They don't want to put in the time and effort. My dad can have any dog walking/heeling properly in 15 minutes. It takes a firm hand and knowledge of how the dog thinks (wants to please) and their short attention span. He had our pitbull growing up so well trained on his own (with no background in dog training) that when he had her evaluated by a military dog trainer (my dad was a Marine at the time) along with military German Shepherds, the pit bull out did the military dogs. The contractor doing the evaluations offered my dad a job on the spot.

His tips for training to any dog owner (and especially those of "aggressive" breeds) is this:

*Never work a dog for more than 15 minutes at a time when training. They get distracted just like a kid.

*Get a firm leash 6ft, preferably leather but definitely nothing flimsy like nylon. This is how they know where you are and how far they can go. Boundaries need to be clear.

*Start with the basics, a good "Heel" can save you hours of chasing an escaped dog.

*Postive reinforcement is affection and praise. (No need to withhold it any other time but make it over the top when they succeed) Food is a distraction for most dogs and using affection creates a strong bond between owner and dog. Plus, what happens when you need them to behave and don't have any treats?

• REPETITION! Do it until it is consistently right.

My dad loves pitbulls but he refuses to get another one because he knows he does not have the time to properly train one. He has a ton of other things he does when training but really the key thing is time. Dogs take so much time and energy to have one trained like our pit. He could tell her to sit and walk two miles away and she still wouldn't move until he called her. I watched her pick up a chip someone dropped and him tell her no before she could crunch it, she held it in her mouth whole and spit it out when he told her. He would also call her and talk to the dog on speaker phone when he was deployed because they missed each other. It wasn't just owner/dog, it was love through and through.