Staffyluv

I agree hankdog, I think things happen for a reason. Dan passed away on 2nd October 2011 (after a big weekend out with mates) and Ollie dog gave up his 6year fight against mast cell cancer on the 25th October 2011. I posted about him on DOL in rainbow bridge and went to have a look at the rescue thread. There was a little kelpie cross who had run out of time in our local pound and after talking to my son (I said I need to DO something, it is too quiet in the house), we agreed to foster Gus. While we were there picking him up on the 27th October, my son asked if they had any staffies there. The ranger said a few, so we just had a look. As we were leaving he said we have one more but you can't get near him, he is so scared. We went to the cage, I told Cory to open it but don't go in, just crouch down outside the door and see if he comes out, Zig came out on his belly after about 10 minutes. He crawled under Corys legs and then crawled over to me and up onto my lap. His time wasn't up until the following Monday, so I put my name on him and he came home.. He was about six months old then. He will be 2 in April. He had no trainingt a all, we couldn't even get a collar and lead on him to begin with. He was afraid of everything. He has come such a long way since then and so have I. As much as he tests me, he has been such good medicine for this home.. I am very grateful for this thread. I have tried a lot of the suggestions and tools that the more experienced handlers and trainers have suggested not just for Zig but for other dogs with similar issues. Some work better than others but again, I say that I am not a trainer and have little experience with dogs with issues (I guess I just lucked out with out earlier dogs but also most of our puppies were lead trained etc as they came from breeders). I would suggest that I am probably not doing a lot of the training correctly or effectively enough. Another reason I wanted to do obedience, the instructors train us to train our dogs.

It certainly sounded to me like it would be too much for him! And I stand by that. Hopefully it was more than luck that got you both through. Because if it had proved too much for him I believe it could have made it worse, and some of us said as much. I for one was worried for you both when you went through with it anyway. I'm very glad that my worries were unfounded and it's turned out to be such a good thing for him. But I still hope it was more than luck! I take chances sometimes with my animals and it rarely turns out well. All that aside, I doubt it has much to do with dominance and submission. Erik is very needy about structure and direction. He looks to me and he finds ways to get me to offer him rules and guidance. At the same time, he is a little turd, very opportunistic and exploitative, and prone to controlling behaviour that has got out of hand on occasion when he was a youngster. I expect most people would consider him a dominant dog in that he is pushy, controlling and if you give an inch he will take a mile. He was on very strict NILIF as a pup, because without it he would come up with bucket loads of behaviours I didn't like while trying to get what he wanted. It was take control of all his reinforcers or get trampled by him, basically. Nonetheless, I have generally been pretty relaxed with him. If he acts up I rarely act until I know why he is acting up. I give him the benefit of the doubt because it's easier to change behaviour based on reinforcement than change behaviour based on fear or anxiety. I don't even give him all the guidance he wants from me because he becomes so dependent it hampers him learning to handle things on his own, which is ultimately what I'm trying to teach him to do. All things in moderation. I think that dogs generally respond well to lots of guidance and structure, which is why things like LAT are so useful and effective. But it's in their best interests to learn to handle things on their owns as well. And it's not necessarily a dominance issue. Sometimes dogs just don't know what they should do and having us tell them takes a lot of pressure off them and probably feels pretty good. I dare say it is more than luck :) I spend a lot of time with Zig and his training and I am constantly reinforcing that training in every day activities (like him waiting to be asked through the door, sitting and allowing other dogs to come to him - instead of him barging towards him).. As for the dominance/submissive thing - I am only going on what the behaviourist suggested to me. Zig will roll over, if challenged or run behind me (what ever is closest). He has never shown any aggression over anything. He is happy for people and other dogs to take his toys and food. However he is forward and can be 'pushy' with other dogs (the reason we went to the behaviourist classes twice and we are now in obedience). I have to admit I wasn't sure if the obedience classes would work for us but I had to try and I am glad I did. If they hadn't been working after a couple of weeks, I would have pulled him out. Don't get me wrong, we still have a way to go with his training but today was such a breakthrough I wanted to share it. He may not do it again for a while but these little victories let me see (and hopefully others) that there is light at the end of the tunnel with dogs that are reactive (be it over dominance, aggression or what ever makes them reactive).. Zig and I have come such a long way - we take 2 steps forward and some weeks we take 2 steps back. But then we have a breakthrough and it gives me the encouragement to continue. One thing that I have discovered since going to obedience is that I was not being firm enough with him. I am correcting this. I don't think any of the problems I have with him are his fault - I got him less than a month after losing my husband and my 14 year old stafford. I probably wasn't in the right mind to do the best by him to begin with.. Again, I realise this and I am working on it.

