alexis Posted April 8, 2008 Report Share Posted April 8, 2008 Charlie (staffie) got into a fight with a dog at the weekend, over a ball. She ran up to the other dog and next thing a fight had broken out, i'm not sure who started it. I had to grab her harness to split them up. Just before this she'd said hello to a few other dogs and had a sniff about with no problem. Usually on our walks I'm able to stop her going up to other dogs by saying no and usually have a ball on me, which I didn't this time. If she's got a ball or I have she tends to ignore other dogs. A puppy came uo to us the other day in the park and she had a ball in her mouth and all she did was turn her back on the pup and walk away. You can't usually throw a ball with other dogs around tho as she will snap at them when they chase it so we don't. We got her aged 6 months and for the first few months she met her doggie mates most evenings in the park and was fine. Then a staffie pup around 16 weeks joined in and from day one would just run up to Charlie and launch himself at her neck. he was walked by some kids with no collar and no lead and he'd had no training at all. After a fight broke out between them we started avoiding the other dogs and so Charlie has spent most walks on her own apart from when we meet her collie cross friend Cassie. She's gone for Cassie once when she got jealous of me stroking Cassie instead of her but since then there's been no probs. This week she has been playing with her frisbee with Cassie with no problems. Charlie does tend to nip at other dogs if they start chasing/running. I don't think it's an aggressive thing, she does it to sleeves/clothes when she gets excited about something. we've trained her to greet people with a toy in her mouth to avoid this. She has on occasions been possessive over toys but it's never really ended up in a fight like at the weekend. She does need work on her training ( she's a lot better on the lead now) but it's difficult getting to a regular class working shifts. I was thinking maybe a weekend residential course together might be a start? Or a session one to one with a trainer? She could do with some more socialising but it's hard to do that if you don't know anyone with other dogs. She hasn't really played with other dogs apart from Cassie for a while and Cassie isn't possessive of toys at all. Charlie is toy obsessed and not bothered about food when out. There is a service called tails in the park in Liverpool which we are looking at when she and OH move up here which will take her out to a place with private land for a 2 hour walk or for a whole day. www.tailsinthepark.co.uk. I'll try and go on a walk they do to see what it's like Has anyone got any advice on how to improve her socialisation and toy possessiveness? Where's best to start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted April 9, 2008 Report Share Posted April 9, 2008 I have the same problem with one of my Staffies but she's not bothered about balls, she just wants to get small dogs that come into her range. From your post it seems to me she's not looking for trouble with other dogs which is a bonus but she does seem to think that all balls are hers, I'm not very "up" on possessiveness but I can recommend Jean Donaldsons book Mine, resource guarding there's an article and a link to buying the book on the link and if you Google " resource guarding in dogs" there are lots of sites with advice. As to her sociability well I'm afraid practice makes perfect and you will have to expose her to other dogs so finding a good trainer would be the best bet, as you need to have calm non-responsive dogs to practice with, I'd advise training a really good "watch me" command which enables you to get the dogs attention with the minimum of fuss and stops her eye-balling the other dog, but re-reading your post she doesn't seem to me to be all that aggressive really, just very ball obsessed, although fights are horrible and scary and are a cause for concern it doesn't necessarily mean you have an aggressive dog, just one that doesn't have a lot of self control, so that might be another option to try, improve her self control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackmagic Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 It might be short notice but Dee is very good. http://www.obedienceuk.com/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=251 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summersun Posted May 26, 2008 Report Share Posted May 26, 2008 hi, sounds like resource guarding to me and as it'll be worse with "her own" toys i would advise you keep them away from other dogs when she meets them. as for other dogs toys - you need a good "leaveit" so she doesnt go and pinch them it is really worth getting professional help with this particularly as you have a staffie because of how some people view them as if she gets into fights you'll start getting the "unhelpful comments" about your dog being "aggressive". if you are struggling to get to classes - i can reccommend www.kizkiznobite.co.uk typically, they will either come to you to visit and help you, or if you are some distance - may stay overnight nearby for a few days to get you a real sense of what is going on. claire x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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