Walking on lead & Behaviour with other dogs?

Hi All,

Im so happy, my wife and i just got an 8 week old English Staffordshire, we love him so freaking much he is so cute and so far he has been so good.
Anyway ill do an intro in the intro section.

However, i do have a couple questions.
First 'bigger' dog and first Staffy (had a Pomeranian when i was a kid lol)
anyway, we are going to socialize it with other dogs, children and people after its 2nd vaccination which is him at 10 weeks old.
We are also planning on taking him to puppy/dog school for training every Wednesday and Sunday.
So finally the questions, Are Staffies really bad with other dogs? when we are walking down the street and he see's another dog will he lunge at the other dog start barking and going spastic?
Reason i ask is my friend had a German Shepherd which did the same thing, his dog would never attack the other dogs but would go spastic out of excitement other dog owners would think his German shepherd was going to bite their dogs because of the size of him.
Is it possible to train them to work on lead without pulling? as i have heard that you cannot get them to walk nicely on the lead.

Any info., tips and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Firstly, congratulations on your new Family member. I am intrigued when you say "English Staffie". Is he a Staffordshire Bull Terrier? There is only one Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

Anyway, I am being pedantic.

It should be remembered that ALL dogs are different. However, no a Staffordshire Bull Terrier (SBT) will not necessarily lunge at other Dogs, far from it. If the dog is well socialised as a puppy there should be no problems. A SBT will rarely start a fight with another dog unless provoked. SBTs are usually extremely friendly.

Yes, they can be trained to walk nicely on a lead. It can take some time as they seem to enjoy the challenge of "pulling" and have a high pain threshold that means a choke chain should be avoided.

Training classes should have him walking nicely on the lead relatively quickly.

I have had 4 SBTs over the years and cannot see myself ever owning a different breed.

You have invested your love in a wonderful, frustrating, loyal, funny, and very loving friend who will give you years of pleasure.

I have a 3.5 Month old puppy at the moment and it is great despite this being the most patience testing period of any Dog owner.

You will no doubt experience Breed Prejudice (people crossing the street etc.) from ignorant people who choose to believe the misconceived "devil dog" image often wrongly portrayed in the Media. I am afraid this is something we have to live with. You are one of the lucky ones that are about to find out the truth about the breeds character.
This site is a wonderful resource for all things SBT. Welcome.

Hi TonyW,

Thank you in your reply.

In Australia here we call it an English Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
In Australia if you say you have a staffy people always ask if its American or English. Funny, i know lol.
But yes ours is a pure bred SBT.

In your reply, thanks for that makes me a more confident with taking it to you puppy school. Yes, my wife and i have already pretty much planned out everything, days its going to dog training, we will also put it dog day care once a week on a friday as that day we both work, were as the other days either myself or my wife will be at home.

Yes, i know, when i was telling my old man about the puppy we wanted he thought they were dangerous, now that we have it, he too is in love with him hehe. ALOT of people get the wrong idea of these breed dogs. Seeing Ziggy as a puppy i dont think he will ever ever ever hurt anyone he is just so playful and lovable.

Can't wait to see him grow up

Wonderful reply from Tony, I don't have anything much else to add other than well done on your new addition.

Oh, and although he's not vaccinated you can still carry him out to friends houses with children, different people and fully vaccinated dogs (though perhaps don't let them out into the garden) to get some positive socialization in early. A pups human socialization period is from 7-12 weeks, so you want to get as many nice experiences in within that time. My dog seems to have missed out on all of her socialization (she's a rescue) and is quite the handful because of this. However, just to add a spanner to the mix the first fear impact period is from 8-12 weeks also so experiences must be positive and suited to his personality/temperament. Some dogs are shy or cautious and can be overwhelmed, so ensure he's happy with all of the handling and meetings by reading his body language

