[QUOTE=gr8fulrider;7680239]
Thanks. I’m wondering if he even is a pit bull.
This is him at 10 weeks:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/pet-uploads.adoptapet.com/d/5/1/120990770.jpg?336w
What do you think?
You can’t see in the pic but he has very large feet and lower legs, and at 4 months he looks like he is going to be lankier and larger than a pit.
I’m not worried about the nurture part. My husband is very good at training dogs, and obedience trained our late, lamented GSH/Muttweiler (RIP Homer, 2000-2011) exceptionally well, especially considering that Homer was a traumatized abuse case. He works from home a couple of days per week and will be with the dog a lot. I’m sure he’ll be socialized and trained well.
Nature is another story, though he looks promising.
I didn’t mean to imply I’d let him run around off leash near the horses-- not even allowed. I just figure at some point we’ll want to play fetch outside of a fenced area but I don’t want him running for the hills when something catches his eye, which is more of a hound concern (if there even is any in there).[/QUOTE]
You need to train him to have 100% recall with any distractions before letting him off leash. That means when you call him, he comes immediately no matter what. As in “stop in mid stride, turn around and return”. It also means you watch him like a hawk, and if you see someone coming with their dogs, you have him return to you immediately.
Too many people think that just because a dog sticks around nearby, without distractions, then they can be let off leash. Those are the dogs that end up chasing and killing barn cats, or running up to someone else’s leashed dogs and they end up fighting, because many leashed dogs are defensive when approached by loose dogs. That’s rude, and dangerous. Don’t take him off leash until he has 100% recall at home, on a long line, in a fenced yard with dogs walking by, cats walking by, squirrels running past, kids on bikes going by, skateboarders going by, motorcycles going by, UPS trucks going by, etc. You get the point.
You will also want to have him long enough to know his reaction to little kids running up to him, hugging him, etc. If he is off leash, and a prospective boarder/lesson kid arrives, often they will run to all dogs and try to hug them. That’s seen as an aggressive act by many dogs and they can snap.
If he has any pit or can be mistaken for a pit, your responsibility doubles. Because even if another dog were to attack him, he will be blamed. Then you are risking his life, since some states can make you put down dogs deemed aggressive. It’s even more likely if the attack happened when he is off leash. It does PB breeds a serious disservice to put them in situations where they can get into a fight even if they don’t cause it. Many PB owners will not take their friendly well socialized dogs to dog parks strictly for that reason.
