Socialising?

Out of curiosity do your dogs socialise regularly with others? I don't have friends with dogs that like my Buster. Most of them are smaller dogs who find him too giddy and cos he's bigger (he's a cross) they find him overpowering. Unfortunately he very rarely gets to run and rough and tumble with other dogs on the beach or other areas where he is exercised for the same reason. Some people have been fab, he's run with a Beagle and a lab on the beach and had a great time once with a great dane x blood hound (can you imagine the size of that!) but I worry he's not getting enough interaction. He loves other dogs and has a fantastic temperament, he doesnt know when they've had enough of him though, if they growl and snap he just goes back for more!

yeah i have two other dogs so Katie gets plenty of interaction

xena like all dog dont matter what size, but my other 2 just dont like bigger dogs they love smaller dogs.

Toddyjo, Your Buster sounds just like my Buster. My Buster is a cross too, he also doesn't know when other dogs have had enough. But, like your Buster he has a lovely temperament.

He socialises with certain dogs, dogs he has known for a long time. I am very wary of letting him play with new dogs as he is quite dominant and wants to sit on them. It is a shame I know. We go to the beach too, because there's miles of it up here and he can run for a long time without having to be put on-lead due to a strange dog on the horizon.

Luckily rocko gets to socialise on the local park as lots of people take there dogs onto there but as he is still fairly young he still loves to wrestle n some owners take it the wrong way when a three stone staffy starts wrestling with there dogs.
But we have a friend who owns a rottie that is 2 weeks older than rocko and they love to wrestle and tug a war and stuff like that!!

Buster has a Rottie friend too, great dogs they are

snap memphis has a rottie puppy freind and they get on great
he gets sosoialised with a lot of new dogs on his walks and hes now gettin a good base of dogs he see a lot of

Yeh rotties are top dogs, we can't go for a walk without getting him to come with us now lol
The only issue we find is that when rocko n his pal are playing ball or even walking together other small minded owners drag there dogs away and don't let them say hi as our 2 may eat them or something like that. Which makes rocko n Bolton want to go see them even more!!

Kaos has has loads and loads of socialisation as we didnt want to end up with the problems that Ty's got. Kaos has litterally been introduced to every single dog we meet and as many different situations etc as poss and oh my god has it payed off. He is so layed back its unreal nothing stresses him out or really gets him over excited. He greets other cats/dogs/people with this calm air about him lol slight tail wag but he's like 'oh hi there' really well mannered! Ty on the other hand had no life experience at all and had never been outside till we got him at 6 months and he is a completley different kettle of fish. Its not that he's naughty and defo not agressive just bad mannered with other dogs and completley over excited in every situation.

Bandit was socialised heavily as a pup, but when he grew to adult he became dog agressive. Not to all of them, there were some he'd play happily with, but he'd pick & choose. If another dog showed the slightest agression/dominance towards him he'd snap!

Dempsey's the same - won't allow any dominance whatsoever, but will very happily play with any submissive dog. His best pal is my boss's daughter's GSD & they have a great time.

It isn't the amount of dogs, but the quality of the time spent with them. If he has just a few regular friends that's all you need.

Caryll wrote:Bandit was socialised heavily as a pup, but when he grew to adult he became dog agressive. Not to all of them, there were some he'd play happily with, but he'd pick & choose. If another dog showed the slightest agression/dominance towards him he'd snap!

Dempsey's the same - won't allow any dominance whatsoever, but will very happily play with any submissive dog. His best pal is my boss's daughter's GSD & they have a great time.

It isn't the amount of dogs, but the quality of the time spent with them. If he has just a few regular friends that's all you need.

Yea quality is very important and will do dogs the world of good we are extremley lucky and have another blue staff living a few doors down who is really huge but really submissive lol and only a month younger than Ty so although we have to be a little carefull with him and other dogs its so nice to see himn and nelson running round the field together. Also theres a boxer puppy in the village 2 days younger than Kaos and obviously they are the best of mates as well and of similar roughness lol
I will alitterate though that i do think its important from really young to introduce as many different dogs and as many experiences as possible. If they dont like doing something keep doing it eg) kaos hated tractors so every day i walked him passed then first of all a distance away then getting closer and eventually when they were in motion, he couldnt care less now. So actually i would say while they are very young quantity is just as important as quality, but being less important as they grow up

Kaiser gets plenty of socialising there are loads of dog owners near me and kaiser has socialised with them from a pup so he gets on well with most dogs really although he tends to run off from small dogs for some reason lol

youngkaiser wrote:Kaiser gets plenty of socialising there are loads of dog owners near me and kaiser has socialised with them from a pup so he gets on well with most dogs really although he tends to run off from small dogs for some reason lol

lol blue does that......when he wants to fight it is usually a rotti or a pitbull but see's a yorkshire terrier and he hides behind me lol

Example today's morning walk...........