Zig is reactive but overly friendly and quite submissive (if another dog is dominant, he is happy to be the submissive pack member).. Because of this, I always thought it was more me than him - I still do. It is the way I have handled him and with the guidance of the trainers at obedience (giving me the methods to be more dominant of him), it has made a huge difference to the way he is and they way I handle it. I was told by a few people not to take him to obedience as it might be to much for him (with his low level of distraction) - lucky for us, it has actually been just what he needed to learn to deal with distraction. We still have a long way to go but these small wins make it all worth while, because I can see the dog he is going to be (and I know I can be the handler he needs me to be).. Today is the first time he has ever walked on a loose lead at heel with that much distraction - he is nearly always head and shoulders in front of me when we walk or at the end of the lead. He is a puller (but doesn't pull like he used to because I am always reminding him not to and calling him back to me when he gets in front).. Today was also the first time another dog tried to engage him and he didn't respond - he stayed sitting beside me when asked.. Today was such a blast, I am still over the moon about it - even the instructor was clapping us..

Hi all, I just wanted to update on Ziggy. We are still at obedience training and today in our class, he heeled on a very loose lead, he stayed in sit and ignored the boxer next to him (trying to get his attention and he was only about half a metre away).. Using the leave it and stay commands, he just sat there and looked at me - instead of trying to play with the boxer.. Taking him to obedience is the best thing I have done for us.. He does his sits, drops etc when asked but tends to get a bit bored while we wait for instruction or when the trainer is helping someone else. We tend to do tricks like catching his ball and some LAT work while we wait to make the time pass so he doesn't get bored. I am so proud of my boy and the amazing progress he has made in a group environment..

There are some things that should be treated by a conventional vet - arthritis is one as it is easier. If you do decide that you want to use holistic therapy, then I suggest you do a bit of research and find a good one. I spoke to 2 others before I settled on the one we used. If you google anti cancer diets for dogs, you get loads of really good information. If you can be bothered (as it is a really long thread), my Ollie's thread is here in the palliative care section of the health forum and has loads of good resources for anti cancer diets and the treatments we used - what worked, what didn't.. It is our journey.. All the best.

My old boy lived 6 years with MCT (he was originally given a prognosis of 12-18 months with chemo).. We went to an holistic vet who told us to remove all grains. No wheat, corn, rice or anything. Veg is fine and good quality meat. I used to boil whole chickens and use the broth on days he didn't feel well (it is a good soup).. Ollie had chinese herbs, Vitamin C tablets (just the human chewable ones), Anti Ox supplement, Lymphodran supplement, fish oil and he loved his cottage cheese with a bit of flax oil on it. There is a lot to be said for the anti cancer diets in dogs - I have seen first hand the difference it made to my old boy.. His cancer did eventually catch up to him but he was also 14.5 years old - so had lived a good life..

I use polaramine.. I tried a few before I found one that worked for Ollie and it works for Zig as well.. I know a few people who have tried it and it doesn't work for their dogs - it really is a try and see sort of drug IMO.. You might have to try a few before you find one that works for your dog. Ollie's cancer used to release histamine - so he was on 1 polaramine tablet every day (for about 4 years) with no real side effects and it worked 99% of the time. There were a couple of times when it must have been really bad and he went to the vet for an injection but apart from that, it was good.

It sounds like he has loads of histamine in his system. The body releases it in reaction to allergies. Try a good antihistamine as a preventative.. Give it daily or twice a day if needed. Zig has developed an itchy tummy to the grass at dog training. I coat his tummy in sorbalene cream before we go and it acts as a barrier and last week he had hardly any itchy spots at all. I have found with allergic dogs that preventative measures are better than having to treat the after effects. Maybe a small t-shirt on him so hi tummy can't touch the grass? A cool mat to lay on to help him cool down. A clam shell pool to dunk in when ever he feels like it (ours is on the deck and he has access to it 24/7). Sorbalene or sun block as a barrier cream Antihistamines every day.. There is another cream I get from the vet that is an awesome treatment and barrier, I will get the name and post it up later.

