Other dogs, on the other hand, tend to bring out the aggressive behavior of the Pit Bull. Originally bred to fight other dogs, Pit Bulls generally will not tolerate other dogs, especially those of the same sex.
But with an owner who is knowledgeable about Pit Bulls and their personality traits, this breed will flourish and bring a great deal of enjoyment to their human companions. Pit Bulls tend to be very confidant, loving and bright, but also very dependent on humans. If left on their own for too long, they will often develop destructive habits such as chewing out of frustration and loneliness.
A good owner for this pet would be someone who is very responsible and committed to the specific care required by a Pit Bull. Pit Bulls need a great deal of training, exercise and one on one attention with their owners to keep from becoming frustrated. They should also not be left alone with other dogs. Therefore, a household with no other pets is an ideal home for a Pit bull.
Contrary to the image that they have in the media, Pit Bulls can be great with children. In general, Pit Bulls love people, especially children. The most common problem associated with Pit Bulls and children is that Pit Bulls are extremely energetic and they have a tendency, in their excitement, to knock young children over, puppies especially have a tendency for this.
They are also very easy to train due to their high level of intelligence and desire to please their owner. For this reason, positive methods of training work best for a Pit Bull. Demoralizing punishments usually are very counterproductive in Pit Bulls because of their personality traits and should be avoided. Pit Bulls live for an average of 12 to 14 years and usually experience good health for their entire lifetimes. Some common health problems experienced by the breed include Parvo, hip displaysia, hereditary cataracts and allergies.
In General, this breed is very easy to socialize with humans and is typically a great deal of fun to have around. Many Pit Bulls exhibit superior performance when it comes to obedience training and physical activities such as Frisbee and playing ball. For these reasons, Pit Bulls should not be overlooked when selecting a pet if you have what it takes to care for this special breed.
When it comes to training your dog, there are as many techniques out there as there are trainers. Talk to ten dog owners about how they train, and you will get ten different answers.
I always suggest that new owners avoid prong collars, not because they can't be effective at training, but because the techniques required to effectively use a prong collar on your dog isn't easy to learn. An inexperienced trainer runs the risk or over correcting and causing potential dog - trainer relationship problems by using a prong collar. I have never met a dog that didn't respond well to positive reinforcement training techniques. It may not be the fastest way to train a dog, but in my opinion it produces the best results both in the dogs attitude and his desire to learn new things.
When starting to train your pit bull with positive reinforcement, I find that the use of treats works the best. You may be able to try using a favorite toy. I try to wing my dogs off of treats and on to toys once they get older.
To train using positive reinforcement is quite simple. For the first couple of sessions with your dog, you are going to have to vocalize a command and then use the treat to trick the dog into doing it. For example I would say "Sit" and then hold a treat over the dogs head until the dog sat down. Then I would give the dog the treat while verbally praising her.
It is important to keep the sessions short and fun. For young dogs its best to keep it too around 5 minutes, as they get older and their attention span increases you can increase the time of the sessions.
As the dog learns that the sitting after hearing the command sit, means he gets a treat, you will notice that you no longer have to trick the dog. However, at this point it is important that you keep giving the treat. Once your dog masters one trick its time to move on to something else.
Always remember that when you teach new tricks it is important to continue to review old tricks as well. Dogs are like people in the sense that they sometimes forget what they did yesterday.
Once your dog has learned the basic commands of Sit, Lay Down, Roll Over, and stay you can move on to something more difficult. With my young dogs I play a game of "Name that Toy", where I say a toy name and the dog goes and picks it out. Training for this game takes some time and patience but it teaches a lot the skills that the dog will use later, including releasing the toy after he has brought it back too me.
Always remember to keep training sessions fun, this is good for both you the owner and the dog. By keeping it fun the dog will look forward to learning new things, and you the owner will be amazed at how capable the pit bull is at learning.
Both Randy Myers & Dave Russell are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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