Contrary to what many people believe, pitbulls can be loving and gentle animals if they are trained properly. The right pitbull obedience training sessions can be done at home or by a professional trainer, but the truth is that it doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow a few simple rules.

Pitbulls are normally eager to please and therefore easy to train, but in order for the training to be successful, you should be patient, consistent, and offer training sessions that are fun for both you and your dog.

Pitbull Obedience Training

Obedience training for pitbulls is a lot more successful if you remember certain tips. For one thing, your dog should be socialized and used to being around people and other animals. It needs regular exercise so it doesn’t become bored and disruptive, and most importantly, you should begin the training when it is a mere pup.

You can train it later on after it becomes older, but the training becomes more difficult and more time-consuming if you wait.

One of the most-important things to remember about training pitbulls successfully is that you have to use positive reinforcement in order to make it work. In other words, use a rewards-based system where you use treats as a reward each time the dog does something it’s supposed to do.

If you hit, yell at, or be rough with the dog, you simply won’t get the same results and in fact, this type of negative reinforcement often makes the dog a lot more hesitant to want to learn anything.

You can also choose to either train the dog at home by yourself or hire a professional dog-trainer instead. Professional trainers are experts that cost a lot less than you think and do a great job, but training it yourself is not at all difficult.

To find obedience schools in your area, just check online or ask your vet for help. Of course, you’ll want to choose a school that is reputable and certified so that your dog learns everything necessary to be well-behaved and obedient.

How to Train a Pitbull Puppy for Basic Commands?

Why do we train animals? Simply put, it protects the animal and keeps them safe, just like it does with their owners. The dog will have a much happier life and will get along with both people and other animals a lot better once it is trained.

A well-trained dog also means the pet parents are much happier as well, especially since the dog can become acclimated into a family dynamic a lot sooner and faster than it otherwise would.

It is also your responsibility as a pet owner to train your pitbull well. When you’re teaching it basic commands, make sure your training sessions are no more than 15 minutes long. You should also hold a training session two to four times per day, and this should be an ongoing task.

Whether you’re teaching it to sit, lay down, or anything else, following the tips mentioned earlier will go a long way to making each training session successful.

And just as there are things you should do when training a pitbull puppy, there are also things you should not do, including the following:

• Never correct or scold your dog after it comes to you. If you call it over to you, make sure it’s for a good reason and never to fuss at your dog. This is because it may eventually stop coming to you when you call because it’ll associate the command to “come” with punishment.
• Never punish your dog at all, but especially not for something that happened in the past. This means no yelling and especially no slapping or hitting for anything, much less something that happened hours or days ago.
• Never rub the dog’s nose in it if there’s an accident. Again, this is a type of negative reinforcement and/or punishment, and the response is not likely to be a good one. You can gently remind the dog of how it’s supposed to potty, then reward it with a treat when it does just that.

Another important tip is to be extremely consistent. Like children, if you’re trying to teach your pitbull not to jump on the sofa and you allow it to do that just one time out of a hundred, it will remember that and will try to jump on the couch again in the future.

Whatever behaviors the dog has that you’re trying to eliminate, don’t let it get away with them even once. If you do, the dog will remember this detail and will almost positively try them again on another date.

Are Pitbulls Easy to Train?

Pitbulls aren’t that difficult to train, but you do have to start with making sure they know that you – not they – are the boss. They can be a little challenging to train at times, in part because they have been bred to be stubborn, but once you establish dominance, the training becomes much easier.

The sooner you start training your pitbull, the easier the training will be, and most experts recommend that you start training it at around eight weeks of age.

Pitbulls are also able to learn all types of commands, from basic “sit” and “fetch” to learning how to come to you when you ask them to. And while it’s always worth it to train your pitbull at home, hiring a professional dog trainer works just as well and costs less than you might think.

When the dog gets a little older, you can also conduct longer training sessions because its attention span won’t be as short. It’s also good to keep your dog’s personality in mind in order to alter these rules if necessary.

Conclusion

Pitbulls are more easily trained when they’re puppies, so starting their training around two to three months of age is perfect. Like many other dog breeds, you have to be consistent, firm, patient, and always use positive reinforcement instead of punishment if you want them to truly learn something.

Make the training sessions short, sweet, and fun, but consider this the start of their learning experience and not the end.