New and need help

by jelm48
Hi, just joined, have a problem with our 4 year old male staffy. We introduced a bull dog puppy couple months ago, and they get on like a house on fire. Seriously, Oedyn, ( our staffy ) even shared bones with him, a never seen before thing. He just loves him, and Bentley ( the bulldog ) loves him as much. Now Oedyn has always obsessed over him, like a mother to him, has to know where he is etc, and Bentley the same. In the last week, Oedyn was a bit weird, obsessing more over him, very very hypo, more hypo than usual, then yesterday he was told to get away from Bentley, as he wouldnt leave him alone, and he bit my son in law. We are totally in shock and beside ourselves, he could be trusted with a baby, but now I dont know. Can anyone help,
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I'm afraid I don't have much experience n this area. Liz is great & I'm sure she will see this & help u. I've only ever had an issue with biting once, an old rescue yorkie my vet gave me. That was fear based so totally different. In your situation I would look for a very positive trainer. Give him or her as much information as possible about the lead up. Was it your son in law who told him to get away from the pup & anything you can think of. Did he get a fright or just didn't want to leave the puppy. Do you spend time with the dogs as individuals, away from each other

Do you know of a good behaviourist in your area

Hi ya, welcome to the Forum from Flo & me

I can well imagine that the bite was a shock. What were the circumstances leading up to the bite, was there shouting and tension etc? Could it have been an over excited mistake?. Did he realise he'd done wrong? another thing to consider, has his behaviour changed very recently, if so a vet check might be in order. It's very unusual for a dog to turn like that without something being behind it so please forgive all the questions.

hia from me and sasha  , how are things now?

Hi and welcome from me and mine!

Sorry to hear you're having a problem. It sounds like a form of resource guarding to me and I'd agree with Laura that a behaviourist is probably the best way to go. I have dealt with resource guarding before but not with another dog as being the desired resource, so my usual method of offering swaps for similar value things wouldn't work.

Because there is clearly a safety issue here, I think you do need someone on the ground with you who can see what really is going on and how you are all interacting. A good behaviourist can be worth their weight in gold. It might be worth asking around, you vet may know of someone they can recommend, or this is a good place to look as well:

http://www.apbc.org.uk/

Good luck, and keep safe!