My pit bull would make a terrible vice president. He is a lapdog, and his primary interest is in following me around and (when possible) snuggling on the couch*. He is not interested in food or toys; he is motivated solely by human affection and its withdrawal. If you’re interested, he wants to be your best friend, and if you’re not, he’ll leave you alone. He bears no ill will towards any human or animal, except for cats and raccoons who take up residence on our property, and even then he forgives them once they leave. His bark is much worse than his bite: although he barks only rarely, he never ever bites. In response to aggression from other dogs, he hides behind my legs. He is never anxious, and he puts up with all manner of crap without flinching. His response to frustration or fear is to remove himself from the situation, and stay away from it. When I go away, he stays with four jack russell terriers, and puts up with all their bossy yapping with nary a complaint. When I was sick for a month, he stayed on the bed with me 22 hours a day and got up only for two quick walks around the block, and he never complained at all.
He is not unique. Other pit bull owners report the same sort of experience with their dogs. The Dog Whisperer loves pit bulls. The Little Rascals loved their pit bull. Malcolm Gladwell is an articulate advocate on their behalf. Michael Vick’s pit bulls were trained to fight, but with the right kind of attention they are now loving family pets. A pit bull called Bandog Dread excelled in a huge diversity of activities. Because of the popularity of breed bans and the quantity of folks fighting them, there is a ton of information about them available online. There are too many pages debunking pitbullmyths for me to list them here.
This is my favourite quote (from the Gladwell article) about pit bulls, which I find to be so completely true about my dog:
Pit bulls are awesome, and if I had room in my life for another dog I’d get another pittie in a minute. I think MY pit bull would make a great VP, because he does whatever I tell him to, but I don’t think he’d be very good for America.
Innocent bystander amateurishly photoshopped out. If you can do a better job than me, I’d be happy to send you the original.
Your boy looks like my neighbor’s dog, Tank. Tank is also a loving heap o’ lapdog. He loves to play tug of war with me, and he adores every kid in the neighborhood. He’s such a love, nobody even thinks twice about him being an “evil pit bull.” (I am scared he’ll slobber me to death, though. :D)
The pitbull I’m most closely acquainted with reacts to practically everything with “FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU FRIEND LET ME JUMP INTO YOUR LAP AND STICK MY TONGUE INTO ONE OF YOUR EARS AND OUT OF THE OTHER FRIEND FRIEND”. I understand they calm down with age, though. Stability and resoluteness probably come along after they’ve gotten over the puppy stage.
Mine does that too, for the first two minutes, the first five times he meets you. After that, he’s like one of those old strong, silent type guys we all know one or two of: no matter how happy he is to see you arrive, you get a nod of the head and maybe a raised eyebrow. When I got back after being away for two weeks, I got a gentle head butt and nary a wag of the tail (but he wouldn’t let me out of his sight for a long time after that).
Unless you’re running at him with open arms and a big smile going “FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND,” then he’ll be climbing all over you. But you asked for it.
Mine is half pit, half Rottie, rescued from a kill shelter. If you are human, 99% of the time she loves you with much saliva and tail-beating. If you are a toddler, you are her best friend, and she will bathe you every minute until you are clean and shiny. There have been a couple of men who have come to our country home for various delivery purposes or service purposes that she hated on sight, and I trust her judgment. When I have chemo blues, her mission is to cuddle with me until I can cope. However, if you are a small, fluffy, yappy thing you are a chew toy. You will stop squeaking eventually.
This is my brother and our new rescue Weezy. He’s half Staffie and half boxer.
Weezy doesn’t bark, can open a variety of doors (sliding, handle, knob, etc), always thanks you before eating, and wags his tail furiously when meeting any new person or animal.
He too will be trained as a therapy dog soon (he gets neutered tomorrow!).
I always find it amusing that when Weezy and I are on a brisk (but loose leash) walk that people with tiny lapdogs who yap yap yap at him, teeth bared, owners are afraid of Weez. Your dog is the aggressive one, mine just wants approval.
