Training pit bull puppies to be great family pets takes more "know how" than most people would expect. While Pits are a loving and loyal breed, they still can get out of control if not properly trained. Laura and I should know, we spent several months trying to get our pit bull, "Rocco", to cooperate. We had no success until we received expert advice from a professional pit bull handler.
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The key to training pit bull puppies is to start the training when they are very young. Even at a very young age, pit bulls are very responsive to vocal tone and one word commands. In fact, Laura and I learned that you can begin training as early as 8 weeks!
Needless to say, at such a young age, pit bulls have EXTREMELY short attention spans! Nevertheless, firm commands such as "NO" and "Down" can be applied from the day you bring your pit bull home. The key is to be consistent and firm. Don't make the mistake of being firm in some instances, and not firm in other instances when the behavior is the same.
BIG mistake!
We learned that pit bulls learn best in an environment where the "alpha leader" of the household conducts one on one training in a controlled environment on a regular schedule. Of course, the dog must be old enough to pay strict attention for approx. 10 minutes each session. Generally, this form of training pit bull puppies can begin at about 5 months.
For training to be effective, a pit bull must get plenty of exercise. If they are restless and have too much pent up energy, their attention spans suffer. And PLEASE, if you want your pit bull puppy training to go smoothly, don't isolate your dog. Allow your puppy to socialize REGULARLY!
Quite frankly, Laura and I were on the verge of putting "Rocco" up for adoption. We made the mistake of trying to train him when we didn't know what we were doing. And, to make matters worse, we waited until he was almost an adult to begin.
American Pit Bull Terriers are difficult dogs to raise-they want a lot of care and attention. Neglected Pit Bulls may become aggressive and enter into fights with other dogs and even humans. Since the 1980s there have been many incidences of scrapes, even mauling cases, involving Pit Bulls. Though the culprits of these violent attacks were a handful, there has been enough bad publicity for the episodes and it has created a phobia for Pit Bulls among the people. The last twenty years have been very difficult for Pit Bulls, what with governments banning them from their cities (Manitoba, Ontario being examples), people turning them loose in the streets or abandoning them at rescue shelters.
This is where Pit Bull rescue shelters come in. These are voluntary organizations, which take in stray and abandoned Pit Bulls, nourish them, care for them and even train them until they find an equally loving and caring owner to adopt these pets. Pit Bulls taken up by shelters are spayed and neutered, vaccinated for heartworm and given other vaccinations as may be required.
Pit Bull rescue shelters operate widely on the Internet. There are various organizations like the Pit Bull Rescue Central, Bay Area Dog-lovers Responsible About Pit Bulls (BADRAP), among many others who have their hearts Merle color XL American bully puppies for sale in the right places when relocating Pit Bulls is concerned. These organizations accept Pit Bulls from people who may wish to abandon their dogs for whatever reason, treat them and then scout for proper homes to relocate them. Most of these organizations screen the applicants of people who wish to adopt Pit Bulls, even visit their homes and cross-check with their veterinarians.
In today's fad-driven world, people are opting for dogs that may be bred for their looks or certain other traits. However, Pit Bull rescue teams cannot emphasize enough how much better it is to take in a rescued dog than a bred dog. For starters, it is morally better to give a home to a dog that has been rescued from some unfortunate circumstances in the past. Rescue dogs are already spayed or neutered and treated for vaccines. Most of the rescue dogs are already trained under previous owners. And needless to say, rescue dogs look upon their new owners like a messiah and will be totally loyal to them. To add icing on the cake, rescue dogs are very cheap, less than $150, while the costs of purchasing a bred dog could go up to $5000.
But there are some strings attached. As most of the dogs picked up by rescue shelters are stray or abandoned, there may not be documentation on them. Rescue homes would not know the lineages and past histories of most of their dogs. However, these are minor things when you consider the bigger picture of giving a homeless dog a home.