Project Pit Bull^TM
Dog Fighting - History or Heroic Breed Saving Activity

I recently received an email from a web site visitor that wanted to debate the issue of dog fighting or matching the American Pit Bull Terrier in fights to retain desirable traits.

Dog fighters and those who are "purist" fanciers of the breed argue that if you eliminate dog fighting you will eliminate the very traits that make the American Pit Bull Terrier the canine that it is.

I'm here to tell you that is 100%, without a doubt, the most ignorant argument I have ever encountered in defence of dog fighting.

Dog fighting serves no purpose for our breed. It never has. It was used to put bread on the tables of poor peasants and to entertain the wealthy who had a liking for blood sports.

Matching American Pit Bull Terriers does not retain any desirable trait that is of use in the 21st century.

Times have changed and it's time we change with them.

As for the argument that dog fighting retains our breeds desirable traits the only trait that fighting other dogs retains is gameness.

Now I have heard a lot of definitions for the term gameness and one thing that dog fighters and I agree on is it the term does not apply to anything other than fighting other animals (specifically dogs).

Gameness is not heart in a weight pull. Gameness is, not quitting in a situation where the animal could potentially lose it's life with another animal. I.e. a fight in a pit with another dog.

Every other trait we cherish about the breed are instilled into their DNA to the point that we can easily reproduce them without matching them.

Pain tolerance, being people friendly, super athletes, intelligent, and versatile.

All of these traits are desirable in our society and admired by all. Yet, being matched in a fight does not produce these traits. That only produces dog aggression and gameness.

Both traits we could do without.

No, dog fighters and "purist" want you to believe that by not matching the dogs they will suddenly become a tired old breed with nothing unique about them. Fact is, almost no one matches their dogs anymore to produce other dogs with game traits. Game dog lines are almost always paper based lines that come from old school game dogs that are long dead.

After all, matching dogs is illegal in the US so how are you going to say that your dog is a 3 time winner and was bred to a 2 time winning bitch without raising some eyebrows. Most of those people are lying anyway.

I have a well bred APBT in Angel that shows every single trait of the breed. I don't know if she is game because she's never been matched. I personally don't care if she is or not. Why would anyone care if their dog would or wouldn't quit in a dog fight? Oh yeah, if they'll quit in a fight they'll quit in something else. That is another lie and myth dog fighters will tell you.

Dog fighters show their lack of understanding in regards to canine behavior with comments like those. One situation is not the same as another. Dogs react differently (as people do) to different situations. A dog might quit in a dog fight but dive through barbed wire and track for 8 miles without stopping to find a missing kid. It's how you build their drive for the activity that makes the dog a quitter or a non-stop machine.

To sum this article up...dog fighting...

Is a piece of the American Pit Bull Terriers history and should remain there. Honor their past and help them into the future.

For those who advocate matching the dogs to retain their traits you might want to catch up to the times and stop clinging on to a useless past time. It's unhealthy and unproductive.

Pit Bull Health Tip of The Month:
All Natural Flea and Tick Control

If you're like me you get outdoors with your dogs. I use a two prong approach to preventing fleas and ticks.

When we get to where we are going I use a lemon/garlic mixture and coat my dogs with it to prevent fleas and ticks.

I add about 1/3 cup water to the mixture to dilute the lemon juice as it can be fairly harsh to the skin.

This mixture repels fleas and ticks very well and I've seen my cousins Rotty mix (who is a 100% outside country dog) go from covered in ticks to none in 72 hours using this remedy.

Coat your dogs before, during, and after your outdoor adventure for best results.

The Mixture:

1. 1/4 cup Garlic powder.
2. 1/2 cup lemon juice.
3. 1/3 cup water.

Heat it up a bit to dissolve the garlic powder into the mixture and then let it cool. Then put the solution into a clean squirt bottle for easy application on the go.

This helps control fleas as well.

Try it out.

Pit Bull Training Tip of the Month:
Which of These Four Training Mistakes Are You Making?

Technical information, hard to follow theories and stubborn dog trainers make training your dog harder than it should be.

Today we're going to look at four mistakes people make and how to avoid them along with how to train your dog using a simple 1-2-3-4 formula that has worked since the beginning of modern dog training techniques.

Mistake #1: Bad Timing. Timing is everything when training your dog. If you don't have good timing you are going to have a harder time training your dog. If you have decent timing you'll do better but the results will still be lack luster.

