Welcome to the Official Website of

A nice puppy who is available for adoption.

 

 

 

Max was found roaming the streets of Detroit, was placed in one foster home that already had another pitbull and they had some issues.  He was young and raw and completely untrained so I went and got him and took him in.  He has been crate trained, house trained, socialized and leash trained.

 

He is still a little young and needs to continue receiving leadership, training and attention but is ready to be a fine pet in a forever home.  He lives with a cat and another dog and does fine with them as well as children.  He is a typical young male pitbull with excellent intelligence and a great willingness to learn and to please.  He has a good attention span and ability to adapt to new commands and situations.

 

He is learning impulse control and is calming down by the day.  He is available immediately and I would help anyone who wants him with the transition to a new home.

 

What follows are my initial meeting with Max, when  I first went to pick him up, and his first meeting with another dog (Peanut, another member of my pack).

 

Keep in mind that this was 6 months ago now and Maxie behaves a lot better now!!

 

More video and pictures to follow.

 

Presenting:  Mad Max

 

 

 

 

This page took so long to make, as do most of the others on this site, because of video processing and uploading to youtube, then adding the html code to this site.  I filmed the entire first day with Max, I had over 6 hours of raw video.

I have learned that youtube allows a video to be 10 minutes long at most and not over 2 Gb in size.  So I have to sort through and chop stuff out and shrink it down.  My point is not to edit anything out or remove anything I don't want anyone to see.  I just don't want it too be too boring and can't put it ALL up here to be seen.  So that's my video disclaimer, it is all avaible, every second, for anyone interested in seeing it.  Anyway, here is part 2 of my first meeting with Mad Max:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things always seem to work out to my advantage with these dogs, especially when I am first meeting them.  If I had written a script for meeting Max, and his first few minutes on video, I could not possibly have arranged for heavy traffic, a bicycle passing within 5 feet and then a barrage of fire trucks and ambulances screaming past.  If I didn't already know from intuition, Max showed how wild he is by launching himself at the bicycle like a heat seeking missile.

 

After this, we walked some more and then I saw a dog approaching from the opposite direction on the other side of the street.  Since I already seemed to have earned some of Max's trust and respect, I wanted to see his raw reaction to this other dog so I handed to leash to Chris and grabbed the camera from him.

Here is how Max reacted to another dog being walked on the other side of the street:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching this happen in front of me, the mental picture of Mad Max became clear.  He is a little pitbull puppy probably born into a bad siutation, found himself on the street and through some twist of fate or other, found himself on the end of my leash, but not after a few trials and tribulations.  He is not evil or an inherently bad guy in any way.  He is very observant and seems to want to do well.  He is just very raw and needs to be taught.  When I say needs to be taught, I mean he needs to be taught just about EVERYTHING if he is going to live socially among human beings.  So we walked around with Max some more, went through a school yard and park, nothing eventful or even worth posting here.

 

I knew the real challenge would be introducing him to other dogs and to be under control.  The big showdown would occur with Peanut and I would be in full control of the proceedings.  I also knew he had just recently been fighting with a large male pitbull and he had sustained some injuries, so I was prepared for any eventuality:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures were taken that first day and you can see the fresh injuries from his battles.  However, it was nothing serious and I knew we could over come any sort of problems Max had.  After all, I have the secret weapon, Peanut, who has dealt with many far worse characters than Max.

 

The way I introduce dogs is quite simple.  I let them do whatever they are going to do and I teach them what is allowed and what isn't allowed as we go along.  If I know a dog has a propensity toward fighting, they get a leash and muzzle for the first meeting.  As I gain trust, the leash comes off.  As I gain more trust, the muzzle comes off. When I have complete trust, the rope toys comes out.  Oh, and I don't want them to fight the muzzle, they have to learn to tolerate it.

 

With special thanks to Chris, I am happy to say that I have the entire meeting on video.  It took all of 12 minutes to teach Max how to get along with another dog.  As I mentioned before, I can only post up to 10 minutes at a time so I had to split this video in half.  However, the entire meeting has been filmed with ZERO edits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first impression, it may seem that I am overly harsh on Max.  I would disagree and explain that I am not just working for this first meeting or these initial few minutes.  I am teaching Max, in one lesson, how to behave around other dogs for the rest of his life.  In these 12 minutes I had to teach Max what is ok and what isn't so that there would be no FIGHTS, even when he hits puberty and beyond.  In short, this will me the most focused and intense training session I will ever have with Max, he is learning a life lesson here and that lesson has to be driven home.

 

And before you judge too harshly, let me show what you get as a result, 2 dogs who are pack mates and friends who can be trusted to play and not kill each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, since it is Christmas day I have saved the best for last.  This is a thank you and reward to anyone who has made it this far.....

 

Christmas at the Detroit Dog Trainer's house:

 

 

 

 

 

Five, count 'em, five dogs here.  And not just any dogs.  All these dogs (well, except Peanut) have violent histories.  Four of them are pitbulls.  We have dogs here that have severely injured people, fought with other dogs, and even killed another dog.  But they can be taught manners and they can learn to live with each other!!