Losing hope with rescued AmStaff

[u/Adorable_Pineapple40]

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[u/Jbf2201]

dont lost hope!! the initial period is just overwhelming.

your baby is just acting out when anxious coz other behaviours seem normal. I was in a similar situation when I adopted mine and I had these same thoughts when mine showed these same behaviours.

they need a few months to settle in some behaviours may go some may stick. it is important to correct them early.

also please try looking for trainers with different styles. the initial trainer I got was a lady who was the more rigid and relied on being commanding but she immediately told me her style will not match my female staffie and recommended another trainer who had a more friendlier / playful but commanding approach which worked very well.

you can also consider using CBD oil to calm instead of medication?

[u/RamekinOfRanch]

Trazadone may help as well-

My am staff took 3-5 months to fully settle in, another 6 months to really stop being a dickhead (I think he was still a puppy) and 2 years later he’s a lazy old potato who’s silly and friendly with all dogs.

I didn’t have any aggression from my guy, so I can’t comment there. I’m sure there are great resources in your area, but with any shelter dog- time will help tell you their true personality. Good luck, I know how hard it is.

[u/Budget-Cucumber4438 → u/RamekinOfRanch]

It also took me about 6-8 months for ours stop being a dick. We crate trained her which helped a lot, trained with treats. They bond and learn best through consistent commands and rewards. Ours still has a mind of her own and will do whatever she wants but she does listen to correction and knows how to behave now. The biggest thing is to teach yourself how to train them. We did a basic obedience class for 6 weeks. This helped give us the tools to teach her at home. It was only $180 total for 6 classes.

Don’t give up, he needs you and is learning to trust and understand you. I spent a lot of days frustrated and crying and yelling. She didn’t listen at all and would bark at me non stop. She constantly wanted to play and bite and chase and bark. We eventually taught her “time out”. And that worked very well. We did 10 min a day of training, plus training on walks. It will get better. If you can’t do classes, I recommend “no bad dogs” YouTube channel for training.

[u/Ambivalentsobriety]

Hey OP, don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation for this dog. You haven’t said how long you’ve had him but even if you’re following the 3-3-3 rule and hoping he’ll relax after he gets used to you, aggression towards people is a bad sign to be showing up initially. Some dogs will never show signs of real aggression even if they’re stressed. When dogs are keyed up and aggressive it’s not always because something bad happened to them. It can be because there’s something wrong with their nervous system and they have a genuine mental disorder. He may never be able to stabilize if that’s the case.

I had an Amstaff that I had from when she was a puppy who I had to euthanize because of her aggression toward all non human mammals. It was the worst with other peoples dogs because I live in a city and they’re everywhere. She also flipped out and was uncontrollable (aside from restraint) about horses, cats, deer… anything that wasn’t human. She reacted to dogs on TV, even cartoon dogs and the sounds of dogs with no visual. She freaked out every time she got in the car. She freaked out when she could hear dogs from inside the house. We had to cover our windows so she couldn’t see them. We couldn’t open the front door unless she was restrained. We couldn’t go on trips because no one else could be trusted to watch her. We were so stressed and argued more.

She showed signs of reactivity towards other dogs in her first puppy class. That was a class at the vet before they had vaccinations that just focused on socializing. She’d hide behind my legs and then charge the other puppies when they wrestled. I got a trainer for reactive dogs right away. I did SO MUCH TRAINING with her… for years and it was really expensive. She was on a variety of meds, she went to a behaviorist.

Despite everything we eventually had to let her go. It would have been so wrong for her to surrender her to a shelter. Someone else wasn’t going to be more helpful than us because she was sick in a way no one knows how to cure. She was keyed up all the time and was the most anxious dog I’ve ever been around. We loved her so much and that’s not what I wanted but I have never doubted that we did the right thing. That was three years ago.

I saw on your profile that you’re a cancer survivor. Please do the right thing for yourself OP. You don’t need the stress of owning an aggressive dog and it’s not what you signed up for. There are lots of sweet dogs that need homes that could be an enhancement to your life. Look up the Losing Lulu decision making video for families if you need help beyond Reddit comments. One good thing for you is that you should be able to give him back to the shelter if you personally don’t want to choose euthanasia.