Went to the park and saw
1. tiny white x breed with the attitude of a prize fighter. Hackles up, stiff legged & growling. Dempsey looked at it as if it was a martian & totally ignored it.
2. 6 month old labrador, very bouncy & friendly (neutered), Dempsey enjoyed a good romp, no problems.
3. American Bulldog, very young, bouncy bitch, very submissive - great game.
4. Rottweiler, very dominant, hackles raised, stiff legged, no growling, but trying to be 'higher' than Dempsey. Dempsey went berserk!
5. Greyhound, elderly & crochety. Snarled & growled at Dempsey constantly & all he wanted to do was play.
6. Pack of x breeds, about 6 of them, all with their owners & all off lead. Dempsey was having none of that & wanted to challenge all of them, all together.

What I'm trying to say is, know your dog - know his own body language and the body language of other dogs. NEVER let your dog off lead to play unless you're certain of how they will interract. ALWAYS be sure that you can recall/grab hold of your dog should things go wrong.

Socialisation is no good whatsoever if you just let your dog approach any & every dog around, it can just promote dominance & agression.

Caryll wrote:Example today's morning walk...........

Went to the park and saw
1. tiny white x breed with the attitude of a prize fighter. Hackles up, stiff legged & growling. Dempsey looked at it as if it was a martian & totally ignored it.
2. 6 month old labrador, very bouncy & friendly (neutered), Dempsey enjoyed a good romp, no problems.
3. American Bulldog, very young, bouncy bitch, very submissive - great game.
4. Rottweiler, very dominant, hackles raised, stiff legged, no growling, but trying to be 'higher' than Dempsey. Dempsey went berserk!
5. Greyhound, elderly & crochety. Snarled & growled at Dempsey constantly & all he wanted to do was play.
6. Pack of x breeds, about 6 of them, all with their owners & all off lead. Dempsey was having none of that & wanted to challenge all of them, all together.

What I'm trying to say is, know your dog - know his own body language and the body language of other dogs. NEVER let your dog off lead to play unless you're certain of how they will interract. ALWAYS be sure that you can recall/grab hold of your dog should things go wrong.

Socialisation is no good whatsoever if you just let your dog approach any & every dog around, it can just promote dominance & agression.

Completley agree 100% knowing ur own dog is key and making sure the dog ur interacting with is social. But i did stress that socialising with as many dogs as poss while the puppy is still very young (obviously if the other dog is social) dempsey is not a young pup and now has his own ideas lol and is not as easily led!! Young pups should also not be off lead anyway....
As i said before YOUNG PUPS should be socialised as much as poss but quailty over quantity as they get older as u siad caryll x

Yes, but as a very young pup (from 3 months onwards) Dempsey was vigorously socialised. What I'm saying is that no matter how much you socialise a dog, if you can't read his or other's body language, socialisation is wasted. You'll end up with your dog getting involved in a fight which will either make him/her nervous or fight concious. Staffords, as with all the bull breeds have fight conciousness bred into them & if you learn to read which ones he/she won't like you can avoid them.

Yea i agree with that definatley! Sorry i just assume sometimes that just because i can read my dogs and others body language and do it automatically that everyone else can and does! x

blaze666 wrote:Yea i agree with that definatley! Sorry i just assume sometimes that just because i can read my dogs and others body language and do it automatically that everyone else can and does! x

Know what you mean. You get into a certain frame of mind so you don't even think about it, it just comes naturally. Most stafford owners will get that in the end, but sometimes it takes trial & error!

Some people never really learn to read their dogs, and if that's the case, then the dog should be tightly supervised & only allowed to play with dogs that are known not to cause problems. Any doubt, don't do it!

i can read memphis like a book and i point out what hes going to do to the rest of the family .
and you can kinda tell what other dogs are upto as i found out the weekend when he had the run in with the english bull that went phyco with him

awwww poor memphis! lol

blaze666 wrote:awwww poor memphis! lol

the stupid tit had his dog on about a two mile long flexi lead and let it walk round the corner where he could not see as we were walking the other way and when the owner came round the corner he said his dog didnt like other dogs thats why hes on the lead at all times so i pointed out he may as well not have him on a lead as he got no control at that distance

Well u no what ive literally just been sat here thinking that i think i need to think slightly less of everyone else....just beacuse i no what im doing i assume that everyone else does to and they just dont! Most of it to me just seems to be straight forward comman sence that ppl lack, my 6 year old would no more, seriously!