it was hard to get him started. i kind of stole him(long story, lol) but when i lived in NC, his home was a few houses down from me, he lived chained and starved, and was being studded out heavily at under a year. the family went away for a few weeks, and left the dog(and a *****, which died), he broke his chain, which was a regular occurance, he wandered into my yard, and i just kept him. i ended upmoving across town like a month later anyway, so the people never really knew or cared.
it was hard to get him started, because he was trash broke on people, his owners literally CLOBBERD him since a pup for putting his teeth on them(normal puppy syuff), etc. He was really reluctant to take his first few bites, plus, he has relatively no pery drive, hes worked almost entirely in defense, which isn't common. BUT, he has a fantastic temperament, hes a solid dog, once he realized that i wasn't going to beat him for biting, and i was heavy with encouragement, he took right to it, and has really been a breeze to train since.
EDIT: well shoot, it bleeped out my word. these people also had a "female dog", which they pupmed puppies out of, she died on her chain, from starvation.