tips for me

[facinatedowner]

I have a dog that resembles an american pit bull or stafforshire terrier. I came into owning my first dog when I lived with a former friend and he decided to get a dog. Bought the dog for $100.00 brought it home and did not realize that you have to care and love the dog. Noticeing this I took the part of being the proud nurturing parent that he needed. Push came to shove when this former friend of mine expressed that he needed to get rid of the dog a month after he had purchased him. The landlord did not want us to have dogs over 15lbs. My roomate was then going to sell the dog. I was torn. I had to decide to take on a dog when at the time I could not even take care of myself or just go on and say life sucks sometimes. My decision was made when the roomate found the potential buyers. They came over to check him out while I was there. They were asking questions circled around how viscious he was. I then decided to move out with him for the benefit the dog and my own concious. That was three years ago and I can't imagine life without him. My questions could strain off for days but after giving a little history my concern is if and how I could train my dog to be more socialble with other dogs. He is just great around kids people but I have a problem as so many others with this type of breed of being aggresive with other dogs.

[miakoda]

Good for you for "rescuing" this dog. It sounds as if the dog is very much loved & cared for. I'm glad to hear that the dog is a typical bully & gets along great with adults & children. But as you've found out, typical bullies also don't always do so well with other dogs (there are a few out there that do ok, but we all know to never leave a pit bull alone unsupervised with another dog ;) ). Some aren't necessarily that dog aggressive, they just prefer human companionship w/out another dog interfering. But many more are just downright dog aggressive. The bad news is that this something you cannot change in your dog. Hundreds of years of selective breeding went into developing this trait, & no one person with one dog can "undo" it. However, you can train your dog to be unresponsive to other dogs when walking on a leash & in public (most dogs). The good news is that, again, your dog loves people. If you wish to have a mulitiple dog household, you will just have to learn to divide time b/n the 2 dogs. I'm a crazy person, & keep all my dogs inside in kennels. I "crate & rotate" the dogs throughout the day. When they're outside, they're on individual tie outs to where they cannot reach each other. I also make sure each dog gets some one-on-one time inside the house with us. Most of us on this site have more than 1 or 2 pit bulls. We would be lying if we said we never had any problems...i.e. dog fights, ripped up furniture, etc., but it's worth the effort. Each dog is unique in it's own way & has it's own personality. I enjoy each & every one of my dogs as I'm sure everyone else here does too. But like I said, it's a LOT of work on the upkeep (vet bills, food, equipment such as chain setups/tieouts, etc.) & to keep every dog safe. Good luck with your pup. We'd love to see some pics. :)

[facinatedowner]

Thank you very much for your response. Where could I find some good to the point info on unresponsive methods.