Training Bulldogs As Pets:
Bulldog Behavior
Other Bulldog Articles
Bulldog Characteristics
Bulldog Temperament
And Personality
Caring For Your Bulldog
Bulldog Health Problems
And Treatment
Training Bulldogs As Pets
Funny Bulldog Videos
Bulldogs are gentle and sweet pets. However, being quite stubborn by nature they are usually slow to train. Bulldogs are ideal house pets because they are quite happy with confined spaces and are great with small children. But when it comes to training, Bulldog owners must be extra patient. It's important to be persistent, whilst not expecting much initially. Otherwise the result will be great frustration, not a good experience for either dog or owner.
When you decide to get a Bulldog as a family pet, it's a good idea to purchase or adopt one that is still fairly young. The reason being that young pups are better able to adapt their behavior than adult Bulldogs. Older Bulldogs can be very hard to train in order to fit in a very specific environment. Another benefit of introducing the dog to its new home whilst still a pup is that they can grow up familiar with the kind of behavior that is expected of them by their owners.
It's important to note that owners should not tolerate any bad behavior from Bulldog puppies. As young pups, they often look terribly cute whilst actually playing very roughly. This often warms the hearts of owners, and it's allowed to pass as accepted behavior only because the dog is still very young. However, it is important to curb any rough behavior immediately when the puppy is still young. If owners point out unacceptable behavior and make the puppy understand it's something that should not be done, the puppy will grow up knowing what is allowed in the household, and what is not. This makes the Bulldog less stubborn in the long run.
Some owners tend to hit their dogs, as they would little children. They mistakenly believe that their dog will associate being hit like this with some detested action or behavior, and therefore would become conditioned to expect hitting to follow whenever an unacceptable action like that is made. The owners believe that this helps the dog understand what things it should not do. The fact is though, contrary to this belief, Bulldogs actually tend to become more aggressive when struck. Remember, Bulldogs have some in-built aggression as part of their ancestry. Although with Bulldogs today it is not a widely displayed trait, their defensive nature might result in violence or aggression if they are struck or hit by their owners (or anyone else for that matter). For this reason, it is important to remember that striking should always be avoided when training a Bulldog.
In terms of responding to commands, the most important one that your Bulldog pup should learn how to react to is “No!” As soon as a pup is brought to its new home, it must start to get familiar with the new rules. Using the “No” command as often as necessary will help the dog understand faster and it will eventually learn to stop whatever its doing or is planning to do. Although Bulldog puppies don't tend to catch on that quickly, obviously, the more often the “No!” command is used, the faster it will be understood.
