Have just become the proud owner of a gorgeous Staff puppy :)

[merrymum]

Just that really! we have always wanted a dog but with work etc the time has never been right-until now! She is just gorgeous and we love her so much already, we chose her as we read up on Staffies and they are well known to be good with children, but any tips/advice for the early days will be gratefully received! xx

Woo. SBT owner here too. Rescue who we've had about 3 months now. We had another for 13 years before this one. Lovely dogs! Almost exclusively see them in the voluntary work I do.

Breed specific I would say make sure that all her interactions with other dogs are super positive. They are prone to dog-dog problems unfortunately but nothing that decent socialisaton can't prevent. Secondly look up impulse control exercises (try looking at Suzanne Garrett's it's yer choice). IMO staffies are not very good at dealing with frustration and I think this helps :).

Quite a lot of the staffies I see are grabby and/or mouthy. Be consistent from the start about things like jumping up. They get heavy and can easily knock children down (errr or small adults!). Make sure puppy has plenty of things to carry about/grab/bite that aren't your arms and legs! Look into the 'rules' of tug and use their love of a good game in your training :) the groundwork on dealing with frustration should help you play safely.

Finally take advantage of the 'clingy' period to instill a good recall. You'll never get that time back and it's bloody hard to teach later, otherwise.

Hope alls going well with pup .
we have 5 month staffy pup and we found puppy classes great as they get to interact with lots of others dogs .
Teaching her to wee on comand is another very useful thing as it saves ages in garden waiting for them to go .
our darling boy when told to hurry up does a wee straight away :)
Hope that she brings you lots of happiness .

Ah thanks for the replies, sorry my internets been down! Thanks for the tips on jumping up, hadn't really thought to be honest! Toilet training is going brilliantly, wee wee seems to work as a command word!! The dcs have been walking her round the garden on the lead and she has finally stopped trying to chew it! She has a crate for during the day while I'm at work and she sleeps quite happily for those few hours, I love having her wagging her tail to greet me on my return, have also booked onto puppy classes for the kids to take her as they don't like to tell her no when she nips or chews so think this will be great for them.
Thanks again xx

Oh fgs you and your bloody staffy. How SELFISH can you be??

You haven't posted us any super cute pictures to look at!! Hurry up!

Haha Glitter, I got worried for a second then! As soon as I work out how I will do lol! She has grown so much already, she has learnt to sit on command, which we are trying to make her do before food etc, she's getting better at the jumping up thing too, my youngest DD is fab, each time she gives her a treat, she gets her to sit, then taps her paw, says "paw" then "gently" before she gives it to her! My DH is softer than he lets on as Pup has been sleeping on our bed! And touch wood, the tree went up yesterday and she's had a sniff but left it alone! She's turning more brindle now too, so pretty, I could talk about her all day! Xx