BrunoBella

Your plan sounds good. The other thing I have used successfully recently with my two and visitors is to enforce a space around myself and visitors using the command "Back". I would go out in the yard with a visitor and if one of my dogs came closer than 2 metres I would say "Back" and move towards them until they complied. They learnt very quickly. I don't ask them to sit or stay but just to maintain the two metre distance from visitors. You need to watch your body language and stay calm and quiet while doing this. Apparently, leaning forward makes the dogs think you're not serious. As you have four dogs you may have to teach them in groups. I also use this when unloading groceries, etc. If this doesn't work, I would put the offenders up on leads and make them sit until they are calm. If the dogs don't respect your boyfriend find him some reading on leadership. Good luck with your program and looking after everyone else's dogs

Good on you for looking at this on behalf of the dogs and not yourself . I think it's fine to leave a dog at home for 8 hours at a time as long as you provide quality time when you are there. Many people do this without problems. You could get a second dog when the pup is older if you wanted a companion. If the puppy gets lonely after she has settled in, you could adopt a 2 yo male rescue to keep your pup company. There are many options for this its just the two girls together that people have had issues with. You are obviously caring people so I believe you would make very good doggy owners.

Agree totally with SAS. This has been effective on both my dogs and is very easy to use. I have Bella on a prong collar as well - which is fantastic - but now Bruno walks beautifully on his martingale I have time to train Bella back to the Martingale. Had her first lesson yesterday and I did a few corrections and she was walking as well as she does on the prong . I had to leave bella on the prong while Bruno was in training cause I can't get my corrections timed properly when I have to concentrate on two at the same time. I must be getting old . BP

Ernie, I do agree you need some information but there are other ways to get it. I went to three lots of tuition (puppy, beginner and intermediate) and whilst I learned some basic obedience nobody could teach me how to walk my dog properly and no-one taught me how to correct my dog - which is the one thing that works beautifully for Bella. I personally would never take another dog the doggy school way. I did learn a lot from private tuition. My issue is with mulitple student dog classes where you are lucky to get 3 minutes per week of instructor time, high stress levels and lack of knowledge by the volunteers. One time I asked how to fix Bella's pulling on the lead and I was told they sold me a halti and said "You have to figure that out yourself" . I gave away the school also left the school after that. I believe dog schools are so focused on competition they forget to teach people the basics. I also believe that a person with no dog knowledge needs training but I would recommend private training. I found alternative ways to train Bella (drive training and correction) and used these immediately on Bruno. I can now solve any problems in a day or two using the information I have learned. BP ---edited to add: After a glass of wine, I thought of more stuff. A friend of mine went to dog school in Hervey Bay and they spent heaps of time teaching the dogs to walk past each other without reacting, we never did this at the school I went to.

GayleK, They did go a bit off topic so I sat and hid in the corner! I haven't found training useful except for a single one hour course a year ago. The rest did not help me and I haven't taken my second dog to training. I learned it all from books and the internet over time. I think some people on this forum have unrealistic expectations of people Mel and Chev, have you tried rope toys? That is all that survives after my two have had them. New tennis ball - death = 10 seconds. New squeaky toy - death = 45 minutes. My first rope toy which cost me $2 is still alive .

As you soon learn on this forum, there is nearly one person with every different viewpoint! Whoever sold you the pups may never have had problems with two bitches together. There's no problem with not having owned a dog before, I'm only on my second as well. Just the advice is different. You can make all this happen successfully if you are prepared to learn quickly before any problems are encountered. In my opinion, private training is the quickest. If you really want this to work, you will make it happen. I dont' know any behaviourists in your area but someone else will.

It is a very hard decision to make It seems to depend on your previous experience with dogs. Have you had any? That should help you to decide. I trust the advice of Cosmola and MarkS who are both professional dog people. Do you have access to a Dog behaviourist? If you tell us where you are someone can find you one who can do an assesment and help make this decision for you. Good luck BP -----edited for extra paras

Sounds like my two with their spinning with excitement :cool: I don't know how to stop the drool but do know how to stop the spinning which both my dogs have tried on me. At meal times I ask them to sit, I then expect them to sit calmly while I open the food container, fill their bowl, place it on the ground and then wait for the OK eat command. If they don't follow these rules I immediately take their food bowl away - out of reach and walk away. I come back 15 minutes or so later and start again. You may sometimes have to do this for quite a while. This works a treat and the next meal time they behave perfectly Labs are very food oriented so should respond to the removal of food very quickly. Good luck. BellasPerson

I would ring and ask the vet. Bella had gastro when her worming tablet was due and the vet said skip the dose till next week. I'm not sure if this would be the same with Interceptor as this includes heart worm and I don't know about the implications of skipping this one for a month.

