Don’t supervise your dogs, or your kids?
The news is full of “kids taken from yards and bus stops and malls” stories.
My dog boards are full of “dog stolen from my back yard” stories.
You have to supervise nowadays. You just can’t leave an unsupervised dog in the yard and be completely safe – and humans are every bit as big a danger as pit bulls. The nasty loner teenage boy, the pack of stone-throwing brats, the kid with no morals and a new pellet gun, the mean old man next door who hates dogs and can toss meat adulterated with anti-freeze over a fence…you have to supervise, or you’re gambling.
As far as pit bulls go – dog aggression is completely different from human aggression. Of course one can mis-train a dog badly enough that the dog has both, but trust me, the dog with his superior senses is totally aware of the difference between Timmy and Lassie.
Well-bred and decently-raised pit bulls…hell, even most of Michael Vick’s trained fighting dogs – are exceptionally human-friendly. Even the dog-aggressive ones – and there are dog-aggressive pit bulls, it’s even normal and acceptable in the breed, like duck-aggressive labs and rat-aggressive terriers and rabbit-aggressive Great Danes – should be completely submissive toward humans.
One thing you can do that might help set your mind at ease regarding the safety of your kids – although not your dogs – is to meet the new pit bull in person without your dogs being present. If it’s just a dog-aggression issue, the pit might be reacting to your dog(s) every time and you might see completely different behavior when it’s just people present. Of course have your neighbor leash her dog before meeting you – safety first. But this is something that might break the ice and lead to better relations overall, as well as conveying the legitimate concerns that her dog’s barking and fierce face have caused in you.
If the dog continues to seem human-aggressive when no strange dogs are present, you have a real problem. True human aggression is an intolerable fault in a pit bull.
But it’s much more likely that you’re seeing dog aggression. DA is a problem for you too, as a dog owner. You can’t have your dogs loose in the front (unfenced) yard, because you can’t be sure her dogs are always contained safely – but then again, you can’t have your dogs loose (off leash) in the front yard anyway, because they will get hit by cars if it’s not fenced. So all you’re losing there is the ability to be sure that
Once you’ve established some rapport with the neighbor, it’s worthwhile to bring up DA (assuming that’s what you’ve observed) and ask about safety precautions. If her dog kills your dog, his life is most likely forfeit anyway, so you can approach it as working together to keep everyone safe. Fence and property inspections are a start; also emphasize to her that unattended pit bulls are, unfortunately, in even more danger outside than other breeds, because of their reputations and the general evil nature of people.
Unsupervised dogs are unsafe dogs, yours and hers.
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