karen15

When my staffy was attacked by a wolfhound, I had to drop the lead and wait. I waited till the wolfhound had him pinned and was standing over him hammering him. Stepped up behind it, locked my legs behind its ribs so it couldn't turn (between the ribs and hips), grabbed its collar and twisted and lifted. The leg position was something I'd do to the staffy when we roughhoused. It's a good spot for immobilising and with the wolfhound I had to get in a position for maximum strength if I was going to get it off my dog. In my case council were amazing. I called them at 6.30 am. They had an inspector out at my place by 8 (we were at the vet so missed him). He saw the dog and thank god a woman saw it happen and had given me her details, so the inspector saw her too before returning at lunch time. Dog was declared dangerous, big fine, owners opted to put down instead of comply with dangerous dog requirements. Not long after that a cattle dog charged out of its yard determined to get him. I stopped that by stepping in front of my dog. Most dogs won't attack a person, so breaking the line of sight and focus can be effective. It is a risk though as you don't know the dog that's about to attack.

1. The dog has a toilet command and is very good at it. 2. The behavior only happens when I am not home. In the absence of the option of putting sensors on her and teleporting home the instant she squats, for some strange reason I am not able to take her outside to give her the toilet command when I am not home. 3. The whole point of the time in the crate was so I could take her outside when I got home and reinforce toileting outside. 4. When I was out for an extended period the only logical option (I agree with Willem that it is entirely preferable to long crate time, hence why I did it) was to restrict access to the house. That way the dog cannot make the mistake. I cannot for the life of me see how that is lazy and cruel. I didn't see the point in mentioning the above given the thread was about undoing toilet training, thus implying the the dog is already trained. What I've garnered from this thread is this forum is a total waste of my time.

I've got exactly the same problem with a three year old dog, so would love to hear suggestions. At the moment put her in her crate while I'm gone for a few hours, but don't think it's a good / fair option while I'm at work. I'm utterly furious, which is not helping the situation. She is a rehome and I haven't had her 12 months. It has taken me a while to link the behavior to weather. She spent a fair bit of the weekend locked outside so she could see there are dry spots even if the weather is horrible. Hasn't helped.

SarahsMum I'm so sad for you I had a few days with my staffy before he was put down and like you spoiled the bejimminies out of him. I'd had a physio appointment booked for him for ages and still got the physio to come as he loved seeing him. Physio and I had a major teary Generous man didn't charge for the visit. I still cry thinking about him. They leave a hole that's for sure. Make the most of your last days together.

My westie is a self cleaning white fluffy. Comes in covered in dirt and totally ruined. Next morning he is all white again and the dirt is gone. My type of dog...... Just gave him his weekly brush and he looked even whiter. The cocker gets a weekly brush. Now she's got some length in her coat it doesn't knot like it did when we were growing out the clip she came with. Both get stripped every 4-6 weeks determined by when their coats look fluffy for the cocker or clumpy for the westie (way technical terms there :) ). Sometimes not a lot comes out of one or both, but once the grooming table and equipment are set up they both get done. Paws, ears, nails are clipped and cocker gets head and throat done too. Then scissoring as needed. I don't shampoo a lot. Don't shampoo my horse much either, just hose down after riding. I find all my dogs are shiny with healthy coats, as is the horse, which I put down to not shampooing out the natural oils. If they're stinky or have skin problems then I'll shampoo as needed but generally they smell fine. I've never brushed teeth as I feed bones daily. Vet is always very pleased with their sparkling teeth. Worm middle of the month and flea and tick on 1st of the month. Being long haired dogs in a paralysis tick area, I'm a bit paranoid about ticks.

My westie used the cat carrier until he was about 6 months old. I liked it in winter as I could cover it and put his hot water bottle in and he was all snuggly. He had enough room to either be close to or move away from the hot bottle. It was a plastic, more enclosed carrier than the wire ones you can get.

