Training the Pit Bull Dog
When people think of a pit bull, they might get a picture of a ferocious canine monster ready to maul anyone who might step in his territory. This, however, is a sad misconception of what these dogs are really like. Like any other dog, pit bulls differ in temperament and personality by breed. And if trained correctly and treated well, the pit bull can become a loyal companion, great guard-dog, and a life-long friend to the person that owns him.
To avoid having your pit bull get the image of a monster around the neighborhood, train him how to behave and maybe even teach him a few tricks to impress the guests. Training a pit bull is no easy task and if you wish to succeed you will need to be consistent, patient, and have creative ways to keep your dog focused on the tasks at hand.
Being consistent means you have to train daily or at least every other day. Just like people, pit bulls forget things if they are not reinforced over long periods of time. If you randomly do training sessions twice every month, you will probably not be very successful at getting the desired result of a well-trained pit bull.
Focus these daily training sessions of about half an hour each on a specific task such as “Sit Down” or “Roll Over”. Give the dog an incentive such as a treat if he does the task correctly. This kind of positive conditioning is proven to work well with dogs over the long term.
Spend several sessions with each kind of activity or task until you are confident that your pit bull fully grasps the concept of the task and does it almost instinctively. For harder and more complex tasks, break it down into parts. For a tasks like “fetch the stick”, break it into two parts such as first getting to dog to go to the stick and only after he has mastered that part, bringing the stick back to you. A reward such as a treat for each completed step will keep your pit bull interested in the task.
The second trait you must posses when training a pit bull is patience and a willingness to work with the dog. Not having patience will lead to failure in training and even danger to the trainer. You should take it as a fact that your dog will not do everything right on the first try, or the second, or the third, or the fourth. It takes many attempts and lots of hard work to get a certain desired behavior.
Be creative and have a friend help. Give examples to the dog of what it should do when a certain command is given by imitating or having a friend imitate that command when it is given. Dogs are good at learning behaviors by example so using examples will increase the chances of success and speed up the process.
If you have patience, creativity, and consistently train your pit bull, you will be rewarded by years of friendship from a good and loyal companion. Having this in mind, it is really worth the time and effort to train your dog as it will bring you years of joy and satisfaction.
To avoid having your pit bull get the image of a monster around the neighborhood, train him how to behave and maybe even teach him a few tricks to impress the guests. Training a pit bull is no easy task and if you wish to succeed you will need to be consistent, patient, and have creative ways to keep your dog focused on the tasks at hand.
Being consistent means you have to train daily or at least every other day. Just like people, pit bulls forget things if they are not reinforced over long periods of time. If you randomly do training sessions twice every month, you will probably not be very successful at getting the desired result of a well-trained pit bull.
Focus these daily training sessions of about half an hour each on a specific task such as “Sit Down” or “Roll Over”. Give the dog an incentive such as a treat if he does the task correctly. This kind of positive conditioning is proven to work well with dogs over the long term.
Spend several sessions with each kind of activity or task until you are confident that your pit bull fully grasps the concept of the task and does it almost instinctively. For harder and more complex tasks, break it down into parts. For a tasks like “fetch the stick”, break it into two parts such as first getting to dog to go to the stick and only after he has mastered that part, bringing the stick back to you. A reward such as a treat for each completed step will keep your pit bull interested in the task.
The second trait you must posses when training a pit bull is patience and a willingness to work with the dog. Not having patience will lead to failure in training and even danger to the trainer. You should take it as a fact that your dog will not do everything right on the first try, or the second, or the third, or the fourth. It takes many attempts and lots of hard work to get a certain desired behavior.
Be creative and have a friend help. Give examples to the dog of what it should do when a certain command is given by imitating or having a friend imitate that command when it is given. Dogs are good at learning behaviors by example so using examples will increase the chances of success and speed up the process.
If you have patience, creativity, and consistently train your pit bull, you will be rewarded by years of friendship from a good and loyal companion. Having this in mind, it is really worth the time and effort to train your dog as it will bring you years of joy and satisfaction.
1 comments:
Great post! Pit bulls are the most misunderstood breed, well, in my opinion.
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