I have a (roughly) 4 month old male red nose pit bull, Rugby.
Rugby has only has his first set of shots. Our vet told us he can only go outside after getting all his shots, other dog owners insist it's okay. I'd really like to get him outside as I don't think he's getting enough exercise in our house, he always has tons of energy.
He bites everything, and doesn't like to be petted much. This is a big problem as I have two young nephews (5 and 6) who want to play with their dog. He attempts to bite me frequently and has bitten my older nephew recently while trying to play with him.
Is there anyway to discourage his biting?
Rugby sits and we're working on stay though it takes several tries for him to listen, any tips on improving his reaction time?
We've had Rugby since he was about a month old (too young, yes I know) and he still doesn't consistently 'do his business' where he's supposed to. We started with training mats but he took to destroying them 4-5 a day and we switched to plain old newspaper to save some cash. (both of which he tries to eat.)
He'll bark and whine if I come home or leave him alone but he'll growl if anyone else walks on the stairs and scares thee kids. And lately if I cross my legs he'll try to subdue my foot and hump it.
Also Rugby doesn't like having things around his neck, we don't have a collar and leash as of yet since we're not taking him out, but I think we should try a harness and a chain leash because a regular leash he'll probably chew through.
Any help is appreciated.
Dog Training Command - Communicating With Your Dog
Recommended Answer:When the vet says that your dog cannot be taken out until after its injections/shots, this does not mean that it cannot be taken into your own fenced garden/yard. It simply means that your puppy must be keep away from anywhere that could have been contaminated by other dogs.
To help with it's socialisation you can visit friends, with the proviso that they do not have a dog. Your puppy can be carried around the outside perimeter of a supermarket; you can also stand outside the school gates to get it used to children. You can take it out in a car and park where your puppy can see passers by.
Please do not be tempted to train your puppy to eliminate in the house. It must be taken into your garden/yard every hour, after it eats or drinks and when it wakes up after a nap. You should also take it out just before you go to bed, every time you see it eliminate you must praise your puppy. I use a catch phrase when my puppy has a pee, I say “get one” while it is urinating and “big job” when it passes faeces. If you do this your dog will pee on command when it is older. (Unless it's bladder is empty)
You should set your alarm and try to take your puppy out about twice during the night. If like me you are a heavy sleeper and you don't trust yourself to wake up, take the lazy way out. My puppy's sleep in the laundry room until they are toilet trained, during the day I dip newspapers into the urine which it has passed in the garden and put these on top of a thick pad of newspaper at night, they are drawn to this because of the smell and they will pee on this during the night. Nevertheless I go to bed very late and get up very early when I have a puppy.
Eventually your puppy will go to the door when it knows that it wants to eliminate. In spite of the fact that I leave newspapers down at night my puppy's are clean from an early age. However they are like babies, they have no control until they are older. Regardless of how diligent you are, your puppy could still have an accident in the house during the day, it you see it stooping or peeing, pick it up and let it finish in the garden/yard.
Common Tools Used In Dog Training Schools
- You need to get rid of that dog before it fully hurts one of the children. Or gets out of the yard and attacks an innocent person and you end up getting sued.
- It sound like Rugby is your boss. You need to get strict with this dog. If you cant or don't wish to take him to obedience training, then you should definitely research ways to make him behave.
First off, the walks are a double edged sword. Your dog needs the exercise but being young and not fully vaccinated can be risky. Id try to find a way to get your dog outside while minimizing the risk of dangerous exposure to viruses such as Parvovirus and Distemper.
Second, your dog doesnt like things around his neck? Too bad, get a collar and a leash, put them both on your dog and while monitoring him, let him wander with the leash and collar and just get used to them. When you finally start to take hold of the leash, let your dog lead the way mostly while giving subtle hints as to where you would like him to go and not go. Also, a harness is nice, but give gentle leaders a consideration. They are basically a leash with a loop that goes around the muzzle that provides just enough resistance if the dog pulls too hard to dissuade the dog from pulling while causing no pain.
All his bad habits are easily trained out of him if the training is done early on. You can mold this dog into a happy, friendly, and well behaved dog or you can let him become a monster that runs your home. You decide. It takes a lot, A LOT, of CONSISTENT work to get your dog to become well behaved. You cannot slack off. Work on it a few times a day, every day of the week. Involve treats in your training and it makes it much easier.
