Need Advice On Staffy Male Littermates

[Aidan]

You shall all be happy to know that I've let go of my determined spirit long enough to truly consider things (rationally) and decided to forgo the puppies.

Awesome! Good news for everyone, especially the pups.

You gave a couple of links to articles, I agreed with lots of things they had to say. Some of it was overly-simplified and I cannot imagine this approach giving the best outcome if they are hard and fast rules but my area of expertise is not puppies.

[FD26]

You shall all be happy to know that I've let go of my determined spirit long enough to truly consider things (rationally) and decided to forgo the puppies.

Awesome! Good news for everyone, especially the pups.

You gave a couple of links to articles, I agreed with lots of things they had to say. Some of it was overly-simplified and I cannot imagine this approach giving the best outcome if they are hard and fast rules but my area of expertise is not puppies.

I'll be back bugging you for more training advice soon! Although this guy will be going to obedience school, so hopefully we'll pick up a lot there. My biggest problem with training is convincing my partner that he needs some help with it. Our last pup responded really well to my commands, but when my partner would tell him something he would just sort of look at him confused. So, we need to sort out how to work as a team I think. I'm not sure if some of it's because I'm home more often, or if it's just that he's not too good at sticking to the same words/tones...I think he sees his dogs more like people lol.

With my previous dogs, the main focus was always on getting them socialised because they were breeds that had a bad wrap and needed a lot of attention in those areas. I never tried to get them to do "tricks" or whatnot because honestly, they just didn't seem interested, and I suppose I wasn't either. But, with staffies I feel like we can get a lot more out of the pup, so I'm hoping to expand my skills there.

[Aidan]

My biggest problem with training is convincing my partner that he needs some help with it. Our last pup responded really well to my commands, but when my partner would tell him something he would just sort of look at him confused.

That's not uncommon, it's more to do with what the pup is conditioned to respond to. Behaviour works like this:

Antecedents > Behaviour > Consequence

We dig the furrows amongst this complex web of pathways in the brain by repetition of A>B>C. You become a large part of that "A", if your husband isn't there giving the cues while pup is being trained then he isn't an "A".

[luvsdogs]

I started reading this thread this morning with trepidation. I knew someone once who had a 4 y/o border collie & added a 1 y/o bc X to her family. Both females & desexed. They didn't hit it off & she enclosed her patio with pool fencing to separate them while at work. When she came home one day the fence was bent in places & there was blood all over the patio. The dogs had minor injuries but things never got any better & she had the younger dog put down. This was only one incident with the 2 dogs b4 she made that decision.

I'm so glad to hear you're now only getting one pup. You can pay all your attention to him & have the joys of training & teaching him how to be the best dog for your family. I love puppies but they do get up to a lot of mischief. Find a good positive puppy pre school, find friends with friendly vaccinated dogs for you to socialise him with & join an obedience club to further his & your education.

[becandcharch]

You shall all be happy to know that I've let go of my determined spirit long enough to truly consider things (rationally) and decided to forgo the puppies. I think the main two things that prevented me from getting these puppies were that a) I've started questioning the breeder after all was said..it's hard to write her off as just naive, and b) we lost our last staffy in an attack (so it's been very painful to hear all of your stories, btw), and my heart breaks at the idea of getting ourselves into any sort of risk with our next baby(s). It didn't feel right to get just one of these dogs..so we've decided on a new breeder entirely.

I hope I can enjoy the rest of my time on this forum after getting off to a rough start. I've truly fallen in love with staffies and want to learn as much about them as I possibly can, and I do hope this will be a good resource for that.

Hey good for you!! All the best with your new pup and you MUST post photos!

[GotAnyBlacker]

I've read heaps of it already! (Been lurking for awhile now). It's been really tricky to find a good breeder though. You think you're asking all the right questions, and then something comes up...or you just get "that feeling". It doesn't help that being in NT we have to look interstate. Not to mention there seems to be a lot of conflicting info around about staffies lol.

Edited to add: We've found a breeder though, and I'm smitten with her. She seemed to have all the right answers AND ask all the right questions. So, we're now expecting our (one) pup in the beginning of March.

You've made a very unselfish decision and I hope everything goes well with your new addition!

I've seen two staffords who have grown up together of a close age suddenly decide one day they hated each other. One was my youngest girl and the other was my parents girl at around 2 years of age just decided they wanted to tear each others heads off one day. They can't be anywhere near each other ever since (not really relevant but I just wanted to share my experience)

Make sure you come back and post lots of photo's of your new pup and come and join the Stafford thread

Edited January 22, 2010 by GotAnyBlacker

[SoL]

Well done! Good decision