That's because these so called gentle harnesses rely on applying some discomfort to the dog to supposedly stop them pulling. Now the premise is that people don't want to use those horrible, nasty tools like correction chains and prong collars so these wonderful, magical 'gentle' aids do the trick! EEEEEEEEEEEEEP ... wrong. You (and most other people on the planet) have a breed with a reasonable to high pain threshold and hence the harness will do absolutely nothing except help him pull you about in no time, unless you intend on muscling your dog to get him in place like you do with the front attach harnesses. And unless you can hold the animals focus THE WHOLE WALK be prepared to be yanked and pulled because there is NO consequence to the action. It's why I see people constantly buying new harnesses and equipment, one fails apparently you go buy another sorry but they pretty much fall into same sh*t different smell category with me no matter the brand. Our problem is we see the leash as an attachment NOT a TOOL that it is hence why all this stuff is on the market. How you use the leash is just as important as the collar you use and both handler and dog need to learn that. It's why leashes now look like waterskiing equipment, we think of it as something to just hang on to and hope we don't get hurt. Teach your dog to respect the lead length and signals from it, owners learn how to use it properly to train your dog and you don't need a million dollars worth of equipment that stops working after a while. They're overpriced gimmicks, every one of them. Get a prong for your staffy, learn how to use it and train him not to pull. The money you've probably spent on harnesses could have bought you a corrective collar and a couple of lessons with a decent trainer and fixed the problem. I will be honest and say, I would be scared to use a prong collar. I am probably a bit soft when it comes to it and need to be firmer with him. He would be red raw under his front legs from the lupi harness (it is like the sporn one but without the fleece protectors) after a walk. There is probably a good chance that I didn't use the harnesses correctly?? I thought I did but what do I know? We keep going to training and he is walked every day to practice what we learn but he will still pull given even a few extra inches of leash. We use a martingale and this has been by far the most effective collar (tool) we have used. I now have a decent case of tennis elbow and a really sore shoulder thanks to the last year and a half of this dog and his 'training' but I haven't given up and I won't.. I have never had a dog that was 'difficult' before - it certainly is a learning curve. I have quite a collection of harnesses - I might put them up for sale :)

I think they work for some dogs and not others. I have tried just about every harness on the market and NONE of them work with Ziggy. He might be a bit unsure the first day or so but after that he goes right back to pulling like a steam train (if I give him free walking) - there is simply no such thing as loose leash with him.. We have the Lupi harness, the sporn harness (halter), a head halti, a front clip harness and a couple of other standard type harnesses just for luck (one of these is used to clip him in a seat belt in the car). We spend most of our walks changing direction to get a loose leash or walking against a wall (he is between me and the wall/fence and I use my leg to block him so he can't walk past).. He isn't as bad as he was and with obedience training he is improving heaps but he will still pull if given even an inch of leash.

I just wanted to add a bit more. I used to run Zig for a couple of hours a few times a week and I just couldn't wear him out... It was the behaviourist that we were using who told me that I am not wearing him out, I am just creating an uber fit dog. The more exercise he got, the more he wanted. He would run flat out and see something an turn really sharply, even I could see that wasn't great on his legs. So over a couple of months with her guidance his exercise was cut down to more controlled exercise (not just running and running). We walk at a decent pace and also include small hills and lots of turns in different directions for most of our walks. A couple of times a week it is just around the local park, which is flat and when here we incorporate a fair bit if training, stops, stays, sit, drop, wait etc. He is still pretty easily distracted but there has been a really big improvement and I think it is because his exercise is more structured. It has purpose instead of just being a free for all run..

I walk Zig on lead each morning for about 30 minutes and we also do about 15 minutes of on leash training (in a place where there is distraction). He also gets about 10-15 minutes of off lead play - mainly fetch, unless there are other dogs, then he likes to play with them. He gets a quick dunk in the local pond after this because he is usually pretty hot. We obedience training each Sunday for an hour - we go about 20 minutes early and he has some off lead time with a few of the trainers dogs. Our obedience club has a casual (non competitive) fly ball and agility section at the same place that we do the obedience training. I really want to get Zig into this as I think it will really challenge him and he loves a challenge. He really loves to swim and I would love to get him a pool big enough to have a bit of a swim in - he lays in his clam shell on his side and puts his head under the water but it is not the same as going right under at the pond..

Try the Uni's around Canberra - that is where we found a really lovely girl to look after our old guy for a while - she came and house sat as well as looked after him. I advertised in the Canberra Times about a month before hand as well and interviewed a heap of people - there were the kooks but also some really nice people.. That way, you have heaps of time to sort through the people who respond and choose the one that is perfect for you and your dog.

Gorgeous shots of beautiful dogs...

