Pit Bulls
The other day I was sitting outside as it began to rain, it sprinkled on my head and shoulders. Some hit my tablet’s screen protector and slid off. I wasn’t out there because I like sitting in the rain, or the muggy cloudy air, makes the usually dry air feel great. It was to keep company with my little puppy girl. Some days she just doesn’t want to eat unless I play with her a bit and then sit there with her to keep her company as she eats. Some days she needs the opposite and to be left alone, mostly because she gets too excited from someone else being there and needs to calm down.
I never leave her alone for too long, she needs company, she gets too emotional and suffers from separation anxiety when left alone. She’s incredibly emotional and gets attached to people and things. She hides under my chair when there’s a thunderstorm, she won’t sleep through the night unless I’m in bed for her to snuggle up against. On walks, she is afraid of everyone unless I bring another dog to keep her company.
Her name is Rylai, and she’s a Pit Bull mix. One thing I can tell you about what I’ve learned. Owning a Pit Bull will show you how a wide-spread bad reputation can be completely off base, and easily debunked with only a little research. It will teach you ask more questions before accepting what others assert. You’ll want to know the circumstances behind incidents not just accepting the outcomes, and your perspective will be more reflective, and less reactionary.
Pit Bulls are one of the highest population breeds in shelters. They are also one of the most abused, euthanized and neglected breeds in the country. Anyone who has ever owned one will tell you they are loyal, emotional, sweet, and deceptively strong. In shelters they suffer; they deal poorly with isolation.
The reputation of Pit Bulls is, as if you don’t know, that they are aggressive, they have a locking jaw that not even they can open, they are vicious remorseless killers, and that they are bred for fighting and know nothing else.
A truth about Pit Bulls and many dog breeds is we don’t have specifics of where they came from. Dog breeders of the Classical and Medieval eras aren’t known for keeping the best records. While we do know some dog breeds of the times we don’t know what they became when the breeds disappear and in some cases don’t know what the breeds were bred for. What Pit Bulls were originally bred for is probably lost, and they were only bred for fighting each other very recently in their history.
Pit Bulls are very strong, this is completely true. There are no mixed messages there, they can do serious damage to someone if they want to, and there’s little their victim could do about it. However, contrary to popular opinions, strength does not equal aggression. The Pit Bull temperament is actually influenced rather heavily by their owner, and it's default temperament is one of the best rated of any breed. A tenacious loyalty and an eagerness to please, create a rather malleable dog who will adapt well to their master’s wants and needs.
Pit Bulls fill the qualifications to be trained in every way one can train a dog. They make great police dogs and service dogs. One major flaw to the Pit Bull, however, is they are intelligent. With a master who doesn’t stimulate their intellect well enough, a dog can become bored, and start destructive chewing as well as possible aggressive behavior. Combined with their strength can make them dangerous. If you treat your Pit Bull right, they will be one of the best-suited dogs for whatever you need or want.
Another thing about the Pit Bull reputation is actually its age. The Pit Bull reputation of being vicious, aggressive, ETC, is only about thirty or so years old. Through most of the twentieth century, Pit Bulls were regarded very highly as the American Dog, capturing the true American spirit. I mean we slapped images of Pit bulls on everything. They were the American Dog. You can’t really blame us though, they are the American Pit Bull Terrier after all.
Another nickname for the Pit Bull was the nursery dog, as they were seen as one of the absolute best dogs you could have if you had young children. Their high pain tolerance makes them exceptionally good at taking a bit hurt from your little ones without getting angry or even bothered. Their strength can offer a solid support to a child learning to walk for the first time. I personally learned to walk with a Pit Bull there for me to lean on.
When my Pit Bull sleeps she does so on her back with all her legs sticking up and her head to one side, sometimes with her tongue hanging out. A dog sleeping on their back does so for multiple reasons, the fur on the underside is thinner so it cools them down on a hot day, they also sleep deeper on their back, but most importantly a dog sleeps on their back when they’re relaxed and safe. A dog that sleeps on it’s back doesn’t have a care in the world. They trust their surroundings.
Now my puppy does get scared, but she’s scared of things. She’s scared of other dogs, of thunder, of cars and trucks, sometimes people. She won’t attack any of them though she’d like them to believe otherwise. She lunges a bit right now, but she’s getting better. If someone comes close to her, however, she’ll cower behind me and keep barking so though she is still tough and the other dog/person should watch out. The most important thing is that if you’re slow and give her a second she’ll relax and try to lick your face. She loves people, she just wants to meet them on her terms, unless they have treats, she loves treats.
My puppy has learned faster than any dog I’ve ever owned and she get’s along with my other dogs better than I could ever have expected. Every day she loves when they’re together and mopes when they are apart, she’ll usually be fine when she’s being fed, which is the only time they really are apart anymore, but sometimes I have to be out there with her, so she doesn’t get lonely. She wags her tail so hard her whole back half swings with it.
Most of my neighbors, she’s started to get used to and more barks at them for not saying hello, instead of trying to make them go away, same with a few of the neighbor dogs. Not all my neighbors walk their dogs, and so she doesn’t know the ones she never sees, and they make her panic a little. If I lived in a more active neighborhood, she’d be better with meeting new people. At the Vet she is usually fine, all she needs is a treat and a pat on the head, and she’ll sit beside me and not cause a fuss when other dogs are there.
She remembers everyone she’s met, and recognizes them instantly. Well when she’s awake, she’s been known to bark at my family members when they wake her up in the middle of the night.
An important thing about Pit Bulls’ reputation is the kind of attention it attracts. It attracts negative attention from pet owners who are concerned with the reputation being true, and positive attention from people who want their reputation to be true. You have Pit Bulls getting neglected and abandoned by good owners who would raise them well and sought after by owners who would turn them vicious. When the owners were investigated in cases of unprovoked pit bull attacks, most of those owners were found to have been convicted of a violent crime.
The part of their reputation regarding their locking jaw is just silly. There’s no such thing. To get my Pit Bull to open her mouth I just pull it open, even though she doesn’t want to she’ll relax her jaw because she knows I want her to open it. There are times where an owner has been known to need a stick to pry the jaw open, in the worst case scenario. With my Pit, she does the things I want her to do no matter how much she doesn’t like them. She lets me brush her teeth, without fighting, she lets me bathe her without fighting, and she gives me what’s in her mouth when I ask for it, sometimes I have to grab her to get it, but she gives it to me once I’ve got her.
Some people are afraid of Pit Bulls because of dog fights, they are bred for fights, they only know how to fight. The problem with that thought is that people don’t know they are also trained to not fight even when being attacked. What I mean are Bait Dogs. Dog fighters often use other dogs, most common are Pits to tests their fighting dogs against. The Bait Dog is often chained up and taught not to fight back no matter what. You wouldn’t want your Bait Dog to hurt your fighter. It saddens me that all someone has to do is look up how people train fighting dogs to know that Pit Bulls are mistreated and abused to get to that point. It’s not a default setting in their behavior.
My puppy is sweet and loving, she adores me, my family, and my other dogs. She tries to climb into my lap when I’m gaming or reading, or just enjoying the day. There is only one condition to her affection, and that is letting her get to know you. After owning her, anytime someone tells me they don’t like Pit’s I always ask, why. I’ll give them my perspective, and hopefully, one person at a time, I can do my part to remove that awful reputation they’ve had thrust upon them over the last thirty or so years.