My westie puppy was 2.5 kg when he came home around 10 weeks old. I had to block the drain hole in the bathroom floor as I was worried he'd get the cover off and fall in. He was rather obsessed with it. He could fit through 10x10cm mesh I had on the bottom of the fence so I had to cover it with shadecloth to keep him in and safe. His first winter rug was two face washers sewn together (it was late and he was cold :) ) He looked like a little Yoda LOL

Gosh, they're so big already!

I have a cocker spaniel and westie and neither shed. I do strip their coats about every 4-5 weeks and clip out paws and ears and the cockers head and neck. I brush them weekly and don't have issues with matting etc They're still growing their hair (westie is a pup and cocker was fully clipped when I rehomed her 10 months ago) but they will be kept in a sporting trim when their hair gets long enough. Both would do what you want. Love going out and go walking and to park daily. The cocker may be a little bigger than what you are after. She's not huge, but a little over 10kg.

Juice, with my staffy I taught him a leave it command. When playing, mid game, I'd tell him to leave it meaning whatever we were playing with. Once he dropped it and backed off, we'd play again. Anything I told him to leave he wouldn't touch. She sounds like she wants to be good, she just needs to know the boundaries. From her upbringing I would guess she was responsible for her own amusement. So she probably doesn't realise there's things you don't want her to do or touch.

I wouldn't bother with treats in a plastic bottle. My 20kg staffy loved to shred anything plastic. With their jaws plastic doesn't stand a chance. Kongs, the super heavy duty ones, were able to last. I've got some good ones for small dogs now. Haven't checked out the large dog variety. With their strength you need something heavy duty. My staffy could demolish uncut marrow bones, the cow leg variety. It would take him a while but he could do it. I would persevere with bones. Possibly put her in the crate with one until she gets the idea. Allowable toys is a good idea. Whenever she picks up something not hers, take it off her and give her something she can play with.

Original poster, are you sure it's a pinched nerve? My old staffy had a neurological problem with his back legs that meant he couldn't control them. Probably came on at a similar age to your guy. Easy to test. Vet placed his paw with the top side of his toes on the table. Initially he put it pads down fairly quickly but as he aged he stopped fixing it all together. What it tests is something called the righting reflex. Any delay in returning to pads down indicates an issue with the righting reflex and my dim memory says that is unfixable and a progressive deterioration occurs. It's neurological and they get extremely wobbly and struggle with uncarpeted floors. I bought a carpeted house with no stairs specifically because he would have been extremely distressed not to sleep next to me, and he physically couldn't do stairs. I do not believe providing an alternate toileting place is forcing a pet into a dependency. It is recognising that their abilities have decreased but still allowing them to do the right thing by toileting in a designated spot. My old guy hated having accidents inside and generally didn't. But in emergencies it was soothing for him to know it was ok to use a certain spot. Depending on the level of pain and discomfort there is a lot that can be done as they age. In the early days I found krill oil had a good impact. Our pain management was a stepped approach. - general anti inflammatory stuff like krill oil - metacam as needed - initially spasmodic a couple of days at a time but twice daily by the end - monthly cartrophen - he had bad arthritis and his spine was fusing - tramadol - again used rarely initially but frequently at the end - regular physio for his last few years He was a happy wobbly dog when I had to put him to sleep due to an aggressive subcutaneous mast cell tumour. It took two months to kill him

I had found a site that you could look up the microchip number and it told you what register it was in. I had to do a stat Dec to update my rehomed dogs details to me. After sending it in, I emailed and explained to the registry what had happened with the dog and that I would like to let her breeder know she's ended up in a good forever home and very politely asked them if they might have contact details for the breeder, but they didn't, they only had the original owners details. The other option if people don't want to give you details is to ask if they would mind passing your details on. Doesn't guarantee contact but is a place to start. I've just had a brainwave for my dog. I tried the Qld society and they had nothing on her but she may have come from NSW. Remembering a prior thread I think NSW register in owner name from the start, whereas Qld breeder registers and transfers to the owner (at least that seemed to be a common comment). Maybe I'll just spam all the state bodies LOL

Is there a bathroom upstairs where you could set up a toileting area? I wouldn't be able to send him downstairs if he was mine.

