My husband and I bought a new 2 month old white Pitbull. We went and visited his parents met mom and dad and everything was great. Dad was super affectionate and cuddly so was mom both were well socialized good tempered well taken care of dogs. Dad was terrified of his own babies haha. So we decided to buy him and take him home seeing how mommy and daddy were big babies and happy well rounded obidient dogs. My question is. I have other animals in the house ... 2 cats and 2 other dogs to be exact one dog is a shih tzu 8 months old the other is half lab half pitbull 6 years old the cats are each 3 years old. None of the animals in the house are having any issues with the new puppy except for my shih tzu but i was expecting that because he is quite skittish around other dogs even though i have been socializing him and i know he'll be fine in the end but my husband and I do work and stuff and were wondering as the pitbull gets older what are some signs to look out for for agression and such. I know pitbulls have that natural instinct to prey and I just want to make sure he gets the proper training to be a good well rounded dog like mom and dad were and to avoid conflicts in the household while we are away at work and such. like we were thinking about crate training him for when we are out but would he be upset if he was the only one in the crate and the other dogs are free to roam around the house? Should we be leaving toys laying around while we are out working during the day? I have been doing reading on pitbulls and there are so many different opinions on having them round other dogs and i know that every dog is different and it's all in the way the owners raise the dog. I would just like a nice concrete answer on how we should start this little guy off in our animal filled household.

thanks so much
Abby

Well first off, Welcome to K9Academy Abby. Thanks for joining up!

Its good to hear that you are doing lots of research on the topic. Pit pulls can definitely be very affectionate dogs, I've been around a few and many are really sweet. However its good to keep in mind that pitbulls in the past were selectively bred to be dog-dog aggressive (not so much people-dog aggressive), keeping that in mind will help better shape your program of socialization.

Its definitely a plus that the parents were mellow. What you have to do is start socializing him. The main priority on your list would be other dogs and cats too. Be careful that your Shih-tzu doesn't bully your pit, bad experiences like that can easily turn him into a fear aggressive dog.

Try finding other people in your area that would be willing to bring their dogs together for "play dates". Going to parks and asking people from a distance (to be safe) if its ok if your puppy met theirs is a good idea. Of course when dealing with other dogs make sure that your pup is up to date on vaccines. Before then, maybe you can carry him to see other dogs, but no touching. Always give him praise and treats for good behavior and make the experience with other dogs overall positive.

Same deal with cats/small animals.

Another thing that will help your pooch grow up to be a healthy and well behaved dog is lots of excersice. This is where play dates come in and a run or two a day.

You can crate train if you want, but I'm not entirely sure about leaving him there till you come back from work. If he sees that other dogs are walking around (while it may not make him aggressive) it could sure lead to some barking problems.

Leaving toys around is another thing you want to be careful of. If you notice that none of your dogs are possesive of toys then it might be ok, but you want to avoid it if they bicker over toys every now and then.

Well thats all I can think of for now. Here are two articles that might help a bit more:

Socialization

Games to play with your dog

My brother has a small scale "pitbull" rescue and he has no problems with any of his dogs integrating with small dogs. He has had some problems with adult dogs of the same size and age, but he says the females are by far the most dog aggressive with each other. I've seen the same thing with Rotties.
Socialize well. I had a list of 100 things I wanted to socialize my Rottie pup to before he was 4 months old, and I did that plus some more. The more dogs and kids the better.

I never leave toys out when I'm gone. Squeakers are attractive little things to dig out of plush toys and eat, and that can be dangerous to a pup or dog. I used to leave rope toys out until I came home to broken glass in my hutch where one of them was flinging the rope around.