This morning my 9 month old staffy stole an egg. He'd jumped up at the worktop, taken the box, ripped it open and ran upstairs with the egg. I told my DF and he said 'I need to nip it in the bud'. He thinks I should be using a rolled up newspaper to smack him on the nose every time he does something unacceptable. The conversation went on, and DF said that I am 'heading for an out of control dog'.
Can I describe him, and ask for your honest opinions as to his behaviour for his age? (I use clicker/reward training).
Strenths:
Knows and responds to - Sit, Nose (ie. put your nose here), paw, belly (roll over)
Learning - stay
Food: Will sit and wait for his food once I've put it down. He can wait up to 30-40 seconds without flinching, over 1 minute with verbal reminder.
Can be slightly dominant towards the older dog with food, so I am careful to ensure they are fed separately and am working on making puppy wait while I sort older dog, with reassurance.
Will happily steal any food he can set his eyes on even if he has just been fed. Would steal food out of our hands if he gets the chance. Will jump up at worktop to steal food.
Sleep - sleeps on our bed, but does as he's told with regards where to sleep. Knows he can't come under covers unless DH has got out of bed.
Walking - pulls slightly on the lead, but is responding well to reward training. Will sit at the door before we go out and wait for me. Will sit at each kerb and wait until I say it's ok to cross.
Starting to bark/growl/jump when he sees a new dog on lead - not sure if this is fear/aggression/excitement; I certainly don't have any trouble restraining him, and he's a strong dog, so could pull me along if he really wanted to. Responding well to distraction with rewards, and is fine if he meets a new dog off lead.
Visitors - generally has a tendency to be very bouncy. Responding really well to the 'down' command, as long as I repeat the command every 30 seconds or so. With the exception of DF, who he jumps all over because DF encourages it and won't say 'down' (yes the same DF who thinks my dog is heading for out of control).
Nipping - still has a tendency to get 'mouthy' when really excited. But knows the 'no teeth' command and responds to it, opening his jaws and removing them from my arm, etc. Also responds well to 'gentle' command.
Can still nip the children if they over-excite him and chase him, etc., but it is definitely by no means a bite. No marks whatsoever, unless one tooth as rubbed on the skin, creating a small white line.
House training: Fabulous except that he doesn't know how to tell us he needs out. Completely reliable in the house if we go out. Completely unreliable if it is raining - he hates the rain. Dry at night.
So, could you give me honest opinions? How far away is he from what you'd expect of a 10 month old Staffy?
Also, what do you do to stop stealing of food, etc?
If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.
The doghouse
I'm so upset. Honest opinions please
Lougle · 29/08/2012 09:55
Sounds like a lovely pup to me 
I wish my 5 YEAR OLD was as well behaved.
I'm no expert, just had a few dogs, but I would say he's a teenager and is just starting to test boundaries with you.
I do have a pet hate with training, when you say he's bouncy with visitors but responds to "down" - are you using that term to mean "get down" or "lie down" - my PiLs use it for both and have a very confused dog 
- not a critiscm, just one of my pet hates. I use Off for "get off" and Down for "lie down" - of course, you may be wanting him to lie down when visitors are there
I'm afraid if he is countersurfing then the only way to stop him is to not leave anything in his reach - I have a Husky, so this extends to non-food items as well for us.
Stealing out of your hands etc I'll leave to far more professional MN Doghousers
He sounds a lovely dog though. Why not try clicker training DF instead
Sigh. I hear you Erm, your dog sounds pretty average to me. Still very young and chancing his arm Jas is a horrendous food thief, so I just keep the counters clear. If he does steal food, and hasn't already gulped it down, he has it removed. He can still, in high excitement, accidentally put teeth to skin. He now retreats immediately, though, and backs off. It usually happens when the DC are playing tuggy with him etc and he goes to get a better grip on the toy. His bite inhibition has kicked in big time since he got to a year old, and we've had no marks or scrapes for quite a while now. He goes nuts when we have visitors, and runs around and around in circles. He does still jump up, but tbh I haven't been great at teaching 'down' 
. We rarely have visitors, see. But when we do, he calms right down after a few minutes and just comes to them for a fuss. My dog pulls like a train, despite ongoing training and several different harnasses. I'm really going to crack on with that once the DC are back at school. All in all your dog sounds like a work in progress, as a young dog is supposed to be :)
Thank you, really. DF is wonderful with dogs, and dogs realy like him. But he is of a generation that thinks the only way a dog will learn is if he's punished when he does wrong. He thinks I've got it all wrong with reward based training.
