Hi y'all...I'm new here and hope to find useful info on this board.My son joined the Army last year and felt that,as "older folk" Mom and Dad needed a dog to protect us.His gift to us was Gator,a tri-registered APBT who frankly,can trace his line damned near as far as I can.
He will be a year old on June 1st,and in the last month or so has begun to be aggressive toward other male dogs.I am thinking hard about having him neutered,despite the excellent pedigree,but my vet has told me that there is a good chance,he being the product of "game-bred genes",that the procedure will not change his aggressive behavior.
I won't lie,folks,I really only know that game bred means his ancestors showed themselves willing to fight.
What does that have to do with my Gator,and how do we nip this in the bud?He loves every human or female dog he sees,is happy,self-confident to the point of being cocky,and an all-around goof ball who was the star of his puppy obedience classes.But neither my husband nor I can abide this growling,lunging,hackles-raised monster he becomes when confronted by another male dog!
Please help!

Naomi,

Find someone that trains working dogs and works with dog aggressive dogs. If you need to ask the question you will probably need help dealing with this problem. The other part is sooner or later you will need "bait" to provide an oppotunity for corrections, and to test how well the training is holding. The solution to this problem is a combination of strong obedience, an exellent "out" command, and a firm education as soon as possible that this is not acceptable behavior. Your Vet is most likely right. If the dog is already demonstrating the dog/animal aggresion, neutering will not stop it.

Richard,
Thanks for taking the time to answer me.I will follow your advice on further training,but would love it if you could clarify "out command"; is this like No or Stop?
Also,since you seem to agree that neutering won't change the behavior,do you think I shouldn't have it done?Doc Palka says it's a shame to neuter an animal whose ancestors go back to 1921.Do you agree?
Thanks again.

Naomi,

The fact that the pedigree goes to any level of generations has no bearing on whether or not the dog should be bred. Breeding is a function of how the dog meets the standard for the breed. If the dog is an exceptional example of the breed then breeding him is a good thing. If the dog is not a good representative of the breed it wouldn't matter if the pedigree went to 1900, it shouldn't be bred.

An out command, as I use it, is a command to cease aggression. In a dog for protection it means that you want them to stop the agression now. For me No means never, out is more stop right now. In addition it is usually paired with a recall to bring the dog back. If the dog is to protect the command will also work if the dog is after a person. In some cases with animal agression the No command, or an even stronger command, could easily be used. I tend to train in blocks of thought, since I train for protection I want to train as few commands as possible so I don't have to remember as much. I actually use 2 commands for No. One is nein (no), the other is Verboten (Forbidden). The thing I backed in to is that the sound in the Verboten command works better than the no command for enforcement. It has to do the sound and the way the word is pronounced, It is drawn out more and kind of like a growl. For me at least it seems to hold better.

Naomi,

It´s not uncommon for a male pitbull to become aggressive against other males when he is getting mature. You can controll this behaviour by obediencetraining so he could act proper in public, but it to much to ask for that a pitbull with a dogagressive nature should be trusted on to tolerate other dogs. Even how much socialisation and obediencetraining you give a pit, he couldn´t be trusted to 100% with other dogs, especially of the same sex. This is something you have to live with if you have a pit, just like a huntingdog have a very strong desire to hunt. It´s important to remember thou, that dogaggressivnes have nothing to do with human agressivnes. The pit is a lovely sweet breed against humans, and many could tolerate animals good to. Here is a good website who gives answears to most questions about pits.
http://www.workingpitbull.com

Welcome to the board, I'm sure you will find lots of help here. I think the biggest problem you have is that your dog is programmed to fight other dogs. You can train your pit bull so much that it will win obedience titles for you but, the dog's instincts will still tell it to try to kill the other dog.

If you neuter your dog this late in his life all it will do is prevent him from having puppies, it won't alter his mood. As far as your pit bull protecting your family, highly unlikely. The reason being, you have suggested your dog to be "game bred", well, basically that means your dog is programmed not to bite people. It means your dog will be dog aggresive the rest of it's life and it will only get worse from here. Sorry, I know thats not the answer you wanted to hear but thats just the way it is.

I think this is another example of people getting a dog for all the wrong reasons. They got a pit bull to protect the house and can't figure out why the PIT bull wants to fight with other dogs???? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Joe,

I think that this dog would probably protection train fine. It is a question of teaching the dog to re-direct it's aggression, and for what reasons to be aggressive.

Working out the dog agression problem is going to have to start with obedince. Obedience will set the foundation for the dog that it must obey the owner. Simple obedience training won't be enough to work out this problem, but it is the critical place to start. With a dog like this the animal/dog agression is never really "cured", but it can certainly be controled to a point that the dog isn't a problem. I wouldn't recomend turning it loose in the local dog park even after the training is completed, but it wouldn't be a problem to take the dog out on leash for a walk. That would make it possible to live with the dog.

After reading this thread, I would have to agree with Richard... go figure. I think he is correct about protection training the Pit and the animal aggression problem.

Naomi, I am going to tell you that what everyone is saying is 100% good advise and you need to start OBD like yesterday to get a handle on the aggression, I don't know if you plan on going further and protection training him, but if you do it's a long road and the training never stops, especially for a protection trained dog, it's a long, long road and a serious commiment is needed,your son had the right idea but should have gotton you a firearm and a ADT alarm system.

If your like my parents, hahah here is a quote from my Dad "Protection training is easy, just smack the dog tied up a few times and he will protect anything, I can train a dog in protection in about an hour" and of course my Mom could ski behind a pit through the park.

Whewww good luck!

Hi Naomi,

I have raised Pits for many years. You can correct this problem with obedience training while you are in his presence of course. To make him totally non-dog aggressive you would have had to socialize him with other dogs while he was younger. It is quite a task but I have seen it done with my last 2 pitbulls so I know it is possible. Your dog though has already turned (as I call it) so socialization totally is not much of an option anymore but with hard work you can teach him not to fight in your presence. Although I would not leave him outside with another dog not in your presence. Well good luck with your Pit I am sure he will make you a great dog and will be very loyal and eager to please. Remember you have to be very firm with these dogs and whith this breed compultion training is the key. Good luck and if you have any more questions Ill be more than happy to help.

Why is compulsion training the "key" to training Pitt Bulls?