My friend is trying to adopt this puppy. He is 10 weeks old, and already had such a hard life. He has a history already of being agressive, which has everything to do with the fact that he was adopted out at 4 weeks, and his father was used to fight because he is super agressive. He is young though, and they know they can train him to be the sweet little boy he is.
I would love sugestion on some positive ways of training him at home. He is already schedualed for puppy classes, but they will need to do a lot of work with him all the time.
10 weeks is awfully young to label a pup aggressive. They just need to use positive reinforcement. He's plenty young enough to learn. He's a doll by the way.
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"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Jess, maybe this won't help but this is what we do. If our dogs growl or be real bad, we put our hand on their neck (hard but not enough to hurt) and put them to the ground and growl at them. This shows them that we are the dominate one. It's also a way of scolding since mothers do that to pups. Have them start now sitting with him when he eats. Pet him while he eats and every few bites, give him the food from their hand. This avoids food agression. If he gets snappy, a firm "NO" is good. If he tries to bite, try grabbing the top of his nose by wrapping their hand over the top and push his cheeks into his mouth. He then bits his own lips and learns it hurts a little to bite so maybe he shouldn't do that. Give the "no" then too. I'll keep thinking.
At 10 wks of age is a really good time to start socializing him with other dogs and people. Puppy kindergarten is a great place to start.
My American Bull Dog/Pit mix came from an undesirable beginning and she still is slightly dog aggressive with strange dogs other than my Am Staff. But she is extremely people oriented.
Like GTO said 10 weeks old is very young to be labled as aggressive. He was taken away from his mom way to young and that will cause alot of problems. Puppy classes and alot of postive praise will do alot of good, also alot of socialization with other dogs and people.
I'm sure if Shiny see this she will be alot of help. I would also suggest heading over to PounderPits.com. PP is a APBT forum all APBT owners, they would be alot of help for you and your friend. Alot of friendly people there willing to help APBT owners.