Re: Sensitizing your Pit to cats -- Adoption Issues and Listings

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

Subject: Re: Sensitizing your Pit to cats

Author:
Sheri

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 21:11:56 03/31/05 Thu
In reply to: Ashley 's message, "Re: Sensitizing your Pit to cats" on 09:27:48 01/23/05 Sun

Hello,
A few years ago I adopted my first "pit" Petey, he was 9 months old and very animal aggressive!
I learned a couple of things:
#1 in the case of my dog normal "corpral punishmint" had the oppisite to the desire effect, let me explain... see I DO NOT belive in being cruel to animals! I have raised and fostered ALL kinds of creatures and got them to obey me and "house rules" WITH OUT ever hitting them (except for one bird dog mix who i finally in a fit of anger threw a dead chicken at he stoped killing them after that LOL) anyways back to the pitt See when I first brought Petey inside my house he literally tried to kill my other dog Clyde, I smacked him square on the nose to try and get him to back off (first time I ever smacked a dog but I was seriously afraid for Clydes Life!) Anyways what was crazy was Petey DID NOT ACCKNOWLEDGE that I had smacked him! If anything it made him want to kill Clyde EVEN MORE!!! So I scooped Petey up off the ground and carried him outside (all the while unsure if he would turn on me...) He did not turn on me and I relized I would need a special approach to figure out how to get him to at the very least not view Clyde as something to be attacked...

My method was to first remove Clyde from the house and allow Petey free rein inside. He smelled everything then decided my affection was more important than the "smells" of clyde.
Then I took petey outside and brought clyde back inside, went out and attempted to bring petey in again (on a leash of course!) Again he wanted to attack clyde....
BUT here's the 2nd thing I learned PITTS LOVE AFFECTION!!!
so rather than "scold" him I would try to divert his attention hold him, pet him, try to turn his head to look at me, ect. the first attempt didn't realy work so much he was intent on "getting" Clyde that I again scooped him up like a big Baby and carried him outside where he stayed in "time out" for about half an Hour then I tried the whole thing all over again... After several attempts I manage to have both inside (petey still on the leash though) with out Petey seeming like all he wanted was a fight. after about 3 days Petey seemed mellow enough that I finally turned him loose inside with clyde, there was some "postering" on Peteys part but NO REAL AGGRESSION! not even a GROWL!! I found this amazing but it gets better not only did petey go from wanting to kill to pretty much ignoring clyde, he then did a 180 and him and clyde became the best of friends! they played and rough housed (but never fought, not even over food!) Now I relize not all pitts will have such a turn around but in my opinion it's worth a try!!!

As for a cat? well I aquired a couple of stray kittens, and even though everyone said "you can't get a pitt to behave around cats" I decided to try my method again. The first time he saw them I think he was trying to decide if they were toys or food LOL, but after a few introductions and one "Time Out" he quickly relized the kittens were "mama's babys" and NOT to be harmed. See I only expected him to tolorate them, but again this wonderfull dog amazed me by befriending those kittens even washing them like a mama cat! I have a picture of him with them I took to prove that Pitts and cats can be together!!!
Also even though I'm no expert I would suggest a young cat or at least a cat that is KNOWN to get along well with dogs cause as much as I trusted petey with those kittens I WOULD NOT trust him around a cat that is "dog aggresive" and would hiss or scratch him just for being curious enough to smell it. Because if the best behaved pitt may retaliate from an overt attack by another critter. Hope my this info helps :)

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]