Pit Bull Blog

by Lindsay B. (Bahamutt99)

The topic of Pit Bulls in dog parks seems to be coming up a lot lately.  As the popularity of leash-free public dog runs grows, there are bound to be some bull-breed owners who want to go and join in the fun.  Perhaps they think that if you raise them correctly, they will never “turn” dog-aggressive.  Or maybe they think they’re doing the breed a service by showing people that they are just like any other dog.

But the APBT is not just like any other dog.  If he were, I probably wouldn’t have 1/10th the interest that I have in the breed.  (Who wants ordinary?  Give me extraordinary.)  Like it or not, he was bred to fight, and even as the amount of people breeding for gameness decreases, he is still far better at what he does than other breeds.  He also does not always live by the same set of ritualized rules that other breeds live by. Its a safe bet that while the average German Shepherd postures and bluffs, while the average APBT figures “why waste time with that?” and gets right down to business.

It can (and does) happen in the blink of an eye, and it is always to the detriment of our breed.  Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if it is the other dog that started the altercation; it automatically becomes your fault for bringing the “vicious dog.”  And if you’ve ever seen the crazy notions that people get when it comes to breaking up a fight — choking, kicking, beating with bats, lighting flames under the combatants’ tails – you wont want your dog anywhere near that.

I’ve even heard stories of foolish owners bringing females in heat to dog parks.  So here you have a multi-pronged risk all bundled up in one attractive package.  1.) Females in heat can be excessively bitchy with other females, and vice versa.  2.) If your dog is an intact male, you could accidentally contribute to the overpopulation problem, and possibly even 3.) contract brucellosis – a canine STD – from the female.  4.) The presence of a ripe female is usually good cause for the males in the vicinity to become very tense, and possibly/probably fight amongst themselves over who gets to court the lady.

There are additional risks beyond those mentioned.  Since nobody is patrolling the gate to check veterinary records, you have no idea of the health status of the other dogs enjoying the park.  Wrestling with an uknown dog for even a few minutes could give your dog fleas, ticks, or other external parasites.  If a wormy dog poops, and your dog sniffs it, your dog could get worms.  And there are more serious health risks, such as the presence of Parvo, Coronavirus, Distemper, so on and so forth.  Vaccinations will protect your dog to an extent, but they are seldom foolproof.

Last but not least, there is just not that much need for Pit Bulls to have free play with other strange dogs.  Dogs are pack animals, this is true, but the APBT was just not bred to require the company of other dogs.  Most will have their friends, but they just don’t feel the need to run in a pack, especially with dogs they don’t know.

There are other options for a Pit Bull owner who wants to allow their dog to interact with other dogs.  The first is to get the names and numbers of other local dog owners, and hold regular playdates in somebody’s backyard.  (I prefer to socialize with other Pit Bull owners, because we all understand the risks, and we’re usually prepared to stop a fight.)  That way if a fight does break out, it is in a relatively more private area, not right out where the media-brainwashed public can soak it up.  Plus, it makes it easier to match your dog up with compatible personalities, rather than the crapshoot that the dog park presents.

If you just want to socialize your dog, not give him off-lead play time, pet superstores are usually a good place to do that.  The number of dogs in attendance is usually limited to a few (unless there’s an event or something going on).  Plus, dogs are usually required to be on-leash, so you cut down on the risk of your dog being blindsided by another dog.  These places are also usually a good spot to let your dog socialize with children and other humans, and expose them to some different non-dog animals in a controlled environment.  (Working on stays by the gerbil cages can be interesting!)

If you have a Pit Bull and you’re thinking about going to a dog park, please think long and hard before you jump in with both feet.  There are risks in all things, but some risks are hard to justify.

by Lindsay B. (Bahamutt99)

When it comes down to it, the APBT is still ultimately a working breed.  (He is out-of-place amid the other terriers, and no dog can work like a well-bred bulldawg.)  My idea of a working dog goes beyond the handful of breeds shown in the AKC’s working group, and doesn’t even include some of them.  I believe a working breed is any dog bred in the past to perform a challenging physical task, and can still be expected to reasonably perform in the present. Suffice it to say that when I’m talking about working dogs in this piece, I refer to dogs that still posess the drive, ability, and desire to work.

Lots of people around where I live own working dogs.  They are attracted to the size, power, energy, loyalty, whatever. But here’s the kicker: Very few people work those working dogs.

I don’t think I am made to understand what drives some people to obtain certain breeds, or a dog at all for that matter.  When we hear somebody say they own a horse, we usually assume they ride.  When a person owns a working breed, why is it a foreign concept that they work them?  The concept of dog ownership for too many people involves little more than feeding it.  They don’t think beyond those cute puppy eyes to the root of what that dog was bred to do.

Perhaps a quick definition is in order.  By work, I am not suggesting that everybody do what I do with my dog.  Work is simply a job for the dog.  Sometimes that amounts to little more than good exercise — playing frisbee or fetch, or jogging — but in the dog’s mind, it is still doing good work for the boss.

Loki and I tend to attract stares whenever we go to work.  It doesn’t matter if I’m biking with her, doing an obedience session, doing pull training with the drag sled, or just having some fun with the flirtpole.  The concept that a dog do something is so foreign that the reaction is much the same as if a UFO had just landed in my yard.  What’s wrong?  Haven’t you ever seen a fat white chick bellowing at her Pit Bull as it pulls a weighted sled across the yard before?  Don’t answer that.

The more curious folks will sometimes come up and ask pertinent questions like “Doesn’t that make her mean?” or “Are you training her to fight?” or “My cousins baby daddy has a Pit Bull.  Wanna mate ‘em?”  And occasionally even fanciful queries like “What are you doing?”  I always try to educate, even at those times when I’m panting more than my dog.  I wonder how many of the people I talk to go home and tell their family about the crazy lady abusing her dog.

