Rock-E

Hi everyone!

I have a 6 month old male neutered pit and i have been trying to socialize him and its so incredibly hard!!

He loves people, he just gets extremely excited and he always jumps up on everyone at first meeting, and he is about 50 pound now and really tall when on his hind legs. when he jumps I just tell him 'down' and push him off he usually stops after doing it once or twice. SO there isnt a problem with people, he loves every human. but with dogs its a different story...

I have taken him to be groomed at petsmart about 3 times so far and everytime he barks like crazy! Even when i took him to be neutered he barked insanely the entire time he was there ( they told me). Also at petsmart hes barking the entire time he's there! I feel so bad for him, he doesnt stop at all, and i want him to get used to it but i feel sad that hes barking the entire time hes there..i dont understand what to do? ( the vet nurse said he stopped barking when she would go open his cage and pet him, so im guessing he just felt scared at the vet)

anyway, im sorry im digressing, but the real issue at hand is the socialization. I have taught him some commands such as sit, stay, and come ( but they arent foolproof yet, although i continue to practice and practice to hopefully achieve perfection one day). I walk him daily, and he sees dogs a lot, although he never has gotten close to one. Whenever he sees one his hair goes up on his back and he starts barking--somestimes even a whimper-scared-bark, which to me makes no sense at all!! since it seems like hes scared but then again seems like he wants to attack them bc sometime he runs towards them and sometimes he runs away. ( i swear ppl need to socialize their dogs more bc they always end up barking at my dog and then he starts)

so i am confused.. twice now while i was walking him on a leash there have been dogs that were not leashed come up and scare the heck out of my dog! one of my neighbors, whom i now know has a hatred for my pitty ( he always used to joke about 'hows ur killer dog ?' which were kind of humorous before this incident are just now incredibly rude. Basically he has an adult golden retriever and while i was just returning from a walk ( had to pass by his house but on the opposite side of the street bc his dog was not leashed), he asks if he wants my dog to meet his, and i politely say no bc my dog has not been socialized yet and doesnt seem to like other dogs yet, he walks on over anyways and his dog alongside ( no leash) and all of a sudden in a blink of an eye his dog runs up to mine and start barking, growling, etc, and i hear the same from my dog--it was incredibly scary, the stupid guy didnt even pull his dog off and some other neighbor had to run over and pull him off, thank god my dog had no serious bites but alot of scratches and he was SO SCARED. the guy even had the nerve to say 'hes a pitbull, what do you expect? !!!! i was soo livid! my dog was merely a 3 month old puppy and his an adult!! i havent talked to them since...

anyhow i only told that story in detail because im afraid it has mentally scarred my dog? is that a reason why he doesnt seem to like dogs now? I introduced him to my cousins dog ( who is significantly smaller- about 18 pounds- but he is a very nice dog a jack russel and bichon frise mix). My dog kept barking like crazy and trying to lunge at him and he did nothing but want to see my dog- it was quite funny an cute that he was so nice tho. ( we introduced them on non territorial ground at the park) I walked him away a few times so he would know that he needs to be good in order to meet this dog. tthen every time he would bark and bark weird-whimper like and his hair would go up. we did this a few times that evening and at about the 5th try he actually didnt bark but he was still hyper ( and when i say hyper i mean he is pulling so hard he is choking himself and he doesnt care! he has a training -gentle choke collar, and my brothers hands were very red after that experience) i had treats for him but when he was face to face with the dog he didnt care about the food ( which is crazy bc he is food driven!!) he almost threw up a few times bc he was pulling so hard) We kept them nose to nose and he smelled him and did not bite him thank GOd!! although the last time when he didnt bark he got on his hind legs ( from pulling so hard) and actually what looked like to me gave the other dog a hug?? like he wrapped his two arms around his chest? this was weird and looked like it was going to go bad so i pulled him off of him and away. and havent had them meet since...any ideas on how i should be doing this and how often they should meet?

someone sugggested me to use a muzzle..but im unsure how he will react to a muzzle and im unsure if it will aggravate him more? but i dont like risking the fact that he could bite the other dog... i had a confident attitude when this meeting happened bc i have heard they can pick up on ur vibe....please any ideas or suggestion would be helpful!!

also i looked into a petsmart training class..but i think my dog is too hyper to sit with 10 other hyper dogs!! i dont think it would be good! and i found another trainer who does it on her ranch( she had only 3 other dogs in her puppy class, and im afraid hes too small for an adult class), but i went to observe once and she seemed like she didnt like my dog too much. she had no experience with pitty's other than one other pitty that was one month younger than mine that she had just started to work with...my dog jumped on her and she looked absolutely disgusted.. =(

i am trying to find a trainer in my area and in my budget..but it seems like petsmart is the only option i really have...but i have heard so many bad things about them as well..

thank you all so much for reading my first yet lengthy post!

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