What's new

Adopting A Dog

Thank you all for your advice. This was a gold mine. We found the one. She's a 1.5 year old pit bull French bulldog mix. We're adopting her from a rescue. Picking her up at 6 MST. Pictures are coming soon.

She is very responsive to other dogs, not aggressive just fixates and whines a lot when she sees one. Anyone have experience with training a dog to be more comfortable with other dogs. My mom has a dog that I'd like Lucy(ours) to get along with.
 
Congrats!

You’ll have to gauge the energy levels and intentions of the focus on other dogs. It could be excitement to socialize and play, or it may be anxiety. From my experience, expect play to be noisy and sound horrific. It’s when they get quiet and fixate is when you need to be aware and break that focus.

my girl, pictured inmy previous post was bred and fought. It took about 2 years to get her anxiety broken. Now, she’s a lovely sociable dog, and shares her home with a new dog over the last 2 years..

What we found worked best was to break focus and if there was any scuffle, the dogs get rolled into their backs and made to stay vulnerable. They will tremble, their tales curled tightly along the rear of their body. This was just the adrenaline working it’s way out. Once the trembling the stops the tales progress to being more relaxed and eventually lay flat on the ground behind them. This is a good sign, at that point the dog should only be focusing on you and not reacting to surroundings. Wait a while and when you are ready, you can give the command to come or roll over. This, as I interpreted the process and results was a trust and conditioning exercise. Enforcing that you are the one looking out for them, and you’re in charge. It’s served as a time out and also forced them to relax and allow themselves to vulnerable around other dogs.

One thing to keep in mind about a pit, full bred or mix, it’s a terrier. ALL terriers are different from any other breedtype of dogs in that they are the only breed to be bred with a higher prey/kill drive. Most terriers are tiny little ankle biters and that’s why folks dismiss this in a Yorkie or jack russel but not your pit. Pits very strong, and in the large end of what terriers are. Anything smaller than your dog, you need to, at first, consider that your dog may associate it as prey and not friend. By no means would I want you not to trust your dog in good time, but just understand the differences.

Also, avoid protective and territorial bahaviors. No leaning against you in social settings, no sitting on your foot, and no blocking or cutting off (forcing their way between you) other people or dogs that intend to interact with you.

I’ll bet in a short time you will see one of the best attributes in pits and pit mixes. That big blocky head standing at your side looking up to you for your approval. They are world class people pleasers. They live to make sure you are happy and approve of them. Despite my girl being as strong and tough as she is, she and other pits in my experience are so sensitive to correction and discipline. Do not be too harsh or heavy handed because it will break their heart and yours. They seek your approval and that’s their favorite reward.
 
Here she is!
 

Attachments

  • 20200524_180019.jpg
    20200524_180019.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 15

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
Been owned by Australian Shepherds since I was 13 months old.

I'll never be without a good dog - they complete our lives in so many ways and teach us lessons about loyalty, devotion and forgiveness that are both valuable and lasting.

If you can't tell, I really love dogs. :)
 
If I had to guess 30-35 pounds. She's not large.
That’s actually a pretty close to correct weight of a pure pit bull. From the pic, I don’t see much mix at all. So many think pits are big dogs. But 30 to 60lbs is about right for a pure pit. Bigger than that, you’re actually seeing staffordshire mixes or anything else with a blocky head just assigned the pit mix title.

Beautiful pup for sure. I wish you all many happy years with your family.
 

nortac

"Can't Raise an Eyebrow"
That’s actually a pretty close to correct weight of a pure pit bull. From the pic, I don’t see much mix at all. So many think pits are big dogs. But 30 to 60lbs is about right for a pure pit. Bigger than that, you’re actually seeing staffordshire mixes or anything else with a blocky head just assigned the pit mix title.

Beautiful pup for sure. I wish you all many happy years with your family.

Please clarify, I thought that "American Staffordshire Terrior" was the official name for pitt bulls. Is there another type of non-mixed pitt bull?
 
Please clarify, I thought that "American Staffordshire Terrior" was the official name for pitt bulls. Is there another type of non-mixed pitt bull?

not mentioned or discussed here is the English staffordshire.

I believe that a lot of the larger dogs titled pit mixin my area appear to be more of a staffordshire american bull dog mix.

There are distinctions between the varying bully breeds. The newest is the American bully and they come in a slew of sizes and people are working to establish breed standards for the different sizes and trying control the temperament as well.
 

nortac

"Can't Raise an Eyebrow"
Thanks for the clarification.....sort of...still not entirely clear, but no matter. Had a very sweet pitmix at one time, but she was stolen, I believe, from a large fenced in enclosure. Two other dogs, a lab and dalmation remained in the enclosure and they all got along famously.
 
We’ve had three Staffordshire Bull Terrier Dogs over the past 40years. Two were Pups, eight weeks old, and one we got when he was 6 months. The two pups were never any trouble, and the breeder advised us to keep the pup in a babies cot at night, which we did.
SBTS must be a very clean breed, because house training was no problem, all done in a couple of weeks.
The only chewing problem was a couple of slippers. The first dog grew up with my son and was bomb proof with children.
They could do anything with him.
The dog that was 6 months old was already house trained, and again no problem with chewing at all.
I would have another tomorrow, unfortunately my wife won’t.
 
Top Bottom