Excited dog

Hello,

I'm new here.

A year ago we adopted a 8 week old 'mastiff X' puppy.

Background was that she and her litter mates were seized from a property that had a 'bit of a puppy farm' going on.

She was the last in the litter to be picked. She was super excited and nippy, which I stupidly thought was a typical puppy behaviour (actually I think it's more of a temperament thing).

Did a DNA test she is half American staffy, 12 per cent staffy and the rest is made up of Great Dane, Wolfhound, Rottweiler and a couple of other bully breeds.

Fast forward to now she has calmed dramatically. It has been somewhat difficult up until now because of her excitability. We were told at puppy school people will judge us and judge her because she looks like a staffy and they have a bad reputation.

It happens on most walks no matter how she behaves.

She is 14 month's old now with long legs, muscular frame and weighs 31kg.

She has a high prey drive so anything that moves fast, especially if it is small she wants to chase. Unfortunately this includes children who run past her. I was told by a trainer to make myself the most interesting thing on a walk. So easy to say. She does look back at me more than previously but if there's a dog she isn't interested in me.

Walking her has become somewhat unpleasant. A few nights ago while walking at night a man came limping down the path. She was sniffing and I assumed she had seen him. When she noticed him she lunged and growled. I believe she was startled and it was a fear reaction. I worry about a repeat episode.

Thinking about training walks if they could help.

She has improved a lot with bikes and joggers but noisy bikes can make her want to lunge and chase.

At home she is mostly calm unless someone comes here. She does try to chase the cats if they run and we have the house split into two. She is soft natured and likes cuddles on the coach.

She's very playful, particularly with other dogs and we send her to doggy daycare once a week. She got booted out of one for 'standing over a puppy' and 'biting a dog's collar'. That was at least six month's ago now and has been accepted into two others since then.

She can play rough with dogs and is better with larger dogs for this reason though she has drastically stopped trying to tug on a dog's collar.

Anyway maybe you read this and see some of these things in your dog and have some tips.

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Hi from me & Katy, welcome to our forum What is your girl's name? Staffy pups are very nippy as pups >=P Sounds like she's doing better now though. I'm afraid you will need to grow a thick skin where ignorant people are concerned, I've had many cross the road so they don't have to pass us  Unless you've owned a bully you will never understand how great they are We would love to see pics of her
Regarding training have a look into this, I'm following their training as Katy is dog reactive https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjzwYL0n7byAhUGYcAKHbAhDJsQFnoECAsQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabsolute-dogs.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw3ksHM-W1CB7fO8SNF-G9ww

All training is reward based & like you need it will make you more exciting than anything else, especially a squirrel You will understand that bit if you have a look at their site

Hello and welcome.

There are things I recognize in your story such as grabbing for collars. I put my girls’ collars on when they play in the garden as they will invariably grab for the collars, but I prefer that to grabbing cheeks, neck or ears !

I know quite a few AmStaffs here and they are very different to SBT staffies. AmStaffs are very protective dogs so it might explain your dog’s reaction to person late at night. You might want to consider that AmStaffs like Staffies tend to be late bloomers so they only start to become mature in their head as from around 2 years old.

As to ignorant comments, I just ignore them. These people just aren’t worth wasting any thought about.
Just enjoy your girl and share lots of nice moments together.
As Jen says, those who have never experienced the connection with a staffy, or a staff, can’t understand what you feel, especially when they aren’t open minded.

Jenc wrote:Hi from me & Katy, welcome to our forum What is your girl's name? Staffy pups are very nippy as pups Sounds like she's doing better now though. I'm afraid you will need to grow a thick skin where ignorant people are concerned, I've had many cross the road so they don't have to pass us  Unless you've owned a bully you will never understand how great they are We would love to see pics of her
Regarding training have a look into this, I'm following their training as Katy is dog reactive

All training is reward based & like you need it will make you more exciting than anything else, especially a squirrel You will understand that bit if you have a look at their site  

Thank you for the link I will take a look.

She is called Rocky, we called her that because of how she plays. She also gets Rox or Rock Rock. She knows her nicknames too.

I didn't know just how many people judge a dog based on its appearance alone, lots of them are dog owners too and it's like they seemingly have no clue about dog body language.

Nifty staffy wrote:Hello and welcome.

There are things I recognize in your story such as grabbing for collars. I put my girls’ collars on when they play in the garden as they will invariably grab for the collars, but I prefer that to grabbing cheeks, neck or ears !

I know quite a few AmStaffs here and they are very different to SBT staffies. AmStaffs are very protective dogs so it might explain your dog’s reaction to person late at night. You might want to consider that AmStaffs like Staffies tend to be late bloomers so they only start to become mature in their head as from around 2 years old.

As to ignorant comments, I just ignore them. These people just aren’t worth wasting any thought about.
Just enjoy your girl and share lots of nice moments together.
As Jen says, those who have never experienced the connection with a staffy, or a staff, can’t understand what you feel, especially when they aren’t open minded.

When she was much younger there was a man was pretty rude in the dog park because she was grabbing his dog's collar while playing. His dog looked like a doberman X and was hyperactive, kept running at her and jumping up at dogs and people. It's kind of funny really to think he was acting like our dog was the really poorly trained one like he could only see ours. But I know if our dog had been a young lab or Goldendoodle his reaction wouldn't have been quite the same.

I love seeing her play with other similar dogs. She loves it so much.

Yes she acts like a guard dog in the house though we didn't encourage it. She has gotten much better with barking as she used to let us know when she heard anything at all.

Not too long to go really until she does reach the two year mark

Thank you. I'm not quite there yet and it does bother me a bit but I'm sure eventually it will just roll off me.

Here she is

She's a beauty, love her ears You'll just have to try & ignore the ignorant people!

Ooh, she is lovely and what long long legs !

I’ve already had a woman with a labrador take a wide detour to avoid my Opium, a “mini rottweiler” just because she’s b&t

You can educate your dog but you can’t change ignorance in humans. I know which company I prefer to keep

Apart from the lunging at the men in the dark growling (I think it has happened a handful of times now) the rest of the things are her excitability I think.

Take yesterday for example on an evening walk. She saw a woman with a little white dog appear and got excited, perked up and tried to go see the dog. The woman said something dramatic along like lines of 'oh my god!' and disappeared back inside her garden closing the gate.

She does this most times she sees a dog relatively close, sometimes trying to play while on the lead.

I didn't even see the woman open the gate until she was there otherwise I would have tried to distract Rocky.

Anyone would think I was walking a lion.