Merlin is a lovely young pit bull who was rescued by his owners after he was abandoned by his previous owners. He is generally a good boy, but had a few issues with impulse control. This was especially true around food. He struggled with behaving during meal times at home. My job was to go in and teach him reliable obedience and establish some new rules for him. Merlin also needed to be shown that those rules are still in place even under heavy distractions.
Merlin’s Training Plan
Merlin made great progress with us during his time in training. As with all dogs, he started his training with some “home field” advantage, and then we gradually added more and more distractions. Once he was highly reliable at the kennel, we took things on the road and started working obedience in public. Our field trips included local parks, pet friendly stores, and his own neighborhood.
We also tailored the training to his individual needs. We did lots of food refusal exercises and impulse control around food and toys. This is a common issue that we see with working type dogs, but it can be easily worked on. Training like this also transfers over into other areas, and helps dogs to ignore anything the environment throws at them.
Once Merlin was able to perform the same in a new public place as he was at our facility, we then started taking him back to his home environment. We also started his go home lessons with his owners, and showed them how to handle him and how to speak his language. Now he is an excellent role model for the pit bull breed, and is thriving back home.
If you want your dog to be trained to the same standard that Merlin was, contact us to schedule a consultation with Sam.