Have we really become that far removed from the old partnerships?  Do people really think that a dog is nothing but a furry trash compactor?  Do you think that shepherd, collie, terrier, husky, retriever, etc., is happy being a yardpiece?  Maybe with enough time the numbing certainty that he will never learn anything new will set in and he will become complacent.  Or maybe that barking/chewing/digging/nipping/chasing problem you have is simply a result of the poor beast wanting a job to do, and having to come up with its own.  Give your dog something to do, and he wont have time to get bored and dig in the trash.  Chances are if you’re working him sufficiently, he’ll be tired and go to sleep, an instant transformation into “good dog.”  The people who think I’m abusing my dog by working her never seem to grasp the idea that they could be doing their dog a disservice by not working them.

I personally believe that dogs who engage in some regular activity are smarter and healthier than your average couch spud.  (It certainly applies to humans.)  When people look at pics of my dog, or lay hands on her, they usually comment on her fitness.  (She’s not as conditioned as a true working dog would be, but we’re just “weekend warriors” after all.)  My reply is usually that she didn’t get that way without some work on my part.  They also tend to comment on her good behavior, and I believe the two go hand in hand.  It is a rare and lucky person who ends up with a dog that keeps itself both fit and occupied.  Most of us have to work at it.  But the payback is well worth the effort.

Why are you still on your computer?  Get out there and work those dogs!

by Lindsay B. (Bahamutt99)

Those that know me probably know that I’m a member of 8 different forums, 7 of which are Pit Bull forums. Most of them are excellent boards where folks of different backgrounds can come together and discuss the breed.  I mean, that’s what brings us all together anyway: love of the breed.  Many of us probably would pass each other by without so much as a glance if it weren’t for the dogs.

Anybody who’s been in the breed for a while knows what I’m talking about.  These dogs open as many doors as they close.  Maybe you’re limited in places that you can live, and maybe you now have to deal with unreasonable prejudice, but at the same time, you find yourself wedded to a great group of diverse people who are unified by their love of an awesome animal.  Or at least we should be unified.  But pay attention and it becomes glaringly obvious that the honeymoon between some “factions” is over before its even begun.

Probably the saddest example of of the rift between Pit Bull people is that between the gamedog owner and the “petbull” owner.  I don’t like to use labels, but that is the easiest way to describe the differing halves.  On the gamedog side, you’ve got people whose primary interest in the breed is functionality and gameness.  On the other side, you’ve got a group of pet owners.  At the extreme ends there are people who still match their dogs, and then people who treat their dogs as if they were stuffed animals.

I would never in a million years expect a lazy dog-park “petbull” owner to get in bed with a dog fighter, but to suggest that these are the only two groups out there is naive at best.  There are lots of people — myself and the majority of folks I know included — that fall into this wide grey area somewhere in the middle.  We know and respect the breed’s heritage, and we use that knowledge to help us live sensibly with our dogs.  Some of us dress our dogs up in clothes — I mean face it, for some reason the public responds favorably to dogs in pink tu tus — and some of us are out there on the weekends showing and working our dogs.  Some of us breed, some of us rescue, and some of us do neither.  I think for the majority of us, companionship is the primary factor behind owning the breed, but we still understand what they are.

So say you have a yard of gamedogs and serious outlook on the breed.  It may appear to you that the “petbull” people are ruining the breed.  After all, they are the ones who are keeping these dogs in the house and showing off their good behavior at the park or Petsmart. Or say you are a “petbuller” with a few good pets.  It would most certainly appear that the gamedog people are ruining the breed because they work their dogs hard, honor the game ones, and breed to the old standards.  (If you are detecting sarcasm here, that’s because there is some.)

At any rate, it is absolutely ridiculous to draw a scratch line between “petbull” people and gamedog or working dog people. A yard bust of a serious dogman and a Pit Bull attack caused by a negligient pet owner have the same negative impact on our breed.  And maybe you say “I have never had that happen to me!”  Well the chances are that your counterpart on the other side of the rift has never had it happen either.  The few and far between incidents that happen should not be cause for us to point fingers at each other when we both have the same animal at the end of our leash.  Maybe mine is a pet and weekend worker while yours is a hardcore hog hunter, but do you think in the end its going to matter?  BSL is the great leveler, folks, and it will take your “petbull” or your gamedog just as surely as it will take your weight puller, Schutzhund dog, mixed breed, and so forth.  Instead of suspecting the worst out of each other, maybe we should think for a second about the good that we each do for the breed.

Gamedog people:  In an era of dogs being bred for head size and color, you can usually count on gamedog people to be like a rock standing against the tide.  Their dogs look now much the same way they looked 100 years ago.  They still have the performance ability that the breed was intended to have.  And most of the people in this crowd, whether you agree with their ethics or not, are not peddling off puppies to the public like your typical backyard breeder. Additionally, they seem to have keeping their dogs contained down to a science.

“Petbullers”:  Pink tu tus notwithstanding, most “petbull” people understand the importance of getting their dogs out in the public’s eye to help combat the general ignorance surrounding the breed.  They help to show that these dogs can live safely in society and our homes, in the hands of a knowledgeable owner.  Rescuers usually fall into this category, and they do a great good for the breed by saving good dogs from euthanasia — and thus giving pet seekers another option besides going to a breeder — and also educating about the importance of spay/neuter.

If a line needs to be drawn, it should only be between the responsible and the irresponsible owners.  Because much as either side may wish to dispute it, bad apples fall from both trees.  Maybe if we can learn a little tolerance for each other, cleanup will be easier.  After all, two hands are better than one.