Pit Bull Health Tip of the Month:
Summer Siesta: Is Your Pit Bull Getting Enough Rest?

Today is officially the first day of summer here in the US. Summer brings the heat. A dogs body tempeture is 100.2 to 102.6. These are normal temperatures for our Pit Bulls but sometimes we don't think about their increased temperature and we go out in blazing hot weather. I know here in Kentucky it becomes incredibly humid during the summer months for me, I can't imagine how my dogs feel.

I like to give my dogs a siesta. During the early afternoon they get their meal and they get to rest. I change the feeding time during the summer to give them the meal during the hottest part of the day and give them 2-3 hours to sleep while the heat of the day goes by. This way when we take our walk later in the evening they have enough energy to go.

Sometimes I mix it up and walk them in the morning. By feeding them in the early afternoon and allowing them to rest their food can digest and their muscles can recover from the morning walk/play time etc...

Rest Plays an Important Role in Development

Muscles need time to recover. When Pit Bulls exercise hard they need a day or two of rest to allow their bodies to recoup from the work they did. Denying your dog this resting period can lead to lameness or worse, injury.

One good general rule is to allow 24 hours for every 5-6 hours of hard exercise. We're not talking about taking a stroll around the block for a 10th of a mile we are talking hard exercise. 10-15 mile walks, plus play time, spring pole time, treadmill time, flirt pole work, running a jenny mill, and swimming for 30-40 minutes would be what I call "hard" exercise.

Allowing the muscles time to recover will result in a stronger, healthier dog and the odds of injury are reduced.

Pit Bull puppies need plenty of rest. Their bodies are growing and without enough rest their little bodies can get over worked quite easily. If you're like me you may found your puppy sleeping 10-15-20 hours a day. This is not unusual. Angel is eight years old now and takes 5-6 hour "doggy naps" between her exercises now when at five years of age they were much shorter. Which leads me to my next point...

Older Pit Bulls Need Their Rest as Well

As I mentioned above, Angel is now my oldest at 8 years of age. Unfortunately about a year and a half ago she started to get degenerative joint disease in both of her ankles (or hocks). Not only does this seriously limit her movement sometimes but it makes rest that much more important as well. Even after short walks I make sure she has a nice comfortable rub down, a warm towel around her ankles and she gets a day or two to recover depending on how lame she is the following day.

Aging Pit Bulls need time to recover. Like older people they don't bounce back as fast as they did when they were young. I'm starting to notice that I'm not the spring chicken I once was as well.

If like me, you are faced with a situation you can't fix (her joints will eventually go completely) then you need to take extra care to keep the work outs appropriate for the dog. As you probably know Angel loves her tennis ball (any ball for that matter) and when she was younger she could play for hours without a problem. Now, 5-6 throws and she is limping back with the ball. When she starts to limp or favor her other leg I stop the game and start the process of helping her recover.

How Much is Exercise is Over the Top?

How much is to much? If your dog is sore, stiff, or lame that was to much exercise for that day. Give them time to recover, lighten the exercise regimen, and take it easy for a few days. This should give your dog time to recover.

My advice is to build your young dog up over time. I see a lot of people taking young dogs and pushing them hard in the hopes to "build them up." Pit Bulls are subject to the laws of physical and mental stress just as we are. If you push yourself hard you will feel it the next day. Your dog is the same way. I think because they are animals we sometimes forget they get worn out and sore as well.

One tip that really helped me out was the "cool down" walk. After you play, run, walk for a long period, take a short 10-15 minute walk and keep the pace slow until the dogs breathing starts to return to normal. Once they are breathing slower and getting close to normal breathing take them in, rub them down to prevent cramps, and let them crash out.

In the end, rest is very important. Keep that in mind next time you and your Pit Bull pal take a 8-10 mile hike or a 2-3 mile run. I'm sure they'll thank you for the extra down time.

Pit Bull Training Tip of the Month:
4 Things to Remember When Training Your Pit Bull

A few years ago (2 to be exact) I briefly wrote about these four things in the Gazette. Today I would like to go back and cover these four training concepts and elaborate on them further for those of you who have not read them and for those of you who need a refresher.

Training your Pit Bull is not rocket science. Sometimes we Pit Bull owners tend to over complicate things and try to hard. We all want model citizens and we know how important it is to have a well behaved Pit Bull out in public. All dog training is the same. Only the dogs personality changes and we need to make an adjustment based on that but the concepts are still the same.