I would have someone push the pram while a second person walked the pup at sufficient distance that it could obey the leave it command successfully. As it succeeded I would progressively have the two people walk closer together, distance being determined by how the dog reacted. Once they can walk side by side, that should lead to one person being able to walk dog and push pram.

I like liver treats. Dogs love them and if they are thin they break up into small pieces easily.

I came home one day to a headless rat next to the treadmill courtesy of my 5mo westie puppy..... Years ago I taught our corgi to kill mice en masse from under bird cages. Once she got the idea to crunch and drop she'd annihilate dozens with one warren flooding. She was really fast.

You'll find the time goes really fast. I contacted the breeder of my fellow the week my old staffy was PTS and let her know I'd be looking for a puppy in about nine months time - that's how long it takes me to start to want another pet. People thought it was ages away. Then dogs were mated and puppies born late May. I picked him up on 1st August. It all seemed really quick. The acquisition of puppy stuff was fun. Poor little mite could have been excused for thinking he was a puss cat..... He slept in the cat carrier (was only 2.5kg when he came home and the carrier was easy to cover and make snug), he was fed from the cat bowl, combed with the cat comb, had the cat toys to play with..... My cat had been PTS exactly four weeks after my dog

I'm sure the door I got came in a bigger size. My dogs don't pelt through. Some have hit the panel when closed, but it is more a surprise than anything else. After doing that once or twice they check before going through.

Staffies are lovely family dogs. Robust enough to play rough, get trod on etc but also love cuddling. They just love people. Only downside is a bored staffy can be extremely destructive. They have strong jaws that can really rip things up. Agistment has a jack Russell and it seems lovely. It's smooth coated. I just think they're small and easily broken.... That said, I've got a westie, which I picked because they only get up to 10kg.

I got my pet door from bunnings nearly five years ago. It has a metal plate that slides down to close the door. Haven't had any pet force through, probably because there is a step up from the outside. Staffy wad elderly (10) when I put it in. Cat could use it too. It's heavy soft plastic with a metal bar at the bottom to give it weight. I've had a staffy, cocker, westie and cat.

My pup is my first westie and he is everything I wanted. Cheeky little munchkin :) My guy isn't so keen on swimming westiemum. But the cocker I rehomed to be his buddy is a water baby and where she goes he follows. The two of them are very popular on our walks and get lots of "aren't they gorgeous" comments. Definitely a smile inducing duo :D Can't wait to hear how Andy goes on his next beach trip.

Go Andy go! One of my deciding factors getting my puppy desexed earlier than I would have liked was the worry he'd be stolen for puppy farming..... Not sure I'd be game to let him loose at the beach, don't think I'd ever see him again. He went out for a play with another puppy at agistment and it was going swimmingly well until he saw a horse, then he was in the paddock having a whale of a time racing around and getting chased (highly undesirable!). He thought the horse loved him and would not get caught. We'd been practising at park and he's good at being caught there now, but when his blood was up and Maxevil came out, all the rules disappeared. Maxwell has since been trained to sit and get caught by the collar so hopefully Maxevil won't show up again! Working on high excitement situations, but consistent at home and off lead in calm situations, so that's a start.

My westie is using his powers of invisibility, combined with mega gorgeousness when sprung, to break down my resolve of no dogs on the bed. I believe he is planning in advance for winter so he can get under the doona, which has never ever ever been permitted for any other pet......

My staffy was a great deterrent. Very scary bark. However as noted above he was more eager to give people a tour than to bail them up. I relied on him sounding and, to some people, looking scary to deter them from coming in. Anyone who came in got licked to death...... He used to give the postie cuddles for goodness sakes!