RedStafford

great this evening indy has decided to growl when being moved off the lounge... which sets the whole situation off again! Off to the vet tomorrow.

It's a new thing, they are both going to the vets this week, its time for their checkups and we had already been wondering if she might be feeling poorly.

Hi Everyone, Thanks for all the previous responses. 3 days of keeping the dogs off the lounges, they are slowly getting it - Cayenne the staffy can be quite stubourne somtimes, but gives up eventually... I was just discussing with the OH whether we should have their beds together or apart on the floor? She thinks we should have them together to encourage them to be together. My concern is if they are together and indy decides to growl are when any better off than we were when they were alowed on the lounges? What do you think? Also should they be placed by our lounges or should we place them away (say on an adjacent wall) for a while? I would like them to be close to the lounges - there's a corner where we could put both beds together that is right inbetween the 2 lounges but is this the best place... or does it not really matter the fact they are on the floor should be enough? I like the teahtering idea put forward by Aiden, I don't have a single object inside I could tether cayenne to though, she could pull a small car - probably a medium one! lol... Thanks again.

Thanks for all of the replies. Much appreciated. I think keeping them of the lounges and other furniture altogether could be a good idea, although I suspect if we use one dog bed for them inside if Indy is on first she won't let cayenne on... but 2 will sort it out... Just to address a couple of points raised in the replies : I fully understand the reason behind this and I agree 100%. How am I to do this though if Indy is growling and cayenne is on the floor wanting to get it on... If simply push/move indy off the lounge onto the floor cayenne would get to her - that would solve the problem but not in an appropriate manor... (this is why I am thinking not letting them on the lounges is a good idea.) ETA if I sort cayenne out by putting her out and then move indy off the lounge then indies punishment wouldn't be to long from the crime... Cayenne isn't desexed because she was shown as a pup and still could be, but now I really don't see myself having time in the near future so the time has probably come to do it. Although I need to look into it further I wouldn't want to do it if it could bring about any other behavoural changes. Up until this point she has been perfectly behaved. thanks again.

Hi Everyone, I have a bit of an issue with my two dogs I would like some help with - if possible even a point in the direction of a professional who might be able to help. The dogs in question are, An 8 year old shi-zu x Maltese desexed bitch. (Indy) A 3.5 year old pure bred staffy bitch - still entire. (Cayenne) The problem is when they are around inside and around us if we are relaxing (say sitting relaxing and watching tv) and the dogs are inside, Indy will be sitting on one lounge Cayenne might be on the other or just cruising around. Then Indy will growl at Cayenne just a little growl but this will set cayenne off and she will charge toward indy - in what might be rough play or possibly not playing at all and it takes human intervention to stop it - i.e we don't let them meet to see what will happen. I don't know why Indy growls in the first place - if she senses a change in cayenne's energy or feels threatened? Sometimes cayenne will ignore her and when she does she gets rewarded right away with praise and affection, this is working somewhat. With Indy I was trying to correct her growling, if I intervene she just continue's growling, if I pick her up she growls a little more until she is in my arms properly. Any extra growling always carry's the possibility of setting cayenne off again! I am not sure what to do. Tonight Indy was on the end of the lounge I was sitting on, Cayenne came past indy growled, Cayenne looked at me I say "good girl cayenne" as she ignored, she walked a couple of steps past indy, Indy growled again and cayenned turned and went her this is the first time they have come togeher. I pulled Cayenne away and some of indy's hair came with. Indy has a small scratch on her bottom eyelid also. Now (25 mins later) they are both sleeping on the lounge with me - cayenne was up first and indy joined her later - if it happens this way (cayenne first then indy comes) there is never a problem. They also sleep out in the back verandah area and even though they have their own crates they more often than not are in one together come the morning. The only time there seems to be a problem is when indy is laying around usually near one of us and cayenne comes into the vacinity. Things I have been doing to try to help the issue. *Walking them together *rewarding cayenne for her correct behaviour (ignoring) and punishing her for incorrect - she goes outside for a couple of minutes if she arcs up. Sometimes I have moved her away and made her go into a down position and stay there until she calms down. *I tried putting indy out if she growls but this didn't appear to make it better, infact in someways worse because indy would growl when in my arms and then cay would arc up while I was holding indy. *we have made the house a quite space for the dogs - no playing and trying to correct over energetic bahaviour - thinking if we keep it calm it might help... but doesn't seem to have done much - usually the energy is calm when the growl and escalation happens... My thoughts, I have 2 things to correct I need indy to stop growling. but also I want to know cayenne is solid enough to ignore such behaviour. not sure where to go from here... bit of a long post i know, I don't want to have to only allow 1 dog in each part of the house at a time..... or worse. Since starting to write this Indy has gotten off the lounge, had a drink gotten back on sniffed in cayennes ear and gone back to sleep... IF cayenne had of got off to have a drink when she came thru the back door indy would have growled and from there who knows..... Thanks for your help and time

I think i got a broken staffy, cayenne wont even kill a tennis ball, even the half size tennis ball from when she was 8 weeks old is fine - only dammage to it was done by our other dog - shih tzu x matl.!

