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I believe there is a medical implant that can be used by a vet to chemically steralise the dog. I think breeders use them when they want to give the dog a break but still breed with them later. You'd probably need to talk to your vet though as I don't know all that much about them.

Mine was but in short bursts. He tended to go from 100 miles an hour for half an hour or so and then collapse panting on the tiles for a couple of hours. When swimming half an hour of swimming and playing at the beach led to comatose puppy on the way home and he'd be sleeping and lolling around for a good 24 hours. Half an hour in the dog park did the same thing

my dog had a very high value for shoes! you don't want to know how many I lost before I found this trick. In the meantime you could remove access to the teddy bear while he's learning. This will protect the bear (or in my case shoes) until he's trained to leave on command, it should also not make the association between the bear and fun/reward even stronger in the meantime. We extended it to food, cat poop, cat trays, tiny kittens, bones, shoes, bbq covers, bbq hoses and other dogs/people/mess on the ground while outside. Hope it helps you. Good luck!

The method I have used and been successful with starts off independent of the object itself. This is done by holding treats in both hands in front of your dog. Open one hand with a treat and when your dog goes to sniff it close your hand and say 'leave it'. When he/she removes his nose reopen your hand and say 'leave it'. You might have to repeat this 30 or so times until the dog loses interest in your hand so be patient. The instant the dog does not sniff your open hand open the other hand and say 'yes'/use a clicker etc and allow the dog to have the treat in your open hand. Replace the treat and repeat until he/she consistently leaves the open hand alone. Then start varying which hand is used to leave it. Keep repeating this and increasing the time until reward that the dog has to leave it. Eventually he will hold indefinately. You can then extend this to anything, shoes, dogs, etc. Leave it means back off and wait for a treat

It got so bad my dog could pull me over and I couldn't walk him anymore. We'd tried everything and someone put me on to the sensible harness. I put it on my dog and within 2 minutes he was walking with almost no pulling weaving in and out of crates in a drive through. I love it so much we have a back up set in case something happens to one. Can't recommend it enough :)

Normally I wouldn't consider 15 degrees unmanageable either but add the wind here and it feels like it's bordering on zero. Who knows what will happen if it starts snowing. I'll try the earlier suggestion to decrease the size of the space

Hi all Now we're back to dogs, I have a question (I said I would :) ) I have never lived in an area that gets so cold during the day. My staffies sleep inside at night so there’s no problem there due to the central heating. However, during the day I let them outside for two reasons, both playing and toileting purposes. They are outside from just before 9 until 5:15 and are inside the rest of the time. Their outside beds are in a totally enclosed verandah with wooden floors and sliding glass doors all around. They have beds in the enclosed area but it can still get quite cold in there even though they’re out of the wind and rain. On clear days they lay in the sun behind the glass and they’re ok. But on overcast days they struggle. I can’t really heat the area as there is a partially open door and small gaps between all the floorboards. My dogs already have the warmest dog coats I’ve found and happily coped with 15degree days at home but they are already feeling the cold and it’s early March. I’ve seen some dog shoes that are advertised in America. Has anyone used these or know about any other winter gear that might help. They’ve already got trampoline beds, pillows a, blankets and kennels. I have also seen dog electric blankets but I’m a bit worried about whether or not the dogs will chew through the cords .

Dear Rebanne Yes I did reply. You will notice that they were quite short as I sent them from my phone. It took me nearly 5 hours to write that long response attempting to clear everything up for two reasons. Firstly, I had to do it between meetings and phone calls. Secondly it took me a while to make sure it was an appropriate response and not really really angry. This is a public, australia wide forum and I don't know you either or your credentials. Frankly I don't care either. If someone offers me a suggestion I take it on face value regardless of who they are and consider whether it will apply well to the dog in question. If someone doesn't want to try something I've written they're perfectly free not to I hope this clears everything up because I'm tired of talking about it. I am still happy to talk about dogs if anyone cares to.

1. I was not saying you specifically were not polite but others weren't. 2. Just because I have time to check an entry on my phone doesn't mean I have time to sit in front of a computer and write a response. 3.I think stating that i have had staffies for years and been involved in a different forum and that i am willing to help with suggestions is quite clear. I never claimed anything else. 4. In regards to the breed being under threat..did I not state my concerns regarding staffies in poor care here? I see them walked badly, isolated and miserable every day. 5. Perhaps you didn't read the entire thread that stated my position? However, I have made my position absolutely crystal clear for anyone to see. If someone wants to chat I'm happy to. Otherwise please see my previous email.

