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- I am 19 years old and I have a pitbull named Charley. He just turned 1 year old on Feb 14th, 2008. We wrestle, walk, run, and swim together. You can check out more pics of Charley at www.myspace.com/rub_budah
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Sounds secure enough that for me. However i if i were you i would take him in reach, hold his collar or put on leach when another dog is approaching. You never know, they are dogs, not human beings. IF something happens you will be to blame. He has already a record of one month in custody, you know better then me what can happen. Im sure it is not positive if it happens again... As you say in USA. Better safe then sorry ;)
Its totally up to you if it is going well or not, be alert all time, the boy is worth it. And when people see you handle your dog that good way, those that deserv your respect will give it to you as i said before. The others.. F*** them:D.
Springpole... Well. Judging by how big his testosterone level and his problem with other males, it must be a strong male with much prey drive, i dont think springpole for that pit will be any problem. I suppose he has a command for "take". Maybe you say "take" when you want him to grab things? Just give the command and see what happens. Help him to jank it up and down so he gets the idea. When he does right, reward him, say good boy, come on, good boy, hold on when he is supposed to hold on etc. He will start to learn your words and understand what you mean quick.
Its good you dont let him swim over the whole lake. He can cramp and maybe when he gets to the other side, with plenty of engergy left as you say, there is another male dog. Theres not much for you to do then.... Swim beside him as you say, throw sticks that he can get for you. Throw them repetedly until he starts to get tired, but not so tired that he sinks;) Make training out of everything thats fun, make training fun. When you have found out the level that is good for him, then you can start to relax and he can also have a day off in week. Take mine for instance. They are amstaffs but Milo has quite good drive. He and she did only five to ten minutes of tug a war today instead of 30 min with each other, they chased only seven balls instead of 25-30 after that. I then stopped when i saw that they were tired. Milo that ususally is very self confident was making a lot of noise and showing teeth to the female when doing tug a war. That means the dog is tired and therefore unsecure. If your dog is wounded in some way, be extra careful around other dogs. A dog that has pain and feel week must prove himself for other dogs, gets agressive sometimes. At least a dog with pain or a disease is more likely to start a fight then a perfectly healthy dog.
Yes, talk to them at the WP club. After having discussed this with me and beeing so careful and honestly telling them that he can be a "little hard" with other males, but its ok when he is with you as long they dont run loose around each other you can hear what they say. I think that you are welcome. There will for sure be other strong males there with probably genes older then in your boy thats more hard on other dogs of same sex. Because WP is the sport for Pit Bulls and the best are thost with game in them. But all rases are welcome to participate and i think it is a very good thing to do, meet people and other dogs a couple of times a week. Listen then also to how much other training they think Charley can handle during the week. You can "read" your boy yourself im sure, but listening to those who has experience and has programs will save a lot of time for you. Im sure that will cut down the other training you must do much. Milo is so tired today because i did WP with him in the front of the house, he had threee heavy sets. It really takes all out of them, you will see.
Its good you dont do other training with Kilo then she can handle with her own body, no weights, no springpole either yet, there is time for that. WP they shall not do before 13 months say some people. I have just started and Milo is 20 months. I waited until 18 months. A lot of people say 15-18 months. Start to early and you might destroy her hips.. Bicycling is not allowed either until she is one and a half year old. Let her run and jump in the forest, that builds muscles. Let her swim if she likes it and so on.
No problem about the help, we help each other. I did not know how to do that with food refusal. I must write that down and try. I will not spank, i will say NO. A big NO is a very strong word for a dog, maybe i pinch him in the ear, just maybe. Here its no danger of them poisoning my dog, but you never know. There are haters here too that dont no nothing about the breed that talk shit about my fine boy that has not done anything, i now that. He is very beutiful and muscular. I will build him up to something extraordinary. Later if i have time i will train defence with him, his extremely stabile and has good drive as i said for an Amstaff. I will train WP too.. i like them the way Milo turned out, muscular and big. He is only 28 kg yet, that is 56 pounds, but its coming. He will be around 35 i think rock hard when he is finished, that is 70 pounds, that is a good weight for an Amstaff. A pit is usually five kgs lighter.
