My pitbull pup is now almost six months old. I took her to three sessions of obedience class when she was around four months old. She picked up fairly quick on the commands but now she doesn't seem to respond. When we are inside the house she listens to some of the commands, but once we step foot outside the door, she goes deaf, lol.
When I take her for a walk she's calm and listens unless a car goes by then she goes crazy. That's typical. She responds to me when I stop walking, she stops to walk too. I love the fact that she doesn't bark at all even when excited or threatened. Everything is well until we go to the backyard.
Whenever I try to play fetch with her, she runs for the ball but she doesn't run it back to me. She goes to her special place behind the huge pine tree and leaves all her outdoor toys there. It's frustrating because it's very awkward to get there. She's making me fetch! I call her to me and she runs at me full speed (she's about 35-40lbs) and aims for my knees. I'm a big guy so I can take the force but anyone else playing with her ends up on the ground. Now no one wants to play with her unless she's indoors. Most of the time when I do have to call her to come back inside, she runs away from me. Now this happens more often to the point where she doesn't respond to anything I say. The weather around here is around 25-35 degrees so she stays inside until the summer time. I can't install a doggy door since I have a glass door.
It seems that some of the effort training her is distilled within her but there are some that she had completely ignored. Is this common for pups to forget? Those classes don't come cheap but I don't want her growing up not listening to me. I fear she might forget everything later on and just becomes a little bad .
I know everyone tells me that hitting your dog is considered abuse. But to me, I see her as if she is my child and on occasion when she is being bad I give her a slap on her bottom. Is that considered abuse?

The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm

It is more common for classes to fail to teach the ower to give proper leadership, than for the dog to forget its commands. What you need to to do is read through the sticky at the top of the forum including the list of book. Working from a good book, you can find more effective ways to teach your dog than hitting it. Most trainers now are getting away punishing the dog at all.

I have two dogs and one of them listens to me and can sit and lay down and does all and his brother won't listen at all. He keeps peeing inside and starts fights with his brother and makes his brother uncomfortable by humping him. What can I do? I tried locking him in the back room when he is bad and that doesn't seem to work. I yell at him and I grab him by the ear and lock him outside. I am not sure what to do, so far he doesn't poop inside just pees. Help!!

Thread over one year old, closed.