Some advice regarding my new staffy cross bitch & dog aggression issues

Hi everyone, been a lurker here for a while, but never posted. I have owned bull terriers for the last 30 years, so have plenty of experience. I currently have a 7 year old male pure bred blue staffy, who is just a great, well behaved and fantastic dog.

Last year, we rescued a bitch through Staffy rescue UK, called Hattie. She had been puppy farmed and was found tied to a tree, and was apparently owned by a less than responsible owner (possible junkie) but we don't have any further details. She was fostered into a house with 3 other staff crosses for 4 weeks before she came to us with no real issues.

I would like some advice and opinions around her behaviour to other dogs. I would like to try and understand more the reasons for the way she behaves. When we first got her, she was quite excitable around other dogs and although the first meet with my dog started badly, within 10 minutes they were walking along fine together.

However, she is quite dominant and also can be jealous - my male seems to defer to her most of the time, like I said, he is a big softy. She can be possessive over toys and food, although we have worked on this and she is vastly improved. In the house, she is a big softy, loves the cuddles and is very well trained. But, she also guards things, bags of kibble particularly , she will sit out in the garage if she can right next to it and while she gets all embarrassed and shy when I come out, will growl at my wife if she comes near - but she just tells her off and she backs down. She sits and stays on command, and generally with me she is very well behaved. If I am honest, I would say she is quite well trained, but not as well as she could be. We have another female staff cross jack russell at work where all the dogs come all day and she is fine with her, but again, it took a few days of carefully supervised introduction and there were a few skirmishes. She also gets very dominant when the smaller dog first arrives in the mornings, but that only lasts a minute and the rest of the day, they are all good mates. However.....

Outside, different story. I have worked hard on the walking etc and she generally walks well to heel ( ish) and does not pull. But..if she sees another dog, she goes garritty - hackles up , deep woof, straining at the lead. If they don't react, I can calm her down, If they bark at her or even look the wrong way, she goes ballistic - She is very difficult to reach as soon as she gets in this mode and often ignores my commands. Up close to other dogs, she will straight away try and dominate them,, or attack them, although she can be introduced carefully in the right circumstances, but you have to be very careful and I always keep her on the lead.

When out, she seems on high alert, constantly looking around, often her hackles are up, if she hears a dog bark, that will set her straight off, she is looking around for it, whining and mewling, barking. In an enclosed park, she will patrol the perimeter all the time, constantly looking for other dogs, while my male just mooches around and sniffs and plays..... When she defecates, or urinates, she will also scratch and tear up the ground a lot, another sign of a dominant dog I think?

here are some pictures of her, we had her DNA tested, she is pure staff cross american staff cross bull mastiff.









What do you guys think is going on with her? I think perhaps lack of socialisation, perhaps used as a guard dog ? Or encouraged to be aggressive to other dogs? It can get pretty embarrassing when out and I dread other dogs off the lead, as they always make a beeline for her, for some reason, despite her giving out all the "come near me and I will kill you " signals!! I have tried a trainer, ( he says she is a good dog basically) , and we worked on close control and ignoring other dogs, but the problem is managing the encounters - its really tricky. She is not human aggressive in any way, but just a real handful. Do you think she can be rehabilitated? If not, I am fine with that, but like I say, its a pain.

Cheers, Mark

Sorry Mark I have no experience in this. Except to say perhaps its fear aggression due to her past up bringing?. She is so gorgeous poor girl to have been treated like this but well done you for giving her a home.
Why not pop and say hi here   
https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/f7-new-member-introductions

Hi Mark,

Honestly, that whole post sounds like you're describing my bitch, Biscuit, also a stafford possibly crossed with a mastiff. A rescue, ex breeding bitch dumped off as a "stray" too from an unsavoury background! The first 6 months that I had her was a constant battle, she wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other. We learnt to compromise, she learnt boundaries and I understood that her aggressive behaviour was mostly down to fear and stopped putting her in situations that she felt uncomfortable with. Biscuit is also aggressive with men, she came in with burns to her legs and was kicked by a man in the kennels she was staying at, so I have a feeling this may be part of the reason why.

