Pit Bull Training - First Steps

Whenever I am starting first lessons with a pit bull, I recognize that most are very sensitive dogs. 

Contrary to their image, boisterous energy, muscular build... they are sensitive dogs. 

Often before I start, the owners have already been searching ways of controlling their dogs, and most of the internet advice involves some way of shutting the dogs down. 

I hate seeing a pit that has been put through that. I'm thinking of a black, male pit I worked with several years ago. Super nice dog... but when the owner called him to Come, his tail curled and tucked up between  his rear legs, his head lowered, and he slunk over like a dog that had been beaten. 

Ugh.

That's not the picture I want to see. Ug-ly.

We worked through that, but whoever had first worked with that dog had taken the spirit out of him.

So unfair.

Don't do that to your pit bull dog.

Plan accordingly.