A Look at the Pit Bull and Responsible Ownership

The Pit Bull has been seen in a negative light in society. Many people fear them and refuse to own one because of the negative traits they believe a Pit Bull possesses. Many cities and towns across the United States have Ordinances that forbid the owning of a Pit Bull within the city limits. Do people really understand the Pit Bull?

Before I go off and tell you about the Pit Bull, let me first tell you about " Responsible Ownership". Responsible Ownership applies to any dog breed you own. A tiny Poodle can prove to be dangerous if treated cruelly or neglected. The only difference between a vicious mistreated tiny Poodle and a vicious mistreated Pit Bull is that the Poodle is smaller than the Pit Bull. So this allows for a human to easily fend off the tiny Poodle. You must be responsible with you dog and not neglect or abuse your dog. By being responsible you are insuring a good temperament in your dog no matter what the breed.

Responsible Ownership means more than just treating your dog right. It also means keep a close watch on your dog and making sure that not only your dog is safe but also that all animals and people around your dog are safe.

A lot of the cases reported on attacks by Pit Bulls were from dogs that were abused, mistreated and/or neglected by their owners. You can not abuse, mistreat or neglect your dog and then be surprised when it attacks a person. The same with a human, if you abuse a person long enough eventually they will begin to start lashing out at anyone that gets near them. Well if a human can be reduced to that point, why can't a dog do the same. After all dogs do not have the reasoning a human does.

History of the Breed:

To start to explain the breed let us look at the history of the Pit Bull breed. The Pit Bull was originally bred for blood sports. This included bull baiting and bear baiting. It would later move on to dog fights as well. When organized dog fighting was allowed the dog handlers would be in the Pit with the dogs and throughout the fight the handlers would have to separate the dogs numerous times.

These organized dogfights had regulations where the handlers would bath the other person's dog before the fight. At ringside the injured dogs were taken care of by strangers. A dog that bite or attacked a person at any point would be culled right there and was not allowed to be bred.

From this history lesson I am sure many of you are starting to see that the breed itself is not and was not meant to be human aggressive. There is a difference between a dog that is aggressive toward humans and one that is aggressive toward other dogs or animals. If the breed was human aggressive we would not have the bloodlines that we have today because almost all the dogs would have been culled and not allowed to breed back in the days of champion dog fighting.

Temperament of Pit Bulls:

Remember they were breed for blood sports. Pit Bulls are dog-aggressive and at any given moment may become aggressive and want to fight. In the event your Pit Bull does fight, you can assume it will win. This is something that a responsible dog owner should not want to see. So remember they are dog-aggressive and keep a tight watch on your Pit Bull at all times.

Pit Bulls also are what is called "prey driven". They will stalk and kill small animals so watch your Pit Bull closely when around small animals. This goes back to what I said about "Responsible Ownership".

While we are talking about aggression let us talk about human-aggression. Pit Bulls are not human-aggressive. Pit Bulls actually make lousy guard-dogs because of the fact that under normal circumstances they are way to friendly with people. They will try and befriend anyone that comes near them.

To keep your dog having a good human-temperament do not ever strike, torment or neglect your dog. Also do not allow anyone else to do so. If you are teased, tormented, hit and abuse you will lose your temper. Well you dog will do the same. So it up to you to protect your dog from anything that will cause it to lose it's loving human-temperament.

Any Responsible Owner will tell you that if your Pit Bull shows human-aggression it should be put to sleep and never be bred prior to being put to sleep. This is a negative trait that is not common with the breed and should not be allowed to be passed on to any other generations.

Physical Traits of Pit Bulls:

Pit Bulls are a medium sized dog that is muscular with a bricklike head. The ears may or may not be cropped depending on the owners preference. The coat of a Pit Bull is short.

They are very active and athletic dogs and a good dog should look the part of power and athleticism. This means that owners must be active and willing to provide exercise to their dogs.

Personality Traits of Pit Bulls:

They are active dogs and need to be kept mentally active as well. Pit Bulls can get creative with entertainment when bored. So try to keep your dog from becoming bored or you will see the creative side of your Pit Bull. Trust me when I say it is a mess to clean up when your Pit Bull has gotten bored and let to it's own creativeness for entertainment.

Training Your Pit Bull:

Your Pit Bull should be trained. As with young children, Pit Bulls need to clearly know boundaries and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. When it comes to training your Pit Bull do so with the same love and understanding that you will use with your children. NEVER use a choke chain, prong collar or even a shock collar. This types of training methods are the kind used by bad owners and cause the kind of negative temperament that so many people associate with the Pit Bull. This I blame on owners and not on the dog.

Now that you have better understanding of the Pit Bull breed, you can clearly see that this is not a problem of the breed. The problem is more of bad owners who have not educated themselves well enough to be a dog owner of any breed. Responsible Ownership will allow for you to have a great dog in your Pit Bull and allow for it's true temperament to shine through. If for any reason no matter who well your have cared for your Pit Bull, your Pit Bull shows human-aggression then remember what I said above and be a Responsible Owner and put your dog to sleep.