| Training pit bull puppies to be great family pets takes | | | | instances when the behavior is the same. |
| more "know how" than most people would expect. | | | | BIG mistake! |
| While Pits are a loving and loyal breed, they still can | | | | We learned that pit bulls learn best in an environment |
| get out of control if not properly trained. Laura and I | | | | where the "alpha leader" of the household conducts |
| should know, we spent several months trying to get | | | | one on one training in a controlled environment on a |
| our pit bull, "Rocco", to cooperate. We had no | | | | regular schedule. Of course, the dog must be old |
| success until we received expert advice from a | | | | enough to pay strict attention for approx. 10 minutes |
| professional pit bull handler. | | | | each session. Generally, this form of training pit bull |
| The key to training pit bull puppies is to start the | | | | puppies can begin at about 5 months. |
| training when they are very young. Even at a very | | | | For training to be effective, a pit bull must get plenty |
| young age, pit bulls are very responsive to vocal | | | | of exercise. If they are restless and have too much |
| tone and one word commands. In fact, Laura and I | | | | pent up energy, their attention spans suffer. And |
| learned that you can begin training as early as 8 | | | | PLEASE, if you want your pit bull puppy training to go |
| weeks! | | | | smoothly, don't isolate your dog. Allow your puppy to |
| Needless to say, at such a young age, pit bulls have | | | | socialize REGULARLY! |
| EXTREMELY short attention spans! Nevertheless, firm | | | | Quite frankly, Laura and I were on the verge of |
| commands such as "NO" and "Down" can be applied | | | | putting "Rocco" up for adoption. We made the |
| from the day you bring your pit bull home. The key is | | | | mistake of trying to train him when we didn't know |
| to be consistent and firm. Don't make the mistake of | | | | what we were doing. And, to make matters worse, |
| being firm in some instances, and not firm in other | | | | we waited until he was almost an adult to begin. |