<p>I would not start with punishment based training. Last, last resort. Wouldn’t be good at it either, just the way I am wired. </p>
<p>The young man already has the pit bull, so good luck to him and the puppy. All puppies need a lot of time and training to fit in well with one’s schedule. I highly recommend that the dog is around a lot of people early so that he gets used to them and the appropriate behavior around them is drummed in early. I think the reason some of our dogs love people, all people so much is that we have always had a full house, and they have be accustomed to visitors being a happy event. Our dog thinks everyone who visits is here to see him! I don’t think it occurred to our dogs that someone would be mean to them, as they were always so well received. That can make a very big difference in a dog’s disposition.</p>
<p>I may have given the impression that the neighbor’s training is strictly punishment based. Nothing could be further from the truth - he spends hours daily with what I think of as reward based training, teaching the dog to respond to commands and rewarding him when the dog responds appropriately. </p>
<p>The beeper/citronella is for when things are dangerous or going badly and the puppy is no longer listening.</p>
<p>SCUAlum: so how exactly does a blast of citronella in the face improve a puppy’s hearing? </p>
<p>I realize that a blast of citronella might well stop a dog in its tracks, which is a good thing if it’s headed into traffic, but a dog that is not reliable off-leash should not be off-leash in any case, and stepping on the leash is a much faster way of stopping the dog.</p>
<p>I’m with scualum - “punishment” doesn’t mean abuse, it just have to be something unpleaseant enough for the dog to distract him from and stop the undesired behavior and reinforce the idea of not engaging in it anymore. People tend to humanize dogs and treat them as if they are children. A dog is not a toddler, it is a pack animal with animal instincts and it plays by the rules of the animal kingdom. A gentle whack with a rolled up newspaper and a firm “no” are all it took for our shepherd puppy to end his midnight barking routine. I doubt we’d have the same result if my H showed up with a dog treat in his hand and politely asked the pup to please stop barking. H used plenty of dog treats to train the pup to sit, stay, etc. The dog even learned to go potty on command! The dog adores H and misses him when H is out of town.</p>
<p>What I don’t get is crate training… I think it is abuse. If you don’t have a fenced yard, don’t get a large, hyper dog that needs room to roam.</p>
<p>Check out “It’s me or the dog” TV shows. The lady’s name is Victoria Stilwell - she is good. She proves “you can’t teach an old dog a new trick” totally wrong! She uses a lot of positive reinforcement techniques with the dogs, but she would not mind to yank on the leash if the dog is out of control.</p>
<p>The Dog Whisperer methods are very controversial so I don’t want to get into that debate. There are plenty who see his methods as abusive. </p>
<p>Crate training, done right, is not abuse or negative in any way. They see the crate as a positive thing - not a bad thing. It is their space that no one else invades. A crate should never be used as punishment and it is not to be used to “coop up” an active dog. If a crate is used properly, a dog will choose to go into it to sleep or get away from kids or to cuddle up with favorite blankets. I can leave my dog’s crate door open and he will very often choose to take a nap in it rather than on the sofa. I don’t keep him off the furniture. This is particularly true when I take him to other houses. I can bring the crate, and when he wants to sleep, he will actually open the crate door to go in. I think he feels really safe in there - and he loves the faux sheep skin bedding. The crate can also be more safe for a puppy. Left to their own devices in almost any room, they can get into trouble or chew something unsafe. Since they sleep about 18 hours a day anyway, they may as well be safe and undisturbed when they do it.</p>
<p>I’m not the one who uses the citronella collar - my neighbor is. He is the one who is raising dogs on the aggressive end of the scale not me. Personally, I wouldn’t have a Rottie or a Pit Bull - but that is the choice of the original poster. Given that choice, I thought that the technique that my neighbor used might be of value - and I am increasingly sorry that I brought it up given the tone of the PMs that I have gotten on this subject. </p>
<p>Having said that, one last post on why this might be of help to the OP and a response to DMD’s comment above.</p>
<p>How does the collar improve hearing? Rotties are very single threaded - If they get something in their head, they focus on it to the exclusion of all other things - including listening for a command from their owners. A beep that is a warning of worse things to come is one way to break through that single threadedness. Perhaps it doesn’t improve their hearing - but it improves their listening. </p>
<p>As for me, I have a Golden Retriever who is very well trained using a reward based approach. Given the gentle nature of Goldens, this is all that was needed. He has a vocabulary of more than 200 words (as tested by my daughter as part of a 8th grade science project). </p>
<p>We did crate train him - and it is his favorite spot as well as his safe place. We use it in much the same was as described by Catera45 above - he will go in there for a nap on his own.</p>
<p>Oh - dogs here are largely not leashed - most houses are on 2 acres and there is plenty of yard to run in. Danger comes in the form of tractors or kids on swings.</p>
<p>Though I have never used punishment based or alpha type training methods, they can be useful. A friend of mine who has many animals and is very active in 4H ended up with a mean dog that was nearly put down because he was so unpredictable and untrainable by many traditional means. He needed some “tough” training which did get him in shape. They kept him for more than 10 years after that before he died, and he was not a problem. They did get a trainer who knew what he was doing to work with him. Not a technique I would use except as a last resort, but sometimes it can work.</p>
