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pit bull at dog park


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dog doc wrote

she lunges up in their restraining grip like a breaching whale, whipping her head from side to side and gnashing her teeth like a shark in a feeding frenzy
bite-suit_front_tn.jpg

 

Bring it on!

 

(Seriously, be careful out there...) Friends who are ACOs tell me that Rotties and Chows are at the top of their " :D " list, and my vets echo your comment about some Rotties being untrustworthy, particularly the males. (BAD RAP says that one of the cool things about pit bulls is their "what you see is what you get" temperament---they're not complicated dogs. A friendly pit bull is a friendly pit bull :cool: The unstable ones pretty much have a big neon sign that says, "Lousy Temperament.")

 

I've met some wonderful Rotties---family pets, show dogs, therapy dogs---and know a terrific Rottie breeder who does everything from carting to herding with her Rotts. Her dogs are as stable as the day is long. I've even met a nice Chow.

 

But, as you say, even the best dog in the world with a foolish owner... :rolleyes:

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Hmmm, and I'd look so sexy in that outfit, I simply MUST have one! It's nearly as attractive as our lead Xray aprons! :rolleyes: (Gotta say there are plenty of times THAT would have come in handy, day-glo orange or not. I've mainly been relying on speed, agility and muzzles and good judgement to keep my hide intact up to now.)

 

I'd have to agree that in the rare bad pitbulls I've seen, you typically know right up front that they're not going to be nice. Some of them are just scared, and those ones - if you can win their trust - give themselves over to you and surrender themselves into your care with a completeness that is quite touching. I once spent 30 minutes coaxing a frightened pitbull to my hand. She was in to be spayed, and was cowering in the back of the run, terrified but growling. I sat down in the front of the run and tried to coax her, but though she would approach within two feet, she just was NOT going to trust me enough to let me touch her - until I took off my shoe and gave it to her (to this day I don't know what posessed me to do that). She sniffed it thouroughly, never taking her worried gaze off me, but once she had the scent of me, she crept forward and crawled trembling into my lap (which wasn't all that comfy, since she was a muscular little thing, and dug her feet and elbows in to hang on for all she was worth, the poor thing.) But from that position she allowed me to do a physical exam and give her her pre-meds by injection, and we never had trouble with her after that. It was like, once she gave her trust, she GAVE it, and it was the whole enchilada. No holding back.

 

Bad Rotties can sometimes be read by facial expression - the ones who give you that cold, dominant Rottweiller Stare - and others will start growling and lip-lifting before they go for you, but some of them are just NOT predictable. They'll give you every body language indication imaginable that they're nice sweet friendly dogs, and in a flash they're going for your throat - and these dogs are NOT kidding around. They'll hurt you. It's not going to be some little warning nip, they're going to bite down and chew. (And I have the scars to prove it, unfortunately.) But I, too, have known some terrific Rotties, truly wonderful dogs who allow little children to roll all over them and pull their ears and take food away from them and all of it, dogs who would defend their owners to the death, dogs who come in so happy to see us that thay practically wag themselves in half. It's just that the bad ones are sometimes so unpredictable that you just can't know when they're going to nail you - all you know is that sooner or later they're going to give it a damn good try. Luckily those are getting fewer, and the good ones are getting more... but we still see plenty of poorly-bred ones out there, unfortunately giving the rest of their breed a bad name.

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