I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

I’m about to buy Yet another Halti double ended lead. He’s so much better with a lead attatched to 2 points on his harness but he’s also a chewer and just keeps going through them. I had to replace one section of the last lead with chain. That helped, but he’ll still try and chew the other end when he’s double-leaded.

Are there any double ended leads that are. Bit more durable than the Halti ones? He seems to be able to get most of the way through in one ‘chatting to someone and not noticing he’s sat there chewing away on his lead’ moment.

never seen so many puppies

So much this, our local ball chucking spot had nine (!) puppies going full on berzerko with each other the other day. It was kinda fun watching the owners, half were sipping their coffees, other half trying to control the situation.

I’ve noticed an increasing amount of nervous puppy owners recently. Odie will bound over and play with a puppy, who is clearly have lots of fun in the way dogs do. The owner will be wringing their hands and murmuring about how they’re playing a bit rough and I’ll have to call Odie away, much to his and the puppy’s disappointment. 🤷‍♂️
I think there’s a lot of people who anthropomorphosise dogs a bit too much - they’re animals and they play like animals!

If there are no fountains of gore or unattached limbs cartwheeling to the horizon, they're playing. My lot look like a gang fight to the death, then go home and snore in one big heap.

As a puppy owner I wish my one would play with dogs more, she's way more interested in people. We're trying to build it up for her but if we come across another dog in the park it seems like most are uninterested in playing with a puppy too.

On the other side of this, we've let Crumpet
off the lead for the first time this week and she definitely gets a bit carried away sometimes. She doesn't seem to understand that she's 20kg+ and still growing. It's quite nerve wracking seeing her hurtling towards some ancient pug who clearly doesn't want to play and hoping that she stops before she flattens it. I don't think she would ever intentionally hurt another dog but we have had to put her on the lead a couple of times when she's not got the message from a less playful/older/smaller dog.
She got a taste of her own medicine earlier when a much bigger dog, about her age, was trying to play but was too unco-ordinated and gangly to control it's limbs properly, resulting in Crumpet getting knocked over into a massive patch of mud. She didn't seem to mind but it's not hard to imagine a dog picking up an injury like that!

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If there are no fountains of gore or unattached limbs cartwheeling to the horizon, they're playing. My lot look like a gang fight to the death, then go home and snore in one big heap.

I had a chat with our vet about what @AlexD described when he was treating Otto for a minor bite wound after having an altercation with another dog. (not the most recent one I posted here, this happened a few years ago)

The vet's view was that it was supposed to be a warning nip that was misjudged. He explained that in the very rare occasion that a dog intends to harm another dog its extremely brutal. Apparently most commonly, a dog will go for the belly with the aim to eviscerate the other dog 🤢

The conversation reminded me of an incident I saw outside Lewisham police station when I was a teenager. Two staffies were in a serious fight. About half a dozen police officers were trying to separate the two dogs with the owners. There as nothing they could do. DEspite all the manpower, they couldn't be separated. One of the dogs died on the spot and it didn't look like the other dog was in good shape either.

As our vet said, 99 times out of 100 its just handbags.

For the first few weeks the dogs were called "Puppy" as the thinking is it ends on a soft note. Once the basics are learnt then the dog's name was changed.

I did this with benny, he was even listed as puppy at the vets/groomers etc for about 8 weeks, I still use it when I want to call him in a non-serious tone i.e. "come on pup" if it's more of a gentle nudge than an outright order.

About half a dozen police officers were trying to separate the two dogs with the owners. There as nothing they could do. DEspite all the manpower, they couldn't be separated.

Unfortunately this is probably because they didn't know what they were doing, and why should they? There are only two ways to get a dog that was bred for fighting to let go of another when it is serious about it. One is with a break stick, inserted behind the canine teeth/across the molars and then twisted. The other is to choke the dog with a lead or belt so that it has to let go to gasp for breathe. In order to do either, you need to get the dog's body between your knees and one person holding each dog (assuming both dogs want to fight) to stop them re-engaging once separated.

