When you have a pet pitbull, you know that you have a companion for life. Pitbulls are incredibly loving and loyal, and simply adore spending time with their owners.
In fact, pitbulls are incredibly social, love to please their owners in whatever ways they can, and will always strive to behave well and do exactly what their owners want.
As such, it is quite easy, and very worthwhile to train your pitbull to achieve new things, and to become even better companions.
But how do you actually train a pitbull? Is there an optimal method for it? What do you need to make it work?
If you want to train your pitbull, but you don’t know where to start, then why not start by reading down below as we are going to take a look at exactly how you can train a pitbull!
Be Calm And Patient
Whenever you are training your pitbull to do anything, you must ensure that you remain calm and patient.
Don’t become angry or frustrated at your dog when they do not pick up on a behavior right away and don’t punish your dog for getting things wrong.
Pitbulls love to receive positive reinforcement as an incentive to learn positive behaviors, hence why negative punishments such as aggression can not only prove harmful to a pitbull but are also totally ineffective.
When training your pitbull, make sure to take it slow with each lesson, and encourage the dog with every positive step made towards your training goals.
You can positively reinforce good behavior by feeding them treats, or by petting them.
If you ever feel yourself getting frustrated while training, make sure to take a break, as frustration can lead to ineffective training!
Teach Obedience
In order for any amount of training to work with a pitbull, you are going to want to make sure that the pitbull is disciplined and obedient.
Obedience training ensures that your pitbull knows that commands from you must be listened to so that there is no room for error.
This is beneficial for two reasons.
When your pitbull is more obedient to you, it will be far easier to train it, as it will be much more attentive to everything you say, and thus it will be able to better latch onto the commands you give.
As well as that, it also means that your pitbull is less likely to suddenly find its attention diverted by other people or even other dogs.
However, once you have taught basic obedience to your pitbull, you must then take it a step further, so that your dog can become even better behaved.
One idea we recommend is to train your dog to make eye contact with you whenever you give it an order to calm down.
This ensures that your pitbull knows that you are always the priority and that following your commands always comes first!
Exercise
Pitbulls can be quite energetic, and as such, this means that they may begin to misbehave within the home, especially when they are bored, or they begin to feel neglected.
If you want to train your pitbull to behave better when indoors, make sure that you are giving it the requisite exercise.
Take your pitbull for a walk, or even take it to a park to play fetch for an hour, and this will allow it to use up a bunch of its energy in one burst so that it can return home a little more relaxed, and a little more obedient and well-behaved.
House Train
In order to have a well-behaved pitbull in the home, you need to spend some time establishing ground rules, and letting the pitbull know what is allowed in certain areas, and what is not allowed in others.
You are also going to want to establish where the pitbull can go whenever it needs to urinate.
When a pitbull is first introduced to your home, establish an area outside where it can head to urinate, and then observe it in that area until it does. Once the pitbull has urinated, make sure to reward it.
From there, all you then need to do is look out for signs that your dog needs to use the restroom, and then lead it to the outside area, to reinforce that it is the correct area to head to.
Make sure to do similar things with other rooms, such as in your lounge, make sure to establish with the pitbull that it is not allowed on the couch (if you so choose).
Socialize
Allow your pitbull to interact with other people, and even other creatures, while keeping a close eye on it.
This will allow it to learn that other creatures are not always a threat, and will allow your pitbull to lower its aggression.
It will also mean that your dog is much easier to command later on, as it is less likely to be distracted by any stimulus that it could automatically define as a threat!
To Wrap Up
Training a pitbull is key to helping them to become the loyal and beloved animals that we all know.
And with the right know-how, training a pitbull can be quite easy, and all it requires is a little bit of patience and attentiveness.
Make sure to keep what you have learned above in mind when training your pitbull, to help you to raise a pet that you will remember for a lifetime!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Pitbulls Be Easily Trained?
Yes. Pitbulls are very obedient and love to make you happy, so training your pitbull can actually be quite easy, and often very rewarding.
How Do You Calm A Pitbull?
If you have noticed that your pitbull is particularly energetic, you may want to take it for longer walks, much more often, as this will allow your dog to use up its energy.
Do Pitbulls Like Music?
Yes. Pitbulls do like music, and they especially like music that has a soothing sound, so you can also use soothing music to calm a pitbull down.
Hi everyone, I’m Emily Andrews and I can’t wait to explain why Bullypaw.org means so much to me.
For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a veterinarian. I loved every dog, horse, bird, and squirrel. But from an early age, I noticed that bully dogs like Pitbulls and Staffordshire Terriers were given a different treatment than their friends.
Everyone said they were prone to aggression, but I didn’t believe it. They seemed just as friendly as my family Labrador. Turns out I was right. These dogs are loyal and were once considered the perfect nanny dogs.
My love for animals wasn’t just a childhood fantasy. In 2002 I graduated from my veterinary school in New Zealand with a BVSc. I wanted to travel the world and help rejected animals as I went, but to do that I needed to pass the American Exams. It didn’t take long for me to earn a DVM, and soon I was heading to Florida.
We want to show everyone why bully dogs can be amazing pets. If you like any of our work, share it among your friends and help reduce decades of misinformation.
