[Jessica88]

Three days ago my boyfriend and I adopted a pitbull mix named Angus. We adopted from an animal shelter who found the poor guy tied to a fence, soaking wet in the freezing rain! They believe he is about two years old and weighs a good 50lbs.
Angus is a great dog! He hasn't had any accidents in the house and only barks when there's a knock at the door. But he quickly stops when the visitor steps foot in the house. All he wants to do is play & learn about everyone & everything around him! He does seem to be testing us when it comes to certain things. When anybody plays with him he seems to get so excited & tries to jump up on you. I'm not sure if this is him trying to dominate, but we are teaching him this is not acceptable. He's a tug-of-war addict & wants to pull his toys out of your hand when you try to pick it up. I'm not sure if this is in his best interest to play with people, but maybe a tire or some type of object instead? I just don't want him to think it's okay to tug at someones shirt. (no problems with this now) Also, Angus mouths people who get goofy playing with him. I think his previous owner just never broke him out of this puppy habit.
Okay so here's the real issue. Me. I'm not a dog person, but my boyfriend has always wanted one! So after 5 years I did my research & found Angus whom I felt was a good dog. (and hasn't proved me otherwise) I had a great fear of dogs since I was bit as a child. Honestly, I barely remember what happened but my fear was, well still is there! A few years after this incident my family & I were watching a dog for family. I was never afraid of him & when he peed on our rug in front of me I sternly told the dog "No!" Well, the dog jumped up & bit my arm. I was told he needed to be fixxed, and that was the reason for his action.
So here are my issues with Angus:
I'm afraid to be stern with him! I'll do simple commands but according to my boyfriend I'm not stern enough.
If I sit on the couch and he come up to me I'll acknowledge him & pet him but then he gets jumpy and tries to jump on me!
Being alone with him is a concern as well. Without my boyfriend there it's just me & him.

So this is what I have been doing:
I only acknowledge him when I want to give him attention but it gets awkward. If I ignore him, he walks away and goes to his crate if we are alone or will go to my boyfriend or his toy & he does leave me alone. I just don't know if this is bad to do or not. I've been treating my bed like a crate. (he's doing great with his) so when I'm in bed he doesn't acknowledge me.
I know dogs can sense fear. I'm not fully afraid, just not fully comfortable. Okay, well a mix of both. I do care about him & I'm trying to grow as a person. It's a huge change for Angus & myself! I really do want to be comfortable with him but I'm so ignorant when it comes to dogs! Any suggestions or comments would be wonderful!!

[lange]

Hi. I'd say the first step is to gain more knowledge. With any subject, the more you learn the more confidence you gain. When you have some spare time read books on dogs. Everything from behavior, training, understanding body language, care, pit bulls, ect. You can also find a lot of info online if you search topics thoroughly.

Second, if you enroll yourself & the dog into obedience class you will grow a bond together & hopefully trust too. All the while you'll have a trainer who can help you with issues you might be having.

Setting rules for dogs is good. There's nothing wrong with having a dog respect your alone time as long as you balance it with time spent with the dog. I don't understand though, why you can't acknowledge the dog? Is he getting jumpy just by talking or looking at him?...Can you elaborate?

Any time your dog gets overly excited in such a way that makes you uncomfortable, calmly walk away & ignore him. Then try to remember what lead up to him reacting that way so that you can be aware of both good & bad triggers & work with them.

He doesn't sound dominate but he sounds overly excitable from what I'm reading. One key point to keeping him calm is to catching his over excitement before it escalates. I wouldn't play tug if it's causing the dog to get riled up and jumpy. You want to lead up to the behavior you like.

Also very important is to be sure Angus is getting plenty of exercise so that he has a way to release his energy in a good way! The more pent up energy he has the more excitable he'll be, so keep that in mind.

[Deafdogsrule]

GREAT advice from Lange! I would also consider, on top of physical exercise, do some mind games with him. Clicker training works wonderfully with my Oliver to settle him down when we cant get out for a long walk. Some scent games too (finding food you hid, and later, once he has the idea, finding toys and such) This will also help you to bond with your new boy (thanks for rescuing, btw) If you're not comfortable being stern with him, consider a completely positive training class. clicker training is a wonderful tool with dogs, and can teach them to be calm. I taught my extremely high energy fear reactive boy with clickertraining an pr only, I do not correct any bad behaviour, but ignore it completely, and click for acceptable behaviour. Oliver will chill unless I'm up for a game now, whereas he used to bug and climb all over me, which, while he's not a great big dog, he's still 40lbs and boingy with it