Guest blog by Jeanne Marie
The Problem with Pits
Stormgoddess wrote on Tue, 04 August 2009
“I love bully breeds, and I get really bent out of shape when people malign them. … Of the dozens of AmStaffs, American Bulldogs, and Pit Bull terriers I have met on parks and sidewalks in the past nine months, one was dog aggressive. …
Robin responded:
“I apologise for being a wet blanket but let’s not get totally carried away. I’ve already said I love bullies–and Dobermanns–and I’ve known some sweetheart Rotties. And Alsatians. Etc. BUT. These are also dogs with STRONG aggressive/protective/guardian/territorial instincts and there are bad ones like there are bad anything. One of the scariest dogs in this town is some kind of Staffie cross.”
In my opinion, both Stormgoddess and Robin have valid points. I think that, while MOST dogs are good and loving souls, some dogs, through poor handling, abuse, breed heritage, or individual temperament can be scary and downright dangerous. It’s always wise to respect the fact that these lovely creatures are originally descended from large, fearsomely-toothed pack animals who kill deer and elk for a living. I absolutely LOVE my two dogs…but, even I have had problems with my lovely critters. Problems that have largely come from breed heritage mixing uneasily with circumstances. It’s not all sweetness and light, being the loving alpha-momma to a small pack that includes an AmStaff mix, and I thought I’d share a story from the trenches.
Cece is a 6 and a half year-old AmStaff (pit bull) and Lab mix, who came to me as a three month-old puppy, abandoned and dashing around the parking lot of the church where I work. When I took Cece in, I had very little knowledge or experience with bully breeds. I therefore spent some time doing research on their breed heritage. According to my reading, in general, AmStaffs are very people-friendly, but tend towards dog-aggression – that’s the specific traits they were bred for. Pit fighting dogs needed to be eager to rip into another dog, able to withstand a great deal of pain without giving up the fight, and then had to accept medical treatment from whichever handler was on offer. So, any dogs without those traits – dog-aggressive, high pain tolerance and people-friendly – were routinely culled (and sadly, still are…). The books recommended early good quality puppy-socialization, but to be cautious and watchful of any and all dog interactions after 2-4 years of age. What I noticed with Cece is that she was very submissive in her OWN defense; she crawled, head hanging and frightened, into my lap her first Thanksgiving with my family, when my sister’s Chihuahua-mixes lit into her (even though she was already three times their size). Cece routinely rolled over and showed her belly during the initial-dog-greetings-rituals whenever we went to the dog park. When on walks, she was always happy to see other dogs, whining and either trying to lick them or show her belly. She would on rare occasions stand in front of me at the off-leash park, to “protect” me from other dogs’ greetings, but even that was pretty passive – she just stood there with her tongue hanging out, until the other dog invited her to play, rather than trying to greet me.
The first hints of any dog aggression I ever witnessed Cece display were in Charlie’s* first months at our home. She was around 4 at the time that we took Charlie in, and he was about 4 months old. Initially, I didn’t leave them alone and loose together (unsupervised dog interactions are counseled against for bully breeds), but let them work on their social skills when I was home with them both. After about 6 months of quiet interactions, there were two specific occasions that Cece got angry with Charlie, and I wasn’t close enough to stop the ensuing fight.
The first incident was over food. I hadn’t yet learned that it’s wise to feed dogs separately. One night, I had gotten home much later than expected from work, and they were both pretty hungry. I put their food in their respective bowls, then dashed off to the restroom – and mere moments later, heard a fight break out. I wasn’t able to get out of the bathroom before Cece had sustained three slashes to her face and a puncture to her lower jaw. Charlie wasn’t injured at all, to my surprise, but Cece refused to be called off, nor did she back down, even though she was coming off the worst. I had to physically pull Cece away, then got both of them down into submissive positions and growled at them, to let them know that this behavior wasn’t acceptable in my pack. My best guess is that Charlie, who was (and still is) kind of a vacuum cleaner for his food, finished first, and then went over to investigate Cece’s bowl. She defended her food, and in doing so, got riled enough that she couldn’t stop defending her food. Afterwards, I separated their food bowls at feeding times, they reconciled in typical doggie fashion, and we haven’t had any feeding time problems since.
