posted 11-28-2003 08:56 PM         

i'm new to the forum and i'm sure you guys have been asked seen these questions a hundred times but if you guys can give any help/advice i would really really appreciate it. and this is kind of long. sorry. but i have so many questions.

my hubbie and me got a 6 week old pit pup about 2 weeks ago. we never owned a dog before and we did lots of research regarding the breed before even considering getting our storm. in all our research we fell in love with the pitbull breed and decided to get her. we wanted to wait until she was at least 8 weeks old but was told by the owner that her mother, crystal, had quit nursing the pups and the pups at 6 weeks had already been weaned. so we decided to take her.

the problem we have now is that she bites alot. she does know bit inhibition though. we have already trained her to sit and come. she still needs a little fine tuning but she gets the main idea and she does it about 80% of the time. but she can't seem to understand the "no bite" command. we either grab her by the nape and pull up slightly and give the command or we gently grab her mouth and hold it close and say no bite. since we started teaching her she doesn't bite as much but i'm not sure that she understands. and i'm afraid she'll never stop. we already have her signed up for a obedience class and it will start in about 2 weeks, but i'm not sure if they'll train the no bite command.

as well, when do the puppies start sleeping thru the nite?? she's beginning to understand that she has to use the bathroom outside but of course she's still having accidents inside the house. just the peeing accidents the pooping she's really good about. but none the less, we're up at 2am every morning to take her out. and she's the best damn alarm i've ever owned, she's up again at 6am!!

and last question, i promise, how long before they finally get the crate training?? we finally have managed to keep the crate downstairs in the living room at nite. before we were carrying it upstairs to our bedroom every nite and carrying it back downstairs every morning. and trust me its not to fun carrying around a 48" crate at 6am still half asleep.

THANK YOU!!! for taking the time to at least listen to me ramble on. any advice would be SO SO GREATLY appreciated!!