2 year old staffy becoming aggressive - Help!

HI

I have a 2 year old male staffy, we rescued him from his current owners at 3 months old. He has always been good as gold around dogs and people

He has always been wary of grown men approaching him and patting him on his head, I think he may have been hit from a grown man before we got him, hence the reaction. We have tried to socialise him, when a man gets down to Jacks level and lets Jack approach him he is fine, but if you lean down and stroke him he curls his lip and shows his teeth and lately he has made the odd lunge at them

Jack has always been good around dogs, not overly happy but lets dogs sniff and lean over him but lately when a dog is over Jack smelling him once or twice he has snapped at them, always on a lead but still.

And the worst of all, Jack was my dog for the first 6 months he was with me, then I moved in with my girlfriend for the past 2 years. Jack has never shown any aggression to me, not once. But when my girlfriend says goodnight and gets close to his face, or strokes him in his bed, or occassionally with treats Jack will curl his lip and show his teeth. My girlfriend has never mis treated Jack in any way. Jack will do every command with my OH and proably listens to her commands more than mine, but Jack seems to have a short fuse with her and it is breaking our hearts

Up until Jack was 1 this never happened, but the lst year his aggression seemed to have increased and getting worse

He gets walked and execised everyday, fed a quality raw food diet, and has been socialised.
He is very protective of our house, when some one is in the house or at the door Jack goes wild, over protective

I'm thinking of sending him to a Doggy Day Care for a full day once a week, and a behaviorist if needed, but I really need to sort the problem out with my girlfriend, and its getting un nerving walking him in public in case he lashes out and some one when they stroke him

He is such a nice natured dog as well, everyone loves him.

Please can anyone help?

Thanks
Dan

Hi Dan, sounds to me as though he has reach his teenage years. You need to be firm with the training here and not give in to anything that is anti social.

Sounds like you have a plan in place and looks to me to be the right thing to be doing with the trainer etc. you know that really he is a good natured dog so don't panic.

I'm not an expert at all but would be doing the things you are going to try. The OH thing might be jealousy but again he needs to learn the boundaries.

I'm sure that with patience, love and training, you will come through this phase.

Problem is he has always been around that with my girlfriend, for no reason, she plays with him, treats him, walks him ,feeds him etc. But he always seems to curl his lip at her, and twice he has snapped and gone for her and i've had to jump in the way to split it up, once resulting in me being in A and E with a puncture wound.

I just really don't understand it, we did get him young still at 3 months old and he has never been mistreated by us, never been attacked by people or dogs, yet he seems fearful of men, main roads, now getting fed up with dogs fussing over him, and mainly my girlfriend

To the point where she is nervous of taking him on walks in case he attacks some one. He was never like this and he so loving and friendly usually. It's tearing my OH to bits, she had a bad experience with her last dog which was a rescue and had to be put down as it became extremely aggressive and she is terrified this will happen with Jack. Its like he likes my OH, but doesn't respect her

I'm certainly no expert but I can Sense your worried.

We have others on the forum that may be able to offer better advice when they come on line Dan. Pop back here tomorrow and I'm sure you'll find some others that will have posted good advice.

Thank you very much anyway, really appreciate it. There's just noway I'm going to get rid of Jack, he has been failed once by his previous idiot owners and I want to fix this, but I know my missus if generally nervous around him now and we have a baby on the way and it needs addressing now

is he neutered? as if not i would say that needs to be done ASAP! terrible teens could be kicking in also! have u checked for any sore spots ear mites lumps and bumps etc? as this can make a dog very grumpy. a water spray gun works wonders with all sorts of bad behaviour! your girlfriend needs to start being assertive with jack hes feeding off of her nervousness and its putting him on edge more ! maybe baby on way has also upset the balance. i used to dread every walk with my dog chester and he picked up on my moods and reacted usually badly! can u take jack for a walk together and also what sort of lead collar halti etc do u use as ive tried loads and some work better than others! i have an american bulldogxstaffy and have had issues with him from day one a trainer is a must as they will tell u where u and dog are going wrong its your behaviour aswell as dogs! sorry if my post long but ive spent many a moon trying different things with my problem dog! glad to hear u not giving up on him. maybe introduce a crate but only used as a safe haven never as a punishment and if it there before baby comes onto scene it will be jacks place and u can also shut him in if needed! ill stop rabbiting on now but consistance and persistance r a must and your the boss!!

also any pics is he pure staffy or staffyx ?

