Wobbly

When is this? I would be very interested in coming. Steve won't believe it's the same dog he's met before! XD To the OP: I saw Steve K9pro for a behavioural consult, and one of my (many) issues was exactly the same problem you have - way too much high value placed on interacting with other dogs. I found his advice to be really great & really effective. I wouldn't attempt to pass on the whole of his advice here, due to the risk of a "Chinese whispers" effect potentially subverting important points and also my dogs needs will be different to yours. Basically for us it involved - dog learns that displaying excessive excitement around other dogs ends a walk - we go home. There's a lot more to it than just ending the walk, but your situation may be different to mine so you'd be better to get the information straight from a good behaviourist in regards to your specific dog. The advice he gave to us in respect to my dog placing far too high an value on other dogs would actually be very suitable for sorting out out via distance learning & correspondence if you can't get there in person. As far as I can see no similar approach has been covered at all in the thread so far... Just follow the link in Huski's sig and shoot them an email would be my advice.

O wow, you're going to have 2 staffys going through adolesence at the same time. :laugh: Two small, hairy tornados in the house at once. Your furniture and household contents will never be the same again. You can have nice things again once they get to about age 2, with a bit of luck.

I think I've accepted the fact that I am something of a criminal because my dog has no pedigree papers to say her broad head is acceptable under law. I've in large part come to this conclusion because of DOL. So many Pit Bull haters even amongst professed dog lovers the forum caters to. So many people here whose ideas on Pit Bull behaviour are coloured by media hysteria (people who you would think should really know better). If that's the response here, I don't see much hope for us at all in the wider community. The simple fact that Pit Bulls are dogs, no more dangerous than any other of equivalent size and strength seems anathema to the community at large. We will continue to be marginalised and denied full membership to the dog owning mainstream, and I guess it's something we have just live with and work around as best we can. I'd love to think that people would read intelligent discourse on the subject like Crosby's blog and be educated. But as in Galileo's day, the majority of people will brook no deviation from their misconceptions, no matter the evidence available, and any of us heretics who dare challenge the orthodox view will be treated as criminals. It's amazing to me that the simple act of owning a dog with a broad head and very short fur makes me a civil dissident, but I don't have a choice in the matter.

Wow, thanks for the link Aphra. Crosby is my new hero. Am slowly working through reading every single post on his blog.

My dog had obviously never been in house before I got her. Watching her fist encounter with various household objects was often pretty comical. Defintiely some milestones in a dog's life worth being present for. "ZOMG Mirror dog smells like glass, and disappears when I run round behind said mirror for further investigations." "Carpet is no good for burying pigs ears, I just can't seem to get a good hole going no matter how persistent I am with it. Couch cushions however, provide fantastic spots for burying treasure." Convincing her that the vacuum cleaner is not a prey item made vacuuming fairly onerous for a while there. I had to stop moving the vacuum cleaner every time she tried to pounce on it till she finally realised that this particular beast is no fun to play with at all. I think of all the things the surround sound TV speakers blew her mind most. That furrowed brow and quizzical head tilting from one side to the other was just too cute. There are some really appealing upsides to an outside dog's first introduction to an indoor life. XD

Haha similar to me, although i did have dogs when I was a kid growing up and into my adolescence, I hadn't owned a dog during my adulthood. I went to the pound and picked the cutest one. I didn't know what an American Staffordshire was, I think I had a vague notion that it was a cross breed like a staffy version of an oodle or something. OFC once I chose her at the pound I went home and googled Am Staffs for the next few days while I was waiting for the pound to desex her. I remember my first post on DOL - it was while I was waiting for her to be desexed and it was entitled something like "Help me socialise my new Amstaff" XD So glad I found this forum, I think it would have been much more difficult for me in every way - from feeding, to NILIF, to general dog owning etiquette and responsibilities as a dog owner if I hadn't. I made the right choice despite myself though, the other dog at the pound I was attracted to was a Husky, he was absolutely beautiful. I had no appreciation for how ill prepared I would be for such a self willed and independent breed as a husky at the time. An Amstaff is a far easier proposition for a dog n00b than a husky I think. The idea of dog aggression seems to freak people out, but I think people have the wrong idea, they think of it as similar to fear aggression or something. I don't think I could manage a fear aggressive dog, and people who can manage a fear aggressive dog safely have my respect and admiration. But bully breed dog aggression is completely different, the dog isn't fearful or panicky around other dogs. They aren't scared at all, so they're not reactive and with good socialisation and management you'll never see any expression of that dog aggression. For mine the trigger is highly excited play with other dogs, which is a very simple thing to avoid - keep a leash on her in public and keep her well contained at home so she can't escape and wander - simple things every dog owner should be doing regardless of breed anyway. Not difficult for someone willing to put in a bit of effort to be halfway responsible about dog ownership. I would recommend a novice Am Staff owner have a consult with a behaviourist or reputable trainer just to learn the ropes there, I did that, and I think it was very important for me. I know my dog has that predisposition to dog aggression, but everyone we walk past on the beach or on the street sees a dog who greets other dogs politely, there's no sign of dog aggression since I had that consult and there never will be. Off leash at a dog park is totally out of the question though.

