Sandra777

The crate is intended as a place for the puppy to feel safe and for you to put the puppy when you can't actively supervise him but only if you know he has pee'd (and perhaps pooped) within a reasonable time before putting in him the crate. It is also a floor friendly way of encouraging the pup to learn (or develop the skills to anyway!) hang on for reasonable lengths of time. "Reasonable" in all cases depends very much on the individual puppy, his age and to a small degree, breed. A puppy running around the house is pretty easy to house train IF you can actively and consistently monitor his behavior and get him outside before he pees/poops inside on every occasion. If you can do this many pups will be virtually 100% reliable in a matter of just a few days. Unfortunately most people can't, you have other things to do apart from watching the puppy every second. :D Sooo - with a crate the idea is that most pups instinctively keep their beds clean and this works except for the odd naturally dirty puppy and those poors mites from pet shops and puppy farms who have already learned they have no choice but to mess where they eat and sleep. You HAVE to be sure the pup gets ample chances to pee/poop where you want him to so he can learn what you want. For the 15-20 minutes (again, depends on the pup) after you KNOW he is ''empty'' he can be around the house without confinement, run, explore, play etc after this time (depending on the pup) you might need to try another quick visit outside, then pop him in the crate unless you can definitely be sure of supervising him, then an hour or so (depending on the pup again) after you KNOW he pee'd/pooped, outside again for another pitstop then he can be out and about for another 15-20 minutes etc etc etc After just a few days most puppies will make a noise in the crate if they need to go out - or will display a behaviour you have learned means they need out, which is great because you are not only teaching the pup to ''hold on'' just a little bit, but also to ''tell'' you they need out. No way should the pup be in the crate for more than 2 hours at a time during the day, overnight you could well get away with only one toilet break. Yes I would move the crate out of the bedroom and into some other part of the house during the day so the pup can be part of the family, see everything that's going on etc but personally a laundry is no place for a young puppy - too cold, and almost always the most isolated part of the house. At night crating the pup in the bedroom makes sense because he will have you for company and will be able to ''tell'' you he wants out without screaming the house down to have to wake you up.

I used the suspension once when it first came out, totally useless. Puppies hated it, spat most of it out and washed each other with it. And as for the lunacy of making a "chocolate'' flavoured anything for puppies, well I think I know where the sense and research for that came from :D ETA: actually answering the question :D I switch between whatever pills I can get at the time with a litter, no set pattern but rarely the same brand twice in a row.

Try rescue remedy, it won't do any harm and you can give her a couple of drops every hour or so if you like. Doesn't always work, but no harm done. Whatever you do, do NOT reassure her. If she thinks that the boss is scared enough to need to be talking lovey-dovey baby talk then there really must be something scary to worry about. If the dogs are freaking out about nothing I am firm but in a neutral way, getting cross just makes them confused and getting all gooey makes them unsure about your ability to 'protect' them Don't allow her to do anything she wouldn't normally do and if she constantly gets up and down and you know she doesn't need to go out then very firmly tell her to get on her bed and if she tries to get off send her back (her bed can be whatever part of your bed she usually sleeps on). Don't allow her to sleep on top of you either. But when she's settled a nice full body stroke with a firm touch and a 'goood girl' in a quiet calm voice shows that she is doing what you want, always important to praise the good stuff!

At dog shows or in real life

The breed clubs have no power to stop it. The ANKC has no power to stop it. The only people that might have a shot at it would be Federal or State government and we really don't need them involved in breeding dogs do we The breed clubs and breeders as individuals can only try to educate one person at a time. You meet someone who thinks your Amstaff is "little'' and politely tell them the facts. It probably won't work because holding back the tide against this bizarre new trend about ''English'' Staffies is hard enough and that's pretty obvious - they ain't freakin' ENGLISH OK!

24" is pretty small some days in this part of the world. Some of the Amstaffs I've seen wouldn't be out of place in the Bullmastiff ring. In fact the first Amstaff I ever saw was taller than most Bullmastiffs being shown at that time (I am not exaggerating) Unfortunately this isn't confined to Amstaffs. I think most bull breeds are suffering this trend in the hands of certain breeders. Imagine 30 kg SBTs and cringe about that one

No. I've heard them called gazebo mats at shows and house mats elsewhere But look in those asian/chinese type "cheap'' shops, they often have them or if you live in an area with a large Pacific Island population they're very popular in their homes too so look at markets etc. MUCH cheaper than the show vans