Thanks
Mats
Make the springpole yourself. It shall be attatched to something that is so far from anything he can bump in to as possible and there must not be anything sharp he can swing in to and hurt himself. The springpole consists of a spring or a that whats inside the car tyre, whatever its called, you know. You fill air in it.. tube i think its called. First a rope that you attach the tube to and then take a tug rope, its good if it has a handle in one end, but remove hard plastic from it. If you have that kind of tug rope, put it fhrugh the tube and trough its own handle so that its can not loosen from the tyre. Im not sure if you know what i mean but if not i will photograph it for you later or videotape it so you can make onee the same way i have had. If you buy a spring the spring must be that kind that revolves if you know what i mean, like the one you hang a boxing bag at, but not so hard, it must be not harder then when your boy works out, when he pulls it backwards it follows a little. That way it stimulats his prey drive and he thinks its fun;) To let him growl like that every day is a good way of getting him to work off steam. Thats what i heard from very good handlers, Roo for instance. His Wallace is not god around other male dogs, hes a strong dominant male too. When he has time to let wallace work out on the springpole he gets much better. Just se too it that you can do it so that your neighbours dont see it. People are so afraid of this dogs so they might think you are preparing him for "gaming" and that he will be dangerous.. A dog can be more agressive from that i think if you have no leadership, but for you thats no problem. The stronger and faster he gets, the more rules and dicipline you must have on him. Then he gets worked out and calm, obiding you and your family, thankful for that you understand him and let him train the old fashined way. The Pit Bull is an athlete that MUST train, more or less. Charlie seems to have a lot of "the old times" in him and therefore has to workout. To get him to swing i think is not hard as much prey as he seems to have. However, start him off with the springpole at low height, let him jump a foot to grab it and then he will by his weight slide down so his back feet touches the ground and then start working out. It must not be to low so that his front feet is standing on the ground all the time. If they sometimes by a hard jerk from him land on the ground is only stimulating. Take time of how long he works. When hes up on half an hour you can lift him up and see if he continues. You can make a springpole by having a rope, a tyre and a tug rope. Just have it in your backpack when your out in the park, throw it over a branch and fasten the rope at the right level. Then when you decide its time to move on to let him work "in air" just pull him up. But dont do the mistake some people have to pull him up a couple of yards because its "cool". He can break his hip falling down, that has happened. Just use common sence as usual.
The other things you do is great. Swimming is a good workout. Just remember to not let him go to far from you. He can get cramps you know. Especieally when you will do WP with him. Then he can drown before you have the time to save him. Put a floating west on him if he swims long distances from you.
I know you dont "let" him catch sqirrels. The words was not good put from me;) I mean, do not give him the chance if you can stop it. Its good you stop him everytime you see something wrong that he does, like that. Some Pit Bulls kills small animals, thats the way it is. Its game in Charley thats why. Some of them can have agression towards small animals and other dogs, thats a fact and when you know that, you make sure he does not get the opportunity to kill small animals or other dogs. It is as simple as that;)
The only way to stop him from doing it is to have him in the kennel when you cant supervise him. I have spanked my dogs a couple of times too but it dont help much;) But sometimes you loose control because they can be real stubborn the terriers. Try give an ear pinch instead and say NO at the exact right moment. It must be when he kills the sqirrel or in a few seconds after. To come out and spank him ten minutes afterwords just destroy more then it is use with. He makes no connection then to the punishment he gets and what he has done. But im sure you know that. The timing is important. Its the same way when you "pepp" him. praise him for being good. When he does right, for instance in obediance, or springpole, wp, whatever. Tell him "good boy, your a goood boy" with soft voice. Then he understands that when i does this, im good. In the EXACT right moment you must do that. That tells the boy what to do. Never say NO, or WRONG when you are training, thats negative, use positive methods. If you must say, no not so charley. Say it the mildest way you can and then praise him twice as much when he does right.
Throwing ball is a terrific workout. I throw until their tungoues hang out a half foot *lol*. Thats the kind of explosive momement these dogs are built for. Trow, and throw and throw until he lays down or it takes longer and longer for him to get to you with the ball, til he need to go to the bathroom before coming to you;) Thats good for the dicipline too. He comes with the prey to you time after time. That manifests whos the leader.