Interesting thread! I started off training my youngest dog on a flat collar. That worked well till he got bigger and tried to challenge my leadership. I now have him on a Martingale which works wonderfully. Once bruno gets past his teenage stint I plan to try him back on a flat collar. I will not use halti's as they led to so many problems with my oldest dog. I made lots of mistakes with Bella as I had little experience. She started on a flat collar and then a halti. She hated the halti and would try and roll over to take it off on every walk. I did not like the halti because her walking never improved using it. I then tried a check chain for a week but that was horrendous. Next was the martingale which was a slight improvement but she would still choke herself rather than stop. Lastly I had private training and learned to use a prong collar which Bella and I both love and has improved her walking tremendously. I can walk her using 1 finger My problems with Bella came from inexperience so agree that training for the owner helps. The dog obedience classes I went to for a year did not help to teach me how to walk Bella. I learned that from reading this forum and from having private training. And now, Bruno has been a cinch to teach :cool: I will not use check chains cause my dogs walk beautifully most of the time but can lunge very occasionally and the check chain is too dangerous IMO. Both my dogs weight 25kgs and I walk them together so I have to have total control as they could drag me away :D .

Welcome BigDaz Don't know about SBTs but 2 females together often causes problems although some people on the forum have had this without problems. Two puppies together is a humungous job and will fill all your waking and sleeping hours for the next 6 months. You're braver than me The pups fighting is pretty normal as long as they don't draw blood. My two do it all the time and I cheer them on. Separating them for periods is good for them so they get a bit of rest. I personally don't pay any attention to which of my dogs is dominant or submissive. The only important point is that you are the pack leader. The rest is just interesting to watch but the dogs will sort it out themselves. There are lots of staffy people here who can give you specific breed tips. Have double fun

You're doing a fantastic job coco The suggestionn to take him to the toilet is a good one. You may need to wait a while quietly for them to pee or poo. My dogs take about 1-2 mins to pee and 5 mins to poo. Try to be quiet when you want him to go to the toilet and don't let him play. Have fun BellasPerson

I knew you weren't new to dogs! I have become a convert to drive training and am learning as fast as I can. I started on positive training and socialising in dog parks and ended up being pulled down the street by Bella on a Halti and despairing of ever being able to get any better and Bella ended up with fear agression. Now I've headed down the direction of drive training, correction and learning about pack behaviour everything is fantastic and my new dog has no problems that aren't simple to fix. I think it might take me another 40 years to learn all there is to know about living with dogs . BP

Was I confusing - how unusual It sounds like what my dogs would like. Where do you do this? At a dog club of some sort or at your place? My two don't have perfect recall yet so have to wait for my remote trainer. Christmas mail is delaying it. Thank you BP

Squeak, I agree it is a long hard road. I have only owned dogs for four years and it took me the first 18 months to get any idea of what I believed in and what worked for me. I got some one on one coaching and have now leapt ahead in leaps and bounds. I continuously review my technique cause it's really easy to fall back into bad habits. I find that it doesn't take me very long to implement new rules and get the dogs to follow them. When I was using positive based training only (what I was originally taught) training took so long that I could never see any progress. With the right mix of positives and negatives this has changed dramatically. I only learnt about space a few months ago and it is such a great tool. I am now very strong on keeping my space as well and move towards the dogs if they misbehave. I also use this to keep them from jumping on visitors and to stop them from barking at people walking past. I have never known how to do this before. Love all your posts MarkS. Are you new? BP

How old is murphy? The jumping and latching is him trying to tell you he's boss. Bella used to tell me this as well and it took a lot of brainpower to figure out how to stop this. Sounds to me Murphy is trying to assert his position in the pack above you! I would initially try to block the jumping and stop him from getting to your elbow! I have recently started using a technique someone else suggested of grabbing the dog by the collar and growling at them loudly. This is working really well for Bella (Bruno is much easier to correct). As he is trying to assert his position in the pack I would be inclined to remove him from the pack in a crate or similar object. I would ignore the dog for at least half an hour after a mouthhing offence. You need to work on your pack leadership - see triangle of temptation and the NILIF - nothing in life is free program. I would set up a list of rules for behaviours you don't like and the punishments for these. This will help with your leadrship. As an example, mouthing gets 30 minutes in the sin bin. Jumping gets blocked or growled at. Another usefull punishment is to walk inside and slam the door (learned that one from a book). I carry out all punishments in a calm state, eg, calmly grab offender by collar, put them in the crate, close the door and keep quiet. I occassionally have problems with Bella laying her paws on me when I'm patting Bruno. I deliberately swap the order of who gets patted first and second and try to give affection equally. If Bella complains, she gets time out in her crate. This doesn't happen very often but you only have to let them get away with it once and it can become a bigger problem. Good luck with sorting this out

