Am I a bad dog owner or do I have a reactive dog?

[houseprayer]

Hi! I need to vent and could use some help.

I have a female staffbull, B, who is now 1 year and 4 months old. Technically she is my (and my husband's) first dog, but we both grew up with dogs and took care of them - to some extent. I know that staffbull may not be the best choice for a first-time dog owner, but I honestly love them and thought we could do it. I tried to learn as much as I could before getting her.

We got B when she was nearly 10 months old. The previous owner had to rehome her due to her allergy. They got her from a certified breeder, trained her well, and took great care of her. Unfortunately, her allergies are worse than they thought, so I spent the last 6 months (since we got her) going to different veterinarians and dermatologists until we finally got her allergies somewhat under control.

Now the issue - B reacts badly to other dogs. She gets tense, growls, plunges towards them and doesn't listen to me no matter what I do. I always feel like the as*hole bad dog owner, who cannot keep her dog under control and therefore ruins staffies' reputation. Other dogs are her only problem. She loooooves humans. She is trained (knows to sit, stay, lay down, wait for permission to eat food, speak on command, come to me...), but yes... sometimes she has selective hearing I went with her to a dog trainer, but that didn't help (mainly because a lot of dog trainers in my country think that you have to beat the dog into obedience and I WILL NOT do that). I stopped going there because of her medical issues and because I didn't agree with the negative approach. Now I'm training her at home.

I have 3 theories as to why she behaves that way:

a) she's antisocial. According to the internet, Staffies tend to dislike other dogs if badly socialized. But I spoke with previous owners and they tried to socialize her - she played with other family.

b) she's overexcited and angry, because I won't let her go. I don't think that's it though.

c) she's guarding me.

What should I do with her? I'm okay with having an antisocial dog, I just want what's best for her. Often a find myself spiraling into negative thoughts - how I'm not training her well, how she's gonna get hurt, that I'm not doing enough for her. I'm tired of feeling like a failure.

 

[john446]

@houseprayer Look into Grisha Stewart's BAT (Behavioural Adjustment Training). It's a nonaversive method for working on things that make a dog anxious through empowering the dog. She also describes how to recognise what goes into the buildup of anxiety: how it starts, how you can recognise it, and how you can help your dog.

The most common reason for dog reactivity is fear. Not resource guarding, willfullness or combativeness. Fear. You're right to not want to use aversive methods to work on this. The key thing in reactivity is that fear makes for poor training. You can't beat fear out of someone, you can't train when someone's actively afraid. You want your dog to be happy and engaged with the world they're exploring. In a nutshell, there's a few things you can do:

-Management: avoiding situations that put your dog "over threshold". Learn the best times and places to go out, have escape routes ready, teach distraction tricks to give you an edge. Learn your dog's body language. Figure out what works for you. The goal is to minimise stress and rehearsing of unwanted behaviours.

-Health: most reactive dogs have an underlying health issue. Try being polite while you have a splitting headache! See if you can rule out health issues that are making your dog less comfortable meeting the world.

-Positive exposure methods: these are tricky. Don't push your dog into situations they can't handle. BAT is a great tool where you use "setups" in which your dog is (mostly) free to explore. Your dog learns to engage and disengage at its own pace. It's slow, but the results are so worth it.

I hope these thoughts provide you a good starting point. Let me know if you have questions or comments. There's a lot to learn for everyone, as the field develops every day. I wish you all the best of luck.

 

[whipsaw]

@john446 This comment nails it. Nothing to add 10/10

 

[john446]

@whipsaw Aww, thank you!

 

[houseprayer]

@john446 Hi thank you for your reply! I'll look into it.

I am already trying not to put her into uncomfortable situations. We don't go to dog parks (I don't like them either) and we live in a small village, so it's not that hard to avoid other dogs. And if we meet some, I always try to go far around them. They don't make it easy though.

Health: As I wrote, she has allergies. But we finally got it somewhat under control. She's not itchi, skin and coat looks better. She gets supplements like linseed and salmon oils, probiotics and kelp. After many and many more visits to the vet a really hope that everything is ok. She looks happy and healthy.

BAT looks great, I'll try that. Again, thank you very much

 

[john446]

@houseprayer No problem, best of luck!

 

[davecb]

@john446

-Health: most reactive dogs have an underlying health issue.

While the rest of your response I'm in agreement with, I don't at all agree with this part.

Some dogs are hardwired to just not like other dogs. It's nothing anyone did, there is no health problem, the dog is just not interested in dog friends.

And that's fine, and in some cases has been bred for (fighting dogs), and is, for that breed or mix of breeds, normal.

A flat out, dog aggressive dog is not sick or unhealthy. They're just plain ol' dog aggressive. You can pay lots of money to all sorts of vets, to try to figure out what's wrong with the dog, when the only thing wrong with the dog is that they don't like other dogs.

Look at it this way: some humans are introverts. Some are extroverts. There's nothing wrong with being an introvert. Same with dogs. It's a normal part of the range of dog behavior.

 

[mangolover4life]

@davecb They never said that it was for sure an underlying health issue, just that that is something that should be initially ruled out with any reactive dog by going to the vet.

 

[davecb]

@mangolover4life

They never said that it was for sure an underlying health issue

They wrote:

Health: most reactive dogs have an underlying health issue.

And that's just not true. If it was a case where an easy going, laid back dog, all of a sudden lashed out at a human and bit them with intent? Maybe.