Get the boy properly warmed up before you start him pulling. Also increase the weight , dont start heavy at once. Its like when a person trains at a gym, he cant go directly for maximum weight without warming up and slowly increasing the weight. I cant tell you for how long, im not so good at WP, im just starting it myself, but use common sence. Let him run and chase ball for a five, ten min. Start him warming up with chains, lighter weights etc. If theres possibility of people with other dogs coming you cant let him run loose, you have to have leach on him. Then you run with him or do something else to warm him up. Do it enough times with the chain and light weights and that will be enough. You see, its a lot of questions. Thats why i want you to go to a club if possible, you can always go there and ask if you can study how they do, because if there is danger bringing Charley there you cant do it, tell them that in a good way. They will then see you are a responsible owner and help you. I want to go to a club but dont have time and gas money fort it, its very far from here the club.
Its great you have learned him to not take food from others, i want to learn mine that to. How did you do it?
Your messages are not to long compared to mine;)
Cheers
Mats
Yes, you see how it can go, you almost lost your boy because of that incident with the stray. It was stupid of your sister to do that. You have to educate yourself of the breed and learn all the others in the family to be good handlers of him, otherwise you can loose that fine boy.
You ask me of the myth is false. A myth Josh is somehing that is fiction, thats the meaning of the word myth;) What the myth says is by definition false. I have heard people ask others if their Pit Bull is going to be wicious because he accidently ate a hamburger that was a little raw.. That is ridiciolus. BUT he has kicked ass once and Pit Bulls are fighters. He has also been in fights before when he was running loose as you told me. I can tell you its not likely that he has lost one of those incounters with other dogs. Therefore he has gotten to like it. He wants to give another male dog a beating if it looks at him the wrong way, has wrong body language och barks, whatever. So what you have to do is to NEVER let him loose where there can come other male dogs nere him. In the daytime in the park there must not be anohter dog in sight. I assume he come everytime you call him in even if theres another male coming towards him? If that is not the fact, if you know or suspect that he wont follow your command you can NEVER have him loos where there is the slightest possibility of other people with dogs coming. You can only let him loose in late evening and night then at such places. And then maybe its not so healthy for youreves to be out? I dont know about the area you live in how safe it is. In a fenced area when you are by yourselves you can always let him out.
Remember that working with all sences, smell, brain and so on makes the dog even MORE tired then of WP, but he needs both.
Good luck
Mats
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Its good he dont jump over the fence no more, he cant do that because somebody can shoot him och kill him in another way. He is also agressive to other males so you can just imagine how he would react if he got near another male and you were not there? If that was a strong big dog that did not surrender it would be a big fight with not good consequenses for you, whether Charley would win the fight or not. Most likely he would win and maybe kill the other dog if that was not a strong Pit Bull, and we dont want that..
To the club you can go, but call them first and tell them about the problem. You can have a muzzle on him if he has to be very close to the other dogs and when he pulls you will have no problem because he cant launch at other dogs when you are in front of him near him and he has a wagon after him. Talk to them, go there and show your fine boy and tell them honestly how it is and that you wont let him bite another dog but you want everybody to know that hes not a good boy around other males. That can change if he get to "work it off" by pulling and also see other males there that are friendly. WP is as far as i have seen the one thing that takes it all out in a short time for a dog. He works off all his steam and is very calm afterwards. Springpole is also good. You have no possibility to build one in your backyard or your garage? Half an hour on that a couple of times a week or every day will do wonders.
Its good what you tell me that you does with the dog but its not enough. He has to train everyday you see, at least one time of the day, hard and fast. This is very explosive dogs that needs to fight off the energy, otherwise they might fight it off at another dog and we dont want that;)
A treadmill is a terriffic equipement if you can afford it. Try find a manual one. Colby has one for not so much money, i think it is 500 USD. You warm up the dog with ten min walk, put him on the treadmill and let him run the steam off, then walk him ten minutes to loosen up the muscles. Then after that you give him a massage and stretch him. That is only if you can get someone who knows what to do to show you. If you do wrong when you stretch and stretch to much and in the wrong way, the dog can get injured instead of more flexible.
