Help me with by disobedient, but lovely-ish staffs

[Dandelionrarrrr]

Hi. I'm looking to conquer my staff's bad behaviour step by step.
He's a bit of a 'step dog' because my dp got him as a pup prior to meeting me but we have been together 7years he's now 8 yo.

I think he was insufficiently trained before we met and has bad habits that were made worse by mixed messages from my in laws who we used to live with. Now we are on our own in a new house we have made loads of progress. For example, he used to wee and sometimes poo in the house at night time and sleeping in a crate has dramatically improved this. I believe his behaviour was a separation anxiety thing.

I have been watching lots of 'it's me or the dog' on catch-up and it got me thinking I would love to train him further. He is particularly difficult on a lead, so strong and pulls so much it makes walking him such a chore. I would like to walk him more, I have a young baby who I carry in a sling, it is not safe to do both at the moment but I hope to one day. My old rescue dog was a nightmare until I got a halti for him, it was magic. I tried one once on him but he wouldn't stop digging his face, he got it off really quickly when we got out- it was horrible and put my partner off them. The size down would be the one recommended for toy dogs which didn't seem right?!
Any advice for walking aids?

My issue is that he doesn't seem at all bothered by treats or toys when out, will ignore me. If he gets off the lead he just runs off so that's a complete no no now it's not safe. He has run across roads and escaped us many times.

We have a long garden where I can practise training but I don't know where to start. Sorry it's so long but I wanted to give a good picture of him. Any advice welcome, happy to give more info too.

I find Gencons excellent. Introduce with a clicker and lots of treats. My dogs go get their Gencons when they see me gearing up for a walk!

Look up Zak George on youtube. I find him really good as he really breaks everything down into steps and he definitely believes you can teach an old dog new tricks. He uses positive/force free techniques which are good as they are not only more humane than some methods they tend to get better results as well.

It's quite normal for them not to respond to treats and toys while out because they're basically responding to whatever is most exciting, so the key to that is working on concepts when you're in an environment which is going to compete less with whatever you're offering, but also to find something really exciting that he's going to be interested in and pay attention to. Then slowly merge the two so that eventually you can control him even in exciting environments without treats. Obviously that is going to take a lot of time and patience, but there's no reason you can't get there, as long as you break it down enough.

The gencon looks similar to the halti and I don't think you'd necessarily need it if you're willing to put the time and effort in to training. A harness would be kinder as it doesn't pull as much on the neck, that might give you more support as well.

Oh brilliant, thanks for the feedback will check it out.