- Do what the vet says. He can go out in the garden but not off your property or come in contact with other dogs until they are all done. If he got parvo and died you would never forgive yourself.
Personally my dog would get knocked into next week if she bit but he is only a puppy. Let him mouth you but as soon as it starts to hurt, yelp or scream really loudly, pull away and turn your back. He hurt you so he doesnt get to play. This is how he would learn from his siblings.
If he doesnt respond to a command first time he doesnt get the treat. If he does, then give him one. He will get the idea.
Dont use training mats, they confuse him. I dont know a single dog who was reliably toilet trained using paper or pads. He does it outside ONLY. You will have a few messes to clean the first few weeks but it will be worth it. Take him outside every hour and as soon as he does his business out there, treat him and praise him loads. If he does it in the house, clean it up and ignore him. My friends dog was reliable within 2 weeks using this method.
When he humps you, scruff him push him over on his back, hold him there, tap his nose (not hard) and say NO! Then ignore him. He tries it again, repeat.
No puppy likes having things around his neck but you do not want to walk a pitbull on a harness, trust me. Harnesses encourage pulling and help him pull. Put a soft material collar on him, not too tight, you should be able to fit 3 fingers underneath it comfortably and dont take it off no matter how worked up he gets. He is testing you and will be used to it within a day or two. The chain leash is a good idea fo a chewer.
Good luck with him, he sounds like a challenge lol. Just stay very consistent with all these methods and keep at it even if it doesnt seem to be working at first. The toilet training stuff especially works even if you have to take a couple of days off work for it.
Edit: If you dont have a garden, that could make toilet training a little trickier. Use a grassy area outside your apartment that is not frequented by other dogs. This is just one of those situations where you will have to take his chances. Keep him away from strange dogs as much as you can until his shots are finished though. Theres a lot of parvo going around according to my vet.
- Your dog needs to be walked. Regularly. Eat beans for the next week till you can buy a chock chain and leather leash. He, and you, need to be trained. He can be a great pet if you put the time and energy into his, and your, training.
Check out this site. Cesar Millan is awesome and can be seen on Nat. Geo channel on TV.
http://www.cesarsway.com/tips/
Look through the different subjects. They all apply to your situation. If you don't care to learn from them, get rid of your dog before he hurts someone, as the previous poster suggested.
- First things first. Yes, it is bad to take him out before all of his shots. But after the first one, he usually had enough protection to be able to be taken to safe places (i.e a friends home where he can play with another dog who you know its medical history or carried in a basket or in your arms at a pet store). It's necessary to get him out there, otherwise he will go through the important part of his puppy-hood cooped up in the house with no socialization and that is just another handful of problems. Take him for short walk in your neighborhood, making sure he stays out of poop and other nastiness. So get that puppy socialized now!
Most puppy owners know the painful plight of puppy nipping and biting. It's a very natural thing for him to do. Dogs and puppies use their mouths in almost everything they do, including play. However, most learn how hard is too hard by their litter mates. It sounds to me that he did not have that bite inhibition training via mom, litter mates, or you. It can take a little while to break him of it, but it should be done ASAP. First off, don't let him play with the children until he has learn this bite inhibition. It is inconsistency in the training and will just reward him for the biting. Have some small, fingernail sized soft treats on hand and get down on the floor with him. If he begins biting or nipping, promptly yelp and stand straight up, folding into yourself and not looking at him. The reaction you should get is pretty much "what happened?". If he is very persistent and jumps to bite set up a baby gate in the room and remove yourself from the room completely. After a few seconds return to the ground. Repeat if he starts to nip again at anytime. If he doesn't, treat him. When he doesn't bite with you simply on the floor, begin petting him calmly. Remember that during all of this training, you should be very calm. He's going to follow your example and you need to show him the kind of behavior you want from him. At first, make it a single pet, rewarding with a calm "good boy" and treat or yelping and removing yourself from the ground depending on his reactions. it is likely that this dog may never be able to "rough house", which most dogs shouldn't do with their owners anyways, so teach him games like fetch and hide and seek. And be sure to only allow your nephews to play these games with him. Do not allow him contact with the children until he does not bite you period. Then introduce the children again, keeping care to manage the situation and use the same rewards (though it should be a game this time) and corrections (you or children removed from the area).
