Hi there. My name is Brittney and this is my first time in these forums and I wanted an opinion. I also apologize if this has been discussed before. I used the search feature and found a similar piece but it didn’t really cover what I am curious about in particular.
I’d like to think of myself as fairly animal savvy. Though I now work in finance, I used to work as a vet tech and also for many years at the SPCA, helping to educate the public in doggy behavior and acclimating new pets to new households etc – so my knowledge of dog breeds and dog behavior is pretty decent.
Our current household consists of two Cavalier Spaniels and four cats. Because we understand pack hierarchy, we’ve always been wise to establish ourselves as the pack “alphas” and took great care in doing our best to socialize our dogs from a young age: allowing being groomed/handled, doggy daycare and parks to adjust to being off leash around new dogs, experience near fast moving animals like the cats, near wobbly and sometimes loud toddlers (though we are childless and plan to remain so), daily exercise and stimulation, avoiding alpha-challenging games like tug of war, etc. Our worst habit is the fact we don’t take great care in making sure we enter or exit doors first, and we do let the dogs walk in front or in back (or to the side, or wherever else their noses take them on a leashed walk).
Our entire lives we’ve also been pittie advocates. As a child, I had a dog we got from a neighbor whose dad was a black lab and whose mom was a pitt/rott. Sweetest and most trustworthy dog I’ve ever known.
We want to adopt a pit puppy (YOUNG, between 8-12 weeks) to bring into the current home – and realize the extended effort a responsible pit owner faces. We understand that no matter what happens, society will always blame us and our dog for anything, so because of that, we understand that it is ESSENTIAL our pit be a well behaved member of society (we plan to train them to get their Canine Good Citizen certification, which our current dogs are training for) and properly socialized.
For all the effort we know we will need to put forth to raise an outstanding pittie spokesperson, the one new bit of information I am reading on sites is making me hesitant. Though I know many pit owners with small breed/other dogs and cats in their household who have never had issues – I am now reading countless “warnings” on breed info sites reminding me that every pit, no matter how well socialized or whether they were raised in the same house, will at some point turn on their own pack (animals, so the dogs and cats, not us) and cannot be trusted whatsoever with other dogs. The usual expectation is that once they reach adolescence (between 7-18 months seems to be the popular length of time on these warnings), they WILL do this and all the pets in our home will be at risk.
Have you found this to be true? While many breeds will have a larger instinct to overcome things (i.e. you’re going to work harder to raise a border collie to not chase your cats than, say, a pug or other low prey-drive breed, but it is completely possible), is it actually true that animal aggression will ALWAYS come out in your pittie?
Or is this hype that pit advocacy sites are pushing in an attempt to REALLY limit the folks who own pits, in an attempt to reduce bad PR for the breed, to help change their view to the public (which isn’t bad, but possibly reduces even the most knowledgeable folks from adopting one and raising it in a good light)?
Insight appreciated!
I’d like to think of myself as fairly animal savvy. Though I now work in finance, I used to work as a vet tech and also for many years at the SPCA, helping to educate the public in doggy behavior and acclimating new pets to new households etc – so my knowledge of dog breeds and dog behavior is pretty decent.
Our current household consists of two Cavalier Spaniels and four cats. Because we understand pack hierarchy, we’ve always been wise to establish ourselves as the pack “alphas” and took great care in doing our best to socialize our dogs from a young age: allowing being groomed/handled, doggy daycare and parks to adjust to being off leash around new dogs, experience near fast moving animals like the cats, near wobbly and sometimes loud toddlers (though we are childless and plan to remain so), daily exercise and stimulation, avoiding alpha-challenging games like tug of war, etc. Our worst habit is the fact we don’t take great care in making sure we enter or exit doors first, and we do let the dogs walk in front or in back (or to the side, or wherever else their noses take them on a leashed walk).
Our entire lives we’ve also been pittie advocates. As a child, I had a dog we got from a neighbor whose dad was a black lab and whose mom was a pitt/rott. Sweetest and most trustworthy dog I’ve ever known.
We want to adopt a pit puppy (YOUNG, between 8-12 weeks) to bring into the current home – and realize the extended effort a responsible pit owner faces. We understand that no matter what happens, society will always blame us and our dog for anything, so because of that, we understand that it is ESSENTIAL our pit be a well behaved member of society (we plan to train them to get their Canine Good Citizen certification, which our current dogs are training for) and properly socialized.
For all the effort we know we will need to put forth to raise an outstanding pittie spokesperson, the one new bit of information I am reading on sites is making me hesitant. Though I know many pit owners with small breed/other dogs and cats in their household who have never had issues – I am now reading countless “warnings” on breed info sites reminding me that every pit, no matter how well socialized or whether they were raised in the same house, will at some point turn on their own pack (animals, so the dogs and cats, not us) and cannot be trusted whatsoever with other dogs. The usual expectation is that once they reach adolescence (between 7-18 months seems to be the popular length of time on these warnings), they WILL do this and all the pets in our home will be at risk.
Have you found this to be true? While many breeds will have a larger instinct to overcome things (i.e. you’re going to work harder to raise a border collie to not chase your cats than, say, a pug or other low prey-drive breed, but it is completely possible), is it actually true that animal aggression will ALWAYS come out in your pittie?
Or is this hype that pit advocacy sites are pushing in an attempt to REALLY limit the folks who own pits, in an attempt to reduce bad PR for the breed, to help change their view to the public (which isn’t bad, but possibly reduces even the most knowledgeable folks from adopting one and raising it in a good light)?
Insight appreciated!
The basic rule that we all live by on here is that you can never trust a pitbull not to fight.
