Saturday, September 27, 2008

Mojo, first thing in the morning & a LONG rant about pit bulls

Here's my pit bull, Mojo, first thing in the morning. I couldn't sleep that night so I went downstairs to my office and crashed on the futon. Strangely, the change sometimes helps me sleep. Anyway, I brought Mojo with me to keep my feet warm. It's cold in there next to the window. I'm actually under the covers, too, on the left side (with long pajamas on so I don't get scratched by accident). Being that dogs natural body temp runs several degrees higher than ours, they make great bed warmers. He's such a snuggler that he couldn't be happier under the covers.

Previously, I owned Akitas. Great dogs, but, definitely not snugglers. My Akita, Kyo, was happy if he could see where I was, but, had zero interest in actually sitting down next to me and touching me. He would lay on the floor of the living room while I watched TV, about 2 feet away from me. If I left the room, he'd wake up, wait 5 minutes, then find me, lay down so he had a line of sight to where I went, then go back to sleep. Mojo, on the other hand, likes to get as
close to you as he possibly can.

His behavior is consistent with what our local animal control officer told us about pit bulls. A side effect of the selective breeding of pit bulls for fighting made them *highly* people oriented. Apparently, when pit bulls were openly fought in the ring, you had to be able to reach into the ring and pull out your dog without being bitten. My mom always taught me to never ever intervene if our dog got into a fight because even our own dog might bite us in all the excitement. Pit bulls that showed aggression toward the handler, on the other hand, were culled. Over time, this created a strong fighter with a highly people oriented personality. The animal control guy told us that it's actually against their nature to be human- aggressive. They want to please you so much, though, that they can be their own worst enemy. If you're a dumbass that gets a pit bull because you think it makes you look tough, and then teach him to be human-aggressive, he'll do it to please you. He (the animal control guy) said you really have to abuse a pit bull to make then want to bite you. I'd have had a hard time believing that before Mojo, but, it's true. He really loves people on a deep level. You can feel it when you're around him.

I left his ears uncropped because I prefer that look. Akitas have naturally pointy ears, which I like on an Akita, but pit bulls have normally floppy ears, so, I left them alone. I know a guy with a beautiful pit bull and he had his dog's ears cropped. When I met him, he looked at Mojo and said he wishes he had left the ears alone. He said that the cropped look makes him look mean which puts people off, and a lot of people fear pit bulls already from all the bad press they've gotten. I can understand that.

The truth is, pit bulls make fantastic family dogs. Are they for everyone-NO. They are powerful, highly energetic and they require a firm, (but not mean) consistent hand to propely bring them up. Do your homework before you adopt a pit bull, or any other dog for that matter. As long as you know what you're getting into, and you're prepared for it, you'll me rewarded with a companion like no other.

Check out http://www.badrap.org


This site has a wealth of information about pit bulls, and it goes a long way toward sifting through all the misinformation about pit bulls - and there is a *lot* of that out there. Pit bulls are not natural born people-killers. They don't have special locking jaws. That's utter crap. They have very strong jaws, yes, but structurally, they are identical to all other dogs. Pit bulls cannot fly. Ok, I made that one up, but, my point is that people seem to want to believe everying they hear about pit bulls no matter how crazy it is.

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