IMO it isn't genuine dog aggression which makes Staffords and the like more willing to take up a challenge. As a whole I would consider them extremely UNaggressive but supremely confident and ultimately willing to take up a challenge because they have very little regard for the social niceties such as submission and dominance displayed by more pack orientated breeds (thinking Beagles and genuine pack hounds here) when confronted by a dog which is (or thinks it is) dominant. Boisterous doesn't mean dominant and it's possible he is submissive to boiterous dogs because he doesn't quite know how else to react to rudeness. when he grows up a little more, he will find other solutions to "boisterous" rude dogs. You've hit the nail on the head when you say "at the moment" - your dog has only just started to mentally mature, at 18 months he's little more than an overgrown puppy. Expect many surprising changes in his nature in the 12 months to come :p

You may find that being a Stafford he is seriously conflicted between his inbred instinct and his socialisation/training. He has the genetic history to treat dogs which are not openly friendly as potential "threats" but no doubt you have tried to train him not to think this way. Unfortunately you are working against his breeding and it takes a better trainer than you or I to overcome that completely! He is coming to an age where the majority of Staffords become a bit more aware of other dogs and tend to try their luck. Work on your recall, keep him on a leash and consider not taking him to dog parks where there are random dogs, one of which one day WILL take him up on his disguised/partial/uncertain challenge and then you will see the true nature of the beastie.

Glad she's OK

Is she spayed? Could be pyrometria if not. Definitely off to the vet as you're doing though. Another thought, is someone building a house in your area. Nail guns freak out a lot of dogs.

Firstly it is the Breed Standard. There is no s on the end. Secondly the standard states no difference in height for dogs and bitches so "fits under bitches more than dogs" is Thirdly he's fit and active and that's great, everything you could want but the point is your belief that 30kg is SMALL for a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier. You are wrong. From his photo I would say he is way over standard weight because he is grossly over boned and grossly overdone in front, more bulldog than terrier which is sadly common amongst some breeders who can't seem to comprehend the idea of active agile, 16 inches and 38 pounds. Assuming he has a great personality and is healthy to go with him being fit and active then all's fine, you have a great pet that you love and all is well with the world.

Whether he's fat or not is not really the point. 30kg is hugely over standard for a Stafford, so you certainly can't pass it off with the comment you made about how he is "actually on the small side for a male" because he's not - he is enormous for a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier. That fact that he's NOT fat means he is genuinely way outside the breed standard (almost twice the top weight in fact)

30 Kilo is ENORMOUS for a Staffordshire Bull Terrier!!!

Hmm, I would consider him a big boy. I have two (SBT) dog pups here that will be 6 months old early next week, one is slightly under 9kg the other closer to 10kg. So long as he's happy and healthy he's fine, could just be a quick maturer - what size (height and weight) were his parents?

Crated in your bedroom sounds fine, but the laundry is generally the coldest room in the house and generally the most isolated so IMO not a good place for a puppy. By outside, do you mean staying outside overnight/basically living outside? because if so I think you've bought the wrong sort of cross for that! The truck noise he will get used to - it's important to expose him to noises at this age, definitely don't bother about that. A puppy pen would help keep him safe outside, two would mean one inside, one outside and he can be safe but part of the family inside and out. Crate overnight for sure. If you later decide you don't want him sleeping in your room then you can just gradually move the crate elsewhere. The laundry is definitely not a suitable place for him to sleep overnight IMO. How much sleep did your children need when they were BABIES. Teach them to leave the puppy alone when it is asleep or they WILL get bitten. Put the puppy in his crate and behind the gate if need be until you can teach your children to respect him. He will need about 16-20 hours of sleep for the next week or so, it's a hugely stressful life he's had so far from god-only-knows-where he was produced, to the pet shop by god-only-knows-what means then to your house. As already suggested, pick him up out of the crate and carry him straight outside. When he;s in the laundry are you home? If so, take him out for a pee break every hour or so. While you're out then if he pees before you go out and you're only going to be out for an hour or so, lock him in his crate but be sure he HAS peed before you lock him up. Unfortunately pet shop puppies learn to pee and poop where they eat and sleep since they don't have access to proper toileting places as puppies should, so you have this problem to contend with - it's not a natural behaviour, in fact pups as young as 2 weeks will instinctively get as far away from their bed as they can before peeing, so you can imagine the stress these poor mites are under in those glass aquariums Definitely, why would you think otherwise? He shouldn't be bred from since a) he's a very scary cross (terrier instincts with a chi's more sensitive type nature, personally I can't imagine anything I would be less likely to bring into a house with small children) and b) you would never know if you were mating him to a close relation. $180 seems like an OK sort of price He must be tiny, how much could decent quality food possibly cost for such a small dog???? Cost it out over the amount of meals the decent food will make for him and you'll find it's probably a pretty reasonable price. You can extend it a little with chicken wings, necks, small lamb bones, some mince (not suitable as a diet all on it's own), sardines, eggs, table scraps in small amounts and nothing spicy etc etc etc He is obviously very insecure so needs reassurance from you. You have bought a puppy which is half COMPANION breed - Chi's need their people and don't tend to like being alone and half stubborn little ratting dog that wants to get it's own way. You need to teach him that being alone is OK, but gradually and kindly - he's had enough horrors in his short life.

