Pit Bulls for the novice

With the Michael Vick fiasco in full swing a few things about fighting dogs, especially Pit Bulls, is coming to the fore that some of us have known for a while and some of us haven’t. You can walk into nearly any animal shelter in any town or city in America and be greeted with a disproportionately large number of pit bull type dogs. We can blame the popularity on the “tough guy” stigma these dogs give the people who have them. I can spend 10 minutes walking in my neighborhood and see at least 3 “thugs” standing on a corner, mangy pit bull with it’s monsterous spiked collar sitting happily by its owners feet. For some reason these guys think that having a dog that looks like a pit bull makes them look tough.

That’s unfortunately also the preception that the general public seems to have of these dogs. “Uh oh it’s a pit bull we better be really careful.” First of all chances are it is not a true American Pit Bull Terrier. It’s likely a mutt with so much pollution in it’s lines that it retains less than a third of it’s true American Pit Bull Terrier heritage. For the most part you can tell simply by looking. The fighting lineage of the breed is relatively thin and wiry weighing as little as 25 pounds. The show and conformation is more muscular and bulked up and weighs around 60 pounds.

Then you have the monstrocities that are popular today. These dogs often weigh in excess of 100 pounds, have absurdly large heads (to the point that as new born pups their heads rival the size of normal confirmation Pit Bulls), and have a myriad of health problems caused by their over breeding, cross breeding, and line breeding. For more information about the types of breeding look here.

The next time you see a “pit bull” take a good look at it. If you take a moment you’ll be able to tell a true American Pit Bull Terrier from a “pit bull”. The difference is astounding both in terms of their physical looks, but more importantly in terms of their disposition. A real Pit Bull is outgoing, friendly, affectionate, gentle, trusting, and loyal. To such a degree that breeders will often get German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, or other similar breeds to guard their Pit Bulls. This because a Pit Bull will literally walk off with anyone that scratches behind it’s ear.

All that said they are still a fighting dog. Aggression towards other animals, especially dogs is normal and to be expected. Aggression towards people is not acceptable and not to be tolerated. That said keep a few things in mind to keep your dog safe from Pit Bulls it might come across on your walks.

• Be aware of people and dogs around you.
• Don’t let your dog and the Pit Bull sniff each other. Normally this is something you want a dog to do, but with a Pit Bull the situation is different.
• At the slightest indication of agitiation FROM YOUR DOG get them well separated. I say “from your dog” because a Pit Bull getting ready to fight sometimes goes into a posture called a “stand”. They stand neck to neck with the other dog looking down the other dogs back. The Pit Bulls tail will be wagging, no their whole hind end will be wagging, at a billion miles per hour. If you see this posturing don’t scream, don’t panic, simply get your dog away. Fast.
• As you can see from the above you can’t depend on signs of aggression from the Pit Bull to know if it will attack your dog or not. You have to be very aware of what your dog is doing. A retriever is happy when it is retrieving balls, a heeler is happiest when it is nipping at the heels of livestock. A Pit Bull is happy when it is fighting. Every manner in which it carries itself when it comes to aggression goes against our preconcieved notions in nearly all cases. If you’re thinking snarling vicious see it coming from 100 miles away display you’re dead wrong.
• A truly responsible Pit Bull owner will carry a break-stick with them at all times. Period. A break stick is a flat tapered piece of wood which can be inserted in a dogs mouth at the jaw line to get them to release a hold. Again, despite what the popular media and ignorant district attorneys call dog fighting paraphernalia a break-stick is an essential safety measure that all Pit Bull owners should have on them at all times. It can literally save another dogs life.

One last thing to address before closing. A Pit Bulls physiology is exactly the same as every other dogs in the world from tea-cup poodle to great dane. This means they CAN NOT lock their jaws in some kind of morbid death grip. It is simmply impossible. When you hear stories of the “lock-jawed pit bull” what that speaks of is their gameness. And gamesness is what we would call heart and determination in a human being.

I hope this provides at least one person with a little bit of information regarding Pit Bulls that goes beyond the cookie cutter press and the popular media. They aren’t the dogs for everyone as they take a lot of care, but they’re also not the monsters that our society has villianized them as. There is after all a reason why they were called nanny dogs at one time and why today they are used as search and resuce, and therapy dogs.

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