When you give him the stay command, say it only once. This is very important as you saying it over and over will do one of two things, desensitize him to the command or tell him it is OK to ignore it the first time. Say it once and move away from him. If he breaks the stay give him the No Reward Marker "eh-eh" or "ah-ah", which tells him he's not done something right and there is no reward. Do it again until he stays put for even half a second. Make it easy, he's still a baby and any step int he right direction is going to be helpful to him. Once you make it easier and only say the command once, his reaction time should quicken. You may also want to implement a reward grading scale and a weekly or biweekly goal. Say he LOVES steak, think chicken is GOOD, and petting is OK. And say in the next two weeks you want his reaction time to go from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. Begin grading his performance to the Stay command and rewarding based on it. If he gave you a typical 3 to 2.5 seconds, only give him a small piece of chicken. If he gives you a 2 second reaction, give him the steak. If he gives you a 4 second reaction only give him a short pet. And anything longer gets an "eh-eh".
Potty training. If he is still peeing on the rug, he needs to have less freedom in the house. Purchase a crate or an x-pen and confine him to this area when you are not there to watch him, whether you are at the store, work, or taking the garbage out to the trash can. Feed him on a schedule and take him out after each meal, every 30 to 60 minutes, after a nap, or after play time. When you can watch him, he needs to be on a leash. So you need to purchase a collar and leash ASAP. He should have already had one whether you planned on taking him out or not. He could have taken an unplanned trip out the front door and should always wear a collar, with ID tags attached. So buy one, slap it on him and let him roll around in his discomfort for a few hours to a day. He'll get used to it. And a chain leash is fine, if you think he'll destroy other ones.
I really hope I helped and if you have any further questions or need anything clarified, I'd be happy to help.
- You are going to need to get professional training advice! Really and truly!
You have made some poor decisions and are realizing them and paying for them now.
Pup should have been done with his vaccination regime by now. By 4 months old he should have been potty trained to go outside. He should have been leash trained. He should have learned bite inhibition, as well as not jumping on people. And, quite likely, with your inexperience, you chose the wrong "breed" type.
You need to learn how to train your dog. You need HANDS ON experience with a good trainer. Start searching NOW! And you are going to have to buckle down and pay for the training sessions.
Or....I foresee your dog is going end up being euthanized as a dangerous biter.
- For the biting, grab his muzzle and hold tightly until he sqeaks. This says that he is doing something wrong. It can be used as a genral punishment, sort of like a soft spanking on a kid. It really discourges whatever he was doing wrong before and increases respect for you and says that you are the boss. He will soon catch on as well.
As for the collar, theres really nothing you can do to ease the transition (sorry). Give about two fingers vertical room for the loosness and let him rampage until he realizes its really not worth the effort to throw a tantrum. Dont take it off until maybe a month later (As long as he hasnt grown; be sure not to let it get tight, or it might become something he really hates for a reason). He will just have to get used to his collar then he will get the leash.
I would say he can go outside, but only in the front yard. Dont take him places with lots of others dogs, and dont expose him to too much or he can get sick because puppies dont have a fully developed immune system.
Always use the muzzle squeeze when he growls or bites, and never lose the consistency. Make sure he understands that you are the boss, and that he has to respect (Or at least tolerate) kids. Remember, if he makes an aggresive move always be ready to disipline. You are not hurting him, and if you think you are then smack him (firmly, not harshly) across the muzzle. He will most likely look at you and thats when you assiciate the disipline with the word 'No'. Never waver, or he will most likely slip into his old habits.
For potty training, move him as soon as you see him take the 'position' to pee or poop to the place where he is supposed to go. If he suddenly starts to sniff around at stuff, you should probably move him to the corner because that genrally means that he is looking for a place to go. Praise with with lots of attention when he goes in the right place, and soon he will actually want to do the right thing. (The same principle works with almost every aspect of training. Convince the dog that it is in his best intrest to do what you want.)
I would also adivise to not let him near the kids until you trust him a little more, and always stay close until you have faith in him. Pit bulls are nice dogs, but you have to handle them firmly.
Good luck, I hope this helped :)
