Thank you kat14778

From your description I agree your girl is not really dog aggressive at all, and hopefully you will manage her well.

Believe me when one does have a reactive dog, life is not easy, and I can tell you in the last ten yrs, I have become very tuned to dog behaviour!!

I have to disagree with the above, I believe rescues are full of staffies and staffies crosses, is due to sheer numbers being bred and discarded, not due to the number of " bites" .

Completely agree with you, and of course the general assumption is that it's only rescue dogs that have issue's and it must be something the owner did wrong,as you say if only....

I am pretty much the same as you as I am sick to death of numpties and there out of control dogs,that I am past caring what they think of me or my dog.

Yes, you're of course right. I might have jumped to that conclusion without explaining my thoughts behind it. I just meant that a reason why a lot of staffies are in shelters is because people take them on unthinkingly. A staffie that causes problems with aggression is much more severe than a smaller or less powerful dog. So they're more likely to end up in a shelter. But of course it's only to that extent because so many people breed them.

Edit: But I am in no way saying that every staffie in a shelter has some kind of behaviour problem. Most of them were probably just very unlucky and were victims of circumstances.

Florence

Jackbox I said in this thread 'its not the breed its the owners' but that was the wrong choice of words, let me explain...

When I walk kaya in the park its not the DA dogs I'm worried about its the owners! I see lots of DA dogs in the park every day that I am familiar with and I know who they are and who their owners are, their the responible ones. Their dogs are on lead. We go by in peace, I will either put kaya on lead or turn in the other direction and if its too late I can always recall her. If she ran upto their dog and the dog attacked I take full responsibility its up to me to be in control of her and they deserve their walk too. If kaya would not recall I would not have her off lead simple.
Then there are the other DA dogs or should I say other owners! The ones with DA dogs who let their dogs run off lead miles from them. Kaya was attacked by one it bit a hole in her ear when she was young, the next week it was off lead again and attacked another dog. Their the ones I fear most! So when I see a DA dog on lead that I am familiar with I don't worry about it, its when I see dogs I don't know off lead that I get my guard up. That's what I mean by not the dog but the owners.

Hi I think if we really own up and not try to dress it up,because of the media and some owners I hasten to add have demonised a particular breed, even I who love every dog on the planet gets a frisson of fear when I see a particular type of dog.and that stems not just from the press,but I saw a staffie in the park,hanging from a tyre,legs off the ground,and thought the jaws on that,what sort of damage could that do to a less powerful dog or even us,I felt bad,even thinking like that,and the staffies I have met are sweet natured,but deep down there is that fear.crystalgirl

My post was not directed at anyone in particular, but the quote "its the owners that are to blame" is sadly thrown around all to often, we get it on here all the time, its either , the owner is to blame because they want a hard dog 2) the owner is to blame because they have never socialised the dog as a pup.

Sadly this thinking comes from naivety (for many) as they really have no idea why or how some dogs become reactive or aggressive.

You make some good points, yes some of us who own reactive dogs are responsible, and some are not, on the other hand there are to many folk with nice nature dogs that don't seem to think they have any responsibility for their dogs being pushy/disobedient , they are quick to blame the owner of the dog that is reacting to their friendly pooch when it goes wrong.

The number of times I hear......... I would never own a dog like that, .... that dog should be PTS, ...... .... you should not walk that dog in public places to name a few, its water of a ducks back to me these days, but I often think walk a mile in my shoes, because one day you might be in them.

So today we went to walk Ella in one of the bigger parks. First, we went to get breakfast at a hut that sold food and there was a massive mastiff-like dog. Ella was very close to him, on the lead, but didn't react at all as the dog was ignoring her. Then we walked her and she was a dream. She even went swimming in the river a bit (even though we lost her ball in there in the end..) but she loved it.
We encountered a lot of dogs, and I always took her on the lead. I was constantly telling her what a good girl she was and even though she was still clearly uncomfortable with other dogs, she seemed to understand I wouldn't let them hurt her. She even let them sniff her and she didn't growl at all! Then we went over a narrow bridge, which she didn't like at all so on the way back I wanted to make sure to reassure her a lot on the bridge. As I was almost halfway over it, a horde of husky-type dogs (some with muzzles) ran over the bridge towards us. I thought bridge and dogs would be too much at once so turned back into the open space. It was a bit chaotic, so many dogs running around, and she was a bit stressed but she didn't react badly at all. Even as a huge dog came and kind of nudged her head, she didn't do anything. Later, we weren't quick enough to get her on the lead when a big dog approached so I just held her by the harness next to me as my boyfriend was smoothing the other dog, and again she didn't react.
She was soooo good (and got lots of treats) and it was great seeing her run around in the forest (she loves sticks and hanging from trees) and circling the fields. I'm so proud of her
Here's a picture of her from today (if I manage to upload it)!

[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

Aww well done both of you! Mine is reactive & I would love to get to this stage x

Well done Ella, you beautiful girl!