7 Month Old Staffie x

Hi all

We have a 7 month old staffie x boxer, he is adorable when he wants to be but we defiantly know that he has hit his adolescence stage, some days its really hard because we feel like we are doing everything right but maybe we are not. I have a few questions for you as to how we handle some of his current antics and behavior.

He has recently learn't to misbehave on his walks, sometimes we go to the field and throw his ball but sometimes I will take him for a walk around the village. His field time/walk in the mornings is about 20 minutes with a longer walk in the evenings about 40 minutes. However, on the walks he has now started to grab his lead in his mount and pull on it, he jumps up biting at my hands and grabbing and pulling on the lead, he then starts scooting around in circles. I know he is either doing it out of frustration (likely because I won't allow him to eat everything and go wherever he wants) or he thinks it is a game. So far I have just been ignoring the behavior, standing still, folding my arms and not talking to him or making eye contact until he stops, sometimes this can go on for 10 minutes plus. Not sure if this is the right things to do, whether I should be doing something to distract the behavior but I wouldn't want it to continue either as he is getting big and strong and his teeth are now pretty big as well.

The second thing I would like a little advice on is about he eats everything when we are on walks, he is picking up anything that he thinks he can eat and sometimes things that he should not eat (paper bags, cardboard box, berries, bird poo, cat poo). I use the leave it technique which sometime works, but on some occasions he just ignore me and continues to eat whatever he has. Not sure if this is right, but with things I know won't harm him I will let him just eat it (choosing my battles) but on things like plastic bags or paper I try and get it off him but he tries everything to stop me, he eats it so fast so I can't get it out of his mouth, then is a battle to get it out of his mouth before he swallows it.

We are also experiencing excessive whining, I know that staffies are known for this as there way as communicating but sometimes there just seems to be no need for it, he's been toilet, exercised, fed etc but he still continues. I know sometimes this is attention seeking but if you pay him attention then you can't sit and stoke him or cuddle him on the sofa because he won't allow you to, he just wants to play and bite you all the time. When I leave the room and leave him in an area on his own he won't settle just sits and whimpers until I return. He does seem to be a anxious dog, does not like to be left on his own (although when I am at work he goes in his create and on the doggie camera I can see that he is asleep for all the time I am out) but he won't go to his create and settle whilst we are in the house. I have started to move his bed downstairs to see if he will settle in that, he doesn't appear to like to be touched, if you stroke him he will mouth you or get really excited and jump up.

I now find that the majority of the time I have to sit in the dinning room with him whilst the rest of the family are in the lounge because he just won't settle when he is let in the lounge. He climbs on the sofa and starts to bit and tries to sit on you and then thinks its a game. He is create trained so we tend to give him something to chew on or a filled gong but as soon as this is finishes he starts to whimper and I can't leave him in a room on his own because he gets up to mischief.

Then finally we also have the bed routine, now I know I have probably created this problem myself but some advice would be good. Myo sleeps in his bed next to our bed, when its bed time if he is not ready to go straight into his bed and sleep he thinks its play time and runs round the house (sometime waking up everyone including the neighbours). Whats the advice on the scooting behavior when they start going mad and running everywhere because he has started to do this a lot? should we just ignore it and leave the room?

He has attended puppy and adolescence training so knows some basic commands but most of this has gone out of the window. He is feed on Simply dry dog food twice a day with a little bit of simply wet food mixed in. He has all the chew bones that he could need to keep him busy if he wants to, I fill gongs with treats for him to chew on, I walk him as much as I can. I feel he is exercised enough maybe a little to much but we still don't seem to be progressing forward and any of this to be improving.

It would be great to get some advice, I have read that a lot of this is normal puppy behavior but I think I just need reassure and some guidance on how we should be handling this correctly. If we are doing everything right then great but they are like babies and don't come with a instruction manual. Everyone says that there puppy was the same and now after 3 years they are fine, does it really take that long?

Hi & welcome to the forum

Welcome to the Staffordshire bull terrier niceboard. We are pleased you've decided to join us, and hope you enjoy your stay. We hope to see plenty of pictures of your Staffordshire bull terriers or any other breed you may have in your household.

We have several information sheets for those of you looking for help with specific issues. You will find them here:

Training and behaviour information

Puppy information

If you can't find an answer to your question, just ask! You'll probably find someone on here has come across your problem too.

This forum is run by the members for the benefit of the users. It's your forum - get involved.

Just one last thing before you look around could you please just have a quick look At This Poll, we would love to know how you found us.

Here are some links that will get you started with the website:-

Please read the Forum Rules before you start posting.
Here are a List of Tutorial & FAQs that will help you around the forum.
You can ask for Help here if you are having trouble doing something on the forum.
How to update your Profile information
See who the Admin, Moderators & Support staff are Here

Hi from me & Katy Yes I would say it is puppy behaviour & he needs to learn his boundaries! I personally would up his walk times a bit more for his age. Do you walk on harness or collar? I find I have more control on a collar.
As for picking up everything a strong leave command would be best, have a high value treat to offer him to leave it. If that doesn't work I would suggest a cloth muzzle which would make it harder for him to snaffle things up!
Symply food is not the worst out there but it hasn't a high meat content & a lot of grain in the ingredients.
Bed time, sounds like he's not tired as he's doing zoomies! Up his exercise & try games that use his brain. Run through his training commands or play hide the treats so he has to use his nose.
You will get through it I promise, just takes time & a lot of retracing your training steps. I still have to remind Katy & she's 7!!!!