The second incident was while playing fetch. Cece went for the ball, and Charlie tried to go for it too, and Cece defended it – and kept defending it, going from zero to fighting fury in just a few seconds. I had to run across the yard and physically separate them, because Cece wasn’t backing off, despite Charlie trying to back away from her, and she refused to call off. Again, I pulled her off, and got them both into submissive positions and growled at them fiercely. Neither was injured, thankfully. They both learned from these two incidents, I will admit. When playing fetch, Charlie now lets Cece get the ball first if she is so inclined, and she for her part usually drops the ball after catching it, letting Charlie return it to me, until she gets bored with fetching altogether and goes off on her own pursuits, while Charlie gets to fetch to his heart’s content. So, they have both learned how to interact better with one another as packmates. But, while they get along easily now, since Charlie’s advent Cece is now much more likely to get upset about HIS dignity or safety around other dogs. And again, when she does get defensive enough to respond, she doesn’t have an off switch.
About three months ago, Cece went after another dog at an off-leash dog park. We were playing fetch on the far side of the park, when they went with some other dogs to investigate a new arrival. I headed the same direction, but they got there first – and I was still far enough away that I didn’t see exactly what happened, and was also unfortunately far enough away that I couldn’t prevent the situation from exploding. The other dog’s owner admitted later that his dog had been getting aggressive – with Charlie, not with Cece. Cece took offense on Charlie’s behalf, and proceeded to defend Charlie. It’s in situations like this that Cece’s breed heritage becomes truly scary. As I mentioned in her altercations with Charlie, when she does get into a fight, she doesn’t call off, and she doesn’t give up. In this particular situation, I had to physically remove her teeth from the other dog, then pull her to the other side of a fence in order to separate them and calm her down. The other dog needed stitches, which luckily the dog park provided.** Cece was visibly shaken (as were all of us) after the fact. I was way more than shaken. When I went to the vet’s office to check on the other dog, the other owner admitted his own dog was at fault, and assured me that his dog was fine.*** Nevertheless, we haven’t been back to the off-leash park since.+
Their ability to do a lot of damage is why so many people are afraid of pits, I think. When they are well-trained, well-loved and have a stable temperament, AmStaffs and other bully breeds are a joy to be around,++ and they can be very gentle and loving companions to people. But, if they do turn on other dogs due to breed heritage mixing badly with circumstances, or when they turn on people,+++ either because they have been trained to do so, been abused/neglected badly enough, or are just “bad” individual canines, then pits have the equipment and power to do an awful lot of damage. They are by no means the only dogs with that capability of course,‡ but they are in that group of powerful, potentially scary, dogs. I think that those of us who love dogs, and love these particular breeds, have a responsibility to train our dogs as best possible, monitor their interactions with other dogs and with people, and work to set positive examples. But, even when we do our best, sometimes problem circumstances and breed heritage together can erupt in scary ways.
Despite the difficulties and hardships, I love my dogs dearly, and would never give them up. I just continue to do the best I can, giving them every opportunity to be happy and healthy dogs. That’s my job as the owner and alpha. After all “dogs are trouble, I’ve been told,/but dogs are worth their weight in gold.”
* * *
*Charlie is a collie-shepherd-something-or-other mix, who was abandoned when a family moved. A local dog rescue asked me to take him “temporarily”…
** it’s a paid-admission off leash park connected to the humane society, and they have vets on staff 24-7
*** I will note here that I was MIRACULOUSLY LUCKY that the other dog’s owner was a responsible and upstanding individual who admitted that his dog was at fault, even though my dog did more damage. Had he been anything other than an honest and responsible individual – or had he just been angrier – it is probable that the situation would have been much uglier, and with potential legal repercussions. Very scary. That’s one reason I’ve never taken the dogs to a free public off-leash park at all.
+In point of fact, the books I read suggest that off-leash parks are not really a good idea for bullies over 4, even if they have never shown signs of dog-aggression – and for just this reason. They can do a lot of damage if something riles them up. We’d never had any problems before this, but…
++ and hilarious clowns, as has been noted
+++ I should mention, by the way, that the other OWNER never suffered any aggression from Cece, even while he was trying to separate the dogs. She had no interest in him, and completely ignored him, in fact.
‡ Robin mentioned some other examples above
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