Springpole as i said, flirtpole, treadmill, bicycling, obedience with more then just sit and sit stay, try more commands his a smart boy. Tracking , weight pulling, frisbee and so on. You see how much different exercises you can do and you dont always need big space for it either. Maybe the area around your house that is fenced in is enough, that would be great.
DONT let him take sqirrels if you can stop it, because that takes out the bad in him, he must be told everytime he thinks about it and you see it that killing is a BIG NO, say NO to it. Dont ever let him think its ok. It starts with sqirrels and ends up with.. yeah, you got the picture;)
The idea is that your little boy should be so hard trained that he just lies and sleeps with a smile on his face, like my Milo does now. Milo is easier, its an Amstaff that does not have as much engergy and prey drive as Charley has and i now you are doing your best, otherwise you would not be here asking questions. Your a good man and take good care of your dog. BUT i am sure you can be the best dog owner/handler there is in your neighbourhood, you and your fiance. You have already stopped him from running away, you have him on your property now all the time, you have control of him outside, on the leach. Now its time for the serious training that does not have to take so exteremely much time everyday. Its necessary if you want Charley to be calm and to be a even better boy then he is now.
Starting off with WP i suggest you take it easy and start very light, warm him up with for instance jumping after a skin, a little flirtpole, not to much as it takes much engergy from him. let him pull chains first, around five kgs, then take a car tyre, then after that you can use a container for water, and fill a little more for every pull. Like me for instance that has just started with Milo i warmed him up and then 10 kgs, then 15 kgs, 20 kgs and 25 kgs in a plastic container that he dragged over the lawn five meters. It was filled with water. I stood in front of him with a skin and held that low to the ground ans said "come on, come on" backing fast so that he could not bite the skin as reward until i had backed five meters (yards). A kilo is approximately 2 lbs. Keep the thing you have in front of your dog low so that he gets the right angle for pulling. Search for weight pulling + pit bull on youtube so will you get a hang of it. You can look at me and my fiances user "LillaSophie". There you have a lot of useful movies. Read all about the race on the net, take in whats good and skip what is bad, if your not sure what is what, ask here, i will be happy to help you as good as i can. Its good you are building a wagon for WP, thats great. Just remember to NEVER be irritated on your boy if he does not understand immidiately. You must have tons of patience. Tell him how good boy he is, reward him with a treat after each successful pull. Never have to much weight that is important. He must never fail because you have had to much weight for him. Dont go heavy every time. They need much more time to recover then a man. they small you know. Build him up slow and easy and you will have a extraordinary beutiful dog., you already have, but you will see.. Just remember that the stronger he gets, the cockier he will get to.. so you and your family MUST be leaders, be OVER him in ranking. Have house rules that are not flexible without beeing control freaks. control his food, he must never take food without command and so on.
Ask if theres more questions
Mats
Cheers
Mats
Sorry i havent had time to answer your questions right away. Im not an expert but i try help you as good as i can. Be smart and take in advices from others here. There is a lot of people here that know everything you need to know about the breed.
Some things we have discussed before, i would be thankful if you saved the messenges or made a website with all the info you get from different people so you can go back and look. I have done that on www.miloswebb.com
Unfortunately its in Swedish but look under links you will have a lot of useful information. The key is to read, talk about and think about and analyze everything with your dogs. If you want a dog to behave in a certain way or to not do a certain thing you must figure out how to do it. Most of the time its very logical. Its not like figuring out how a woman works;) Even if its a female dog its easy. Its easy psycology. But sometimes you have to ask people and do that before doing wrong, thats the way to go.