Staffordshire Bull Terrier breeder here - I would not breed from a dog which showed any aggression towards humans no matter what the reason, unless it was in defence of the dog's people in the face of a genuine threat from another human. Unprovoked (seriously unprovoked too) human aggression in any form is totally unacceptable in Staffordshire Bull Terriers so that's my position when I breed. No matter what the cause, the fact is the dog is human aggressive. Other breeds, other stances no doubt.

I don't actually see what the problem/question even is. The pup likes to go outside and play with another dog when there's no people around. The pup likes to be inside with people when the dog isn't around to play with. Sounds like normal dog behaviour to me! To me you're not asking if the pup can live outside you're asking if it's OK for the pup to go outside????

Except in a rescue type situation I wouldn't be worming the puppy until he had been at his new home for at least 7-10 days. It's enough stress on a pup changing homes without throwing chemicals at him. He'll be fine, assuming he's had a reasonable upbringing it won't kill him to wait.

Until she goes out of season it's perfectly normal for her to continue to discharge. I've found with mine that if they're pregnant they stop discharging almost immediately but I know this isn't universal

I'd say they're crossbred hunting dogs. And I think you're nuts to let your daughter pat dogs tied to the back of a ute with no owner present regardless of how friendly they appeared (and turned out to be - this time)

x2 Absolutely no way should a vet even consider vaccinating a puppy which isn't 100% healthy. If the vet hasn't told you this (assuming it's the same vet of course) then run a mile - FAST!

Quarter of a bowl of what? How much food do you think she should be eating? How often do you swop and change and give her choices? What was her owner feeding her and what happens if you give her that? Is she now a happier and healthier dog than she was when she arrived? Are there other dogs in the house? - could she be feeling intimidated (dog doesn't have to be right there staring at her to make her leave her food)

I have owned both, currently own neither. It really depends on the size of the dog you're talking about. With human treadmills you need to make sure the belt is wide enough and/or long enough so if you're wanting one for a Bullmastiff you'd be hard pressed to find one wide enough and for a German Shepherd one long enough. I have had a double width walker purpose built for Greyhounds, geared down for little Stafford legs , single speed and weighed a tonne, but a great machine. Sold that when I moved (didn't have any way of unloading it at the new house so couldn't take it) and much later bought a human treadmill with a 42cm wide belt, variable speed, programmable, also a great machine and cost virtually nothing (second hand). Sold that to move countries and may well be buying another one some time next year. Personally I prefer the look of my dogs when they've been road walked over their look when they've been on a treadmill, but with the heat and with 4 dogs all coming up to a similar age and requiring huge amounts of walking as they mature, a treadmill looks to be on the horizon for every second day or something along those lines. You need to figure out how you will get the dog used to the treadmill - dog ones usually have sides and safety edges on the belt, human ones don't so you need to figure out how you will protect the dog from the side of the belt until it learns how to walk on the treadmill (a puppy pen can be used to make sides, but how to conect it for example) Depends on how much you want to spend, whether you think you might want to use it yourself, the size of the dog, even the amount of space you have to set the machine up.

I volunteered to be on the list but think I missed out More on the idea of breeding "just'' pets. To 'the general public' show people and breeders are often viewed as not really loving their dogs but being more interested in ribbons and prizes. We know this isn't true in almost all cases, but this is a common view of "us''. So why would it be that people who ''really" love their dogs (i.e. pet owners) should be OK buying and living with dogs which are somehow ''faulty'' because theyre ''just pets'' while us who don't ''really'' love our dogs (i.e. show people/breeders) should have ''better'' dogs. Personally I couldn't give a toss if no one who buys a puppy off me ever shows it, I'm happy that my puppies are loved and appreciate and take great pride in providing people who ''just want a pet'' with pups which have the potential to be great and healthy examples of their breed.