Training Tip

When walking your dog or doing any training at all with your dog stay relaxed as much as possible. When your dog is relaxed much more learning can take place. Sometimes in our Pit Bull Manners class we tell people to get their dog to walk with them by stopping and standing still if he pulls or gets anxious. Wait for him to calm down before moving forward again. Relax yourself as well though. Try getting your do to BE WITH you by just nicely, calmly moving forward and let him follow that nice energy. Your walks my be a short circle for awhile. That's ok. If you have goofy young dogs it's all normal for them to pull on the leash and bounce around. That's what pups do. Let him be a pup and try and stay relaxed and reinforce only the calm behavior. If he's not calm stand there until he is. Don't talk to him which will create more arousal sometimes. Just stand there. Ok, so when you dog is a pup then your nice walks might be mostly "stands". :) Hope this helps. Here's a short clip of "Pit Bull Church" on Sunday.
Marthina McClay, CPDT