She's done it once now, she'll keep doing it! project possitive vibes :D

Looks about the same size as our 5.5 month old staffy, and she is around 11kg... i dont see where the 15kg is in those pics... then again maybe its the under carriage and he's just been born 'lucky'

I was about to post that myself Mel. Cayenne started having troubles in the morning going back to sleep after 5am toilet session... now i make her crate as dark as possible - whilst still allowing ventilation and she often sleeps till 6 and will then go back to bed for another hour and a half or so... So if its not covered and dark, make it so!

She is coming from the Pennyflower kennel in Junee. She's certainly not cheap, but I really wanted to make sure she was a purebred, as we live in hte inner city, and I didn't want to risk getting a dog with suspect breeding. Hi there! definitely worth paying the money for the real thing, well done! we did the same, we have a young child so we wanted to know what we were getting! as it turns out i've now started to show her, but initially our only thoughts were as a pet... As almost everyone else has said, crate train her. do some searches on crate training here and using google and you will find heaps of info. If you do it right there is not even a concern with it being remotely cruel or unfair in anyway and it will help you pup be "balanced" our pup sleeps in her crate beside our bed and she loves it! good luck with it all! and we'll see you in the stafford thread with lots and lots of photo's! we dont see many blue pups posted over there! Edited to fix the quoting

I agree with a young dog mixing it up is important or they get sick of it and it looses the motivation edge... I use sausage, just beef ones from coles, get low fat and low salt, i quarter cook em on the open grill on the bbq, cut em in half and finnish cooking them - cut them in half early so that any fat as a chance to drip away, then cut them into small pieces... Other favs are Cheese and any type of raw meet - but the little dog can't have lamb...

My 2 cents, and it is only 2... Take something with you that will distract the dog when he freaks out. When i started with my pup i always made sure I had her no 1 treats with me - which is either raw meat or cooked sausage... she got scared i put some in front of her nose to 1) distract her from what was scaring her and 2) it helps turn what ever is scary into a possitive experience for her. I will say Be carefull not to give the treat to quickly, but as soon as her focus is on the treat instead of whats scaring her give it... dont give it while shes focusing on whats scaring her - or you are saying good dog for being scared, and you don't want that! So as others have said, slow down a little, and to me really take her favorite food - or something else you know will distract her if she's not strongly motivated by food. Next time you go out, make sure you are in a state of mind where you are not worried about it, if your worried your pup will be to, be calm and in control - have a plan on what your going to do when she gets scared... look upon her getting scared as a good thing - because you get the chance to fix it... when my pup got really scared of skateboards at a skate park, i took her there with a whole heap of treats, made her sit and treated her lots, walked away walked back, treats treats treats... now she tollerates the skate park but isnt thrilled about it... ok so it turned into 10c

Welcome to the site! All my opinions below... others will probably give other advice! Me, I'm no expert, but see the below... Put a flat collar on her and the lightest lead you can get as early as possible, and start walking her around the yard... Do a search on vaccinations to decide when you feel comfortable with her being on the ground outside of your property... A light one, i have a very light material webbing lead for my staffy pup, the lighter the better IMO - I don't believe they should feel the lead unless YOU want them to. Do a search on crate training - this will best answer "what sort of bed" and being alone for 1-2 hours, it also adresses the issue of the cat, as the dog would be seperate when your not there... a crate is also a good toilet training tool, and will help to ensure you get good nights sleeps while she is young.... here is one website with info about this here You sound like you need to study up quickly before your pup comes to you... you have come to the right site - learn to use the search feature, and don't be shy to ask questions... Oh, be sure to learn how to post pictures because everyone will want to see some... HTH

Our pup was put in a crate beside the bed from the very first night we got her - even the first night she was fine, whinged a couple of times to go toilet but that was it... Now my only problem is she wants to go to the toilet at ~5am every morning and then once she's back in the crate after that she whines... so am working on a couple of things to get this sorted - feeding her later so hopefully she lasts till 6am instead of 5, we're up at 6 so thats fine anyway... good luck with her/him!

I'm still reading cesars way - but part of his method is he walks / runs dogs follow... he's going to need some training by himself... if it were me i'd get his head beside my leg start walking, as soon as his bum is beside your leg stop, wait for the lead to go slack, get him to sit move to the starting position and start again... as soon as he's doing the right thing for more that 2 steps, heaps of praise as soon as he does it wrong, stop & wait for the slack lead to come back... Just my opinion...