But a young SBT who has gone thru puberty and is an adult bitch now? If someone really wants to go see a vet and pay $$$ that is certainly their choice. It ignores the reality of living with what they are living with.

 

[mangolover4life]

@davecb Ruling out an extremely common cause of reactivity does not inherently ignore anything else about the dog, and the process of working on reactivity. It's just a step in the process, absolutely doesn't mean that they're not going to then reach out to a behavioralist and start doing intensive training. The first step in all of that would be ruling out physical pain with a vet visit. Ridiculous to imply this would mean that other steps wouldn't be taken just because you're making sure the cause isn't physical pain. Also, meeting with a behavioralist, this is one of the first questions they ask.

 

[mama357]

@houseprayer Yes, if you read up on the breed it states that they can dog aggressive if not socialized properly and the tendency can come up at sexual maturity. Which can happen from 1 to 3 years old. Typically at 2 years old.

Essentially puberty.

Your choices are neutering. Training. Pharmaceuticals. Or combo of above.

If that doesn't work then management. Lots of it.

I'd recommend muzzle training. Door barriers/gates.

Also socialization is about getting a dog to be neutral to different scenarios etc. Its not about how "friendly or social" a dog is. https://www.reddit.com/r/reactivedogs/s/BLx86kqGfX

 

[houseprayer]

@mama357 Hi, thank you for your reply.

I'll work on the muzzle training. Neutering - yes, she's eventually going to be neutered. According to our veterinarian it's not only going to calm her down a little bit, but it should also help with her allergies. We just have to wait until her immunity get better.

And to be honest, I read about the dog aggression after sexual maturity (and our acquaintances also have female STB, who got dog aggressive after reaching maturity), but I was kinda naive and thought that we could get it easily under control. Yes - I got tricked by their cute faces My mistake.

 

[lovemyangel]

@houseprayer Why are you waiting on spaying if she's already 2?

Please don't breed a dog-aggressive dog with severe allergies

 

[mangolover4life]

@lovemyangel OP said in the comment they are planning to but they have to wait for her immunity to improve. Allergies can be really serious.

 

[lovemyangel]

@mangolover4life TBH it sounds like she was wanting to breed them - hence the "I was deceived by their cute faces"

 

[houseprayer]

@lovemyangel Hi,
no I definitely did not want to breed her. I am not a breeder nor do I want to be one. I don't want to put my dog through the whole ordeal of having puppies (not judging if you want to do that).

As to why she isn't neutered yet: in my country, you usually have to wait till a female dog is like 6 months old and till she goes through heat (I don't know if that's the right term - I mean dog period). But after her period, B had false pregnancy for like 2 months (checked with vet, she was on pills to stop it). Then she was on corticosteroids to help with the allergies. Then we had to wait until her immunity got better. And now - we scheduled a neutering appointment and had to cancel it, because she's going to be in heat again soon.

 

[mangolover4life]

@lovemyangel There's literally nothing in the post/comments saying she wants to breed her dog. Thinking puppies are cute does not imply this at all. This is a huge reach. You know what they say about people who make assumptions.

 

[davecb]

@houseprayer

She gets tense, growls, plunges towards them and doesn't listen to me no matter what I do

I would expect a Staffordshire Bull Terrier to not like other dogs. And I would REALLY expect a SBT bitch to want nothing at all to do with other bitches. Like really not like them.

And that's ok. That's normal for that breed. It's expected in that breed. There are some SBT's bitches who are fine with some other bitches, but it's not at all to be counted on.

So what's best for her? Honoring the fact that she IS a SBT bitch and not a Lab bitch. She doesn't need or want dog friends. It sounds like she adores humans, which is what she should be as a SBT, and that's great.

So no dog parks. No "let's see if she likes this random dog that we will never see again". Accept her for who she is.

Staffies tend to dislike other dogs if badly socialized

And the internet is, gasp, wrong. It has nothing to do with what people do or do not do with a SBT, the bottom line is they are not usually dog social. They're just not. This page is a really good resource for you to read and understand.

So what would I do if I owned her? Stop trying to let her meet dogs. Teach her to tolerate other dogs that are not in her, "bubble", and work on making her bubble bigger while still accepting her for who she is.

And don't decide in a month or two or three that she now should have dog friends. She has you and she loves you.

 

[houseprayer]

@davecb Hi, thank you for your reply. As I wrote, I don't have a problem with her not being dog friendly and yes, I read about STB being unfriendly with other dogs. The socialization part - I probably wrote it wrong. What I meant is basically what you wrote - that they can at least tolerate other dogs if socializated (sorry, English is not my first languages, so sometimes my writing doesn't make sense)

Also we don't go to dog parks - I know that she would hate it. I spend a lot of time with her on our garden - we play fetch, pull and I would like to try some of the bull sport - I think that she would appreciate it more than going to dog parks.

The only time we meet other dogs is when I take her on walks. We live in a small village, but a lot of people from city take their dogs here on walks.

 

[davecb]

@houseprayer

What I meant is basically what you wrote - that they can at least tolerate other dogs if socializated (

You can teach her to tolerate dogs by increasing your rate of reinforcement for handling being near them without her getting upset by them. You make sure that she's not too close to a dog that is upsetting her, and you reward her for looking at you, and not barking or carrying on at the other dog.

You can teach her some little tricks, so you can reward her for those if you see another dog. Teach her to spin, back up, sit, down, wave a front paw at you, whatever. Reward, reward, reward!

(sorry, English is not my first languages, so sometimes my writing doesn't make sense)

Your English is amazing!!!!