I have a 1 year old American Pit Bull. I have been working with her in basic obedience for a few months now. I have Ed's tape. I crate her anytime I am not in the home and when I sleep. She does not stay in my room at all (now). She used to sleep in my room up until recently. I noticed her trying to be the alpha person in the house and quickly took the steps to make sure that wasn't happening. I make her sit before we go through doors and stuff like that. I always eat before her. I thought this would start to happen sooner or later and now it has. Today I had her in a sit stay while a friend was leaving the house. As soon as he got out the door she jumped up and tried to look out the window. I had her prong collar on her with a six inch lead. I quickly grabbed it and administered a good correction. I normally just correct her back to the spot of where she was when she broke the sit. When I corrected her this time she turned and bit me on the hand hard enough to draw some blood!! I corrected the snot out of her for that. Afterwards I put her in a down stay for about thirty minutes. Also after I corrected her I told her good for being obedient so she knew I didnt hold a grudge. She has never really been aggressive to anybody especially me. Is this a stage she is going through to try and test me or is this a real problem. Either way how do I go about fixing this so it doesnt happen again. Also later in the day she broke a sit again during training and I tried to correct her and she didnt bite me but she let me know she didnt like the fact that I was correcting her. Also she wont stay off my bed!!! She knows she is not supposed to be on there cause when I walk up to her to correct her she takes off running!!! Help!!!
STONER

Sounds like pain induced aggression, not necessarilly dominate aggression directed at you. Use a longer leash, and work more on the obedience commands. Be careful using compulsion on a 12 month old dog.

Originally posted by VanCamp:
Be careful using compulsion on a 12 month old dog. I agree in the sense that at 12 months this dog will pack quite a bite as you have unfortunately already found out. If you want to use compulsion on this dog,(who has proven he will bite you) I would do so with the dog wearing a muzzle.

I would also keep an eye on this. If it is a one shot deal then I agree with VanCamp. If it happens again then you may have some rank problems developing. If that is the case Keep the longer leash on her and be prepared to work her hard in obedience after you get away from it. In a well trained dog you can often use obedience to work on the rank thing. The idea is get the response to the obedience commands to be so automatic that the dog does it with out thinking about it. Give rapid fire obedience commands (puppy push ups, and other commands).

Thanks,
That is what I was going to try (getting a longer leash like a six foot one) She always does so good it was just kind of shocking you know? But yeah I will try a longer leash definately.Why do you say careful doing that with a twelve month dog? Do they normally try to test you around that time. It seems like I remember reading that??
Stoner

That is often the time they may start, in addition they are often not strong enough to handle strong compulsion yet and you can over power them and cause problems including causing the dog to fear you because of the "over corrections".

Ok,
So maybe I am being to hard on her? Actually I probably should lay off a little bit. At a year old though shouldnt they be almost perfect at obedience if you train them right?
STONER

Stoner,

Check your P.M.'s.

I don't know Rich....do you think from the description given this dog is a victim of being "over corrected"? I see more of a situation where this dog needs a good ass kicking(figuratively speaking of course). I'm thinking that at 12 months the dog obviously packs plenty of punch to deliver one hell of a bite(my reason for saying be careful since the dog has bitten already, and also recommending a muzzle with use of compulsion) but is still in an adolescent "punk stage" meaning he is not yet old enough to seriously challenge or fight the handler. That's why I think it's more of a situation where this dog better learn a stiff lesson now before he is 18 months and the potential for a serious attack is more likely.

Chuck,

It is a she that was suprised in a correcton. I am not sure this was a rank behavior.

And I didn't say to not correct her, I said don't over do it. At this age you can over do it and create problems.

I noticed that Stoner said that he may be over doing it a bit.

And depending on what you are doing, in general obedience it would be expected that the dog should be very good at a year. I can't really tell you about the compitition obedience as I don't really do that.