There are many types of PitBull dogs, although they all maintain the same patterns of character, strength and obedience at general levels. This is why it is very important to know how to properly educate a Pit Bull, as a bad education can lead to a very dangerous dog.
Pit Bulls are dogs that are characterized mainly by their strength and bite, being prey dogs they can cause strong bites without sunning their prey, whatever it is. We could say that they are dogs like those of any other breed and that everything depends on their education and training, but the truth is that this is not the case.
They are very strong dogs with a lot of character, which need a much more intense and constant education than that of any other dog. With a proper education they can become good dogs, but to be completely honest … few people know how to properly educate a Pit Bull.
Index of contents
- 1 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Your Home Site
- 2 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Mealtime
- 3 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Learning to be the Alpha Male
- 4 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Walking and Socializing
- 5 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Pee and Poop Outside the Home
- 6 How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Teaching Him Not to Bite
- 7 How to Educate an Adult PitBull Dog
Unfortunately the different pit bull classes They have become the fashionable breed among many teenagers, who far from knowing how to educate their dog, use it on many occasions to show off or intimidate, a big mistake.
We are going to explain how to train a PitBull as a puppy, or if you have adopted it as an adult, we are also going to give some effective tips for its education and socialization.
How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Your Home Site
We must prepare a place at home where our PitBull puppy can rest, a comfortable and fluffy bed is the most suitable place for it. You can make it yourself with the help of some cushions and blankets or buy it at a pet store, the truth is that its price is not very high.
The bed should be placed in the place where you spend the most time with your PitBull, if you make life in the living room, put your bed there so that you can sleep peacefully whenever you want. remember that puppies sleep many times a day, they take short but constant naps.
If you plan to sleep in the living room or kitchen at night, do not go to pamper him even if he cries or complains, as this will cause him to learn to cry to get your attention and never learn to sleep only in his bed.
How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Learning to be the Alpha Male
Pit Bulls are very dominant dogs, it is not something that we think about but it is something that they bring in their own genetics. Even their puppies are generally more dominant than any other breed puppy, so it is very important to make it clear who should obey whom from day one.
PitBull puppies are known as gladiator puppies, because they often prefer to fight playing with each other than to run or bite a toy like other puppies do.
Here are some tips you should take to help your dog understand that you command and that he must obey you. Remember that you should never hit your dog, if he does something else just scold him or ignore him (always using positive reinforcement when he does it well).
- When you go out or enter home, you should always do it first and then the dog. If you go with more people, let the humans enter or leave first and the dog last.
- Never let him climb on top of you to grab food or sit on top of you. It is even recommended not to let them use the sofa at home, or the bed where humans sleep.
- When you put food on it and start eating, try removing the food for a few seconds or putting your hand between it and the food to stop it. You should never let him growl or bite you, he should simply respect your hand and wait for you to remove it to continue eating.
- Do not let it come out on you, or pose its front legs on you as if it were pulling up. Scold him if he does.
- Never let him ride you (like when they mate), or let him spill some of his urine on you.
- If his food matches yours, never let him eat first. Have breakfast or eat your first and when you finish, put your food on it.
All these tips will be very useful to reduce the dominance of the PitBull, and to understand that only you have the power to give orders. In short, they will help your dog to respect you as an Alpha male.
As soon as your puppy has all its compulsory vaccinations, you should take him out for a walk every day, several times and always respecting the same schedules (more or less). So if you take it out four times a day, try to always take it out at the same times.
It is super important that you let him be a dog on the street, that is, let him smell all the things he wants (even if they are poop), let him smell all the puppies he comes across, let him play with other puppies and Above all, he lets other puppies smell him and scold him when necessary.
Remember that dogs greet and recognize each other by smelling their butts and genitals, so never stop them from doing so. Although it may seem unpleasant to us, for them it is the most natural thing in the world.
If you think that it is impossible to walk with it because it gives many jerks or is never calm, we leave you some detailed tips for you to put into practice: Teach a puppy to walk.
