Issues with meeting people in our neighborhood on walks

Obedience, obedience and more obedience. Work on your heel until it's so solid, your dog can heel right past a person, a group of people, a dog, a cat, a tractor trailer, the Swedish bikini team carrying giant steaks, or anything else without batting an eye or taking his attention away from you. Sometimes at our class, we'll have pizzas on the ground in boxes, and the dogs have to heel around them without being distracted.

With a large dog you absolutely need this level of obedience. Plus, seeing a dog act so well behaved will be a credit to the breed and make people who see your dog walking think "This is a very well behaved dog" rather than "Oh, a vicious pit bull."

At our school, we practice our meet and greets so the dogs quickly learn that in order to get attention, they must sit first and stay seated. Once your dog has a solid sit command, work with friends to arrange "accidental" meetings on the street. Then, make your dog sit before he gets petted, and if he gets up while being petted, make your friend stop petting him until he sits again.

Once he's mastered this with friends, on walks, you can tell people, "I'd be happy to let you pet my very nice dog, but not until the dog is sitting. Today, he is working on his good manners, and he is learning that he must stay in a sit to get petted." A lot of people get off on "helping" to train dogs, plus they will be impressed that the dog is so obedient. And this way you can socialize your dog in a positive way, rather than trying to do so while he's jumping or barking or acting inappropriately.

I don't mean to be unkind here, but the problem is not the people passing by, the problem is that you need to train your dog to a higher level so he doesn't pull at strangers, no matter what. I know he is young, still, but with a big dog, you need to start early and work hard. The best way to get people not to prejudge the breed it so have the best behaved pit bull ever. People are always impressed by a well behaved dog, and even more so by a well behaved pit bull. There's just a certain wow factor that can be very powerful in counteracting negative stereotypes -- but you have to do the work to get there.

I would also recommend as much distraction work as humanly possible. A lot of people mistakenly believe that a dog that will sit, down, or heel in class is "well trained." But real life is not class, and in real life, people will yell from cars, cats and squirrels will run down the street, people will approach unexpectedly, sirens will go off, kids will yell, roller bladers and shopping carts will go flying by, and so on and so forth. A well trained dog will listen no matter what else is going on. And with a big dog, you need that level of obedience.

At our school, one of the exercises we do is have strangers try to call your dog away while it's with you and the dog is not allowed to go. Because you want the dog to listen to you, not go charging because some stranger calls it. Work on this at home and your dog will soon realize that even if a stranger on the street calls to him, he is not to go to them because he is YOUR dog and should be following YOUR commands, not some stranger on the street. Again, especially with pit bulls, there's always a risk that someone will try to steal your dog for nefarious purposes. So having a dog that knows not to go to strangers without your okay is also a help in protecting your dog.

Best,

Jan

why are you letting these people give him attention when he's supposed to be working with you on leash?

i am not talking about total strangers, most the people in my area know me and when they see me with the dog they either call me over or walk over to say hi. He has been getting better with it but still needs work, on the part of both of us.  I appreciate your suggestive feed-back and will try and use some of those techniques in his daily training. 
 
Jan,
Thanks for the details !

if you know them, I'd suggest going to talk to them without your dog. Tell them you are training your dog to greet people politely, and see if you can enlist their help in only rewarding your dog for good behavior.

Oh thats the pre-adult excitement BUT if you dont nip it in the bud she will be a hellion when sh egets older. Pit bulls need leadership and obediance mor ethen anything else. My girl was the same way and it didnt get better until after the secind one, I took the third for good measuer and to keep her mind stimulated. Also do to their temperment they need to be socialized as much as possible at a young age (which obvioulsy you are doing) but it will amke your trips a lot more enjoyable once she is obediant. Obediance classes are also good for bonding with her and showing her that you are pack leader which will make it easier for her to establish her role in your househod. As with most dogs you get what you put into them but there is certain pride one gets when walking down the street with such a controversial dog walking with the best of manners! Its the best fight against anti-pit bull people to have your girl walk awesome on a leash and not jump on people!
 
Right now you can start, use the search engine here and find some other posts that talk about ways to heel and other great commands!

When I bring my 8-month-old puppy for walks, people would also want to say hi. She would get very excited and ull on the leash and try to jump up on them. Lately she's been barking at them to get their attention or whatnot.
 
What I've done is when we see people or dogs during the walk, I would make her sit and wait until the people pass by. After the people pass by, she gets a treat. She's picked up on it pretty well. The only thing left is for when people come up behind us.

thanks alot for the valuable feedback.  your time and ideas are greatly appreciated.