17 wk old puppy DA

HI our 17 wk old puppy has just recently started showing aggression towards other dogs on walks and at puppy classes. Instructor at classes says not to be to worried about it as it's just him feeling his feet and growing up. She said just to still let him greet other dogs but if he begins to show agreesion / dominance to just walk away and don't make a fuss about it.
Our previous staffy we rehomed at 11 mths and was never socialised so was quite DA which we could never could change so excepted that the way she was and always told other dog owners if their dog approached her.
So we are trying to make sure this one is socialised really well and are a little down hearted when he started to show DA.
Any adevice. Ta

At 17 weeks, your pup is NOT dog aggressive! Your trainer is absolutely right, although neither is it 'dominance'.

Try to make sure you have especially good treats with you at all times. If your pup barks or growls, call him away with the 'watch me' command. Keep calm and don't raise your voice or chastise him.

Start the 'watch me' at home by holding a treat up to your face & tell him "watch me" as soon as he looks towards you & once he reacts every time you can start doing it outside. It usually doesn't take long for them to get the gist of it.

If you don't have a treat handy, just calmly call him away & walk backwards, calling him to you all the time. When he reaches you, plenty of praise. Don't expect too much, too soon - he'll get it soon enough!

At the moment it's just apprehension and being 'puppy', but you don't want it to become a habit.

Hi Gilly
Thanks for the great advice. Yeh we do the 'watch me ' both in the home and our and he is really good at looking and taking notice and waits for his treat. It was just that it started quite suddenly the other day and I am probably guilty of over reacting after having our last staffy who although was an amazing little dog just didn't get one with other dog lol

Yeah, it's so easy to translate one dog's temperament onto another.

When I had my Stafford (about 40 years ago!) dog aggression wasn't considered a problem! There were so few of them back then & people knew how to handle it. BUT. Aggression for the sake of it didn't happen, it was all dog related.

Now, that IS a problem, I'm not denying that. But as long as your dog is HUMAN FRIENDLY there isn't a problem & it can be handled. Nowadays a lot of work has gone into making Staffords dog friendly as well as human friendly. To my mind, a dog aggressive Stafford is 100 times better than a human aggressive Stafford.

He's a typical human loving staffy if fact is quite disappointed if someone walks pass without saying hello to him and is fast becoming a celebrity where we live people stop us to say hello and say this is the new little blue staffy everyone is saying is such a good looking little dog and of course he love the attention. Thanks again for the reassurance

Seriously, you have a wonderful friend and ambassador - take him as he is.

When I first got involved with Staffords I was told that they would protect their owners with their lives, would lick burglars to pieces & would gladly kill another dog.

Things have changed. They will still protect their owners/family & will lick any other human to death. But kill another dog? Well, some, maybe. But most would rather play.

I agree with Gillys first post completely, it won't be dog aggression at 17 weeks more play and curiosity and may need the odd telling off from another dog to learn manners. Do as your trainer advised, stop the play when it looks to be getting rough and certainly use the watch me tactic, it'll be useful in all sorts of situations

Thanks Ian. Like I said after having a dog who was quite DA for nearly 9 yrs think we just got a bit downhearted and over reacted. Thanks for another vone of reassurance