Pitbull puppies

[Valkie]

yes yes yes... I'm new.

This past week I brought home two female pitbull puppies, they are 8 wks today, and I can't get over how smart these animals are!! I'm working on housebreaking them and basic obidience and they are picking it up fast, but I'm at a lose for discipline.

The first thing that hubby reminded me of was that under no situation should a pit be physically disciplined, whether it is a smack on the butt or grabbing thier noses. OK. Doing good with that and they are responding well. But I've had a couple of situations where they are grabbing on to clothing (pant legs, shoes, shoe laces) and trying to use them for teething or tug of war... once and a while, I can't get them to let go. (Happened this morning when I made the mistake of walking into the kitchen to get coffee with only socks on.)

I've found that blowing on thier noses and picking them up with one hand will get them to drop what they have in their mouths (I say "drop" before I do it), but I don't want them to start thinking that if they want to be picked up that they should grab on to something and not let go. Are there any "hands on" way of discipline that I'm not thinking of?

BTW, I don't have a crate. They are confined to the kitchen until they are housebroken. I've been "ignoring" them when they not listening to corrections (which hasn't been often, they are picking things up very quickly) and offering chew toys when they are in a nawing mood and their "tug of war" towel when they want to play.

 

[Love4Pits]

Im going through the same thing with my Alaskan Malamute Puppy Pakak. He's a foot attacker. I usually remove him from the situation he's to much of a rotten thing to put in anouther room so i put him in his crate for 10-15 min. Since you don't have a crate I would remove one puppy and put it in the bathroom or something for 10-15 minutes both will see that its not fun to be seprated and eventually get the hand of it. Only do this after you repreimend them at least two times. Its a tough one and im sure there will be other people on here who can help also.

About the nose blwoing be careful my friends sister used to do with with her Rottie as a punnishment and one time she did this and the dog jumped up and attacked her in the face so just be careful.

 

[Rose's Gal]

Also, the blowing in the face thing could also make your pups scared of anyone leaing toward their face. When my mom was in highschool she had a Schnauzer named Mindy, and Mom's brothers would teasingly blow on Mindy's face so then anytime anyone would lean toward Mindy's face, she'd snap. So like Love4Pits said, be careful or just totally ditch that punsihment.

 

[Valkie]

Ya, hubby just warned me about the same thing about the nose blowing... I haven't been blowing directly into thier noses, more of a blowing down on their face. I'll have to make sure that I use that one sparingly.

 

[Adrienne]

With our puppy Gunnar I found it to be very helpful to use an Ahhaahhaa sound loudly and usually that startles him enough to let go of whatever he shouldn't be having. Then I redirect his attention to an exceptable thing to chew/tug on. It has worked quite well and is hands off.

Find a sound that really gets your dogs attention and use it to redirect them. Gunnar picked up on what I wanted really quickly with this method. Good luck with your puppies. Pit's are such great dogs, I have one who is six years now and absolutley love her!

Adrienne

 

[Renee750il]

Using a noise to distract them is a good tactic. So is separating them when they get into trouble. I'd definitely lose the blowing; just too risky in the long run. I'm not sure how good a tactic it is, but I've literally openned my dogs' mouths and taken things out. It's important to know you can, at any time, reach in your dog's mouth and remove something. You never know what kind of harmful thing they might pick up sometime! You should see the look on people's faces when I stick my hand in one of my girls' big mouths!

 

[Valkie]

well, so far the time outs have been working with getting the little darlings to stop chasing the mop when I'm trying to do the floor. Same with upping the volume with the 'no' when they are being extra persistant.

I started teaching them 'drop' today, which is helping. and working on 'fetch' to try to tire them out faster. The whole idea of a tired dog is a well behaved dog is working out well.

Thanks.