Hello
I have recently adopted a 3 year old staffordshire bull terrier and I don't know much about his history. I walked him on the local beach yesterday and he is very keen to meet other people and dogs (pulling & wagging his tail) but I am unsure of his socialisation with other dogs. The closest I let him near a dog on the walk was their noses an inch apart. Would he have shown aggregation at that point? How do I test him further?
Many thanks
Alice
Rescue Staffy
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Rescue Staffy
IMO don't 'test' him at all.
Staffords love people. They don't as a rule like other dogs even slightly.
Be your stafford's best friend, and find lots of your friends to be his friends too. Don't expect him to enjoy or be nice to other dogs. The best you could ever expect would be that he ignores other dogs, but their keen nature is not to ignore anything if it has the potential to excite. Nose to nose is very exciting, and not in a nice way.
Kudos to you for being careful.
Staffords love people. They don't as a rule like other dogs even slightly.
Be your stafford's best friend, and find lots of your friends to be his friends too. Don't expect him to enjoy or be nice to other dogs. The best you could ever expect would be that he ignores other dogs, but their keen nature is not to ignore anything if it has the potential to excite. Nose to nose is very exciting, and not in a nice way.
Kudos to you for being careful.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog
SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
Re: Rescue Staffy
I've known some staffords that do have dog friends...
I know far more who don't though, and many who whilst well intentioned are actually little thugs and bullies who get kicks out of playing VERY much harder than the other dog likes and have no real ability to understand they are hurting the other dog or behaving in a way the other dog isn't happy about.
As Nettle says - be your dogs best friend, be the one that enables all the fun, be super interesting and engaging and manage your dog so that he eventually has the skills to be calm and collected around other dogs (on lead, at a sensible distance), so that he responds well to you when on a longline and harness at a distance, so that he can be familiarised with other dogs that he can walk with but NOT actually greet or play with (but can parallel walk, can follow behind and sniff where they've been)..
When you have that level of relationship and control, thats when its possible to allow your dog to meet other dogs, dogs he already knows by sight and smell and actually has little to no desire to PLAY with (because staffies do tend to play WITH the other dog as if the other dog were the toy!) and you can recall him before any interaction goes too far.
YOu may never achieve that level of calmness and control - but if you DON'T, you still have a dog who can be on a long line, be in sight of other dogs and stay calm and cool and has a fulfilling life with you.
If you had expectations of a dog that you could walk entirely off lead and he could meet strange dogs and gambol playfully with them with no risk of a fight - sorry to burst that bubble, in all honesty though, that is an unrealistic expectation of ANY dog at all and the sooner folk realise that the better off alld ogs would be!
No dog actually needs other dogs - dogs are dogs, and not wolves, because they are evolved to need US and interaction with us, over and above their own species.
Dogs that are denied any access at all to other dogs will actually not suffer as long as they have human companionship and interaction... the reverse however is not true, dogs that are denied access to humans, even if they have other dogs, will almost always suffer for that.
I know far more who don't though, and many who whilst well intentioned are actually little thugs and bullies who get kicks out of playing VERY much harder than the other dog likes and have no real ability to understand they are hurting the other dog or behaving in a way the other dog isn't happy about.
As Nettle says - be your dogs best friend, be the one that enables all the fun, be super interesting and engaging and manage your dog so that he eventually has the skills to be calm and collected around other dogs (on lead, at a sensible distance), so that he responds well to you when on a longline and harness at a distance, so that he can be familiarised with other dogs that he can walk with but NOT actually greet or play with (but can parallel walk, can follow behind and sniff where they've been)..
When you have that level of relationship and control, thats when its possible to allow your dog to meet other dogs, dogs he already knows by sight and smell and actually has little to no desire to PLAY with (because staffies do tend to play WITH the other dog as if the other dog were the toy!) and you can recall him before any interaction goes too far.
YOu may never achieve that level of calmness and control - but if you DON'T, you still have a dog who can be on a long line, be in sight of other dogs and stay calm and cool and has a fulfilling life with you.
If you had expectations of a dog that you could walk entirely off lead and he could meet strange dogs and gambol playfully with them with no risk of a fight - sorry to burst that bubble, in all honesty though, that is an unrealistic expectation of ANY dog at all and the sooner folk realise that the better off alld ogs would be!
No dog actually needs other dogs - dogs are dogs, and not wolves, because they are evolved to need US and interaction with us, over and above their own species.
Dogs that are denied any access at all to other dogs will actually not suffer as long as they have human companionship and interaction... the reverse however is not true, dogs that are denied access to humans, even if they have other dogs, will almost always suffer for that.
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
