posted 02-06-2004 05:04 PM         

I was just wondering how easy/difficult they are to train.
I currently have a collie, she was fairly easy to train. Tho at the moment she is not too happy w/the newcomer, ;o).
I now have had to section her off away from the new dog. The new dog just wants to play, & the collie gets a bit snappy.

I thought that she was house broken, but had a few accidents in the house yesterday.But it could be just the new surroundings.
Her former owner worked all day, & kept her in a crate.
I am not a crate person, (I've read up on the crate trainging thing) but it just is not for me. Back when my collie was a young pup I tried it but couldn't do it.

She is supposed to be hubby's shop dog. As of yet, she is a bit too unruly to be down there.

Anyhow, I'm just looking for a few basics, as to what i should know concerning this type of dog. I know she's only part pit, but thought it would still apply.

Also, any idea on how big she might get? she is currently about 17in. I was expecting her her to bigger at 8mos. Being that both the lab, & pitbulls are lrg. breeds.

posted 02-07-2004 06:55 AM         

Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with this cross so all I can say is to think about professional training I know there an expense involved but well worth it. A buddy of mine had this mix some years ago and his dog was mid size, muscular and seriously dominates and a real hard head (stubborn) He finally sent him away for a 2 week doggy boot camp.

When the dog came back what a difference, Turns out the dog was a really good companion/guardian and he just needed some direction and peruse like all high drive dogs do now the too of them are inseparable.

That’s why I can’t say enough about training; far too many dogs wind up in the dog pound for the silliest of reasons when all that was need some understands of the breed and some basic obedience training. Well I hope this helps a little.

Keep us posted
Deus

posted 02-13-2004 11:17 PM         

quote:

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Dogs levels are at - 0
One fight levels go up - 5
Next day go dawn - 2
One more fight - 7

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Another thing... the collie in this case probably is puttign the pup in it's place and wouldn't go so far as to hurt him. If it were me, I'd let them go and just watch carefully for signs of the pup taking things seriously (starign her down in a not playful way, standing over her while they play, sniping back at her after she corrects him, etc), or the collie actually looking to hurt the pup rather than just school him in manners. Our older dog (who actually has good doggy manners despite a fairly high level of dog aggression) sometimes has to roar at the younger to get her point across, luckily so far that's been the most she's needed. I've also watched one of our non-APBTs teachign a pup not to jump all over her, there was a lot of noise as she warned them with various barks, growls, etc, and she snapped at some of them a few times (all just warnigns, never actually touching them with her teeth). As long as the pup hasn't been hurt by the collie (or vice versa), it's probably just normal older dog teachign annoying pup a life lesson type stuff, and unless that changes, the should be fine. If you don't want the collie teaching the pup, you'll have to step in and do it for her, seperating the pup from her/everyone else everytime he gets too rowdy, and enforcing to him that that type of play isn't acceptable. Has he heeded her warnings so far? Or does he ignore her and keep pushing? If he keeps pushing, you may need to step in and settle him down.

Right now, he's still in the goofy puppy stage, but watch out as he matures (APBTs can be slow to mature, and labs usually are, so I'd say 1+ yrs old, could likely be as late as 3 or 4) for him to start taking her corrections -and playtime in general- a bit more seriously, and if it reaches that point, you need to intervene and make sure to up the level of supervision when they're together, especially during playtime or any other roughhousing type activity.