poochmad

OMG. He's gorgeous! I loooove Bloodhounds! And I like the name Earl. Very cute.

As with any breed, dogs will vary in looks to a certain extent depending on the lines and what the breeder/owner likes. He is a couple pics of 2 of my dogs, both have been very successful in the show ring. Leanne They certainly are lovely looking dogs. I especially like the female colours. What colour would you say would be most favoured in the ring? Any? Or do all the colours do well? Edited by PF to remove doubling up on photos.

Farting, burping and snoring! I have said frequently here (and other places) that Staffords fart SOOOOO well it should actually be included in the breed standard as a breed requirement. If a Stafford doesn't do it, they're broken and should be returned immediately to place of purchase for a refund! Err thanks. Any non-smelly quirks? For instance, they seem to like lying in the frog position? Is this a common thing or just a coincidence?

Besides the 'screaming' (never heard of that before), what other 'odd' things are there are about the Staffy that the general public (us) don't know? What would you say would be a common quirk of the breed?

Is it true the breed's jaw 'locks' when it grabs onto something? (I've heard this time and time again and I am pretty sure they don't, they just are tenacious and refuse to let go.)

Henschke has anal gland problems so he gets unprocessed bran (1 TBSPN), mixed vegies and a mix of Advance/Pro Plan kibble. He also has his anal glands squeezed once a week. Mmm-mmm. Fun!

I'd be going back to training him as though you just got him. It sounds like he just 'didn't get it'...sometimes dogs take a little bit more time. The only true way you can say your dog is fully housetrained is when there are no mistakes in the house, ever. If you go back to housetraining 101, you'll probably notice he'll catch on really quickly.

I'd steer clear of Bark Busters as well. They use the same 'method' for every single dog, regardless of the fact that every dog is different. I contacted them (years ago) and then changed my mind about engaging them. Well! I was abused and threatened and told I had to pay 50% of the fee, even though I hadn't signed anything! Needless to say, I dug my heels in and in the end they backed off...

Geez he's cute! I didn't know Kelpie pups were so chunky when young! How cute is he!?

We also didn't use a divider. Our crate was so large that we were able to put a bed at the back of the crate and newspaper at the front in case he needed to pee (this area was sprayed with disgusting stuff to make him pee there), but surprisingly from 8 weeks of age, he never, ever went in the crate, regardless of how big it was. In fact, he had great fun shredding the paper so after 2 weeks of a clean crate, we just removed the paper and the pup had a nice lovely crate to move in.

I think the dog kennel sounds like the way to go - thanks. Spoke with hubby about your thoughts and he agrees. We are checking out a kennel next weekend and will discuss his 'issues' with them. I'm sure since he's such a sticky beak, he will enjoy all the activity around him! Thanks for your comment too regarding what we've done with him. If it wasn't for DOL, we wouldn't be as far as we are.

On another note, we are going away at Christmas time for 2 weeks and were thinking of putting him in a kennel. Is that going to affect his calm state, or do you think it will be good for him? If it's going to put us backwards again, I'd rather look at getting a pet sitter...thoughts?

fbaurdy - not a 'professional' by any means, but it seems to me that you're not giving him enough time to calm down. Even giving him a command is giving him attention. When we walk into the house we ignore Henschke for everything. The only time we might utter a word is if he jumps up on us, but that is said with a stoney voice and not much action. So no words, no commands, no eye contact. Nada. I know what you mean about being impatient, when we are trying to put the lead on Henschke to take him for a walk, we have to wait for him to stop running around like a mad dog, which he does and try to wait until he's calm. He's slowly getting better, it just takes time. :rolleyes:

Third day return. All was quiet when we rocked up...although when we were putting the key in the door he started with the high pitched barking. Waited until he was quiet and then opened the door. Ignored Henschke until he was nice and calm. He seems to be calming down a lot more quickly once we get inside which is a good sign. However, we are still ignoring him for 10 or so mins. All affection now is given when Henschke does something for us. Obedience training has been stepped up. When he drops a toy into our lap, he immediately sits back (the old game was we'd automatically throw it), he is told to drop or stay and the toy is either given back or put in front of him with a command to wait, before him being released. He is also a lot better whenever I close the door on him, his scratching has either stopped or is minimal (i.e. one scratch). Each time I go into a room, the door is shut on him. He now sits outside the room waiting for me, or better still, will go back to his bed (which is separated from hubby). A good note is that he is not perturbed now when either hubby or I go out the front door. He no longer scratches or whines when one of us leaves. It's more like he looks at the door as an inquisitive thing or out of interest. He also no longer jumps on us when we walk back inside. It's becoming more of a natural thing for us to come and go. We ensure we both go out the front door at least twice a night each. This seems to be really helping Henschke with associating us leaving and not stressing about it. We have also noticed that his behaviour is less 'enthusiastic'. For example, he used to lunge out the front door or gate, even when we told him to wait (and he was the last to walk through), he'd still lunge as soon as he was released. Now he's calmly trotting through, which is just lovely!