I had horrible timing when I started training my dogs and after working with them and doing few simple exercises over the years my timing is outstanding now and my clients marvel at how fast I can issue a reward or a correction.

Understanding what you want is the first step to better timing.

I'll use the sit because it's a simple behavior for a dog to learn and for you to teach quickly.

Starting with the dog on your left take a treat and hold it up to the dogs nose. Then put your hand behind the dogs butt and put a little pressure on their hind end. Keep your hand steady and move the treat up and back a little. Presto. Your dog should be sitting at this point.

The cause and effect of this technique. When a dogs backside is up against something they have three choices. Move forward, to the side, or sit down. If you have your hand against their hind end (think of your hand as a wall) you encourage the dog to sit down. The only thing you have to do from that point is lure the dogs nose up and back so they move into your hand. This action will naturally cause the dog to sit by default.

Timing comes in with the reward. You reward the dog at the exact moment their butt hits the ground. It may take you a few repetitions to get it right but you will learn to anticipate the action and your timing will improve.

Work on your timing with behaviors your dog already knows or the sit cue to improve your timing. Reward the dog immediately when they offer the correct behavior. If the dog goes into a down reward at the exact moment they are in a down. The quicker you reward the faster the dog will offer the behavior.

The best part about this is you can't really screw it up. You might reward a second to late or too early but you are not harming the dogs performance that much. Learn to reward the dog immediately upon offering the correct behavior by developing a solid sit and then working to make it faster. As I said before, the quicker you reward the faster the dog will offer you the behavior. Once you get your timing down work on getting your dog to sit immediately upon hearing or seeing the cue.

Mistake #2: Not being consistent.

Being consistent is one area where a lot of us make huge mistakes. We reward our dogs for sloppy behavior or for behaviors we don't like and we are inconsistent in our approach to training.

One thing that can help is to hire a dog trainer and work in private lessons. This will give your obedience routine structure and you will have homework to do with your dog. As a result you will be more consistent with your training.

While a trainer can help you should focus on setting a realistic goal to reach with your dog too.

For example, when I first meet with clients I ask them what they want out of the training program. We discuss their desires and work to boil them down to a set of realistic expectations.

I want my dog to listen to me and obey the first time at least 95% of the time is one goal we strive for. This is a realistic goal and people will say, "But shouldn't they listen 100% of the time?" Yes, but that's not realistic. They are animals with minds of their own and expecting them to listen 100% of the time in every situation they will be in is unrealistic and will set you up for failure from the start.

Once you have your goal in mind then you can work to reach it. If you want your dog to listen 95% of the time in every situation they will encounter after the first cue then you will have to develop a routine that you follow every single day for the rest of the dog's life. Once a dog is trained you can not stop training them. You have to continue with the training and specifically work the basics over and over again to establish a sound foundation.

Consistency also applies to bad behaviors. Jumping is one that I encounter the most that people have a hard time with. In reality it's simple to stop jumping. Jumping is an attention getting behavior. If you remove the attention from the situation your dog will start to seek other ways of getting your attention.

If you allow your dog to put their paws on your chest but hate it when they jump on guest then you have to stop letting the dog put their paws on your chest. Dogs are black and white. There isn't any grey area. They are (A) allowed to do something or (B) they are not allowed to do something. You can't let them do something with you and expect them not to do the same thing with other people. That's unfair and going against how dogs learn.

Enforcing rules and giving corrections consistently is also a critical aspect of raising a well behaved dog. If you don't like your dog on the couch when Uncle Jack is over but you let her up there when you are watching ER or Grey's Anatomy you can't expect them not to get up there when Uncle Jack comes over. Either they are allowed on the furniture or they are not allowed on the furniture.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you allow your dogs on the furniture you should be able to get them off and keep them off on command.

Be consistent and fair and you will reach new training heights.

Mistake #3: Not Following Through.

If you ask your dog to do something then follow up if they disobey. Otherwise you will teach your dog to listen to you on the fifth request instead of the first.

People make a common mistake while training their dog. When we start teaching a dog to sit or down my clients do this... "Fido, sit, sit, sit...sit...siiiiiit....please sittttt....come on! sit! Do it now! Forget it! They are stupid!"

Then I step in and say, "fido, sit." The dog sits and the owners gets even more frustrated. It's not because I am a great dog trainer or that I am somehow magically making the dog sit. It's because the dog has never heard me ask over and over again for the behavior. I ask one time and then I follow through if they disobey.