When we first had ben he was the same - he was 18 months when we had him. He snapped at a man in the park who went to stroke him and we were really worried taking him out. He is also very dog agressive, although since knowing him better now i think he is scared of them. We had a trainer out and he was really good and said that he needed to be shown who was boss. I am a bit soft but tried really hard to put things in place he suggested and ben is now really good (i have relaxed a lot of the rules now he has settled). He gave us a short piece of chain which we were to throw BY him if he didnt respond to a command imediately as well as growling "bad" at him. Both pf these are supposed to immitate how dog leader would growl at them to put them in their place. He needed to be told to get up on the settee ( not go where he wanted), we needed to go out of the door first and if he was told to do something, he had to do it or be told "bad", and re given command. If he didnt respond the chain would be dropped by him and "bad" again. He responded really well to this and started obeying and stopped bad behaviours really quick. If the chain wasnt suitable in a situation he also suggested a water spray or water balloon. These should be hidden so it was a shock to him-we didnt really do these.
As i said i found some a bit extreme and felt really cruel but it did work and now i hardly do any of them as he is so good - an occasional 'bad' is all we need.
(Still Dog aggressive though as i think these methods would make him more scared of dogs, but could be wrong)
I hope these help as i know how youre feeling when you go out and people come near - i think they start to pick up on your anxiety too and think the person is something to protect you from.

same sort of advise i got, but a bottle with stones in shaken when your dog sees another to distract no eyeballing is good advise as its an invitation for a fight! my spray gun has been an on going help they just hate being squirted but as a rule now days all i need to do is point it in their direction and they stop! my dogs leave the front door behind me and sit and wait to be called in from a walk (this is done religiously when my 18 month old grandaughter is with me) chester sits and waits until i say go for his dinner some dogs will need a reminder all of their lives (chester) my 11 year old son is never left alone with my dogs and my grandaughter same but u also need to teach children how to behave around dogs! and i know from experience they defo pick up on your anxiety! dont think your being cruel your dogs best interests are at heart.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Jack has been castrated, we did it at 12 months old after he attacked my girlfriend for stroking him as he was eating his bone.
Since then he hasn't attacked but does curl his lip and snarl a lot with my OH, never with me. Strange thing is Louise is a lot more commanding than me, and Jack listens but acts on the 3rd of 4th command.

What we have been doing,he can no longer jump on the settees, he gets told down and can only join us on the settee when invited. He is walked once a day for around 45mins, played tug of war in the house etc.

The 3 months he has started nibbling, nibbling the sleeves of my t shirts, his cussions. Just constant nibbling. Ive read online that this could due to wanting affection, boredom etc. Jack receives loads of affection and is played with so Im not sure the cause of this

We are planning to leave him at a doggy day care for 6 hours once a week to socialise with different dogs and different people. Also school has a behaviorist whom we will arrange to see.

Theres nothing major, just want to nip these worrying habits in the bud.
To sum up - snarls at my OH, nibbling, getting less pateince around dogs, seems afraid of grown men

And heres a few pics of the big guy, I think he is a pure Staff. Hes quite big and weights 22.25kg of pure muscle











Most these pics are a year old, he is quite a big bigger now, will try to get an updated pic later

He is lovely. I would just add that him responding on 3 rd or 4th command is letting him choose if he wants to do it or not. So even if your gf is commanding him, he still has the upper hand. The trainer told us that we need to make him respond immediately, so after first command is said and no response, tell him he is bad (like a harsh growl) and then command again. If still no response bad with chain thrown by him. Make sure it is clear he is wrong for not responding straight away or he will just think it is ok to do it eventually when he pleases. I know its hard but it does work

Thanks for the advice, I didn't want to be too harsh with Jack as he is quite a nervous dog already and didn't want to give him a reason to fear us. Instead of saying Bad we having been using No, don't know if that makes a difference. Might have to invest in a chain

Personally, I would never use a chain/training discs/stone shaker with a nervous dog, well done for realising that this wouldn't be right for him    I do agree that you don't need to repeat commands, Biscuit does commands on first go, if she ignores me (if safe to) I walk away and ignore her, 9/10 she will follow! I'd try working on fun obedience with him, involving lots of food/praise, very much involve your girlfriend too. Ensure that she's doing something that he enjoys with her, it sounds like she's indadvertedly created a negative association with her through mishandling/handling that he's uncomfortable with.

