what do you think

through this blog i have tried to show people a different side of a much maligned breed of dog. I will never deny that there is a resposibility of owning a pit bull but if they are handeled properly and treated with love and respect they are as loving and lind an animal there is it never ceases to amaze me how gentle carley can be when she is aware that something can be hurt. They are still dogs and need to be treated as such but for the right people pits are perfect loving pets. There are many online resourses that can help you if you choose to adopt a pit bull into your family cesar milan is a great supporter of pit bulls here is a little video of him talking about the breed


http://youtu.be/WsGp-bOl4Go


I hope i have made an impression. I know that pits are not for everyone but don't you think it would be a tragedy to lose this intelligent noble breed of dog because of our fears and a few irresponsible owners please take notice next time you hear some of the propaganda about these amazing dogs

photo album of carley

these are some pictures of carley through the 3 years i have had her

 as you can see from the pictures she has many sides to her personality

i wouldn't trade my time with her for anything and find the responsibilities of ownership are far out weighed by the rewards of having her as a companion. Other dogs i have had were great companions as well but i believe that pits are just a little more in tune with there "people" than other dogs . In general she tries to be gentle with anything she meets i had taken in a min pin for a while and he quickly became the alpha dog even though he was only about a third of carleys size. Its a funny reminder of how much perception can affect how you react to certain situatiions

life with carley

Daily life with carley is pretty easy really if I give her what she needs exercise good food some structure and love I am rewarded tenfold . I have a fenced back yard and a dog door so she is super low maintenance   House training her want so bad at all as far as going to the bathroom was fairly easy. Dogs in general don't want live were they go so it was almost natural for her to go outside and spend her time inside. Plan on spending some money on bones and chew toys though as these dogs do have extremely strong jaw muscles that will cause a lot of damage in the teething stage.  Carley had a habit of burying the bones i would buy her and chewing on my belongings as well but she grew out of it.  I wouldn't trade my time with her for anything really she is a great loving companion

swimming

Carley loves swimming more then any other dog i have encountered . She can hold her breath and dive and fearlessly jumps off rocks up to five feet above the water. It is pure joy to watch her at the river in the summer s she is so in her element.  I have never seen another dog with as much of a love of water as i have her and have never seen another dog at all learn how to hold her breath like she does. It really doesn't matter how many people are bye the river as it is the one time she isn't interested in making friends with everyone in her presence she is only interested in spending as much time as she can in the water . I'm not sure of all pits are like this but i love it and it sure makes living on the river in the summer fun 

more lessons

Another important lesson i have learned in ownership of a pit bull is that exercise is extremely important. I suppose you could say this about all animals.  In the case of the pit bull it will pay off tenfold if you can get your dog about one half hour of vigorous exercise a day. Carley loves to run and play tug she is not so good at fetch but will try at times her true love though is swimming in the summer i take her as much as possible.  It makes going to the river a fun time as she is like a child in her love of swimming.  her love of swimming is a story in it self but for now i wanna stick to how important exercise in general is for these dogs. They are high energy high intelligence animals and respond to stimulation very well. Because of how they are bred they don't need a lot  of exercise like i said about one half hour is perfect but it must be vigorous as that will get there heart pumping properly and it will be amazing in the dogs ability to concentrate after the fact
Short runs are also great ways to exercise these dogs i have grown to avoid dog parks as I don't like her to be in contact with animals she isnt familiar with because of her breeds reputation . She is very social it is more to protect her from having to defend her self from bully dogs than any mistrust of her. It has happened a few times at the local park that others bullied her into defending herself. In general be aware if you own a pit it doesn't matter whose dog started the fight  yours will be blamed if it is in any way involved.  I have had good luck with less dogs were i can supervise her more closely and remove her from aggressive dogs before trouble has started . Again like all of us these wonderful animals need exercise to be what they can be but also need your loving attention as they will be judged quickly if any trouble comes up.