Human was my first thought too (after I thought of JulesLovesCavs biscuit stealing ghost). It is a bit possumlike, they are scary sounding animals, but that sounds so clear, like it's in the house. So weird, and very unsettling. I'm glad you've got the dogs there for comfort. Is anything in the house disturbed at all? What a truly bizarre thing to do if they just stuck their heads through the doggy door and growled. I hope it doesn't upset Daisy too much, last thing she needs is people being deliberately scary. :/

I'd go for an Amstaff, but I am unashamedly biased. I would think the Amstaff probably needs a fair bit more in the way of exercise and management, they're very high energy dogs. Dog aggression is a factor you will have to consider with an Amstaff. If you haven't dealt with that before, my advice would be to get some training and advice from a reputable trainer, so you know how to head off any potential problems with appropriate socialisation from the start. Dog park is a bad idea with an Amstaff, I know plenty of people take them there, but it's really not a good idea IMO. They can be fine with other dogs given good socialisation, but letting them run around off lead in a high excitement environment with strange dogs is asking for trouble. I do take mine to the dog park every so often, but she stays on leash. Here's links to the DOL Staffy & Amstaffy threads. Some good breeders to consider in the Amstaffy thread, hard to pick the best, I keep changing my mind every time someone posts new photos. I would say it's probably the same in the staffy thread. I've linked you to the most recent pages so you get the most recent conversation and breeders' pics. Staffy thread: http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/50264-stafford-fans/page__st__23985 Amstaff thread: http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/75473-amstaff-pics/page__st__3990

It's funny Kavik, I think we are both trying to subvert our dog's natural instinct AND our own years of conditioning. For a bully breed like Jarrah, breeders were entirely focussed on a dog that holds on and never, ever gives up. I have cemented that with years of playing without a successful out, and just now I am trying to change it up on her, derp. Actually she hasn't even realised I'm changing the rules (shows how effective my attempts are) For a stock dog like a Kelpie, breeders would have been very focussed on producing a dog that wouldn't hold onto sheep, a motivational nip or two maybe, but certainly never the hold & shake behaviour of a tuggy dog, that'd be the last thing you'd want in a sheep dog I'd think. We've both got a bit of an uphill battle. XD I hope we can do it despite the odds (I bet we probably can, though I am going to need some professional help I think).

O that's upsetting behaviour, I couldn't even watch the vids, too heartbreaking for me to see. Makes you wonder what the poor little girl has been through for it to have affected her so deeply. Perhaps you could check the training subforum, the behaviourist and knowledgeable people who might be able to help you spend more time reading over there than in this section I think. I have no advice, stuff like that is way beyond my scope of experience, I just wanted to say good on you for helping her and give you best wishes in finding her some peace of mind to enable her to stop the self harming behaviours.

Wow I might try this. The pooch needs a change in exercise type, I think she may getting a little too old for some of the more hardcore running around I ask from her. She has had 2 injuries in the last few months that I would put down to likely being due to her exercise being too hell for leather, gentle jogs would be easier on her. I cant even imagine myself fit though, it's been so long - my dog might be quite surprised to see me break into a trot. XD I will try to give it a go, hopefully I can stick with it.

