Or, So You Think You Should Own a Pit Bull and Why You’re Wrong

@rushbabe49 started a conversation about dogs with her post What’s wrong with this picture?, in which I commented:

I’ve known a couple Mastiffs. Big, dumb lugs. My niece had one named, Dozer, as in bulldozer. Apropos. The worst he ever did was knock stuff off the end tables by wagging his tail. But, Akitas? No. Just no. Why is it the Asian breeds are so monstrous? Akitas, Chows, Shiba Inus. . . It doesn’t matter what size, they’re predictably unpredictably aggressive. I won’t have an aggressive dog and I don’t like it when my neighbors have one either. Very few people are proficient dog trainers capable of bringing out the best of dogs bred for aggression. I have unpopular views on this subject. I may have to post.

I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while and am looking forward to your abusive responses. So, here it is (my unpopular opinion):

As I understand it, Britain has outlawed Pit Bulls — and I approve. Go ahead. Just try to change my mind!

I know we have Ricochet members who own and love their Pit Bulls. We also have at least one Ricochet member who had a family member attacked by a Pit Bull (maintaining anonymity unless the member wants to come forward). I’ve been around a couple of Pit Bulls and haven’t been attacked. So what?

Here’s where I assert my authority on the subject. No, I’m not a trainer. However, I’m currently working with a trainer in a puppy class to teach me how to train our six-month-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Princess Buttercup, aka “Bitsy.” This requires a picture:

What a good dog!!

This trainer, Shelley, I call the Dog Whisperer of Colorado Springs. She owns and trains Smooth Coated Collies. About eight of them at a time. Her dogs have won multiple championships in obedience, conformation, and agility, and she’s been at it for about 30 years. She lives on 15 acres east of the Springs where her dogs enjoy a full, safe, and happy life, behaving as their nature and excellent training provides. She’s the ultimate dog owner.

I’ll get back to Shelley in a minute, but I want to give a little of my history with dogs. I grew up with dogs. Mostly German Shepherds and Shepherd mixes. And, you know what? My family weren’t great dog owners. One of our Shepherds, Grendel, was trained by my oldest sister while she was in college. Grendel was a good dog and responded well to my sister. But Sis dropped her off at our place to stay while she attended med school. And while Grendel was still a good dog, there were some. . . um, incidents.

When you start a class with Shelley (and this is my second time), the first session is a dog-less lecture. And one of the first things Shelley says is, “Know your breed.” Okay, what is a German Shepherd bred to do? Police dog, right? Protect and attack and subdue the bad guys. So, when Dad brought a customer home for dinner and Grendel nipped him in the calf, she was just acting out her nature. Stranger danger!! Protect the family!

She was so protective, she’d meet me at the bus stop at the end of our street when I was in elementary school to provide a “police escort.” Seriously. She would walk home about five feet in front of me, baring her teeth and snarling while looking side to side. Dang! No wonder I had trouble making friends!

She also despised the paperboy, who took his life in his hands every time he came to collect. We had sidelights on either side of our front door and she threatened to go right through the glass when she saw him coming. It turned out he really was one of the bad guys and her assessment of his character was correct, even as a kid. After he graduated high school, he was arrested and jailed for beating his elderly adoptive parents. But, still, when we allowed Grendel to act aggressively toward him, we did not have control and she did not behave as a “good citizen” (Shelley’s term).

Grendel was a fantastic athlete. We have a picture of her somewhere scaling a 12-foot chain-link fence. She was amazing. Unfortunately, when she was “retired” to my brother-in-law’s farm, she first lost a leg in a scuffle with raccoons, and then had to be put down after she and another dog attacked and killed six 300-lb hogs. Blood lust isn’t pretty. Or acceptable.

The moral of this story is, dogs are for life — for their entire lives and according to their inbred natures. I learned this the hard way after adopting a mill-dog (Samoyed) after Mr. C. and I were newly married. We made every mistake. Tanya was a sweetheart, and we should have done better by her. I would never do again what I did with that dog. She was isolated while we worked. We bred her when we had no business doing that. She was not breeding material, although her disposition was to be admired. The guilt of her under-stimulated life stays with me. It was a hard lesson.