I feed mainly raw and don't feed offal.. Nor do I give supplements - we are always complemented on what great condition the lad is in. The only non raw stuff he gets is maybe a cup of Euk kibble over the course of a week in a kong with some cottage cheese (if I am going to be out all day). Apart from that he eats roo, barf patties, chook necks, carcasses, wings, turkey necks, brisket and lamb rib bones. Eggs, cottage cheese (in the kong), sardines in oil are the only other things he really eats. Why do you have to feed offal?

I am so sorry to hear about Charlie. RIP boy.

I'm sorry pers - it is so hard when they have to go and they leave such a huge hole in our hearts and lives.. I couldn't stand how still and quite the house was when Ollie dog had to go - that is how I ended up with Zig just a week after saying goodbye to Ollie.. It was positively painful being in this house..

1. Do you have to feed tons of food or hardly anything in order to keep your dog at a decent weight? My Answer: Zig hardly seems to eat at all.. He gets one of the following at breakfast time: Turkey neck, 2 small or 1 large chook wing, half a chook carcass, a rack of 3 or 4 lamb ribs or half a cup of Euk with a tin of sardines (only once or twice a week for this last one) I have noticed that he can go from 25 to 27kg easily - he looks best at 25 (has a nice tummy tucked up and his muscle definition is best at this weight) Dinner time he gets either: 1 BARF patty, 150g meat (roo, beef, lamb) On top of this he gets a kong a couple of times a week with some kibble and cottage cheese stuffed in it (if I have to go out for a long time during the day), on hot days I sometimes give him a cup of frozen home made chook stock.. He does get an upset tummy if he has too much fat. 2. Is your dog at the vets a fair bit for minor skin irritations, ear or other infections or hot spots? Answer - He has just started obedience at Queanbeyan dog club and the grounds are covered in itchy grass - it is the only time he gets itchy and it is only on his tummy where he lays down (when he is playing with puppies) - it seems to be just a contact allergy and clears up with an antihistamine and or some cream from the vets.. 3. What's going on at the back end? Does your dog produce firm stools? Answer - small, firm and not smelly - but he has a stafford gene in there somewhere as he farts like one and it can be offensive 4. Does your dog smell? Teeth, anal glands, general odour? Answer - nope, not a smelly guy at all. Considering he is usually a wet dog (loves water and mud and will lay in small puddles if that is all that is available) Has awesome white teeth as well. 5. Does your dog LIKE its food? Answer - Zig is not food motivated at all and has been known to go without dinner and breakfast and still not hassle the humans for food.. He will bypass food for another dog - we train using a tennis ball. A tennis ball on the other hand is a total obsession (although he is happy to share if someone else wants to play)

Can you close your eyes and stand upright without swaying? If you lean forward, does your head spin and you feel like you're going to fall? You could have Labyrinthitis. You definitely don't want to be driving if you do. Sudden head movements can make you feel nauseous, and you can actually fall over. Do some brain training with him - get him thinking and wear him out mentally. It can be as good as physical work and just as tiring. Teach him some new tricks and reward him with his favourite toy and a play session, even if it's just a throwing session from the couch. Hope you feel better soon Hehe, yesterday I couldn't stand up with my eyes open and not fall over.. Today is fine - I wonder if it is an inner ear balance thing?? It is mostly gone today - thankfully as we had training.. I made up for nothing yesterday by taking him for some off lead fetch for nearly an hour before we went to dog training for an hour.. He is now totally knackered and sleeping..

I think he has given up and is currently sleeping on the floor near my feet.. I played fetch and catch the ball from the lounge for a while..

He won't hunt for food - he will for toys but not food.. I am not game to get up and walk around at the moment. I wish he was a curl up and snuggle dog (Ollie dog was) - Zig is more of an out and about man.. A real social butterfly.

Well that lasted all of about 15 minutes.. He has dumped the marrow bone.. The joys of having a dog that doesn't care about food.. Throwing the tennis ball from the lounge to the kitchen...

I just remembered that I had a half a marrow bone in the freezer - he is now happily chewing on that..

There is no way I would even attempt to drive him to the offlead park - my head is spinning every time I stand up.. He might have to have a day laying around.

Zig has always had at least a 45 minute to an hour or so walk a day with a few small training sessions through the day.. I have woken up this morning feeling like someone has hit me with a brick. I am sore all over, headache, backache etc (this isn't about me having a sook at all ) He doesn't understand that I am not well and is walking around sooking, then lays over my feet having a sook.. What do you do with your dogs when you are not well enough to get up and work them?