In the beginning this is done by going back to teaching the dog what you want. I perform the sit 30-40 times and each time I follow the same routine. Dog on left, hand behind butt, lure dog up and back into my hand with a treat, reward for the sit.

Then I add the word prior to doing the exercise. Dog on left, hand behind butt, fido, sit, lure dog up and back into my hand and treat when they sit. 30-40 repetitions of that. <--- more on this in a minute.

Then comes the next phase. Dog on left, hand behind butt, fido, sit, pause for one second, if fido sits I reward. If he doesn't sit I say, "aat,aat" and then I lure him back and into my hand and reward for the sit.

"aat, aat" is the correction for not sitting by the way. As for repetitions it takes a dog 30-50 successful repetitions to learn a behavior. If you fail to be patient and do that many repetitions then you will have a dog that doesn't know exactly what you want them to do.

In the example above I never say, "Fido, sit....no...I said, sit...now! Good god! Stupid dog!" I say, Fido, sit. Then I revert back to teaching the dog what I want without saying a word to them. Fido learns that when I ask them to sit they should do it because they know I will follow through and get what I want anyway. When their owner asks they have learned they don't have to do it because the owner quits.

Anytime you are having trouble with a behavior ask yourself (A) do they know what I want? and (B) am I following through every time? I compare this to the mother who uses that 1....2....3 child rearing technique. You know...

Get over here! Okay, that's it! 1......I'm coming!.....2......Get over here!.....3.....That's it your not going tomorrow! Then they stomp off and the kid is still doing whatever it was they were before. The kid will never respect their mother and will never listen to them because the mother never follows through.

Mistake #4: Expecting your dog to work for you for free.

A common scenario I run into is a person saying something like, "I shouldn't have to give her a treat, she should do it just because she loves me."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Dogs, despite popular belief, do not love their owners all the time. Matter of fact, I have seen dogs that clearly didn't like their owners at all.

Dogs are smart animals that understand the basics of life better than we do. Pretty simple stuff nature has given them to survive that we, as egotistical, attention craving, people take for granted on a daily basis.

In order to teach your dog effectively you have to raise their pay for the work they are giving you. The more important the work (coming when called for example) the higher the pay check should be.

Will you have to use food forever? No. You can use other rewards your dog finds as valuable or more valuable than food.

Angel is a perfect example of this. She loves cheese and freeze dried liver treats and will work very well for them. However, if I hide a baseball in my pocket, she will do anything I ask (that she knows that is) faster than if I had liver or cheese.

I use the ball for serious, you must listen and execute this behavior immediately commands because I know without a doubt she will do them.

I also bring in the ball after I teach her a new behavior to polish it up and make it faster and more precise. I raise her paycheck because I am asking more of her now and in order to get her to work for me without question or mood or how she is feeling that day the ball is my secret weapon.

You will not have to rely on lures, treats and toys in every situation for the rest of the dogs life. However, in the beginning you want to make working with you on these behaviors the most enjoyable thing in the dogs life and you do that by paying them well.

Now you may be one of those people that say, "My dog should work for me because he loves me and not because I have a juicy treat or a toy."

And that's a natural feeling we humans have. I mean why shouldn't they obey me for no reason what so ever other than the fact I bought them a $200 bed last week? The dog doesn't care about how much that bed cost. So expecting them to understand that and love you for it is not logical.

If you are one of those people who think that way here's an example...

Everyday hundreds of thousands of people and cars are searched for drugs in the United States. Millions of bags are searched for illegal plants, chemicals, and other materials that are illegal to bring into our country.

Who searches for these items? Dogs.

Why do they search for them? It's not because they love their people but because attached to the hip of the drug dog handler or the customs dog handler is a high value paycheck like a Kong^TM or other toy that can be given as a reward.

Once a dog knows and executes a behavior 95% of the time you can reward the dog less to keep the dogs desire for the reward high. I do this by rewarding the first time, the fourth time, the seventh time and then going "dry" for 5-6 repetitions and then rewarding the dog and ending the session. Angel never knows when the ball will come out so she offers me the best behavior every time. When she hits the mark that I like, she's paid with a game of fetch.

I don't know about you but for me that's a fair trade off for a well behaved dog.

The 1-2-3-4 Formula for Successful Dog Training

At the beginning of this article I told you I would share a 1-2-3-4 formula for successful dog training that cuts through the hype and gets straight to the point. Here it is for your learning pleasure.

Phase One: The Learning Phase.

In order for a dog to do something for us we must first teach the dog what we want them to do. You do this using a correction free, 100% positive reinforcement method that focuses on using the dogs natural behaviors to help them learn.