Thanks Bite me and Persephone You don't need qualifications to have an opinion particularly as I was quite clear regarding my intentions If you read the thread I was quite clear that I was just offering a helping hand. I was also quite clear that I was offering suggestions. The comment about puppies not understanding a changing rule has been misinterpreted, I was trying to say that dogs can get confused if you change the rules. The comment about dominance is also misinterpreted. Yes, some dogs aren't, however, some dogs have greater tendency that others to want to be in charge (in my opinion) Possibly you should look at some of the other posts, for example the one stating that aversion collars (such as citronella) are the only way to go? Did you not disagree with that? I didn't agree... but he/she's entitled to their opinon. I also thought the other long post in response to barking outside was also very useful. It had ideas that I hadn't thought of but that doesn't mean she's wrong and her suggestions may work better in one dog than another, just as mine might And the reason there was a delay in responding to your emails is that....I have a job My opinion is that every dog is different and other peoples ideas might be something the owner hasn't thought of. There's still the odd thing every few years that i might of heard of but haven't experienced first hand and would like to discuss with someone And what concerns me most at the moment is the number of Staffies picked up in ACT that are untrained, lonely, not desexed, vaccinated or microchipped that have wandered away looking for a better home or their owners give up and surrender them. Perhaps if their owners had been able to get some friendly suggestions some wouldn't have ended up that way. My dogs sleep inside, sleep on the couch etc etc but how you think you can force someone to sleep a dog inside by berating them for asking for help on a forum is beyond me. I would have been lost with my first staffy without the input of not one but two trainers and creative ideas from the local forum and dog park. No one person had all the answers. I now know why we had a local forum and didn't use this one. If you disagree with me, fine, say so and explain why so whoever is looking for help can make up their own mind. but please do everyone a favour and read the post thoroughly first and keep it polite.

Hey there. I still think the owner of the dog is in the best position to judge what factors are contributing. Suggestions are that, suggestions

Hi. Sorry if my wording on Friday was confusing. (end of the week and all that) What I meant was that if you have a Staffy who already has a tendency to need to be clearly shown who is in charge (e.g. dominant tendencies), as many Staffies do, allowing them to sleep on the bed with you can cause confusion for the dog.

Hey there. Whilst some staffies it's not a problem, in this case, the dog isn't respecting the boundaries and is still getting up at night. Other than teaching her/him that the bed is not for nap time at night I've had little success with staffies that feel they are dominant and should sleep there without a clear rule for them. I think the owner of the dog is in the best position to judge whether the dog feels this or not. Don't get me wrong, I love having my staffy on my bed however, up until six months ago it wasn't possible for a few reasons. 1) as a young dog he didn't get the 'sometimes it's ok and sometimes its not". Also, we went through a period where he was constantly covered in mud (obviously not a good idea on the bed.) Then when my current staffy got to full size, two people (one over six foot) and a big dog simply did not fit on the bed. Going back to the original problem I still would recommend that one of the first things to check is whether the dog is cold. Try a nice warm dog coat and make sure the bed is warm, comfortable and out of cold breezes. I would suggest testing this with his bed back in your room. I've been outside at night and been so cold your joints are painful and it feels like the night is never going to end. I would howl, jump, and climb under a quilt and ignore all training too!

They're very different dogs to staffies but I still think it would be worth trying option 5 and 6 and breaking up their play every 5 minutes or so :)

ooooh gross. i've tried all that. unfortunately when she's home alone (or decides it's been too long and I'm starting to trust her) she slips again. i'll persist. thanks for the explanation guys. it's helped to clarify what i'm aiming for. i'll persist with training and sharp eyed surveillance and train my dog not to touch the stuff.

he's a good boy. i love the leave it command. best thing i ever learnt (to teach him) i'll just have to find the poop before he does. does anyone know why cat poop is apparently so attractive to dogs?

believe me i'm trying. i've never met a more stubborn cat

good point. might have to retrain. bugger

Well I trained him to stay away from the tray so he doesn't touch that. But I have a kitten that I think was taken away from her mum a bit early and she persists in having accidents. He finds them before I can even grab him. He's never shown any tendency to eat it before now even with kitten accidents.

Hi My adult dog (3 and a half years) has just decided to start eating cat poop. does anyone have any idea why this would happen? or better yet how to stop it?

We were successful in more than one case and I haven't used a collar like you're suggesting. Anyway , I hope the person with the puppy has found some useful suggestions to help the situation

and by the way...who mentioned using an aversive collar?

I don't think sleeping your dog in a comfortable area, removing them from busy areas, where they are unlikely to sleep well anyway and sleeping a dog in the laundray (if possible), rewarding desired behaviour and using a natural pheremone that happy dogs emit anyway are bad measures. I think they're all good ideas. What i learnt from my staffies is that what works for one may not work for another.

Good morning Staffies tend to start noticing potential threats from outside your property around this time (in my experience anyway). To some degree she will settle down when she learns which ones are significant and which ones aren't. I can only speak from personal experience here so there may be a better way but what we did was get up and acknowledge the barking when it was something you would be concerned about (shouting in the street, loud odd noises, etc) check it out and then get her back on her bed/in her kennel. We ignored everything else and it took a bit of patience. I would also have a look at where she's laying. Moving her to the back of your property away from street noises, facing her kennel to a quiet area I also use a DAP spray which is a pheramone that calms dogs down. Unfortunately the most effective method is via an airwick type preparation for inside but they have recently released a spray that can be sprayed on her kennel or bedding. hope this helps

how old is your puppy? is it male or female? where does he sleep?