Pit Bulls need a lot of physical and mental stimulation as Lisa Peters already said. Not only when you are home but every day... you need to figure out how to get the dog to have that every day. Pit bulls are not for lazy people, not for people that have no time for them either. But with wp you cut down the training time. They get real tired after pulling. BUT always start with obedience and contact training, understand? Because your strong boy will be even stronger and the stronger he is the cockier he will be. You cant control a strong pit with your muscles only that gets to tireing and is dangerous to other dogs if he gets off leach. The control must come from him obeding you. You must be his leader and you must have so much control that when you have him in the leach (without choke collar) you should only have to say "dont pull, dont pull" jerk a little, very firm and he will stop. I have that control over Milo and he is muscle packed. Dont care so much about the weight of the pit bull, its how he looks that is important. How he performs the real apbt fans would say, but i say how he looks and performs. The dog looks and feels better with no fat on his body. A Pit Bull in good shape should not weigh to much. Charley is fit enough but stop focusing on his weight, try to get him more defined, he will be faster when he plays, have more condition and be a happier dog. If you train his head too, that is necessary, you will have a 200% happier dog. They get more tired of that then walking three hours. If you have not so much time one day or its raining. Hide frolic in the house and let him try to find it. Tie a bit sausage in a line and drag around in the house. Stop and take a clean bit sausage at the end of the track as a reward for him when he is finished. That is best doing outdoors. Let your fiance lay the track and do the tracking with a long leach. You can let charley track up your woman too, thats good exercise. Let her hide behind a tree and let her give him a treat when he finds her
start with short distances.
For weight pulling (wp) you need a harness and weights. you can build your own wagon or sledge, i can show you later, i have sent you links before... as i said i would be grateful if you saved them. look in earlier messages from me and come back if you dont find it. Im sure you have links to a sled, maybe to a simple model of a wagon too. Flirtpole is also good if you have a safe area where he can not get interacted with passing dogs. Thats very good training that tires the dog fast. Springpole is good to, you can look it up on the net how to build one, come back and ask if you dont find info. BUT REMEMBER that doing that training, build up a pit bull physically like that, you must fist have the leadership totally clear for the dog. You are the leader. You make the dog stronger with training that makes him get more self confident. Thats good, but only if your the leader. Im not saying your not, im just pointing this out. Chewing on tyres is not ok, learn him that he can not do it. You cant be "sloppy" with a stron pit bull male. You have to be consequent, firm but not hard. They are sensitive animals. Positive training, and regurlarely obedience training and strict house rules without being control freak over him should settle the problem. He must know what to do in every situation. You tell him. Go right, go left, stop. Charley, come here. Charley, go to your bed. Charley stop, and so on. If the dog is standing there not knowing what to do, tell him. He will then be satisfied with his life, you his leader tell him everything. Thats a very good way to live for a dog and makes him calm. With good leadership you never or very seldom have to yell at a pit bull. You just tell him in normal voice what he can not do.
Find out different training methods and vary them so its fun all the time. Mix between physical and mental training. For a rainy day you can have a activation ball for him. thats a ball with holes in there you put in frolic. He rolls it and they fall out. Working with the head makes the boy very tired and satisfied.
Take for instance a look at this. Two "squares" are like three hours of walking with him. Walking just dont do it for them fast..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiWLOu8dXKQ
That is the beginning of tracking training if you want to do it old school from scratch. Pros do up to 1000 such squares before they start more advanced training. break two pieces of frolic (dog treats) i think you have them in usa, or any other training treat. Let charley stay sit , go to the square, put your hand in the square and say "track". Tell him "good boy" and so on when he finds the treat. Positive training, motivation by telling him his doing good is the key. Dont be disappointed on him if it does not "click" the first times. When it clicks he will start searching with only his nose.
Now i want to hear your plan for how you are going to get him what he needs every day. your woman must do it when you are out working somewhere. A pit bull is not a couch potatoe, specieally not charley with his genes. Work your boy, regularely, every day, you can have one day off in week. Mentally and physically and you will have a calm, fine dog. He will always be a little hard when he meet other males, but, whats to expect? Its a pit bull, its in his nature. Its for you to see to that he is absolutely sure that its no use AT ALL for him to try to take the leadership, thats he is proparly conditioned both physically and mentally. He will then feel good and be calm. When you start wp dont go to heavy, start very easy, it must never be to heavy, he can then loose interest in it. I would prefer if you go to a club. Charley can there meet other pit bulls and socialise with fine dogs which also is important.
Ask if it is something more.
Mats
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