Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've trained many dogs and several APBT's, Staffies, and SBT's. I'm on my 5th APBT rescue this year and have a couple of questions. Do you have any suggestions on getting their attention besides for the leash tug, touch with the shoe, etc (while out on walks I have an issue). He doesn't do anything really wrong, heels nicely, but on an occassion starts to pull and without having an angry tone he doesn't pay attention at all. Once I have his attention everything is smooth again.

Also, when I meet other dogs in public he's generally very well behaved, but on an occassion will start barking and bouncing around like the big playful puppy he is (9 months). Again, getting his attention is difficult, and people seem to think he's out to eat their dogs when he just wants to play (although I can understand where they're coming from). I'm trying to break these habits as our goals are to get him CGC certified, TTS, and eventually become a therapy dog.

Any ideas? I know I'll probably get the "GET TO A TRAINER" response, but he knows everything as far as obedience goes, and I've done all of my training myself up until this point (and have had all of my rescues CGC certified and 3 are now therapy dogs). I just need advice on how to get his attention.

That's a really nice looking dog. Game bred???
He looks to be a game bred dog. 9 months old, he's going to have lots of drive and want to do his own thing.
Regarding the pulling thing. Just keep walking with him and give him the constant "HEEL" command in conjunction with a leash correction everytime and stop. Do it over and over agian REPEATEDLY and with a stern, but calm, low tone voice. He'll get it eventually. He will naturally bug out and jump around when he's around other dogs. That's him being a puppy/dog.
He needs more training away from other dogs until he gets your meaning. Then bring him around other dogs and do your training/corrections.
In the mean time, the natural stimulus in his enviroment (cars, birds, people, etc. will be more than enough added distraction for he and you to deal with while training and will build him up to bigger and better things!
Good luck.

Yes, he's definitely game bred (Colby to be exact). I've had a ton of experience with game bred dogs, and puppies of various breeds as well. I know it's an age thing, and he does behave very well for his age. He's been great walking by himself without other dogs around. And he's stopped his barking and being obnoxious too. We're getting there with this. Now if he sees another dog he'll typically ignore it unless it's very close than he'll pull a little in the dogs direction and just watch. Most of the time with the "leave it, heel" commands he stops within seconds and continues on his way. We've been working on introductions on leash with different dogs and that's been going fairly well, he gets upset and barks when we start to leave, but we've been using the same commands and it's getting better. We just moved and our neighbor has an english bulldog and they met on leash the other day on our walk and he was very well behaved. Just will keep working with him I guess. I like seeing positive reinforcement.