Training Pays Off

Ok... So there is one rule I break and I think it's the number one rule of owning a Pit bull: Never let your Pit Bull off leash.

Yes my City has leash laws, but your dog has to be on leash or under reasonable control. There is this HUGE field up the road a bit, about 3 blocks long by a block wide. Nothing but open field that the city keeps mowed. I take Nubs up there to run and train. It's surrounded on all sides by streets, but the land is so big that you have plenty of time to yell off a command if your dog takes off.

So I take Nubs up to this field almost every day to run. I've had the City Police department sit there and watch Nubs and I play and train before so I know that they really don't care.

Nubs is 100% on his recall command, and about 90% on his "leave it" command (poop is his weakness ick!). So I'm out there walking in the middle of the field and Nubs is.. very far away. At least a half block. I see him alert to something, and then I notice a lady and her two dogs walking by on leash not too far away from Nubs. I instantly yell out "No!" and Nubs stops dead in his tracks. "Nubs COME!" just very easily and Nubs takes off in a run to me. I can't help to be proud of this boys training. Nubs is scared to death because of all the times he's been attacked by dogs off leash, so a dog not behind a fence makes him all tense. So for him to listen to me when 2 dogs are passing us like they were it just made me beam.

They work I put into Nubs always makes me proud. But with all the stuff I do with Nubs, he HAS to have strong commands that will stop him in the middle of something. I don't want to be biking with him down a street and have a car coming at us and him not listen to the word "Side" and end up getting hit ("Side" is the word I use to have him move over to the end of the road to up on the curve into the grass.) or us come up to a busy road and his decide that the "wait" command is only a suggestion and pull me into the middle of the road.

I'm proud of the work I've done with Nubs and the bond we have. I can't help but just be proud of it. People think I'm crazy for all the time and energy I put into my dog, but these are the same people who say "Man, I wish my dog acted like that!".