especially if they're going into an only dog household and can't continue with those early canine experiences. So, when he was a pup you taught him about bite inhabition, didn't allow him to put his teeth onto you? Or has this always been a major problem that you struggled to train, even when young? Have you tried clicker training? Sounds like you've got some good support where you are in regards to trainers, and they may be able to talk you through this if you haven't worked with a clicker before. Sometimes, if you find it hard to be firm with a dog, or find yourself shouting a clicker can be a good happy medium and there has been some really great evidence towards their working as long as timing is correct.

What Sazzle has said is great advice, correct him with a big "NO" and if you can get him to sit/stay ask him to do this as an alternative to his current behaviour every time he tries to bite. If he won't sit stay, don't say anything, cross your arms and turn your back away from him, if he continue to jump up at your back, put him back on a short lead and ignore him, walking calmly for 5 minutes or so. I can't let Max off lead without him losing the plot, however, with lots of calm on lead walking he's brilliant! Perhaps we could try to figure out another way to get that energy out of him without him getting overexcited and taking it out on you!

P.S Max was also taken away from mum too young, also has a problem with licking my dog constantly!!

We have always had a problem with him bitting although we tried the yelp and ignore he used to get very excited if i yelped so i stopped that and we tried ignoring him if he bit instead which helped somewhat and he can do it softly or not at all if you tell him 'nicely' and he hasnt already got himself too excited. The walking thing unfortunatly can occur on his lead also so its hard to do a calm walk now hes remembered what he wants to do is jump and bite, the first time it ever happened it was only when on lead cus it started as bitting the lead then escaleted. I thinkni will try the sit and stay for a while idea see if he can b snapped out of it befor it goes too far and hes going full on. I have got a behaviourist coming to see us on saturday so i hope that will shed some light on it aswell. He seems to not doing anything by halfs lol which is great in training as hes very dedicated but not so great if hes doing somthing u dont want