a heroic pit bull

there are many stories of this breed doing heroic things here is a great story of a pit sacraficing herself and staying calm in the face of danger to save her owner pits have been proven to value the life of their owners over there own life many many times
http://lillytheheropitbull.com/

lessons of ownership

through any responsibility there are lessons to be learned and owning a dog is no different. I do believe that the responsibility level of owning a pit bull is greater than that of owning a poodle or such they are a strong larger animal and you must protect them from themselves as well as protecting others from them.  I crate trained carley from a young age this it turns out was a wise idea. Her kennel is her safe spot she goes there when she is confused or scared or nervous.  From how it was explained to me some dogs are happier being in a kennel when away from there owner as it lessens the decisions they have to make and keeps them from getting overwhelmed . it is also a great way to protect your dog from other people. this is a lesson it took me a while to learn pets need protecting themselves they are innocent creatures that cant tell you what happened to them while you were at school or work

I have learned countless other lessons through ownership of dogs and pit bulls in general.  The power of being positive is one lesson that was made apparent in training. Pits are a stubborn breed but want to please so if you use negative reinforcement it just brings out there stubborn nature were as if you do things in a more positive manner they tend to really flourish.  I think to some degree this is true of all creatures.Consistency is something else any dog absolutely needs i have learned that when something depends on you for there well being it is very important to be consistent it makes for a much happier well adjusted dog

some facts

If you are looking for a dog with a good temperament, a Pit Bull just may be the dog for you and your family.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Pit Bulls are so great, they just get such a bad rap,” I wouldn’t need a job.

According to the American Temperament Test Society (2010-2011), 804 American Pit Bull Terriers were tested and 695 passed.  This means that 86.4% of Pit Bulls tested by the ATTS had a good temperament.  Pit Bulls pass rating was above 121 other breeds of dogs, including Golden Retrievers!

So, how did some of America’s other “favorite” breeds do?  Hopefully these figures will help diminish the negative stereotyping of Pit Bulls.

Golden Retriever = 84.9%

Beagle =80.6%

Bichon Frise =76.7%

Chihuahua =71.1%

Cocker Spaniel =81.9%

Labrador Retriever = 92.4%

Lhasa Apso = 70.4%

Shih Tzu = 78%

Yorkshire Terrier 82.5%

Imagine that!  The American Pit Bull Terrier had a better temperament than every dog on this list except the Lab.  Wow, do you think it could be the irresponsible owner and/or environment that’s the issue??? 

Several factors are taken into account by the American Temperament Test Society: the breed’s temperament, training, health and age.  A dog must be at least 18 months old to participate.

The test is evaluated by 3 trained individuals and takes about 12 minutes.  During this time, the dog is walked through a park or neighborhood where they experience visual, auditory and physical stimuli.  The dog will encounter neutral, friendly and threatening situations so the test administers can see if the dog can distinguish between threatening and non-threatening events. 

The dog automatically fails if it shows panic without recovery, strong avoidance or unprovoked aggression. 

here is a chart showing dog bites in relation to amount of the breed in the country

The Pit Bull breed makes up 5-9.6% of the United States dog population.  In 2007, there were above 72 million dogs in the United States provided by American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.  That’s between 3,600,000 and 6,912,000 Pit Bull breed dogs in the United States.

So, for our example we’ll take the average percent between 5 and 9.6, and use 7.3 percent, which would give an average estimation of the Pit Bull population in the United States.  That leaves us with 5,256,000 Pit Bulls.

Other dog populations (United States):

(estimation) Pit Bulls: 5,256,000

(estimation) Rottweilers: 900,000

(estimation) German Shepherds: 780,000

(estimation) Chows: 240,000

Fatal attacks by these breeds of dogs (1979-1998):

Pit Bulls: 66

Rottweilers: 39

German Shepherds: 17

Chows: 8

When we divide the population by the fatal attacks, we can get a percentage based on the dogs probability of fatally attacking a human.

