How do you feel about this statement? Scenario: You are out walking your dog. A person stops you to chat. They compliment the beauty of your dog, they may or may not know the breed, but when you confirm it is an APBT (or like breed) They reply with a "oh they get such a bad rep, but yours is so sweet, it is all in how you raise them!"
This opens the nature vs nurture debate in my head. Because number one... if they dog had very HA, shy, unpredictable parents. There may be no amount of raising to take these genetics out of your puppy. As with DA, you can train and love the dog with all your heart, but you aren't going to beat out the DA in the end.
So do you try to educate this person or do you let them continue to believe "it's all in how you raise them" Because it can simply be ok for this person to go on and have that positive outlook on the breed. Or you may change their minds if you tell them the difference and they may start to believe the myths perpetuated into the breed that they are unsound, and dangerous and no amount of love and training can undo it.
Generally, if I think the person has time to talk, I try to briefly explain in layman's terms that they were originally bred for, and that the dogs that were poorly bred are bad examples of the breed standard. But this leaves me in a catch 22 that my dog was one of these poorly bred BYB examples... And that I simply do not know enough about her lineage... I just know that after 4 years she has been a pretty good dog with no huge problems that couldn't be corrected. So usually, I simply agree with the person and go on with my business.
What do you do?
This opens the nature vs nurture debate in my head. Because number one... if they dog had very HA, shy, unpredictable parents. There may be no amount of raising to take these genetics out of your puppy. As with DA, you can train and love the dog with all your heart, but you aren't going to beat out the DA in the end.
So do you try to educate this person or do you let them continue to believe "it's all in how you raise them" Because it can simply be ok for this person to go on and have that positive outlook on the breed. Or you may change their minds if you tell them the difference and they may start to believe the myths perpetuated into the breed that they are unsound, and dangerous and no amount of love and training can undo it.
Generally, if I think the person has time to talk, I try to briefly explain in layman's terms that they were originally bred for, and that the dogs that were poorly bred are bad examples of the breed standard. But this leaves me in a catch 22 that my dog was one of these poorly bred BYB examples... And that I simply do not know enough about her lineage... I just know that after 4 years she has been a pretty good dog with no huge problems that couldn't be corrected. So usually, I simply agree with the person and go on with my business.
What do you do?