About the Breed—Training

Socializing

 

The most important part of training your Presa is proper socialization.  The Presa is a very strong and powerful dog with natural guard instinct.  Without proper socialization your Presa can become very dangerous and unpredictable.  To avoid any accident or mishap that can tarnish the breed, it is your first responsibility as a Presa owner to socialize your puppy.

 

Keys to Socializing your Presa

 

1 - Expose your puppy to as many events and experiences as possible. (family functions, sporting events, dog parks, busy neighborhoods, the pet store, downtown centers, car rides, etc…)  Ensure all these experiences are positive for your dog (keep treats with you and reward him when he reacts desirably to a situation)

 

2 - Keep events and experiences random. One day take your dog for a walk down a busy road, another day walk him at the park, and another day down a quit country road.  One day take your dog for a car ride, another day to a family birthday party, and another day to a sporting event.

 

3 - Encourage people (strangers) to interact with your puppy.  If anyone asks to pet or play with your puppy allow them to spend as much time as they want with him.

 

4 - Get your puppy use to being in a submissive state and learning that it does not lead to harm.  This includes playing or petting his sensitive or vulnerable spots. (pads of the feet and top of his neck)  Also, petting your puppy as he eats will make him learn that you and others are not a threat to his food and this will prevent him from becoming food aggressive.

 

By following these rules, your Presa will learn that unusual sounds, experiences, and people are nothing to worry about, and you will have a stable dog that you can trust in all situations.

 

House Training

 

Here at RRK we use and recommend the following for the quickest results when house training your Presa:

 

· For the first week do not allow your puppy outside of the house for any reason other than to do his business.  Take him outside for 5—10 minutes at the most.  If he goes to the washroom praise him the entire time and take him back inside immediately.

 

· Watch your puppy very closely while he is in the house.  If you catch him having an accident in the house, make a loud noise that startles the puppy (something that he does not like), take him outside immediately, let him finish going outside and praise him the entire time while he is finishing his business outside.  Take him back inside immediately.

 

The key to this technique is that your dog is not allowed outside for ANY reason other than going to the washroom for the first week that you have him.  If you are strict with this for 1 week, your puppy will learn that OUTSIDE = WASHROOM. 

 

We realize that this technique is hard in the sense that you will want to show off your new puppy to everyone, but remember that socialization will start immediately after this first week and you will have lots of time to show off your new puppy. 

 

Also, keep in mind that your puppy will still have the odd accident in the house, but it will not be because he doesn’t know to go outside, but because he can’t hold it as long as you expect him to, or you didn’t see the signs that he has to go outside.  Most of our puppies do not have any more accidents by the end of week 2 or 3.

 

Obedience Training

 

We believe that your dog should obey you because he loves you and wants to please you, NOT because he is scared of you.  A simple way to achieve this - reward your dog for good behavior instead of discipline for bad behavior.  With this in mind, your dog will have to be disciplined for poor behavior, but remember that the reward for good behavior should greatly outnumber the discipline, and the discipline should just be a sharp tug of the leash.

 

Example: If you say sit and your dog sits you say “good boy, good spot, good boy” enthusiastically and give him a treat.  If you say sit, and he does not sit you sharply tug the leash, make him sit and then praise him for sitting the same as if he sat on his own and give him a treat.  The point is that your puppy is getting lots of praise in either situation, and the discipline is not causing him to have resentment or ‘hard feelings’ against you.

 

For this reason, uses clicker or marker training with our dogs.  A google search of clicker training or marker training will give a lot more information about it than we can.