I don't know very many dogs that enjoy being patted on the head; mine being one of them! She is also very wary around men, and will growl/lunge if they approach her head on and go straight in to stroke her. I always advise guests to come in and sit down, allow her to approach them. Depending on who it is, she will jump up on their lap or sit beside them; I always recommend sitting beside them on the floor interacting by asking her to sit and feeding her favourite treat. If she's on their lap and they spook her she will react, and that would be inappropriate. If her reaction is severe I put her into her crate with a tasty treat and allow her to observe from afar, whilst not being pressured into interaction.

Approaching a dog when eating (especially something of such high value as a bone) just isn't required. If he has treats/bones just put him in his safe place, a bed or crate, and leave him alone. Approaching him when he's eating is a threat to him, and offence can be the best defence in a nervous dog's view.

Why does she need to get close to his face? If he's uncomfortable with it, why feel the need to do it? Biscuit gets worried when people get too close to her face; now that we've worked with her confidence she doesn't growl anymore but will still "tongue flick" which shows that she is uncomfortable with the action and I will tell people to stop immediately. Though I have taught most of my friends about body language so they can interact with her without me needing to babysit!

Personally, I think you need to be learning to read his body language and what he does/doesn't like. He's growling and showing aggression because you've missed all of the other signs that he's uncomfortable there's a ladder of aggression which is;
Biting
Snapping
Growling
Stiffening up/stare
Lying down/leg up
Standing crouched, tail under
Creeping, ears back
Walking away
Turning body away, sitting down, lifting a paw
Turning head away
Yawning, blinking more, tongue flicking, nose licking

If he's worked his way up from the bottom and you've gotten to a growl (whether he shows submissive behaviours like showing the tummy/lifting his leg depends on general personality, Biscuit doesn't show anybody her tummy until she knows them) then you're pushing him too far. If he's growling because of something that YOU have done, then you need to back away and give him his space. He's telling you that he's uncomfortable and doesn't enjoy the behaviour, this must be respected.

If he's growling inappropriately (unprovoked) then it would need to be corrected with a no and a time out. But at the moment, it sounds like he's not being read properly, and is reacting appropriately for his fear level to be honest.

Remember, he is an animal. He's not a teddy, he's not a toy, he shouldn't be expected to put up with silly human behaviour. We're very primate in our actions; we touch to show affection. How many dogs have you seen giving each other a cuddle or kiss? They interact in very different ways to us. We're essentially like an ape and a wolf interacting. Dogs tolerate our touchy feely behaviour because they live with/respect/love us and like the attention, but if they had their choice many would choose to lie next to you, or simply resting on you, than being taken into a big hug with faces close together and full body contact. It's unnatural for them.

Dogs aren't all dominant creatures trying to take over not only your house, but the whole world. Their behaviours aren't through control, but many other complex behaviours that have evolved through time. Dogs have been created to act more like juvenile wolves if anything, who do not care anywhere near as much about dominance/control/pack mentality. You need to allow your dog to be a dog, but curb their behaviours through training and guidance. You don't need to act like a wolf, dogs aren't stupid, they know you're not their canine "pack leader" but you are their guardian who needs to help them through a very complex world.

I think you sound like a great owner, and I'm so happy you're willing to put the work in with him. He's a very handsome boy

Thanks for the great advice. I suppose my girlfriend does treat him a bit like a baby. He loves to cuddle up to Louise and sit on my lap

Main problem really is when were all on the settee, Louise gets up to go to bed and strokes Jack to say night and Jack curls his lip and shows teeth. We wern't really show why as Jack never does this to me

We have made a pillow/bed for Jack at the bottom of our settee so he can be near us and doesn't need to be with us on the settee all the time, but I think he may becoming protective of that now. He was nibbling away at it for 5 minutes and Louise said NO to get him to stop and Jack stiffened up and I was expecting a bite.