One of the things I wonder about is the effect location and context can have. By which I mean, you have fairly boring places like the backyard and lounge room, and then the super fun places - for my dog that's our off leash walk spot, her interest in a prey item is really affected by what she's come to expect from her surrounds. Now I haven't been able to test this on the synthetic bar tug I just got yet because my dog is recovering from a toe injury, so we're taking it easy atm, but I'm pretty sure I can predict based on previous experience that her enthusiasm for it will change according to whether we are playing in the yard or at our super fun walk spot. We're having a good time playing tug and fetch with the bar tug in the backyard, but she can take it or leave it (which is what I'm aiming for right now - low drive because I'm trying to teach "out", which I'm failing at atm btw, when I do "dead tug" she does "dead dog" - where she clamps down on the tug and takes her weight off her feet, so I'm forced to either hold up her weight by the tug or bend down to her at ground level :laugh: ). At least with the synthetic bar tug I can get it off her, so it's MY new favourite toy in the world even if it's not her favourite yet. XD But I know if I start playing with the synthetic bar tug at our walk spot, it's value will skyrocket - if it regularly becomes part of a swim fetch game it will become the most important thing in the entire world to her. With her usual swim fetch toy the frisbee she won't just use her teeth to tug, she'll get right in and grip it with her front paws too (and I wonder why she broke her toenail the other day - derp). If I use the bar tug in the same context she will react the same way to it that she does the frisbee. Material type like fluffiness and gripability used to be all important. But material seems now to be immaterial (so to speak), it's all about whether we play swim fetch with it that gives an item it's value. Once she gets to firmly associate an item with swim fetch, then it becomes the most precious resource in the world, location will cease to matter then - the item becomes intrisically imbued with all the excitement of swim fetch. I guess that probably goes back to the energy you put into it, playing at our off leash walk spot I have always really gone out of my way to make games as exciting and fun as possible for her because I had originally assumed she was low in tug drive and that I needed to make a huge song and dance about it to make it interesting to her (lol at my daftness). But it's interesting to me that I seem to have taught her to place value on an item (frisbees specifically) based on whether we play swim fetch with it. Any location she can play swim fetch is equally effective, but we do have our usual spot where there's hardly ever anyone else. It's not something I meant to teach her, it just happened that way, a fortuitous accident that suits me well so I keep with it. Probably the only thing I'd change (apart from a good "out" which I'd LOVE, although the synthetic tug makes it less of a problem because I can get it off her anyway), is that I do think she places more value on the prey item itself than me - that is the fetch/tug item is whats most compelling to her, moreso than myself.

You made cat runs so your cats could go outside without interacting with local wildlife? Cats are happy and safe, so are birds and snakes. Christina, you are officially awesome!

Yeah the only thing I would worry about with them is if they're on the muzzle it's worth drawing the vets attention too when you go in for vacc. or any other reason, because the muzzle ones can be cancerous apparently. The vet wasn't concerned by Jarrah's because it didn't seem to be growing fast or big (was about 6mm x 3mm). Jarrah's was an odd pale pink colour too, even though she is seal coloured.

O wow, ty for the heads up. Amputation Poor boy, I hope he is all healed up and free of any pain or distress now. I am definitely not going to take a full recovery granted yet in light of that. The stub now is looking healthy I think. It's white, where the other nails are dark, it's quite hard to the touch, no sponginess or blood or anything obviously worrying. It's about 5-7mm long, and she's not showing any inclination toward licking it or worrying at it at all. I am getting her to take it a bit easy on walks atm, so I will keep that up.

I wonder if that really pronounced roach back is the dog or the angle of the shot and dog's stance is contributing to pronounce it so much? The Alpaha's do seem to be a bit roached sometimes, but not to the degree of the dog in the pic. Would that much of a roach make good movement a problem? The Alpaha is supposed to be a working dog, so I'm probably wrong with that ID I think if the roach is exactly as the pic suggests. Very cute dog, I am such a sucker for the fat head bully/mastiff types. XD

It's hard to see exactly. Can I have 2 guesses? I can't see his nose so well, but if it's a little bit boxery I'd say Valley Bulldog, although the dog is perhaps a little too thickset for that. He could be an Alpaha Blue Blood, but I would expect one of those to be a little more heavy set than this guy? (Not that I've ever seen one in the flesh).

I was a bit disappointed about how little info there was about dogs too. But I adore Stephen Fry, he is a very funny and intelligent man IMO, so I enjoyed the show anyway. Allan Davies has a GSD who he loves, so I like him on the strength of that. XD

Yay! :D :D :D Thankyou for all the advice everyone, especially you Persephone, I really appreciate it. It was great to read all your experiences and have them to guide me.

