New Pitt Owner Need help

Hey everybody Im new to this site, and also new to ownin a Pitt Bull, I got a Blue Brendle puppy as a early Christmas present, and I have had him since he was 4 weeks old. I bottle fed him until 6 weeks , and now he is 2 1/2 months. I have been waiting on his papers bc he comes from Razors Egde bloodline, but I am growing impatient to see how good of a bloodline he really has, does anyone know how to Look up things like that on line?? Also, he is extremly smart, he has been sitting on command since 5 weeks, he can stay, speak, and fetch and he is trying to grasp the potty training. How do I make him understand when to go outside? I already take him when he wakes up and when he goes to the door, and I give him a treat when he goes outside and punish him for the inside mistakes. What else can I do??

 

Congrats on your pup.
First bit of advice I can give you is dont punish him when he goes indoors. IF you actually catch him in the act, a stern 'NO' (nothing else) and take him calmly outside immediately without making a big deal out of it, then encourage him to 'go potty', say this to him until he goes then praise him (good potty) and give him a small treat just as hes finished.

If you walk into the room and find a puddle on the floor, yelling at him or putting him outside wont do any good at all, all your doing is confusing him, he wont associate your being angry at his 'accident'.
(I usually make a point of not allowing the dog to see me cleaning the mess up either).

He should pretty much have full control of his bladder by now so you need to work with and teach him exactly were you want him to go, pick a spot in the yard, most dogs have their 'favourite' spot.

Take him out when he wakes up, if hes a had a good play session, after hes eaten and before you go to bed. I would start additionally by taking him out about every 2 to 3 hours, he needs a routine. If you see him 'getting in the position' inside you need to react immediately, again a stern NO and take him straight outside. Give him time to go, just because he was about to go indoors doesnt mean he'll remember that straight away once hes outside, there are things around him that will distract him, keep him outside until he goes. Dont be impatient with him, hes still just a puppy and negativitiy on your part can prolong the housetraining.

Have you thought about crate training?

As the scents of the urine/stool are already down indoors you will need to clean those areas with something Natures Miracle (should be able to get it from any pet store). he will want to go back to were the scent is.

Good luck.

 

I just read your other post that mentioned spraying bitter apple in the dogs mouth when it urinated inside. You said in that post that the dog 'picked up on it in a week' but from the post in here it doesnt sound as though thats case.

I have to admit Ive never heard of anyone using bitter apple to stop urinating in the house. Ive always used it to stop chewing and biting on people. So it worked or no?

The reason I ask is I use at a negative association tool, the dog associates it with the behaviour of chewing and biting, it wouldnt be good if the dog associated it with urinating (just my opinion). The other thing as I said earlier, if you dont catch the dog in the act then its pointless, as far as the dogs concerned you suddenly punish him but he doesnt know why.

As for him urinating on the Pomeranian, that could just be a way for your dog to let your room mates dog that hes in charge or it could have been that your dog was a little over-excited and couldnt control it. As annoyed or upsetting as this may be to us humans its definately NOT something to reprimand the dog for. They only get full control of the bladder at around 12 weeks of age and hes not quite there yet.

I would strongly recommend that you get a couple of books on basic puppy behaviour and when the pup is old enough go to a reputable training class, partly to get your pup trained and partly to give you a better understanding of canine behaviour.

 

can you tell us why you got the pup at 4 weeks and why it wasnt weaned until 6 weeks????.... :shock:

 

i got the dog at 4 weeks, because he was bottle fed in a kennel by the man that breeds and raises them down here. i got him as a present from a friend, and i contiued bottle feeding him until 6 weeks. then he moved to dry food. thats not really my issue.

 

Hi:

Congratulations on your puppy.

Dalauk summed up everything PERFECT in her posts!!!
I agree with her 100 percent!

I would suggest that as soon as your pup has had the necessary shots, you take the dog to puppy kindergarten classes for social training. Training will benefit the both of you GREATLY!!!

Owning a pup is a lot of work and now is the time for you to lay out the ground work for the dogs entire life.

Also crate train your pup and its not a bad idea to get puppy training books at your local book store.

These links should be at last a helpful start for you.

http://www.pets.ca/articles/article-cratetrain.htm

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/tpuppy.html


Sue

 

What you need to do is visit some sites and research. There are many different ways to complete this project. If he does go to the bathroom in the house make sure you catch him. Do not punish once you see it bc by the time you punish him he wont know what he did. When you do punish him show him the mistake he made them take him outside. Just so he knows that he does his bussiness outside. 8)

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Killerbee