When training your Pit Bull use these four concepts and constantly "self check" yourself to keep them fresh in your mind.

Four Key Concepts to Remember
when Training Your Pit Bull Pal

Motivation. Motivation is key. If you can not motivate your dog then you are fighting an uphill battle. When I start working with a new client (the dog) the first thing I do is play with the dog. I have a ball, rope toy, treats, and a Kong. I play with the dog using each of these items and I see which one the dog prefers to play with. When I find that out that is the motivator.

Pit Bulls are almost always food or toy driven. Some love to play with their ball, others love that steak treat, while others might like a solid game of tug of war. If you find that motivates your dog use it for training.

Motivation is the fire starter in the training program. If you can motivate the dog, you can train the dog.

Timing. After working with 100+ people with their dog training I found one single truth. People's timing sucks. My timing was not any better in the beginning either. Timing is critical. It is believed a dog associates things within 1-2 seconds of having the experience. In other words, you have 1-2 seconds to reward or correct your dog to get the point across. If you are slower than that you're missing the mark and your dog will not learn anything.

Let's look at the sit cue for an example. When you have your dog sit the proper timing is the exact moment their butt touches ground. If you are slower than that you missed the mark. The dog will have time to get up or move. In which case, you have not taught the dog anything.

Proper timing comes with experience and doing something again and again. Check yourself and see how long it takes you to reward a behavior.

You do have one exception to this rule. Once the dog has learned the behavior (sit, down,etc...) you can put a few moments between the behavior and the reward. Now you are not reading the behavior itself but instead you are rewarding holding the position.

Consistency. If I had a penny for every time I caught someone not being consistent the dogs and I would be living in Monte Carlo right now.

Consistency is yet another critical factor you need to focus on. If you have more than one person working with your dog everyone must do the same thing or the dog will learn at a slower pace and they may learn bad habits. One classic example of this is the wife and husband not being on the same page. The wife hates the dog to jump while the husband loves it. He encourages it and the dog learns to jump on everyone.

You have to be spot on with this. Use the same hand signals, words, and have everyone on the same page. You may be the only person working your dog. If that is the case the rules still apply. You need to decide before you start training what words and hand signals you are going to use and stick to them. You must be able to repeat these hand signals and words easily and quickly. If you are using elaborate words like, "Go to the Potty Buster" you are making things much harder than need be. Use one word, "potty" for the cue.

If you are inconsistent your dog will tattle on you by not being consistent themselves.

Reinforcement. Reinforcement is the glue that holds it altogether. I get a lot of questions about training Pit Bulls and one of the most popular is, "I don't want to carry treats around with me all day, can I still train my dog?" The answer is yes of course. Reinforcement means, reinforcing a desired behavior with something the dog finds pleasure able. That doesn't always mean food.

During the learning phase of training you may have to carry treats, their ball, their Kong, or their tug around with you. You are teaching them something new so you should be reinforcing it alot. Once the dog starts to understand the behavior you can start to vary that reinforcement in which case you don't have to have the item that motivates them all the time. I hope that made sense. :o)

In the end training your Pit Bull requires these four concepts to be aligned and used correctly. Add a little patience and you have yourself a recipe for success.

A Quick Announcement
I Need Your Feedback

I have made a few changes to the Gazette over the years, some good, some not so good, today I would like to ask you for your suggestions.

There is a catch though. I get hammered with emails on a daily basis so the following guidelines for submitting your suggestions must be followed or they will not get to me.

Submission guidlines

1. Emails must not be in "fancy" text. Please turn off your font thing-a-ma-bob and put the text in normal courier new, times new roman, or ariel font.

2. Emails must be broken up into paragraphs. I rarely even read emails that are one solid block of text because it literally gives me a headache.

3. Emails must be clear, to the point, and only with suggestions for the Gazette. If you have a question about something else feel free to ask in a different email. (hint, follow these same guidelines for submitting your question. With the exception of the subject line.)

4. Emails must not be super long with a list of 100 ideas. Pick the 4-5 best suggestions and submit those please.

5. Put, "Suggestions for Gazette" in the subject. Emails without this subject will not reach me.

I really look forward to hearing your suggestions. The Gazette is your newsletter and I would love nothing more than to give you the exact stuff you want to read about.

I want to thank you for your help in advance. I really appreciate it.

Resources:
Where to find Great Gear for Your Pit Bull