Articles about American Pit Bull Terrier
When you go to get him out, he'll be standing and staring at you, so bridge that. When he disengages from you, stop the bridging, so he learns it's not what you want. Further, clarify what you want by naming his position as "stand" and naming the "four feet on floor." He could achieve freedom from the run by doing this. Otherwise, withdraw the opportunity, stop bridging, and close the door. Now he's been taught both ends of the "brain chemical spectrum" in a reinforceable way. Avoid playing fetch, as this activity is directed inwardly, and seems (for him) to be a power trip. He needs to learn to exercise the mental part of his being. This can be exhausting, especially in light of the fact that he has probably been the victim of benign neglect and too much freedom. It will probably exhaust you, too, since you can't rely on food, you'll be going mostly on the bridges. He may get to where he likes food more as his focus switches from 'what can I rip up' to having a relationship with a person.
Multiple dogs
Most sessions should be done with one dog or one trainer per dog, so you can focus totally on that dog. However, you could use two tie outs or train two targets. Another way of training two dogs would be to use two barriers, like x-pens, one for each.
Challenges
Quick sessions with strategic rest/soak breaks work better than drilling to the point of boredom. With any type of training, stop while the animal is still engaged. Make sure that each lesson is proofed before going on to a new lesson; i.e. that a concept is truly understood by the animal. Otherwise, the animal may just start "throwing behaviors" at you in a hit-or-miss attempt at getting the reward. Scenario: The dog tries every trick in the book, without actually listening to the trainer's words. In addition, the dog moves so fast it's hard to give the IB's. A pice of advice for this dog was as follows: The bridges are not yet established in this dog's training. Without it, she's tunnel-visioned on the treats rather than the concept. Hence the zippy run-through of her "tricks repertoire". The bridge should be the major motivator (the IBs being the encouragement to get to the TB). Work with fewer treats (don't treat for every correct reaction), or don't show her the treat (use a treat bag so that the treat is not always in hand). When she goes into the hyper, look-I-can-do-everything mode, stop, and wait for her to calm down. Work on conditioned relaxation. Applying IB's in cycles is very supportive to the animal, and it builds duration...to start reading this article from the beginning please click on here....