He's sat beside me sleeping and farting - his normal mode
I think your doing really well with training him and he is doing well for a staffy his age, my mums is almost 2 and he still has many of the habits you've described but I think thats just him being a young dog. My staffy is 12 now and he was a bit of a sod when he was young
Keep going your doing really well
Thank you for the sympathy, but as the dog was stupid enough to scarper upstairs with his ill-gotten gains and I happened to be up there too 
I was able to retrieve the egg whole
Lougle, my DH was like that about punishment, grew up always with dogs in the family and dogs adore him too. FentonPup is my first dog (only experiencing DH's old boy in his last few months of life) and I am very much against physical punishment.
Your dog sounds beautifully well behaved as is FentonPup (for the most part) and DH is coming round to the idea that I (the inexperienced dog owner) could be onto something with reward based training
Your DF may be picking on this food stealing incident to prove a point ? Carry on with your methods, your staffy sounds just lovely to me. 
He sounds great for a 10 month old, absolutely normal. We've got a houseful of highly accomplished food thieves - all greyhounds, and consequently tall enough to reach some very unexpected places. Because of that, we know about it, and it just means that food is NEVER left unattended in the kitchen and worktops are remarkably tidy/clear! I think if you live with a food thief you get into the habit and that just becomes your new normal.
He sounds like a normal pup to me, pimmsdog is about 18 months (was 3 when we got him from the rescue but has now been down graded to 18 months by the vet )
Pimmsdog eats anything you leave out, including DHs breakfast this morning (DH brought me my cup of tea in bed and pimmsdog took the chance to eat his breakfast) DH was running late so I suggested pimmsdog was helping him out by eating it for him saving him time
FiL came over the other weekend and punched pimmsdog on nose for jumping up, pimmsdog was badly beaten in his last home and really went for FiL, he didn't punch him on the nose again and got a long lecture for DH and DCs about not hitting animals
I thought I'd gotten away with this with our new foster lurcher but then slowly started finding empty packets of biscuits or bread bags in the yard. I assumed they were meant for the bin but whoever had taken them out there had not quite made it all the way to the bin (perfectly normal occurance in this house 
)
I soon learnt who the real culprit was when he came clattering through the house, having found the door to the yard locked, with a whole packet of digestives in his mouth, closely followed by DH yelling "Give me my biscuits back you thieving bastard dog"
The kitchen has once again been grund proofed. I agree with Scuttle it becomes second nature after a while and your kitchen will soon look cleaner than you can ever remember. Food thieves are a very handy house keeping tool. Every slattern should own one.
The rest sounds perfectly normal, especially the jumping up and mouthing. Staffies are mad as pups, but lovely. You're doing fine imo.
I agree he sounds completely normal for a dog/staff of his age.
However, I would be a bit concerned that maybe you aren't being firm enough in your boundaries that he would actually try and steal food from your hands. Even my most determined pups would never have stolen from me and they'd have at least waited until my back was turned.
I would also be a bit concerned about the behaviour when he sees a new dog, especially as he is a Staff and they can be dog aggressive.
Can you find a APDT run training/socialisation class to take him to? I think it's really important to get him well socialised with other dogs. (I say that as the owner of a staff cross that is extremely dog aggressive and it started as you describe. He is fine with my own dogs)
Sorry, I've just re read and my post is all negative.
It sounds like other than those couple of things you are doing really well with him.
I am also laughing at the egg thing as one of my dogs once stole my very last egg that DS1 had left on the edge of the worktop whilst preparing his ingredients for school. He was in the kitchen but turned his back to get the other ingredients ready. . Same dog is an absolute angel now and we still laugh about it.
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