Koda is gorgeous – most of the time.
He’s a thirteen-week-old Staffie puppy who does all the usual puppy things.
He may get over-excited and rough which is normal. His toilet training is a bit slow, but we are working on that.
Hr’s quick at learning and is now going out on walks. They have been socialising him sensibly since they got him at eight weeks old. This means gentle exposure to people and life in general, making sure that he’s not scared or overwhelmed.
When Koda doesn’t want to do something
The problems start when they want Koda to do something he himself doesn’t want to do!
They pick him up and carry him. He doesn’t like being picked up and carried. It’s possible it causes him discomfort somewhere.
I saw this for myself online as the picked him up to introduce him to me. He growled. He didn’t like it.
He can walk
They will now not pick him him at all unless unavoidable. He can walk. They can get him to participate willingly in all they want him to do – using food (as a reward, not a lure or bribe!).
If they stop carrying Koda to the garden to toilet, it should speed the toileting process. He will develop a ritual.
Teach him ‘up’
They will also teach him to jump onto their laps himself when asked – maybe into their arms. Then he has a choice. He is participating.
Attack
The main problem is the couple of times when he went into true attack mode with no visible provocation at all.
This is the worst one: the lady was sitting on the sofa. All was peaceful. He jumped onto her lap as though for a cuddle. Before she even had time to touch him he went into a full blown attack – stiff and snarling. He bit her quite badly.
She assures me there were no warning signs. Nothing was happening immediately prior to this that could have justified it.
Pain?
I can only think that as he landed on her something hurt him. Hurt him sufficiently to set him off into instant automatic attack mode..
The vet has checked him over but I can’t believe sudden pain somewhere isn’t the cause. They will take him back.
4 days later: Putting all your advice tips and tricks into practice and noticing a difference already. Even beyond the original issue we contacted you for! Keeping that mental bucket empty and have a much happier calmer puppy. Still a ways to go but so far enjoying the journey and training ourselves just as much (if not more) as Koda. Looking forward to providing updates of our learning curve and we will without a doubt he coming back for more advice whenever we have a question!
A fortnight later: “At first we were hesitant to do an online consultation as we were not convinced it would be entirely effective without the behaviourist meeting the dog in question. We are ecstatic to say we were so very wrong. Theo first explained the structure of the meeting and spent time understanding our situation as well as our home set up and routines with our puppy. From there Theo gave us a far greater understanding of our puppy as well as a clear plan to move forward. Theo was very easy to talk to and reassured us whilst identifying anywhere where we could improve our own behaviour and training. Her knowledge is fantastic and even without meeting Koda in person she was able to give us so much advice, tips and tricks. The meeting was recorded for us which has come in very handy as Theo used every second of the allotted hour to help us beyond even the original issue we contacted her for. It means we can rewatch our meeting at any time for portions of advice we may have forgotten as there was so much to take in in just one hour. Following on from our consultation, Theo has kept in contact for follow up support as well as connected on Social media and we know she is only a message away should we need her. We cannot recommend Theo enough. We had one simple online consultation and the improvements have been wonderful for both us and our puppy. We can only imagine how fantastic her help is in person and absolutely would not hesitate to use Theo again for any advice we might need.”
NB. For the sake of the story and for confidentiality also, this isn’t a complete report. If you listen to ‘other people’ or find instructions on the internet or TV that are not tailored to your own dog, you can do more harm than good. Click here for help
