pit bull truths

I am a long time Craven Desires reader, but I wanted to read all the posts before I commented (It took me about a year to read them all).

I would like to share my experience with pit bulls.

I read the Time magazine article about the Michael Vick pit bulls and I thought pit bulls were just like any other dog. Then I met three different people whose dogs had been attacked by pit bulls. The first was a lady I met who had two trained Search and Rescue dogs. After the dogs were attacked by a pit bull, they became afraid of all other dogs and could no long perform Search and Rescue. The second was a neighbor who was walking his small dog when a pit bull came out of its yard and grabbed it by the throat. The pit bull's owner was nearby and was able to get the pit bull off. Luckily the small dog survived, but with a serious neck wound. The third person had a dog that was killed when a pit bull entered his house and attacked the dog.

The thing that really convinced me was my personal experience. I used to foster dogs for a dog rescue organization. I was given a dog called Bernie to foster that appeared to be some type of bull dog or pit bull mix. He was 8-10 years old, the tips of his ears were gone, and he weighed about 25 pounds. He got on fine with my own dog and mostly liked to lie around sleeping. Then one day I took him to the dog park. A little terrier mix was bothering him and he grabbed the terrier mix by the ear and just stood there. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't pry his jaws open. After a minute or two he let go. Luckily, the terrier was not hurt. I never took him to the dog park again. The next incident was when I was walking him with my dog. A big Lab came up to us and started barking and acting aggressive. Bernie slipped out of his collar and went to confront the Lab. I didn't want to get in the middle of a dog fight and I didn't want my dog to get hurt so I decided to take my dog back to my house, which was just around the corner, and get something I could use to break up the fight. When I came out of my house, both dogs were in my front yard. The Lab was lying on the ground and Bernie had him by the ear. I believe Bernie had grabbed him by the ear and brought him back to my house. Both dogs were unhurt. I had never seen behavior like this from a dog before and it convinced me that breeding influences behavior to a significant degree.

After reading Craven Desires I now realize that this was classic bulldog behavior. I am ashamed to say that I never mentioned this behavior to the people who adopted Bernie. I wanted him to get a home and I didn't want to do anything to deter the adopters. I don't think he would have hurt anyone but I still feel bad about it. If I had had more knowledge about pit bulls I think I would have acted differently. Thank you Craven Desires for educating people about pit bills.