<p>Curious, is the puppy a pure bred Staffordshire terrier or other registered breed, or is he mixed with a strong streak of "pit bull " in him? I ask, because when you get a pure bred dog, you are buying into certain traits of the breed, and if they are incompatible with what you want in a dog, shame on you. Folks should not get rottweilers or mastiffs or staffordshires if they are looking for a golden retriever disposition. Nor should they be getting terriers if they want a quiet dog that is not active. It makes no sense. We have friends who have a weimariner (sp) which is a beautiful, majestic dog, and they love him very much, but the breed is a sporting one, they should have good exercise workouts and they have a strong odor. Those fixed traits of the breed are a problem now for the family. I know another family who just had get a boxer with no idea of how active that breed is. A few years ago, acquaintances spent a fortune on a pure bred chow of great breeding only to find that it was not a good match when you have kids. The wife grew up with chows and felt that if they were raised with kids, they would be fine. Well, sometimes. But the breed is such that you are running a risk, and a chow that is not interested in kids is not an anomaly. </p>
<p>Of course you can plan things out and still end up with the wrong dog. Our much beloved bull dog does not have any match with the breed in terms of disposition and behavior except he is a very slow learner. I really suspect that there is terrier in him. He was and is still an adorable puppy, but not at all the dignified male bulldog that he should be at his age. Ever here a yapping bulldog? Sigh.</p>
<p>Again, good luck to your son and his puppy. It does seem like he has planned this all out and is working with his dog.</p>
<p>Even labs and retrievers are often mismatched to those who want couch potato dogs. Those dogs need lots of exercise and can become quite destructive if they are bored. I had a chocolate lab when I was an young associate at a large law firm. He was at home alone way too much and ate my basement steps. I researched carefully when looking for my couch potato dog. My Boston Terrier matched what I needed 100%. Boston Terriers are terriers in name only, BTW, and are not in the terrier family.</p>
<p>I wrote a post that somehow did not get through. In answer to one poster, son agrees that the puppy needs to be exposed to people and to get used to people from a young age. He is also doing crate training. I appreciate all these posts.</p>
<p>This has been such an odd event for me as a parent. In all the years I handed out advice --“don’t drink and drive”, “pay off your credit card each month”, etc., it never occurred to me to say “and don’t get a pit bull.” So I’m kind of stunned, and wondering what else he or my other children might come up with. Anyhow, I saw a photo of the puppy sleeping on his chest and, in spite of myself, I did find it pretty cute. This whole thing has made me realize that, one day, this kid of mine will have an actual tiny human being sleeping on his chest. Maybe learning to be responsible for a puppy is good practice.</p>
<p>SCUalum: I understand that people who use citronella and shock collars believe that they help in training a dog that isn’t paying attention. I think there are better methods to get a dog to pay attention.</p>
<p>As for crate training, I understand why people who haven’t tried it think it might be cruel. After all, it’s a cage. My dogs go willingly into their crate–I have an enormous custom-built one that they share–and prefer it to the couch, especially since I put a memory foam pad in the bottom ;-)</p>
<p>I think pit bulls are cute, but I have a Boston Terrier with a face only a mother could love. My dog’s best friend is a Rottweiler. When my dog was a puppy, the Rottweiler would open his mouth and my puppy would stick his head inside. My dog’s head would fit completely inside his mouth. This Rottweiler will take anything from the neighborhood dogs but when he approaches them, he looks like he is going to kill them. If I am with friends when he approaches my dog, they panic and yell, “watch out” and are shocked when my dog leaps up to box and play with him.</p>
<p>Very well said, and exactly right! Most dogs are ‘denning’ animals and they need their own place where they feel safe and secure. What’s great about a crate is that they get that security while still seeing what else is going on. I have a lab and a collie, and in storms they head straight for their crates! After 2 years they still see the crates as their personal favorite space.</p>
<p>Cartera, you are absolutely right. Our neighbor across the street got an adorable chocolate lab for his family. Did not work out at all. They now have a papillon, and it suits them just fine. He has 3 tiny girls who just did not want to deal with the activity level of a lab. They wanted something small and cutesy that they could easily handle. Poor guy does look funny walking that papillon though.</p>
<p>I just got in from walking my dog and a very frisky Rhodesian Ridgeback got away from his owner and followed us home - doing the drive by and circling us all the way home. My poor dog got so exhausted trying to keep up with him that I thought he would suffer a heat stroke. RRB - another beautiful breed that needs a very active owner.</p>
<p>Anybody know how to upload a jpg file to this thread? I have a classic pitbull picture to share, but I can’t seem to get it to upload? Is it against CC TOS?</p>
<p>We ended up with a miniature poodle mix and although I would have never opted for a poodle ever (I grew up with a collie/german shepard mix), much less a small dog, she is a perfect pet. I think poodles must be the perfect breed for the lazy dog owner (that would be me). If only I could get her to stop yapping when the doorbell rings.</p>
<p>I love poodles. I just hate the poodle cut. I know it actually has a purpose, but unless a dog is out in the water working and retrieving, it’s just silly looking. They look nice with an all over trim.</p>
<p>I would get a poodle mix if it were all up to me. Mainly because of the shedding issues that I so hate with our dogs. The drawback with poodles is that they do have to be groomed as do most dogs that do not have dander.</p>
<p>Cartera45: I won’t go into the vast amount of research I did into the traditional poodle cut, but the idea that it has a purpose is myth, plain and simple. Cutting poodles into fancy cuts has been around since the 1700s and Louis the Fourteenth. Poodles got their first pompadour when Mme de Pompadour did her hair that way (she was Louis’s mistress).</p>
<p>If you have a poodle, you can cut them anyway you want. I keep my two standards in what’s called a retriever clip, although I do have a topknot and pompon on the tail. I love that they don’t shed, but they’re <em>not</em> low-maintenance dogs.</p>