Feel free to hijack away. It's a lot easier when you can put all the comments in one thread then you can go back to the one thread each time. It's also good for us owners with 'stressed' dogs to join together and share our experiences.

We have the aussie home alone toy. Henschke loves it. We 'tuck' a treat into the 'handle' and he has a hard time getting that out. He's very food focused so he loves to bounce it to get the food out.

Just wondering if you have your indoor lights set to come on with timers and if it makes a difference? We leave an internal light on all day and the tv on (sound only). The heating is also left on. The porch light was set to sensor mode so it was turning on and off depending if someone was there. Our line of thinking was that perhaps he was thinking it was us and when it wasn't, was getting more and more stressed. Also, as it's dark now, his 'body clock' is probably a bit out as well. My mother will continue to check on him for the next couple of weeks to see whether leaving the porch light on 'fixes' the problem.

Anyway, my mother checked on him three times today and it seems the light on the porch seems to have done the trick. She checked him at 5.45pm and all was quiet. When we came home, except for the fact he chewed one of the remotes (well hubby did leave in easy reach), there was no sign of any stress, which is a great relief. Perhaps what we're now doing, going out the front door periodically in the evening, not giving him so much attention is paying off?

Poochmad I know your breed standard states that the breed is independent, but I think you'll find that when the standard was originally written they meant to imply that the breed is independent in the field ie. able to work independently of its master. The American standard also says 'with a great affinity for human companionship' probably in an effort to avoid that precise misconception. I don't think 'independent' means that they're a dog that adapts well to being alone. Oh. I wondered about that. That was one of the reasons I picked the breed as I thought they had a similar indepedence like a Basset Hound, etc.

Thank you.

That would be good, thank you. I understand there is also a good book I can purchase as well (the name escapes me at the moment). Regarding the meds, I didn't know what they were...but will look at them. What do they do and where can I get them?

Thanks for that. I had a look, but at $595, I can't afford that.

Our vet advised that there are two ways to 'cure' the problem. One was using medication and the other was without medication. He did say that the medication should only be used as a last resort and must be used in conjunction with the behaviour modification. (Which is very similar to what is listed here by members of DOL...) I would be interested in having a chat with a veterinary behavioralist and have done a search, but can't seem to find anyone...do you have any recommendations? Or be able to advise where I need to look?

Something the dog enjoys and finds stimulating but that is not directly related to the presence of the owner. Agility would be one thing I'd look at... self rewarding, energy intensive and confidence building. There is a balance to be struck between having a dog that is close to you and one that is excessively bonded. Again, socialisation - exposure to a wider range of people, to dogs and to enriching experiences - gives a dog more in its life than its owners. I think its healthier for an owner to be an important part of their pet's life, not their whole life. That's more challenging with some dogs than others. Completely agree with this - not being 'the whole life' to Henschke. This is definitely what has happened with him. We are too much of a stimulus, hence why we have been stepping back. The breed is naturally independent, so I'm hoping with our change in the way we interact with him, we'll be able to 'tap' into his independence so he can be more happy on his own. Agree also with fbaudry, it appears as though he is starting to show stress as it gets darker. My mother has just reported in, that all was quiet when she checked. (She stands outside the house. If he's at the front door upset, he will be scratching and whining.)

Before we talked to him all the time...like he was a child. We believe that this is definitely a huge problem, we treated him like a kid instead of a dog. So. Everywhere we were, he was too. When he was outside nosing around, we were outside. When we were watching telly, he was either playing with us, sleeping on the couch or in his bed. Constantly around us. All the time. The no talking is not having conversations with him, like this: 'So Henschke pants, how are you today? Did you have a good day? Did you like your dinner? What did you do?' Don't laugh, it's true. Hubby was the biggest chatterbox out of the both of us. Now, we don't have conversations with the dog. Instead, we talk about him, just not to him. I have done obedience training with him. He can sit, drop, stay, inside, outside, wait, give. He's very, very good. I was planning on doing more training, but we are showing him and training is an hour away. That, plus travelling every day for an hour each way, plus the showing (travelling up to 3 hours each way at a time), gets a bit much for everyone, including the dog. Also, he was sitting down every time hubby stopped in the ring and was getting confused. So we decided to stop with the training and focus on the showing until he was older. With regards to the reduction of affection, he was getting constant attention, lots of cuddles, belly rubs, ear scratchings, etc. Whenever he came near us, he'd get attention. All the time. We're just trying to 'ween' him off us so we're not his 'be and all'.