Think You’re Ready for a Pit Bull Puppy? five Shocking Facts Every New Owner Must Learn!
Welcoming a pit bull puppy into your life is an exciting and rewarding experience. Like most dogs, pit bulls are full of unconditional love, personality and charm, but raising a pit bull comes with unique considerations that many first-owners fail to consider. With all of the excitement, many people don’t realize all that goes into properly raising their pit bull puppies, which can cause them not to reap the real benefits of having a pit bull as their family member as they grow older. This blog posts focuses on the surprising facts that many don’t know about pit bull puppies and how to raise your puppy to be your dream dog as they mature.
Early Socialization is Non-Negotiable
Pit bull type dogs tend to display aggression towards other animals, especially other dogs quite often. As such, they require early socialization. Socialization involves exposing them to different people, environments, and other animals during their formative weeks (8–16 weeks old). Having proper exposure helps them develop confidence and reduces the likelihood of fear or aggression later in life. The early you can socialize your pit bull puppy and the positive experiences you can expose them to, the better.
Many people misunderstand socialization and think it means allowing your pit bull puppy to interact with every person and dog they see or to frequent the dog park or enroll their dog in daycare and while that may be enriching for some dogs, I strongly advise against it.
2. Pit Bull Puppies Tend to Be Nippy
The puppy biting stage is a developmental stage for all dogs (arguably all mammals). Therefore, pit bull puppies aren’t much different from any other dog in that they tend to be very mouthy as puppies. Prepare for this stage by learning how you’re going to redirect puppy biting. Before your puppy comes, stock up on chew toys and do some research on the best methods for curbing puppy biting from a dog psychology and development perspective.
3. They May Face Breed Bias
Unfortunately, for most pit bull owners, at some point during your pit bull’s life, you’ll experience some type of breed bias. Someone is going to say your dog can’t come in the dog park, you’ll encounter an apartment or landlord who won’t accept your pit bull. A stranger may come up to you and say something absurd about your dog and relating her to “all pit bulls”. It’s infuriating but it really comes with the territory. Prepare yourself with your exit strategy in the event you encounter breed bias against your pit bull.
4. People Aren’t Usually as Mean to Pit Bulls as Puppies
As a new pit bull puppy owner a few years ago, after extensive research on what to expect, I knew it was likely that people might be very unkind if they didn’t agree with my dog’s breed. However, I quickly found that this wasn’t the case once I got my puppy. Most people were eager to meet her, hold her, or pet her. As she got over some of the excitement has faded. My puppy had more than enough positive experiences with people early in your life. From that, I would estimate that while there will always be the occasional outlier, most people will also be kind to you and your pit bull during puppyhood.
5. Pit Bulls are Smart (Too Smart!)
What’s truly remarkable about pit bulls is their intelligence. They can do just about anything you can train a dog to do from being therapy dogs, service animals, weight pulling, protection, or just keeping the family laughing. They learn very easily when they’re communicated with clearly. They learn your ways, facial expressions, routines, expectations very quickly which makes them easy to train. However, also be prepared that they may outsmart you or use their training to train you to give them their way without you even noticing. Because pit bulls are so intelligent, it’s important to keep them mentally stimulated with enrichment activities and mental challenges to channel their intelligence productively.
6. Training is a Lifetime Commitment
Many people think training is something you do for a short period of time and then it’s done. However, this isn’t usually true for pit bulls. They’re highly intelligent dogs and can easily manipulate things to get their way. Often, they learn commands but if you slack off with training even for a short period of time, you may find yourself with a pit bull who suddenly has amnesia or deliberately ignores commands. Be sure to remain committed to your pit bull puppy’s training as they grow older to keep their behavior in top shape.
Conclusion
Pit bull puppies are one of the greatest joys in life. However, people often get puppies for their cuteness while they’re young but can’t maintain them as they grow. With these tips in mind to shape your expectations and help you plan for the future, you’ll be on track to raise the pit bull puppy of your dreams.
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