Hi
I have a puppy, now 4 months old.
Before her vaccinations were complete, I carried her into shops and encouraged (didn't take much lol) people to stroke her.
She goes to two classes a week.
I think I've done it right as she is incredibly friendly towards all humans and dogs.
It does pay to put the work in as early as you can.
Have fun   

All great advice above classes are such a good base to start, and of course yes the interaction with as many people, situations and dogs as possible.
One tip always have tasty treats to hand something he doesn't normally get and do reward good behaviour. Look forward to the update on his progress xx

I agree.  We had Maisey when she was 8 weeks old.  We did MotoX at the time so met loads and loads of people. We also did puppy classes and we joined a little dog walking group.  She has turned out to be the softest thing ever, loves all animals and people.  Roxie, on the other hand, we acquired at 8 months old (Army couple being moved to Germany and apparently these dogs are banned over there and they were not able to take her).  They advised she was rather hyper and excitable but was great with kids and dogs.  Her and Maisey appeared to get on well so we took her home.  In hindsight, we should have done things very differently as she turned out to be very DA (although settled in with Maisey after a few lesson in boundaries??).  We have had her nearly 5 years now and she is a lovely dog, apart from the DA bit, but we always said if we had acquired her at 8 weeks, we are sure she would be a completely different dog.

Our rescue dog Alfie is 2yrs old and we have only had him 4 mths. He does pull on the lead and, through nervousness, can be DA. This was because he was hardly walked by his previous owners! Your pup sounds like he is going to be well socialised by responsible caring owners so I see no problems like this with him

You have chosen a very intelligent breed (I should also add mischievous). The classes are an excellent way forward. My girl is middle aged and we can still teach her new things, or, it could be the other way around sometimes.

I am sure you will have a lifetime of fun, loyalty and best of all.. Staffy hugs  

Thanks for all the tips and advice guys, just took ziggy to meet his first doggy friends yesterday at my aunts house. he was so well behaved and played around with my aunties dog no problem, hopefully he stays like that.

The more positive meetings and interactions with other dogs they have the better. No reason that Ziggy will not continue to be a sociable and friendly dog all his life.

Have to be careful when he becomes a randy teenager, as with all breeds, including Humans. Also if he gets savaged by another dog, as my last Stafford Riley did by a cuddly Labrador when Riley was a puppy whilst the owner laughed at his dog "beating up" the tough Staffie even though Riley was only 5 months old, they tend to become a bit more cautious and quicker to react. Otherwise keep doing what you are doing and everything should be fine.

You will learn doggy body language over time. This is invaluable to judge both your, and other people's, Dog's intentions.

PS. Sorry for the rant about the Lab, still grates with me even though Riley did exact his revenge some years later on the very dog that attacked him. The owner was not so amused that time. Forgive my smug satisfaction, just Human nature unfortunately. I did give several warnings but he ignored them! Arsehole, and this was in front of his Kids!

hey all thanks for all the advice...
I have been interacting him with as many family dogs we know (just not big crazy dogs) lol and he has been great so far, however last night i saw him playing with a friends Pomeranian and my boy kept trying to bite him, at the same time his tail was wagging so im not sure if my dog was playing with the Pomeranian or trying to bite the Pomeranian, any insight??
thanks

Hiya! Ziggy your pup is very very young. Still exploring the world with his mouth and I very much doubt that he would be showing aggression at this age. That is a very fluffy dog that he was playing with, a new experience. Think of how he was with his litter mates; if you watched them together they're constantly biting and pulling each other around. That's what puppies do! You can't be worrying about this behaviour or you'll be condemning him for any little action. They're really not devil dogs lol! The German shepherd you described in your first post is a guarding breed, completely different to the staffie which is essentially a companion breed now that they're no longer used for "sports."

What's his personality like in general?

hey sorry for the late reply,
His personality is pretty laid back actually, he just roams around the garden and house looking at everything and sniffing we took him to puppy school yesterday for the first time and he was great, hopefully he turns out to be a friendly socialized dog when he grows up, so far i couldnt be any happier!!