Please help.

Question
I just got a pitbull puppy about 2 months ago. He is a Red nose/blue nose mix and is about 4 months old.
My question to you Charlotte is how do i train him, which is the easiest method to use. He is still teething so he like to CHEW ALOT... mostly on fingers n ears. Whenever my boyfriend and I tell him No or Bad he thinks we are playing and he growles and barks. Its getting out of hand and i need to know how can i stop this and make him realize No means no. He knows how to sit and lay down but i want to teach him roll over and paw, but i dont have the patience to sit down for hours. He has a short attention spand... Can you help me??

Answer
Well Mistee;
He is just a baby after all. H can't act like a grownup. LOL
Chewing and biting when they play is natural for puppies and kittens and other such babies. Like little boys playing army or cowboys. they practice fighting.
chewing and biting is the was a baby animal's mother plays with them to teach them, and how they play with each other.
We just have to teach them to play like human babies, and be more gently with the biting.
I play with mine( even now that they are grown) with putting up my hand, spread out, saying "I'm gonna smother you ( or, get you)", and moving my hand slowlt toward their face, and then grab ( gently)around their muzzle.
I throw a blanket, towel or something over my little Lhasa, and say "I caght a bear I caught a bear", and he goes into a frenzy, fighting what I have thron over him, and bursts out of it and attacks my hands. He loves to play that, and is gentle with it. the little grandchildren play it with him too.
When they are litle and I am playing with them like that, and they get too rambunctious, I say, in a gentle voice, "no now, be a sweet baby, don't bite so rough". Or " Be gentle, don't be rough".
When they keep being too rough, I say that several times, and if they get more gently, i prise them, "that's a GOD baby!"
If they don't bite more genty, I say , in a firm voice, "No, if you are going to be rough, I won't play", and i stop playing with it.
I go back a few minutes later and go through the same thing again. The more you do it and go back after a few minutes and try, and stop, the sooner they will catch on.
After about the third time i go back, and have to stop, I say "NO!", in a firm voice, and walk away. That is all, just NO!
they will catch on sooner than you think.
The point is, they learn when they get too rough the playing stops, and they want to play, so it is in their best interest to do it your way.
As for training, start now with animal massage. that will be an invaluable tool in helping the training to take effect, as well as being so great for relieving pain of post surgery recovery, Arthritis, Hip dysplasia etc.
I have cured dogs from fear of thunderstorms, excessive barking and aggressive behavior, as well as other things.
You can read about the massages and the benefits of them, and order a video to teach you how to do it properly for the results you want.
I can't recomment this massage enough. I helped my Englich setter and two little mixed breed dogs live several years longer with little pain from Arthritis with massage.
I lost my english setter just a couple of weeks ago. She was nearing her 15th irthday. English setters' normal life span is 10 to 11 years, and they can live a little longer with very good health maintenance, but she had Hip dysplasia as well as Arthritis, and she had very little cartilidge in her huips especially, but she lived a longer life, and even when she became almost totally paralized at the end, and couldn't raise herself up on her hind legs, she was in very little pain/ Mush less than would be expected.
When she was 1 year old, we had a terrible thunderstorm that terrified her so she was trying to go into shock. I massaged her face and ears like the video showed, for fear, and calming down. After 5 minutes og massage, she lay down at my feet, and slept through the rest of the storm. she was never bothered by even bad thunderstorms again.
These massages are a lot like the "animal whispering"
they calm the animal, and work on them much like a tranquilizer, the one you do on he face and ears.
In the video you see exactly how and where to place your hands, and how to do the massage.
go to this site and read about the massage method and order the video.

