Help, with my staffies excitable jumping up etc

wizard3891

Hi everyone,

We have a little staffie girl who is 2 in January. We rescued her from my wifes colleague at work as he could no longer have her - he would keep her in a cage all day 9 - 5 and she had already been to a few other homes, this was when she was 7 months old. She has only one eye - as far as we know her mum turned on her when very little. Shes a lovely dog and doesn't have a nasty bone in her body.

Our problem is her behaviour - mainly jumping up when shes excited to see us and when shes in a strop.- occasionally nipping and she has ripped one or two of my t shirts doing this.

How can we calm her down a little? Ive heard about clicker training - how does this work? also would doggie classes be any help and where can I go for these?

Thanks for any advice

UKTigerlily

What do you do when she jumps up? Do you tell her no or push her off? I think if so that this gives her attention & whether good or bad she won't care. Have you tried turning away & totally ignoring her? Or calmly putting her in another room? She should soon learn that jumping up results in no attention or being given time out & she won't enjoy that being a Staff so may then learn to be calm, of course always reward any calm behaviour & greetings!

ETA A google search for training in your area of the yellow pages will bring up training classes & yep, these are always a good idea. If she nips then make a noise & turn away, if she nipped her Mum or siblings they'd squeal & she'd learn that's too hard.

hethmar

Oh yes, you definitely need some training here. You dont want her to jump up and nip someone and get branded a "devil dog" and the consequences of that. Poor staffs. Ring your vet and ask for training classes she could go to - there are probably several in your area. On top of that, have you got her insured? Do so, asap.

Get yourself a good dog training book, Perfect Puppy - you can get it on amazon is most peoples choice. Do you ever watch Cesar Milan on tv? Im sure he would tell you to keep calm to pass your calmness to the dog. I mean, do you and the family go mad when you meet the dog - if you act excited then she will copy you. Do you make her jump/beg for tip bits? If so, she is probably thinking its a good thing to do. Cesar would also say as Lily has to ignore her when she behaves badly and give her a treat when she does as she is told.

Please sort this out quickly for her sake, bless her.

Good luck

wizard3891

Thanks, yes she has been insured by us from the day we got her. Ive just purchased a clicker pack and book off amazon so hope to get her into some basic training at home and will look into some classes for her. She really is a lovely dog and I hate the bad publicity staffs get. Ive met so many very friendly staffs and firmly believe in the fact that its bad owners and not bad dogs.

~Chameleon~

wizard3891 wrote: »

Thanks, yes she has been insured by us from the day we got her. Ive just purchased a clicker pack and book off amazon so hope to get her into some basic training at home and will look into some classes for her. She really is a lovely dog and I hate the bad publicity staffs get. Ive met so many very friendly staffs and firmly believe in the fact that its bad owners and not bad dogs.

She's very lucky to have found you after her poor start to life!

You are adopting the right attitude which is great and I think with the help of a trainer, whether that's one-on-one or in a class, she will come on in leaps and bounds.

The APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) is the best place to find a qualified and accredited trainer, and you can find a list of local trainers here ...

elsien

Just one word of warning - the turning the back thing doesn't work if they carry on nipping, as it bloomin' hurts and is very hard to ignore.

My BT does the same - never managed to train her out of it completely, possibly because I didn't go down the professional help route, but I have managed to teach her to grab her toy when she gets excited, so we can have a play. She still boings around like a mad thing, but can't nip with a bone firmly wedged in her gob!
She gets reinforced for grabbing the toy because people play with her. If she's nipping because she's trying it on as opposed to just being over-excited she gets a firm no, and and redirected to her toy. If she carries on, she goes out of the room for doggy time out. Works for us.

Raksha

If a dog is doing something you don't like - teach them to do something you do like. For jumping up dogs, the obvious one is 'sit'..........

sarabe

Agree with Raksha. When a dog is sitting she's not jumping up.

Ignoring a dog is a wasted opportunity to teach them what you do want.

Clicker training will be great for this.

Make sure though that she has an outlet for all of that energy that she has by playing fetch or tug with her.

C_Mababejive

Staffies...ugly Brutes.

elfen

Mum had this with her new dog, again from an owner who didn't have the time. She was supposedly hyperactive, now she's settled down she's the world's laziest dog (spent a weekend up there, she didn't leave me alone and she slept on my legs) Maybe she needs to settle too, as well as get some training, like all of use she probably feels put out at being left alone then moved, so she's trying to make sure you notice her? Mum always made sure she got herself and the shopping/Dad in first, got sorted, THEN greeted the dog, letting them know where they are in the pack. Soon settled our GSD down....although she did put her head on leg and dribble down it

foreign_correspondent

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Staffies...ugly Brutes.

Why not put your picture up so we can critique you?