new pit pup training questions

[ayeCEE]

Hi all..

I have a 8 week old pit pup, have had her for 2 weeks now and need some help getting her all sorted out..

First problem is with bitting (people), I know shes a pup and all pups do it, but we are desperate to get this sorted out, we have a lot of young kids comming past and she is constantly bitting them and also latching on to peoples clothes and shoes etc. we try to get her attention with chew and squeeky toys etc, we clap, call out to her..sometimes (like 1 hr ago) I have to pri her jaw open or something and send the kids inside because it gets bad and she wont let go, i read in another post that, you should make a loud (painful) shreek and turn away and ignor her, then give her something to chew on, I have been trying this, and it’s alright for me to do, but if shes latching on to a little kids dress or something what can i possibly do?

Any help, tips, advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time..

[Kresaera]

Hello AyeCEE =)  My puppy did this same thing, she still does some, but not nearly as often.  What we did with her is whenever she would latch on to one of my kids’ articles of clothing I would taker her completely away from the situation and tell her firmly ‘No Bite!’ and then giver her a toy to chew on. 

They chew a lot because of their teeth hurting them, like babies do.  Cloth toys help a lot because they can clamp down and apply a lot of pressure.  We have a rubber toy with a ‘squirrel tail’ looking thing on the end of it.  It’s a piece of fuzzy cloth and she loves it.  There is a picture of the toys we got her on my blog at bellathepitbull.blogspot.com

A good thing to do when she bites (while playing) is to stop play immediately and say ‘No bite!’ again.  Then turn your back to her and ignore her.  She’s still very young and all puppies chew and nip.  Hopefully you get some good responses here!

Hope that helps.

(I actually had to get up in the middle of this post and divert her from one of my daughter’s shoes.)

[raisins mom]

Aww the puppy stage.  Isn’t it fun?  = ) I adopted Raisin when he was 7 or 8 months so he was past the initial puppy stage altho he still chews.  We purchased our shepherd around 9 weeks and he was a biter as a pup (esp when teething). So we would buy  carrots and throw them in the freezer.  He loved them.  He will be two in May and still loves frozen carrots.  Ad for when he would chew on me I would say “No” or make an “eek” noise so he would release and then give him something else to chew on.  It helped some.

Raisin tho when he was chewing somethng he use to not like to give it up so we taught him the ” out”.   Basicaly I would give him something and then say out and take it away.  I then waited a few seconds to a minute then would give it back to him.  The “out” command has been a lifesaver. As far as if puppy latches a dress or clothing its pretty normal, kids running past, the excitement. Puppy just wants to join in the fun. That is when I would try the “out” and offer your puppy a different toy to chew on or exchange the unwanted article for a doggy treat.

Another great thing to start working on  with your pup is preventing any type of  food aggression.  My last dog I found  was food aggressive so that was my number one rule these dogs could not be. I had to feed him locked in a crate so that there was noway he could turn on someone that was near his food bowl.   We trained both dogs we have now they must wait and make eye contact w/ us before we feed them.  Then while they ate we practiced putting our hands in the bowl and moving their food around. Taking the bowl away then giving it back to them.  I can not tell you how many 911 calls I have taken for dogs who’s owners did not teach them this. 

Enjoy the puppy stage.  I don’t miss it but it was a fun experience to go through with our shepherd.  Shaping your pup into a great dog will be more rewarding then I can express on this page.

 

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