I once met a pit who loved kittens. Show her a kitten and she’d be all over it sniffing and mothering it. And she was sweet as all heck with humans, too.
A friend of mine has a pit bull who I’ve said is at more risk of drowning me with slobber than attacking me. He says that if a burglar could get enough guts to break into his house with the dog barking (who is really going “someone’s here, someone’s here, yay!”), the dog would reveal the locations of all of the valuables if the burglar would empty the treat container on the floor.
At one point, I was sitting on his couch watching TV, with the dog on the next cushion. He kept looking at his master, then scooting in a little closer, looking again to see if he was getting a disapproving glare, scooting closer, until he got close enough to give a big lick on my cheek.
Mine is pitbull/lab cross, another rescue dog. She was found in a dump (-40C) with 8 newborn pups, it took the rescue group 6 hours to capture her, and that was only cause they had her pups. Took the rescue lady 3 months before she could even touch her and that was only with a treat, and a full year before she had her first belly rub. I got her a year after the rescue group rescued her. I really had my doubts about her and wondered what the hell had I gotten myself into. I didn’t think she was ever going to come around. Finally … and I mean finally, she started to come around, 8 full months after I got her she went on her very first walk, before that she wouldn’t leave the house except to pee and run right back in with her tail between her legs. I have now had her almost 3 years - she is the most wonderful and lovable dog I could ever hope to have, and acts pretty much like a normal dog. She is gentle beyond gentle and sweet beyond sweet and I could talk all night about how much we love each other.
I almost have to chuckle when we are walking and people avoid us.
Love pitbulls, you bet I do !!! What I absolutely hate are the people that abuse them
Of all the pits I’ve ever known - maybe 8 - two were fighters (:() and the other 6 would be very accurrately described as bouncy, flibbertigibbet sort of dogs.
do you live in the Seattle area? cause this is an exact description of a friend of mine and her dog “Tank”
I also agree they are a great Breed, Tank will happily wrestle with you and he does bite but he is amazing at how gentile he is. he only bites when you are wrestling and messing around and never bites hard enough to break skin or even really hurt
Mine was too, until I trained him not to be (by ignoring the bounciness and praising the calmness, it worked like magic). The author was talking about therapy dogs, who are (presumably) well-trained, so the implied comparison is between well-trained pit bulls and well-trained dogs of other breeds (some of whom will be bouncy and jumpy no matter how well trained they are).
Pardon my saying so, but any dog might be a lapdog with such an inviting lap.
Back on topic: I’ve known about 3 pb’s. All of them were lovely sweet doggies (but of course raised to be). I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a dog because s/he had pb in hi/r.
I got Trogdor when he was three months old. My buddy was living across the street from some white trash people. We had seen the puppy before and heard him yelp as someone was beating the tar out of him. My buddy went across the street and offered to buy the dog. They turned him down, but a couple of weeks later came and sold Trogdor for thirty bucks. God knows what they would have done with him otherwise. When I got trog he had a limp, and reacted to anybody approaching him by rolling on his back and showing his belly. Long story short he is now a happy well adjusted dog who loves people, probably too much. He has the same issue as cowgirls boy, he doesn’t understand why a seventy pound dog can’t be a lap dog.
Probably the best part of the deal is seeing peoples attitudes change towards pitbulls fro spending time with him. My mother was scared to death of pitbulls before Trogdor, now she probably loves the fellow more then I do. He has done wonders for the breed image in my immediate family.
And pictures
Those are treats on his paws. He waits until permission is granted before eating them.
The last one is him playing with my brothers pit/rott mix. After the good eperience with Trogdor my parents let him adopt her from a rescue.
The pitbull I’m most closely acquainted with reacts to practically everything with “FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU FRIEND LET ME JUMP INTO YOUR LAP AND STICK MY TONGUE INTO ONE OF YOUR EARS AND OUT OF THE OTHER FRIEND FRIEND”. I understand they calm down with age, though. Stability and resoluteness probably come along after they’ve gotten over the puppy stage.