Biscuit generally has to walk on lead parallel with a dog 2-3 times before she can interact, and then we have no problems at all. She's lived with 5 foster dogs since I took her in and has a few doggy friends, though is also very bossy with her labrador and collie friends, they're both big wimps and allow her to be queen of the castle. My current foster is very pushy however and she will back down to him every time. She's always trotting in public with her head held high on alert watching for triggers, as soon as she sees a dog or man she stares, almost stalking with her hackles up; if they so much as look at her she loses the plot and goes into a barking frenzy but is also bum to the floor and weight on her back legs which says fear to me. To me, this is lack of socialisation and positive early experience as a puppy.. she just can't do the "meet and greet" and this can be quite a problem when owners can't control their dogs and allow them to run over! I think it's fear of the unknown.. a kind of a "i'll get you, before you me" mentality. Does this sound the same as your bitch? This is the one behaviour that I have never been able to train out of her! She's muzzled and on a short lead in public at all times, if we go to an open space she's on a 50ft long line so that she can safely run about.

Does she have boundaries in the house? This is the main thing we work with, and it takes the stress away from her as she's just not equipped to make her own decisions, hasn't had enough life experience bless her. Was she underweight before she came to you? May explain the food guarding.. Does she know many commands?

Hi Rachel, thanks for the comments. We are pretty bad with the dogs in the house really, access all areas basically, although I do realize that this should not be encouraged in dominant dogs. She will stay off the sofa and bed if we tell her, ( well maybe try and sneak in at 4am on occasions..!) and she will happily accept all the other standard pack leader assertive things like eating first, making them wait through doors, etc etc. I am pretty 100% sure there is no fear involved, she is full on excited and / or aggressive ( Hackle up, tail erect, standing very square and tall, big woofs or growls, basically very confident) . When she is near another dog, she struggles to get close, very excited and will often attack without warning, but not always. She will nip and snap less aggressively sometimes, but it can easily escalate. She can walk along with other dogs and does relax a bit after a while, but it's the initial encounters which are problematic - trouble is, the damage is often done by then. She gets incredibly excited by other dogs running around not on the lead - maybe frustrated, because she is not often off the lead for obvious reasons.

I have tried a muzzle, but have not persevered as the last 2 attempts, she simply refuses to walk, just tries to remove it. She will let you put it on OK, but wont walk.

She will do sit, stay ( not for too long though) Off, in your bed, leave, and seems easily receptive to these. But it's like she knows nothing once she sees another dog, cant take her eyes off them.

Cheers, mark

Ah no, forget all of that pack leader stuff.. Those training methods have been thoroughly debunked!! The studies that brought about those theories proved to be inconsistent and incorrect. There are very, very few truly "dominant" dogs, and only using aversive methods will create aversive behaviour in your dog.

A lot of the time defiance can be put down to lack of training, or as we often see in our bull breeds, plain stubbornness!! when biscuit first came in she would challenge me all the time, now, I don't remember the last time she did! She knows what's expected of her, I'm always consistent and she's finally confident. Of course, she knows that no means no, but she also gets a lot of praise for choosing to do the right thing

She needs to be trained to wear the muzzle, I gradually did this over two weeks with biscuit and she wears it no problem, though will still try and get it off when she's off lead. I'd stop all of those interactions where she's getting to practise her aggression. She's goes into that zone where she can't listen because she's too stressed, biscuit does it too, she won't even take food or respond to a command because her mind can't process anything other than the present threat. Fear can manifest itself in all sorts of ways, I brought biscuit to my behaviourist and she assured me that it's fear despite her looking like she's going to kill them.. but also the fiery terrier personality stopping her from backing down. Biscuit will even try to chase them and has grabbed dogs before to try and get them away from her.

I'd focus on training, get her focusing on you (little bits if cheese helps) and build your bond, get your partner involved too just fun trick training, sit stays, down, wait etc. They will all help if you see a dog, cross the road and work from a distance, do a u turn if you have to! Have you read anything by Patrica McConnel? "Feisty fido" is great for dog aggression and all of her other books for general training! helped me loads when I was at uni

You do have to train them to wear a muzzle the baskerville ultra is the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHiOZOAvmI My Lola is fear DA and the muzzle is helpful