People will tell you that a friend of a friend stopped a dog fight by sticking a finger up a dog's arse, squeezing his balls, throwing water on the dogs, etc. but none of these will work for dogs determined to go at it and they will not give a shit about you. Pulling the dog away once it has a grip on the other dog won't work, all it will do is pull the other dog in the same direction.

The difference between two dogs having a scuffle and dogs that were bred for it actually fighting is huge, and the latter is scary. You won't see gore and flying limbs, but a dog that knows how to bite, hold and shake is chilling.

Sorry for an unpleasant post.

they will not give a shit about you

That is probably just as well ...

Do you referee dog fights in your spare time?

She is adorable

Sorry for an unpleasant post.

Good knowledge though! I hope I never have to use it.

So I've been wasting all these years shoving my fingers up dogs' arses?

The problem is that people always say things like "it's not the breed, it's the owner" or "it's how you bring the dog up that matters". This is true to an extent but dogs like Staffords, despite the dilution of the breed for looks, still have a greater propensity for fighting - just as border collies do for rounding things up and gun dogs do for fetching stuff - and the goods to back it up when they do. There is a "gameness" that is there and can come out. Thankfully it very rarely does but, having had them on and off for over 30 years, I believe it is my responsibility to know how to stop a fight if one kicks off.

Sorry if it offends...

I'm currently walking Nori using two leads at the same time. One Halti head collar to help with the pulling (works very well but i'm aiming to get her off it) and a slack slip lead just in case. She hasn't shown any aggression but there's no way in hell i could do anything if things kicked off without the slip lead. My partner is pretty confident with her but has never seen what things look like when they go bad. Hoping she never has to but for now i'm doing most the walking!

I have two small dogs. I also very much agree that dogs are dogs, and like to fuck about, and 99% of the time its totally harmless....... but both my dogs have been injured by other larger dogs being over zealous with them - obviously not intentionally, but it happens easily..... if you own a large dog you should be aware small dogs are considerably more fragile than big ones.

Rudy is now sometimes quite aggressive towards large dogs in general, and especialy black labs when they come near him, which is 100% down to a massivley over enthusiastic labrodor totally knocking the shit out of him a few years ago. Thge labrador was not being aggressive in any way, but injured Rudy pretty badly as its owner just stood there watching and saying 'ahhhh he's only being friendly'.

still have a greater propensity for fighting

Yep, i know another seasoned Staffie owner who told me the same thing. He actually all but put me off getting one but i'm happy we went for it.

If you can get one of these https://www.harnesslead.com/ they are a good alternative to Halti's and a lot of shelters/rescues in the US use them for adult dogs that haven't learned to walk on a lead. You might be able to get one through Amazon, or you can improvise with a slip lead - but look out for rubbing on Nori's flank if you do.

Edit: example of how to improvise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnxayUqdDZY

It doesn’t offend at all. I was only joking that you appear an expert on fighting dogs.

I’ve actually got a staffy x JRT. He’s scrappy at times and I’ve seen him have a pop at dogs but certainly nothing murderous. It’s the normally the warning nip someone described up thread.

I don’t know which side of him that comes from - you’ve got the napoleon complex of the Jack and the Staffy tendencies rolled into one. It’s not a mix I’d recommend to anyone to be quite honest.

Totally get this and Nori like to jump us so i've developed a stand on the lead techniques to stop her jumping up and squishing smaller dogs. I'm working on her threshold training atm so if she starts to get too excited before getting close we move on.

I had the opposite problem as some smaller dog owners in my park let them run wild so they come play without warning. I've solved the problem by getting up earlier!

Thats a good solution! Most small dogs are generally lazy as fuck - my two dont even get out of bed til at least 11:00 most days!

I do love a JRT! We have a jack cross in the family too - my step daughter's

Sadly ours missed 18 months of socialisation before we got him. So he’s got issues which we’ve mostly ironed out with a behaviourist.

I suspect he was bred from working dogs. He’d make an unbelievable ratter.

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Ah nice, that might work with the lead we have. Will give it a go.

I picked up a harness with a chest loop but it didn't work at all. Its supposed to spin her round if she pulls but it just binds on her leg. I tried the loop on the back and it's definitely better than regular lead on neck collar but i'm sticking with the Halti for now as it's easier to stop her jumping up.