Meet Elsa

Here is Elsa. She is very active but so adorable.

Oh Elsa, what a beautiful little girl you are xxx

My goodness, Elsa, you are stunning! Wow!

(But could you ask your dad to rethink the slip lead?)

Absolutely beautiful!

(ditto what Liz says! )

She's adorable but I must agree, please loose the slip lead

Wow... gorgeous pup

Isn’t she sweet, check out those ears !

She is doing good. Settled in. Our other dogs and her are getting better each day.

The slip lead is just for in the house and when she will be going to puppy obedience class. This slip lead was Remy's and now it is her's.  Don't fret, my wife has already bought 4 new leashes.  We do have a 25 ft leash we tie to this one when she goes outside in our fenced yard to let her run around a bit.
My wife works at a dog/cat rescue and knows all about leashes etc. and I worked for many years at a doggie daycare and I know lots. We have had greyhound racers and greyhound puppies so we are well experienced.

That's great, but PLEASE don't even use the slip lead for training! It isn't necessary, especially with a breed as sensitive as a Stafford. It honestly isn't right or necessary.

I don' t know my wife does all the training with our dogs. And she knows best since she has won many trophies, ribbons and had many stake racing winning greyhounds. I get your points though.

dad2paisley wrote:I don' t know my wife does all the training with our dogs. And she knows best since she has won many trophies, ribbons and had many stake racing winning greyhounds.   I get your points though.

Staffords aren't greyhounds. Although they are strong, tough dogs they are also very sensitive. I know many breed owners will say the same, but believe me, Staffords are incredibly sensitive & don't respond well to check chains/slip leads.

I have trained border collies, GSDs, Belgian Tervuerens & Staffords. And the ONLY breed that reacted badly to check chains/slip leads was the Stafford.

Maybe you could ask your wife to join the forum & see if we could suggest other methods?

I personally wouldn't use a slip lead for training any dog. If you think about it, a slip lead works by making life unpleasant if it tightens, which should theoretically discourage the dog from pulling. However, modern training methods focus on positive rewards to encourage the dog not to pull in the first place. Yes, you may need to add some form of negative (a 'no') but something that tightens round a dog's throat is, in my view, not the way to do it. Yes, some dogs do respond to it but that doesn't make it right. And I know there is the argument that you shouldn't use it to the point of discomfort, but in that case why use it at all?

I agree, Liz - I was just pointing out that Staffords are, despite their strength, very sensitive. I only used checks before because, back then, that was the way it was done. But things have moved on & training methods improved.