I just wanto to make sure we are doing everything correctly, he is a brilliant dog, just seems to be becoming stroppy last 6 months and a short fuse with the OH

Showing affection really isn't the problem, staffie's are very affectionate dogs and love to snuggle up on your lap for the evening. It's just how you show it more than anything! Has anybody ever grabbed him by the collar to get him off of the sofa? That is definitely inappropriate for him to do that at that point, and I would tell him "no" firmly and tell him to go to his place, ignore him afterwards for at least 10 minutes. If he trys to come out of his place, tell him no and to go back to his place and continue to ignore.

When you say nibbling, do you mean tearing holes, or sort of suckling on it?

He is most certainly at an age where he's going to begin pushing the boundaries; a large amount of the problems that we see on the forum and that behaviourists see in person are of male dogs around 2 years old! With consistency he will grow out of it, but the last thing you want is for your girlfriend to get bitten. I still maintain that reading body language is very important; he may well have gotten to this stage of showing teeth and snarling because all other attempts of calming have been ignored for so long. I know that my dog has a Labrador friend who doesn't read her signals, and he's the only dog that she ever has to bear her teeth at because he just keeps misreading her.

I definitely think he could do with more than one 45 minute walk a day if possible, my dog is nearly 6 and she still does 2+ hours a day. I recently had an almost 2 year old staffy x to foster with me and he would drive me mad with only one 45 min walk a day, he needed to hourly walks to keep him sane!

Other than this, which commands does he know?

Sit
Lie down
Wait
No
Come here
Bed
Heel (When walking but you have to be persistant)
Down (off the settee)
Think that's it, If I had to get him off the couch and grabbed him by the collar I do think he would bite. We normally click our fingers and say down and he gets down

By nibbling I mean he sort of nibbles at sheets and my arm with his front teeth, very gently

Oh no I totally agree nobody should grab him by the collar! Was just wondering if this was what had made him snappy. Commands are the most important thing to avoid physical confrontations with a dog, but also rewarding with nice, positive tones when he does do what you've asked so that he knows he's doing it right.

Hm, when you got him at 3 months was that straight from the litter? Or had he been taken away from the little earlier? Do you have a kong? You could try using a stuffed kong as a distraction from the nibbling. It may be boredom, may be anxiety, maybe a self soothing behaviour if he's quite a nervous dog. I had a foster dog that used to lick the sofa until he fell to sleep, but he had been taken away from his mum/litter mates too young.

I do think that you should work on commands with him, to ensure that he's listening to you first time, every time. If he answers back, send him to isolation and ignore him, this is your most powerful tool! Dogs, especially staffies, hate to be ignored! Carry out obedience exercises as previously mentioned such as sitting and waiting before you go out of the door, sitting and waiting for food, sitting and waiting for treats. Inviting up onto the sofa rather than him just doing what he likes, when he likes.

I would also focus on him knowing a fairly strict routine, this will build his confidence to know what's coming next in his day. So feeding/walks/bed time should have the same time frame/routine each day.

Also, give no free rewards. this involves everything from food, to play to affection. Giving no free rewards will teach your dog that good things come on your terms (and also to those who wait,) and will also help your dog to practise impulse control, obedience training and teaching him to use his mind more. You should give him your time when you wish to, and not when he demands! All affection should be invited by you, preferably after he has carried out a task for you; even just a sit!

The most effective way to establish your leadership and his trust in you is to regain control of all interactions and rewards, and ensure that you have authority. Anything given out must be on your terms. It must be said however, that hierarchy does not come from being in any way aggressive, or overly assertive, but from being calm, consistent and confident. A dog will not understand an owner that is inconsistent or angry; shouting at your dog when they misbehave simply says to her that you are unbalanced and confusing. Of course, negative behaviour must be corrected, either through being ignored or reprimanded with a clear, firm and concise “no” or “stop.” However, positive behaviour must also be marked, even more so, either with verbal praise & calm physical affection if he would enjoy that, a food reward or a toy reward, whatever motivates your dog most. Both reprimands and praise must be clear for him to understand, with the use of different tones of voice and body language.