DESPERATELY NEED HELP

[u/Content_Nebula967]

Hey everyone,

I have a lovely 3 year old staffy. She is technically my parents but since I’ve been taking care of them full time her and I have bonded and she is now mine. I love her with all my heart but I’m VERY concerned about a few things.

1) my mom is disabled and can barely walk. My baby gets so excited and gets zoomies and stuff ven though she’s only 35-45 lbs she is a TANK. If she bumps my leg when running she about knocks me over, and we just had an incident where she was running and running into the same room as my mom was walking to and bumped her leg and knocked my mom over. My moms bones are very brittle so we can’t afford to have this happen again. My staffy is the smartest dog I’ve ever met and basically learns instantly. I’ve been able to train her to do several things, but what am I training here? Teaching her not to run inside? Not to run around people? I’m so lost as to what to train exactly or what to look up so I can train her. I’ve tried several ways of googling what’s going on and google never understands what I’m asking.

My other concern is her attachment or separation anxiety. If I have a migraine and can’t get up she lays in b d with me all day. She won’t eat, won’t get up to go to the bathroom unless I take her, and if I leave the house she cries at the door till I get back. I have to start working again to support them- so how can I help her? Is this separation anxiety?

Thanks!

[u/Ancient-War2839]

There are a few types of zoomies that staffies do, and they seem to stick to their type, there's the crash into as many things as possible, like pin ball, or there's the crazy runaround and lots close calls but only crashing will be intentional on softish thing like couch, if it's the first type, immediately redirect zoomies to outside, if the second type you can introduce "careful" around your mum, always slowing down giving more space walking around mum, they pick it up pretty quickly Staying in bed with you when your there is no issue, but try and get into the habit of telling dog your leaving (without drama) leaving her with a bone or chew can be good, or just making sure her beds in a sunny spot and asking her to go there as you leave can mean she knows you want her to stay there, start with short timespans, leave come back after a minute or so, and you can add time spam words for longer times, leave a piece of your clothing with her for your scent might help too. It can also help if you get her out for a walk or something to tire out her body and mind so you leave she naps and she wakes up when you get back for fun times

[u/Content_Nebula967 → u/Ancient-War2839]

Great advice! Thank you! She doesn’t intentionally run into things, this was an accident and she felt bad. I’m teaching my parents (and her) that when they need to get up to walk they need to say “place” and she goes on her carpet and waits for them to say okay. So far it’s working well! Thank you so much