Welcome to the forum Jim. With a biting puppy I would either: turn your back, stand still and ignore him. As soon as he is quiet and relaxed, turn back and reward him. or separate him from the pack when he's rowdy by using a crate/laundry - particularly as he's going after your feet which is painfull. I would leave him locked up without looking at him or talking to him. Whereever you put him should be small enough that he has no room to keep up the mischief. Let him out only when he's calm and give him a huge reward. You may need to repeat this many times the first day but they soon get the hang of it. This has worked wonders for mine - both mine started off as Psycho Puppies and are now fantastic dogs. You may have tried these things before - they certainly work for me. I agree with a previous post of keeping them separated when you're not there. Also agree the puppy being taken from it's parents at less than 8 weeks old often have problems with behaviour. I have Gsps, not Staffy's and I'm sure one of the Staffy people will be able to help you further. Good luck and enjoy the forum BellasPerson

With the jumping on the glass door, it would be easier to get her to sit instead of just telling her no. This stops her from jumping and calms her down as well. I got my dogs to stop jumping on the door by asking for a sit. If they didn't sit I would go back outside and make them sit. Then back inside again and repeat the entire procedure. It took 15-20 minutes to get inside once but they have never jumped on the windows again. On the other hand, if she runs around barking outside while you're inside I would deliberately ignore her, no eye contact, no talking. Otherwise she will teach you to come outside when she barks. The submit must be an understanding difference. If you are getting her to do a drop/stay or sit/stay for pats that is perfect :rolleyes: . Do you get her to roll over as well? I hope you find something that works for you

I agree with the other posters that alpha rolls don't help. Until you get some training I would suggest you decide what the rules are (no barking at you), then reward good behaviour and ignore bad behaviour. There are other methods you can use to correct your dogs but you need some training first to work out what is best for your dogs so I would stop all punishment until you understand what you should be doing. SAS's book suggestion sounds fantastic. Ignoring barking does not tell them that what they're doing is OK. Ignoring bad behaviour by not paying attention to your puppy is using their pack instinct to train them. Dogs want to be with their packs (you) so not allowing them to do this is a much smarter way of training your dog. Y You do not want your puppies to be fearfull so please stick to positive rewards until you have been to training. Good luck :rolleyes: BP

Drive training will definitely help with focus. Bella will focus on me completely when I'm doing these exercises. I have resorted to cheating on the recall - currently not possible with both my dogs under distraction but good without - and am buying a remote training device for both my two along with Steve's training course for this. You will be amazed at the results from a little bit of work. BP

No problems. I felt the same way about dog parks and still walk around the outside of them watching the people socialise but I only have to look at the difference between Bella and Bruno to know I have made the right choice . You can still play with other dogs but it should be with trustworthy dogs. You can also get more dogs yourself and start your own dog park in your backyard Have fun bp

Here's the thread on socialisation .... Socialisation

Getting K9d is a fantastic idea. I have done this myself twice now and I cannot tell you how much I have learned from that and from talking to others on the forum. In the meantime, I know what Steve will tell you to do - keep away from offlead parks until you get this sorted out. You don't want something bad to happen in the meantime and one of the things I learned is that dogs don't need to go to dog parks ever. There is a fantastic old thread called "Socialisation" or something like that. Have a read of that and you will see what the problems are. It's really easy to fix these problems but you need a professional advisor if you don't already know how to do it (like me with Bella). My second dog has never been to a dog park and he has no issues with any dogs or people. Bella went to lots of dog parks and is fearful of many dogs as she was bitten numerous times. Hope I got that all right. One of the trainers will correct me if the champagne has dulled parts of my brain Good luck bp

I did train my dogs in a lake rather than a pool and we just walked along the edge in gradually deeper water, giving praise and treats. The pool must look scarier and they wouldn't be able to stand up. Training anything is easier if you break it up in baby-steps. Eg, walk into the water and straight out again without swimming. You could float your thongs on top of the water Have fun..

I don't really have Vizslas but I've been assured they are the same as GSPs. I might try something in the field as they love their hunting and would really enjoy that.