Pit Bull Owner’s and Training
October 29th, 2009
A recent article in The Pit Bull Lovers Gazette focused heavily on the in’s and out’s of dog training.
Over the years I have noticed that the majority of Pit Bull owners love to train their dogs. From the simple to the complex training seems to be a high priority for the majority of folks who love this breed.
I became so obsessed with training my dog Angel that it landed me in the professional dog training industry and I do not regret my decision to make dog training a career at all. Thanks Angel.
I wanted to share with you, from my experience, what seems to be the way to go regarding training Pit Bull Terriers.
Pit Bulls, by and large, respond very well to what I call positive drive training.
I’m sure others have used this type of training before me, I am not a pioneer by an stretch.
What is positive drive training? Glad you asked this very important question.
Positive drive training uses your dogs natural instincts (drives) to help them learn, perform, and maintain their behaviors.
Pit Bulls have a lot of the same drives as other breeds. However, one drive that stands out amongst most Pit Bulls is prey drive.
Prey drive is the instinct to chase, catch and kill prey. You can see this drive show itself in a game of tug of war. After you let the dog have the toy they shake it and run with it (killing behavior).
There are other drives involved in tug of war but we won’t get into those. Suffice to say, you want your dog in prey drive.
If your dog doesn’t have prey drive (rare amongst Pit Bulls) then you can use food instead of their toy to train them.
I prefer toys because the toy keeps their focus longer, they work harder for it, and you can’t fill them up with fetch or tug.
The Training Game
I use a game I call the training game to teach my dogs and clients dogs obedience and even complex tricks.
The game is simple and is based on one or two of the toys your dog loves. For example, my girls Angel and Honey both have a love of tug of war. Angel on the other hand is a real fetch freak as well.
In order to teach her a new behavior I excite her for her toy, show her what I want, then let her have the toy.
In short, the game of fetch becomes the reward for performing the behavior. You do not always have to use treats to get your dog to do something.
BACKFIRE PROBLEMS: Sometimes the drive for the toy can override their senses making it near impossible to teach them something because they are so focused on the toy. Lower the value of the toy and try with that instead.
If your Pit Bull loves tug of war, play that game with them and require obedience before the game starts and ends.
For example, you and your dog are playing tug. You ask your dog to let go of the toy, they do, reward with another game of tug.
Play the game again, if they let go say, “good dog!” then have them bite after the toy but make them miss. When all four paws are on the ground say, “sit!” when they do, reward with a game of tug.
I use tug almost exclusively when training competition dogs and my own dogs. Fetch is used when the dog shows more interest in that game. However, I have yet to see a Pit Bull that when done properly, was not into a good game of tug of war.
Over time your dog will learn discipline and obedience through playing these games. Then, when it really counts, you ask for something, you get it because obedience means play time for your dog.
I could spend another two hours and 2000 words or more on this subject alone but alas, time doesn’t allow that.
If you are interested in learning more about training your Pit Bull using these methods you can find more information at PitBullLovers.com and in The Pit Bull Training Handbook
Have a great day,
Jason Mann
The Most Complete Pit Bull Web Site Online
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