If you have a dog park close to home, it would be great if you let him play with other dogs every day. It is very important that he socializes well, that he plays, that the bigger dogs growl at him when he does something wrong and even that he gets scared. Everything is part of learning and everything is absolutely necessary in this breed.
Educating a Pit Bull puppy necessarily involves socializing it correctly with dogs and people, since otherwise our dog will be gruff, fearful and consequently aggressive. You can see detailed info at: How to socialize a dog.
If during walks or games with other dogs your PitBull puppy tries to dominate or get aggressive with them, you should stop him, scold him and sit him down for a while until he relaxes. It is totally normal for them to bite while playing, but there is a very big difference between biting while playing and biting due to aggressiveness.
How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Pee and Poop Outside the Home
Puppies always relieve themselves wherever they want, that is, indoors. We should never be angry that our dog has uri
nated or defecated indoors, nor should we look bad or scold them. We will simply ignore and clean them.
It is a very common mistake to think that if we rub his muzzle against his pee the dog will learn not to do it at home…. please, never do this, it’s useless !!
The correct way to teach our PitBull puppy to do his things outside the home is with positive reinforcement and scheduled outings. The first thing we must do is schedule his outings, so he will learn what time he has to go out for a walk and consequently to hold his pee until he leaves.
For example, we can take our puppy out at 9:00 in the morning, at 12:00 in the morning, at 3:00 in the afternoon at 7:00 in the afternoon and at 11:00 at night. Remember that it is recommended to go out at least four times a day, most of the outings can be fifteen or twenty minutes so they just smell a little and do their things, but one of them should be at least one or two hours, for you to enjoy.
Every day we must take it out at the same times, the hours that we have decided. If we don’t respect this, he will never learn to pee outside the home.
The trick is very simple, when they go for a walk with us and pee or poop in the street, we will wait for them to finish and we will congratulate them very much. We will give them words of encouragement, we will caress them, we will congratulate them and we will even give them a prize (a cookie, a piece of sausage, etc …).
If our dog pees or poops indoors, we will completely ignore it. In this way, they will learn very quickly that they have to do it outside the home, that way they get congratulations and a prize. Dogs are not stupid, believe me.
The normal thing is that in a few weeks your PitBull puppy has learned, remember that you should never start educating him before three months, because he will simply not learn anything.
How to Educate a PitBull Puppy: Teaching Him Not to Bite
All puppies bite, absolutely all. They bite their beds, they bite furniture, they bite their toys and they even bite us. It is completely natural since they use their mouths for absolutely everything, just like we use our hands.
On the other hand there is the stage in which the teeth come out or they are moved by the definitive ones, what we know as the period of teething. What causes them pain and the need to relieve themselves by biting things.
Teaching our PitBull puppy not to bite is actually quite simple, as well as mandatory. When our dog bites us we will scold him to stop doing it, we should never hit them, just scold them. Then, we will take a toy or dog teether and play with it, so that it bites it. The most normal thing is to play take it and I throw it to see if I take it from you….
When you bite into the toy while we play, we will congratulate you. If he bites clothes, furniture or anything else, we will do the same: scold him and give him a toy to bite him, this way he will learn that he can bite his toys but not other things.
If our PitBull puppy bites a person, we should firmly scold and punish him. The punishment is to sit and look at him with an angry face for a few minutes, so that he understands that we have really been angry. You can read more information about how to solve this type of behavior problem here: How to prevent a puppy from biting.
How to Educate an Adult PitBull Dog
Unfortunately and given that it is a very strong breed with a very marked character, if you have adopted an adult Pit Bull our advice is that you go to a professional trainer as soon as possible.
Only a professional trainer will be able to assess the dog’s aptitude and apply the discipline he deems necessary. An adult Pit Bull has been able to have a bad life in the past, that has caused him to develop bad behaviors, or simply has not had an adequate education, let’s not forget that many bad people use this breed as fighting dogs.
Seriously, go to a good professional trainer. They are inexpensive and highly recommended.