Please don't squirt your dog with a water bottle, you'll get much better results with rewards than punishment.
You also don't want to make your dog afraid of water.

Hide treats in one of the rooms and he will go find them. Pillows under cushions, under edges of their beds. I do this when I leave so they are distracted and not thinking about mama leaving. Kong's with treats work good too.

Couldn't agree more, especially since there are much more effective and kinder, gentler methods of training the dogs not to bark - why in the world squirt them in the face, nose and eyes with water? It would scare Tibbe and would other dogs as well, I'm sure. Tibbe has a history of a bad, early life and I have to be so careful of how he's handled as he came to me at 9 mos. of age with terrible troubles and fears which we've worked hard to finally overcome. But I trained him not to bark just as I posted here and it works like a veritable charm! He stops any time I ask him to.

I've read in more than one place of those who use squirt bottles saying that every time they pick up a bottle afterward, their dog runs and acts leery of the owner after that. Sure, some won't but other, more psychologically fragile dogs will be frightened or offended by such treatment and may even begin to avoid or fear the person who wielded the squirt bottle.

Use a magazine and slap it against your hand to make a noise or put rocks in soda bottle empty and shake it. These methods are better than using a squirt bottle, and don't leave imprints that will affect them the rest of their life.

It depends on the dog, 4 of mine weren't fazed by slapping a magazine (they ignored it), but Lola freaks out. She doesn't like loud noises and it would be very upsetting to her if I used it as a form of punishment.

I have a talker too, except Lola growls instead of barking (I'm very grateful), she'll start barking if you ignore the growling though. She sounds like a crazed animal when she plays, she growls nonstop with a toy in her mouth and shakes her head lol.
She doesn't verbally react to normal dog stuff either, she just gets excited.

Please do let me know if you find an answer to the barking. Lil Bit barks like no dog I have ever had. When we do anything that he loves he seems to get over excited and major barking begins... example is when the time for me to turn on water hose. He has this weird thing for water.

With barking. He's terrible with it when I am going out to front and when I'm ready to turn on water hose. What I have been doing is turning around and going in house....then after a minute I go back out he starts soon as I touch screen door, so I turn around and go back in. Repeating this over and over. So far it hasn't worked.

Lil Bit doesn't have any fears or he is just afraid and uses barking. I am a single woman so he's not been around men very much. When ever a man stops by (even if just front yard) he goes on a major non stopping barking craze. He's also snapped at their feet. I find if I am holding him he is perfectly quiet and fine. Guess he feels safe when in my arms.

I did try a water bottle a few months ago. He loved it. He has this thing for water.

It is tough when you have some scary dogs in the neighborhood or anything else for that matter. In my old house I had a huge Eucalyptus tree one day I was outside with my little guy and on the phone. My little guy was lying on his back sunning himself. I heard something and looked up and 3 huge hawks were eyeing him. I swooped him up and went inside…The problem within about 30 seconds of opening my back door for the next year or so there they would be almost religiously….It was maddening I had an acre lot with a block wall and I couldn't let him out. I had to take him to a friends neighborhood to walk him and he was a high energy guy. So my problem wasn't Pit Bulls but 3 stalking hawks. But, he did so much better when he had a nice long walk. I always carried something with me a golf club and usually pepper spray or one of those really loud alarm blasters. Never had to use any of them thankfully, but I was prepared. The walk was HUGE toward his demeanor….Finally we moved and then it was Owls! You just have to be vigilant. I waited until the sun was up to walk him and didn't walk him after dusk unless it was just outside my door for a quick 'pit' stop.

The biggest thing we learned from our last Yorkie was just how smart these little guys are- I was told that a Yorkie's main objective is to train US-
Ive been working with the new baby since we got him and he's responding really well- but I'm still enrolling him in an obedience course-for the peer lessons and socializing- two things these guys NEED-
I think of them as children who need to be taught right from wrong-
And the smarter, the more challenging- mine loves obstacles- I started by simply rolling his bone down a ramp, having him retrieve it and return it-he loved that-

Pit bulls are the media's current "target" dog. Here's the thing about those articles- if a dog looks like a pit bull with no proof of it's breed, it's labeled a pit. If it looks like it COULD POSSIBLY be PART pit bull, it's labeled a pit. If it's a dog of unknown breeding, it's often labeled a pit. If you do more research into it you'll find that this is the case in so many of these sensationalized "reports"- they are meant to generate web traffic and sell newspapers. And they do!

ANY dog that's unsocialized as a puppy can/will attack another dog or person. Pit bulls are simply very strong, slightly bigger dogs that can do more damage than a small dog. While it is true that they can have strong prey drive, but it really depends on the individual dog- and if it's an issue, it can be fixed with plenty of socialization early on.

I have had pit bulls all of my life, and have never, ever had problems with dog aggression- because we took the time and effort to properly socialize them as pups!
My pit bulls live in harmony with my boston terrier/frenchie mix and my yorkie, they are all very bonded!

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as 'preachy,' I don't mean to! I just want to share some information with you guys. Pit bulls get a very undeserved bad rap. They are the original "nanny dog."

That being said, I'm really sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with Lil Bit. I def agree with getting him a physical exam at the vets and then maybe find an experienced dog trainer that can help. Good luck!!!! :)


**Please check out atts.org for the American Temperment Testing Society for more info on aggressive behavior, pits or any other breed, there are some very interesting statistics there!

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

There really is no such breed/thing as a "pit bull" - that term is merely a created term and NOT a breed at all. People use that term to plop all sorts of breeds into a category and then make generalizations about that "category" of dogs.

The "bully breeds" absolutely get a very bad rap..I'm totally against all BSL.

Thanks for your post :).

I have no advice just want to say I love that name Lil Bit!:D good luck with training your wild child.

We have a wild child too! Our morkie has recently been trained to run on the treadmill. She goes about 3 miles an hour for 25 minutes twice daily. She'd go longer if we let her. She can do this with or without a leash. It's really helped!