Since then, we’ve owned two more Samoyeds, one of which was an accidental show dog. Kiska’s breeder, “Grandma” Jan, gave me a long pause over the phone when I told her he looked “pigeon-toed” when he walked. Turns out he was single-tracking, exactly as desired for the conformation show ring. Jan, who became an AKC judge at this time, groomed and showed him for the first 18 months of his life. He won Best of Show at the Colorado puppy show in Denver when he was six months old and won runner-up at the Samoyed National Specialty when he was a year. He was a contender, but some other things came up in our lives (we had a baby) and we retired him from the show world. It was a blast while it lasted.

We’ve kept a toe in the show world through Jan and we’ve since downsized our preferred breeds and taken up solid training through Shelley. This is our first time owning three dogs at once: two PWCs (Corgis for you amateurs) and a Border Terrier. My criteria for picking breeds are pretty strict:

1) friendly,

2) bigger than 15 pounds, but smaller than 40,

3) easily trainable (there is a size-related consideration here. Too small and they almost never learn potty training; too big and they’re hard to handle during training for an aging housewife,

4) comparatively low maintenance (I still clip my dogs’ nails every week, and bathe the Corgis every couple months. The terrier goes to the groomer every seven weeks.)

5) few health problems.

We’ve been very pleased with our breed choices. And they seem happy to live with us. So, when Shelley says, “know your breed,” this is what she means. Will the dog fit with your lifestyle and will you provide what their nature demands. This is why you’re not qualified to own a Pit Bull, unless you’re an expert trainer and provide outlets for the breed that meets his need for. . .? Grabbing onto the throat of some other creature and not letting go??

Corgis are herding dogs. They love to chase and bite ankles. They’re literally ankle-biters. We have to break them of that tendency by giving them plenty of exercise and teaching them that any nipping or biting is unacceptable. Border Terriers are bred for flushing the fox from his den in a fox hunt. They also like to chase small furry things and grab and tug. We play lots of tugging games with our Border. They are also bred to be companions to the Fox Hounds, so they’re very co-dependent in their relationships with other dogs. Which is why we now have a Corgi puppy for when our geriatric Corgi gets called to that doggy rainbow bridge in the sky. Dog ownership is a huge responsibility lasting 10 to 15 years, depending on the breed. Make sure you’re up to it.

And another thing! The latest craze in “humane” dog harnesses is neither humane nor sane. You cannot train or control a dog on a harness, unless it’s so small you can literally jerk it off its feet. Training should be fun for the dog (keeping in mind his nature), but can only be done with a training (“choke”) collar. I use either a regular choke or a martingale on my dogs. These are both preferable to a buckle collar for training because, 1) a buckle collar can damage their trachea because the force is concentrated on their throats rather than distributed around their necks when they pull and 2) the choke allows a quick pop of a correction where the buckle collar is impossible to transmit signals (in fact, you may be trying to give the dog the opposite of the signal they understand, as they have a natural tendency to resist by pulling in the opposite direction to the force you’re applying).

My second unpopular opinion: The only dogs who should wear harnesses are dogs pulling sleds.

Other things I’ve heard from Jan and Shelley: Shelly had a young woman bring a German Shepherd to her for obedience training. She told Shelley she wanted the dog for “protection” when she walks across campus at night. Shelley replied, “You’re walking with a German Shepherd. You’re protected just by his presence.” If you want a dog for protection, you really should seek out serious training by someone who trains police dogs. Otherwise, know that just owning a dog — almost any dog — is a deterrent to criminals.

And when you’re selecting a breed, know that even AKC judges will not get in the ring with certain breeds. Jan will not judge Rottweilers. She considers them too aggressive. And she’s a breeder and a judge and you think you should own a Pit Bull? Bull-something, alright.