Most people that think about getting an American Bully make the decision on a couple of different factors. Some of them being, how muscular the dog looks, or maybe less over gameness and more companionship, or even because they’ve owns Pitbull’s all their whole lives and think an American bully will be much easier to raise. All of those are fine reasons in my book but it doesn’t matter if the dog is a Bulldog, Staffy, or American Bully they all need work. This article will outline some common mistakes and good practices when you first get your new puppy.
It’s a mistake to think when you take home the new puppy that you don’t have to go train it right away. Because the dog is so small the damage it can cause is minimal. But the dog grows quickly and in a few short months, you’re going to have an adolescent pup soon to become a young adult. The habits you start instilling into your puppy will become apart of what gives them individuals. Good and bad habits will mold and shape your dog. It’s almost comical to hear someone tell me that their dog is untrainable and won’t listen. With that, I always say, “because you haven’t shown the dog anything for them to listen to.” If you show them that you are the leader or essentially a lifelong game of Simon say’s your dog will look to you to give them direction. Without your consistent training early in life and I mean consistent, every day, every minute, even moment that you are with your dog you need to be constantly training, correcting, and reverting.
The reason that most dogs don’t behave correctly is that their owners have neglected to give them proper instruction. We all know dogs cannot speak English, we can just say a word and their going to get it right away. It takes practice to combine a word with a desired reaction or correction. So, when you have a dog that doesn’t know how to let things go or drop things that they have in their mouth, or when you have a dog that’s dominant over food or toys, or that is territorial towards ppl, it is all your fault. It isn’t their fault. As companions, dogs aren’t inherently aggressive towards ppl no matter what you hear on the news. So, when I see one I automatically know that the owners have not given that dog the attention it deserves. Different dogs and dog breeds will learn certain things at different speeds. Some will pick things up quickly and some will test your patients again and again. It’s an understanding of this that will allow you to sense how much time the dog will need to learn certain commands. Once that dog learns that command, it is up to you to ensure when used the response is immediate. If you slack off and us the command one day but fail to use it in the same situation the next, their respect for the command will also deteriorate.
Every dog should be trained on a base by base case. Just because the dog is of a certain breed with certain genetic pre-dispositioned traits doesn’t mean you can slack off on the training. If you do your only doing yourself and your dog a disservice. For the most part, the behavior traits a young adult to adult expresses are traits that you have allowed and nourished while the puppy was developing into that stage. Don’t be that person that cannot take their dog on a neighborhood walk because your dogs go after people or other dogs. Don’t be the person that has to lock up your dog when there’s company over because your dog doesn’t know how to relax around people. Put in the time early I promise you won’t regret it.