Nostress, you can go pretty much anywhere with a dog on a leash, if there are no dogs allowed there will be a sign to say that. If there are no signs you are pretty much OK so long as the dog is leashed. We went travelling around Australia for 7 months with our dog, for finding dog walking places it was usually just a case of asking local dog owners where they went. It was never a problem in most areas. The only place I found really problematic about dogs in the whole country is Broome in Northern Western Australia. I have found that most cafes with seating out the front will allow your dog to be there while you eat in their outdoor seating area. This makes travel a whole lot easier! I found the trick is to go inside and politely ask if it would be OK if you have your dog sitting with you while you eat, most places are happy to have you there and will usually even bring a container of water for the dog. It was only very rarely we got a no, a few pubs have even been happy for us to have her in their outdoor bistro area in the back of their premises. it's not like Germany here where dogs can go every including public transport, and I bet the German dogs are on the whole better adjusted animal for being able to have so many of these experiences that our dogs can't have. But still you have a lot of lee way where you can take your dog here, there's always good spots for walks where-ever you go, just find another person with a dog and ask them about good local spots.

It has been expensive! Especially for something that really should have been a total non event. Everything seems all good now, yay finally. I am not letting her lick it, she wanted to lick the first day it fell off, but it's not worrying her now.

Keep the cat inside. For both the cat's sake, and also the snakes sake. Last night I came across this pic, the snake is a common green tree snake, they are totally harmless and non venomous. They will live around bushy suburban ponds, I have one resident in my yard, I'm very fond of it. Check the pic, poor little snake has been mauled by a cat. Unfortunately the snake did die in the end apparently. Cats are best kept indoors unless supervised IMO. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/13866466

Jarrah had one on her muzzle for awhile, it was a bit ugly but I never eally worried about it apart from to make sure it wasn't growing at a rate that may indicate cancer (muzzle tags can be cancerous apparently). It never seemed to be growing at a worrying rate. Just a few weeks ago I noticed it was gone. She must have scraped it off on something? There was only a tiny scab where it had been. It seems to me from the way it just came off by itself with no distress or consequences that this type of tag is very superficial and Nekhbet's mum's method of dealing with it wouldn't cause any distress.

There's a lady in my area who used stakes and chicken wire to good effect, it keeps her BC and staffy in effectively. That wouldn't have worked me though, I had to build a fence (at great expense). It depends on the dogs and whether you plan to leave them in the backyard unsupervised (something I would never do, even with the best fence in the world, I'm pretty sure it'd only take 1 successful escape for my dog to realise fences are no real obstacle to her at all) or only give them access to it while you are home.

Yeah, you'd think it'd be trivial, but it's just been going on for so long now. Every time I think her toe is better, it flares up with some new issue. :/ She first hurt it weeks ago - might even be over a month ago I think. She was limping, and you could see the nail was a bit split, so I took her to the vet for pain relief, antibiotics and a check up. A few days later she'd stopped limping, we'd finished the antibiotics, so I thought she was all good and healed. But no, some days later it swelled up to a scary size. Must've hurt her so much. Back to the vet for painkillers/anti-imflammatories and antibiotics and an x-ray. After a week on those it seemed all healed again, took her to the vets for follow up and vet was pretty happy with it. A few days ago we noticed she was licking at it and worrying it a lot, by yesterday she hadn't stopped so took her to the vet again. He said keep it dry and clean and keep her quiet till the nail falls off, then take it easy with her once the nail is off. At least they didn't charge us for the last consult, it's been one expensive toenail! So now that nail has finally fallen off, hopefully that's an end to it now and she is really better. Overall I've been really lucky with her health over the four and a half years I've had her, but the last few months with the shoulder and the nail have made up for lost time. :/ I'm starting to wonder if, now that she's older - I think she's about 5 and a half years old, maybe her body is feeling the age and is a bit less resilient than when she was younger? If you go by that 7x thing for human years to dog years conversion, I am about 5 and a half in dog years too, and I know my body is certainly less resilient than it once was. That linear 7x conversion is far from accurate, but still I'm thinking perhaps I should take it a bit easier with her in general now she's getting a little older. Still the same amount of running and swimming, but no more of the super fast sharp turns, climbing, leaping and all the other stuff that is hard on the body.