Pit Bulls: .00125 %

Rottweilers: .00433 %

German Shepherds: .00217%

Chow: .00333%

stats from http://defendpitbulls.com/pit-bull-attack-statistics/

unfortunately even with these facts the breed  or more correctly breeds known as "pit bull" are under heavy atack across the united states . part of this is due to the breed being attractive to irresponsible owners and just a genereal overpopulation/over breeding of the american pit bull terrier . They are after all an animal and a sensitive tenacious animal at that if mistreated they will lash out and are very capable in destruction if that is what they know .  I how ever don't believe that they should be eradicated because of bad owners if laws shifted more of the blame to owners and away from landlords and city's i believe it would help to eliminate irresponsible owners .

settling in

carley and i became best of friends  if anything she was far more of a people dog then molly was she was very used to lots of people around and seemed to love every one equally i did some research and saw quickly that there is no reason at all to spank this bread for anything there are other ways to discipline them and did a little research to figure out what was best as with any living being positive reinforcement goes along way when carley was younger i sometimes had trouble getting her to come when i called her and i learned eventually that reminding her to be a good dog got her listening far faster than telling her she was being a bad dog . i honestly think this might work with people too i haven't tried it yet lol.  alot of the lessons i learned in raisngn carley have aplied to other aspects of my life i think making me a more positive patient person. With her i can easily see her effort even when she doesnt always succeed this is something i feel like i lack with people and have been made more aware ofby seeing the good so easily in carley i think that any dog is good to have and pit bulls with there loyal personality are some of the easiest to take care of and most rewarding if you take a little time to figure out what they need

carley as a puppy

i was happy to have my new puppy and brought her home she was dirty and scared having never been away from her mom before. her brothers and sisters also picked on her because she was so small so she had nicks and bruises all over her . I got her a kennel of her own and tried to make her feel at home in our house and in time she did. In time i also noticed what a expressive dog she was very vocal with lots of gestures i had never quite seen a dog that was so eager to communicate and to do what she was asked. In training her the only obstacle ever was getting her to understand what i wanted once she understood she was very eager to do as i wanted. All i wanted was a companion so i never really taught her a hole lot of fancy tricks she does hold her breath at the river and loves to mimic your hand movements alla simon says but i really just wanted a friend and she has turned out to be one of my best.As she got older i realized that the woman i got her from wasn't crazy when she said she felt like she could have taught carley to say i love you  sure it wouldn't b exact but carley was so expressive that she easily could have learned how to change her tones enough to make her growl sound like a i love you she is the most expressive dog i have ever had
here is a little video of a husky someone trained to do it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXo3NFqkaR

a good video to watch before u get a dog

here is a good description of what to expect from a pit bull

moving on

I was never able to watch molly grow up and enjoy her as an adult dog but as i settled into my new place and found time again for a new dog i was very surer  that i wanted another pit bull or pit bull mix in the spring  i felt like it was time to get another dog and i started looking for a good one i responded to an add in the paper that was right in town and it turned out it was pretty close bye i went down too look at the puppies. there was a large white one with a black eye and this dirty little black one with a white nose i was imediatly interested in the white one as it was a striking looking dog the owner talked to me a little and suggested that the smaller dog suited me better and was a very smart dog and that she was training this dog to say i love you i looked at her kinda like she was strange said OK and did listen to her and took the smaller dog.  this was some of the best advice i had ever been given this dog and bonded and she is to some degree my best friend to this day i named her carley short for Carlton because she is black on the outside and white in the middle and we made fast freinds

early on

with in a couple months of getting molly i saw how easily trainable and truly affectionate she was.  She truly wanted to do as i asked the only problem ever was getting her to understand what i wanted i had never seen a dog so eager to please. I was also reading up more on the breed and was realizing how the huge discrepancy in how they were viewed with reality. It really seams like the breed is completely misunderstood these days.  Through this blog i would like people to see what i see about the two pit bulls and the breed in general. bye the time molly was 3 months old she was house trained and trained to not ever leave the yard while roaming free i had never seen this accomplished so quickly she was the first dog i ever had that loved people and wanted to be around them more then other dogs .  through the next several moths of working with molly and reading up on the  pit bull bread i realized that the breed was far more in danger from humans than humans were in danger from pit bulls.  Because of there attraction to irresponsible people these loyal dogs were being made into dangers to society through mistreatment.