In layman's terms - Show them what you want using positive methods and reward them for doing it. Avoid any type of correction (with holding the treat, saying, "No!", leash corrections etc...) during this phase of training.

Phase Two: The Correction Phase.

People are confused by the word, "correction." We are taught that corrections are painful, cause discomfort, or involve physical punishment. Like a spanking or getting yelled at in a harsh tone. In reality they don't have to be any of those things to be effective.

A correction is something the dog finds aversive. It could be a verbal warning like, "aaat, aaat" or it could be something painful like a hard leash correction while wearing a prong collar.

The best way I can explain this phase of training is to give you an example of a common situation that you will find yourself in.

Imagine you have taught your dog to sit in the house without any distractions. You have asked your dog 50 times to sit and they have done so 47 times without being told twice or being lured into the position. They have shown they understand the cue so now you ask them again and they refuse to sit for you. Instead they stand there like they didn't hear you.

You would correct your dog for not obeying by first giving them a verbal warning (aaat, aaat...) and then by putting them into the position just as if you were teaching them the sit for the first time.

The correction is, "aaat, aaat" and getting them to sit without asking for it again. Again, most people consider a correction in dog training as a physical act. That is a physical correction and nothing else. We are using a verbal correction followed by requiring the dog to perform the behavior without being told too again.

You are conditioning the dog that when they hear, "aaat, aaat" that means do what I say and do it now or I will follow through. This is a non-physical way to correct your dog.

A correction can be subtle and not forceful. The main point of this phase is to follow through and have your dog do the behavior that you asked for the first time. If you use leash corrections in your training use a verbal warning before you correct the dog.

For example, "Fido, sit...Aaat, aaat...fido doesn't sit...leash correction." After a few repetitions of that fido will sit when he hears, "aaat, aaat." The leash correction will no longer be needed.

You should be fair and give Fido a verbal warning so they can get a chance to avoid the correction and make the right choice. The moment they don't make the right choice, issue the leash correction and then praise Fido for sitting by rewarding him.

Phase Three: The Distraction Phase.

Yet another phase that is misunderstood or entered into too quickly.

When you move a dog into the distraction phase you have firmly established that (A) your dog knows and understands the behavior under zero distractions and (B) the dog has been through the correction phase and understands they need to perform the behavior when asked or they will receive a correction (be it verbal, leash correction etc...).

After you have went through phases one and two and your dog is ready then you move the dog into the distraction phase. In this phase you will slowly introduce your dog to distractions. Starting with light distractions and moving into heavy distractions.

For example, you would take the dog from the house and out in the yard. Then out in the front yard. Then out during a busy portion of the day. Then down the street. Then to the park. Then to a group obedience class. Then to a parking lot on a busy weekend. Increasing the distraction with each successful performance under the previous level of distraction. Again it takes a dog 30-50 successful repetitions to learn a behavior so move slowly and don't rush the dog into situations that are too distracting for them.

The last piece of advice leads me to why I don't recommend group classes. You are skipping phases one and two and tossing the dog right into phase three. Dogs can not learn in group class environments and can pick up a ton of bad habits that will set you back in your training.

Phase Four: The Polishing or the Maintenance Phase.

Once you have reached this phase it's all about getting the behaviors more precise, faster, and more reliable. In this phase you will go back and proof the dog under a variety of situations for the rest of the dogs life.

Dogs will forget behaviors if they are not worked on consistently. If you teach your dog to sit and then avoid asking them to sit for 6 months your dog will behave as if they have never been taught the behavior. This process is called extinction and also works with behavior problems (I.e. ignore a dog that jumps on people and it will stop offering the behavior).

You will want to constantly proof and maintain your dogs level of obedience by going back and working simple behaviors along with the more complicated behaviors on a regular basis.

All dog training, be it positive or force based follows these 4 phases. You will have extreme versions of both positive and force based methods but in my experience a balanced approach using both positive reinforcement with fair and balanced corrections yields the best results for the average American Pit Bull Terrier.

Each dog is unique and has their own personality and learning to work with their little ticks will help you find the right training method for you.

Legal Stuff and Conclusion

Every thing in this email is Copyright © 2005. Jason Mann & PitBullLovers.com

You can pass this entire email to friends if you would like as long as it stays unchanged and left as is.

That concludes the legal talk.

In Conclusion

Thanks for being patient this month and I apologize again for the delay in getting this issue out to you.