  www.lindatellington-jones.com
Af for training. Basic obedience training should be done first.
Yu can teach ANY breed of dog to do anything.
Some breeds will learn some things more easily and take more naturally to it, but you can teach a Great Dane to be a lap dog, or a chihuahua to herd sheep, if you really want to and have the time and patience.
Onr of my children had a little chihuahua when he was about 9. That was the sweetest little thing, so cute and so loving, but you don't take a dao like that seriously. LOl
So I made a little attack dummy, like they use to train police dogs, out of lightweight canvas, and taught her to be an atrack dog.
She would play and romp, and cudle, but when i put that attack dummy down in front of her and saod "Pattycake ATTACK!" she rowled and hit that dummy. LOl
It was a riot.
I have known a lot of Pit Bulls, and all but 2 of them were big old love bugs that loved children and everybody. BUT! If you had made a threatening move at their humans, or a child or tried to harm in their presence, you would have become lunch.
That is NOT an aggressive dog, that is a GOOd dog !
One that will be a companion, will protect, and won't get the heck sued out of you for biting the wrong person.
It is the same as if you have a child that is a little more strong willed and not shy about standing up for themselves. you can either teach them to use their strengths in a good way, or you can teach them to be a bully.
the Pit Bulls I knew were raised like family members, and were lved, obedience trained, and were treated like any person should raise their dog ( or child).
The two I knew that were nasty mean dogs were TRAINED to be that way.
Both the idiot people who owned them thought a mean dog was a good dog.
Both the young men who had these dogs were bullies themselves. NOT strong men who stood up for themselves, but THUG types.
They were bullies as children, and jerks when they grew up.
Animals also take on the personalities of their owners,just like children take on the personalities of their parents.
Moat will have the same philophies of their parents, and adopt the ways of their parents.  Same thing with dogs especially, more than cats, for instance, because dogs are the same typ of people humans are.
They are pack animals and need a pack ( family) to live and do well. Dogs, like humand do not thrive and develope well in isolation.
That is whay the adaopt so as family members and act more like humans than dogs.
In a canine pack, there is an Alpha male and female and Beta male and female.
The Alphas are mom and dad, and the Betas are older brothers and sisters, or aunts and uncles etc. Alpha, the bosses, Betas, the second in command. they have rules, and they muct obey them or suffer punishment , sometimes being driven from the pack ( kicked out).
Just raise this dog like you would raise a child.
Love, training, ubderstanding, and disclipline.
Know the dog like you get to know your child. No two dogs even of the same breed will have identicl personalities, just like humans don't.
They will have little personality quirks like people do.
Out of the same litter, one may be more shy and reserved, and one might get into everything because of curiosity.
I have raised a lot of animals, most of them dogs, four children and two of my grandchildren, and i can see little difference in raising children and animals.
Really !
I had two kids and one grandkid that were bull headed, one child that was a natural clown, and one that was sooo serious, and one grand daughter that was extremely shy, and so it goes. I had dogs just like them.LOl
I had a little Beagle that had a head like granite. I finally got that ittle pest trained, but she fought it tooth and nail all the way. WHEW!
I have had dogs that had to be told and shown once, and some that had to have it drilled into their head.
I have had englich setters, I rish setters( now those dogs are a hoot to raise!), German shepherds, Chihuahuas, and others, and mixed breeds of every mix there is, I think.
All different, all just alike.
you get to know your dog's personality like you do your chldren's, and deal with them the wayyou find works with that particular one, but you do the same basic training and teaching.
I use time out for punishment, and like my children when they were little, my dogs would much rather i beat them that to put them in time out.
Time out is being ut in the hall bathroom, with a 5X5 floor space around the fixtures, and nothing to do but lie on the bath mat and be bored.
the kids go no phone and no Tv.
works like a charm.
I have a little Lhasa mix, Max.
He is 7 years old, but he still tries to dominate the other dogs sometimes. I say "MAX! do you want to go to time out>" and he straightens up and acts like a,little doll.LOl
By Paws, I guess you mean to shake hands?
First do the basic obedience. the shake hands, roll over etc are tricks, not discipline. after you do obedience trainuing, tricks are easy to teach them.
Petsmart and Petco stores have weekend group clases in obedience. The opwner handles the dog,,and a trainer teaches them how to give commands, the correct commands and the way to get the dog to obey the caoomands.
I MUCH prefer to teach this kind of class. the dog and master bond in this type of class.
This kind of class establishes the owner as the alpha, even in it is a very mild mannered person who is not normally an "In charge" type of person.
If you don't have these stores near you, The Humane Society usually has them. Not the city animal control, but a chapter of the National Humane society.
Your Vetrinarian could probably advise you if training classes in your area, if yu have none of these other facilities.
Second to that, look into professional dog trainers.
If you have had the dog two months, and you call it a puppy, I am asuming it is still only a few months old. Well, babies have to be taught, so be patient.
When they are babies they cut teeth that replace the milk teeth, then at about 1 year old, they cut another set. the permanent teeth. More chewing. they have teething pains just like human babies do.
there is a great chew toy, it is a Kong toy. They are hard rubber that the dog can't bite off pieces of and choke on.
You can put some cheese or peanut butter inside for a treat for them. this mimicks the way a wild dog or wolf gnaws the marrow out of bones.
NO BONES!
Wolves don't eat bones!
They break them apart so they can gnaw the marrow out.
That is why gnawed and broken bones are found in the wild.
Bones, steak bones are as dangerous as chicken bones, splinter and can get stuck in the throat and choke them or they can travel through the digestive system, cutting as they go. either case you have some emergency surgerey for the poor dog to go through and to wreck your budget.
No pork.
Tere is an enzyme in pork that is harmless to humans if it is present, but causes a fatal and incurrable disease in dogs. It cannot be killed by freezing or cooking, so no pork at all!
No chocolate!
some dogs can eat a little and be fine, but some, or in the right system conditions for any, it can be fatal, and fast. white chcolate is not REAL chocolate so it doesn't kill them, but it isn't helth food either.
Carob tasts like chocolate, but is not made from coacoa beans so is not poisonous to them.
Dogs LOVE chocolate, so they will eat it if they can get at it.
I make chocolate chip cookies for my dogs. I use half to less than half the sugar, and carob chips.
A good site for information on health, diet and general information on dogs is

 ww.dogage.com

Feel free to write anytime you fel I can help
Charlotte