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Post by windowdog on Jun 10, 2008 12:04:15 GMT -5
Over the weekend we brought Devin to a family gathering to try to give her some exposure to larger groups of people, and to see how she does with Children in a controlled setting. She did great, still avoids new men whenever she can, but she was fine with the women and children and warmed up to the two guys who spent a lot of time sitting by her and talking to her etc.
So the dog was fine, and most of my relatives were amazed that this mild friendly dog was a pit, I think a majority of them had feared for our safety when we first said we were fostering a pit bull. But by the end of the day I think Devin had changed a lot of minds.
But ugh, one set of relatives refused to even believe their own eyes. I heard story after story about how dogs that had been totally fine for years suddenly just got violent for no reason and ate babies, tore off arms, climbed the empire state building and terrorized New York, etc (I'm exaggerating but not by much.) They clearly thought we were being dangerously naive by letting a pit live in our house.
The whole "it's a ticking time bomb" line of attack just annoys the hell out of me. It is never based of personal experience, always things people have heard third hand, and it's completely impossible to refute with evidence. No matter how sweet and calm a dog is that just counts as "proof" that the it can't be trusted.
I guess this is a rant more than anything else, but the ignorance dressed up as "being realistic" just really annoyed the hell out of me.
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Post by maryellen on Jun 10, 2008 12:14:22 GMT -5
get used to it. i have family who wont come visit me because of my dogs. i ignore the comments to those who say them, and just go about my merry way... some folks you cant change no matter what..
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Post by tracilg on Jun 10, 2008 14:45:12 GMT -5
My sister-in-law will no longer come into my house because she's so afraid of pits because "they can bite hard enough to rip your face off."
Um, so can any other large dog.
Side note - I've lost track of how many times their chihuahua has bitten me, but "that's ok, because she's little and it doesn't hurt." Bull_ _ _t!
My fiance doesn't much though because he can't stand my SIL.
The way I see it, there are some people who are just that stubborn and unable to admi they are wrong, that you will never change their minds. I think the best course of action is to stop trying and just enjoy your wonderful, well-behaved dog.
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Post by angelpit on Jun 10, 2008 15:45:58 GMT -5
My parents feel the need to lecture me on a constant basis because pit bulls are always trying to eat babies. They have had a bad experience iwth a pit bull but it was a born and breeed fighter of course it was mean. I was also bitten twicw by my neighbors anti social pit bulls when I was little, but I still I chose the bred because the good ones are great. Alot of my family won't come to my house either, but I am anti social so I really don't care.
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Post by RealPitBull on Jun 11, 2008 7:44:44 GMT -5
Born and bred fighters are some of the nicest APBTs you'll ever meet - maybe a tad dog-aggro, but that's par for the course. But yeah, the freak outs from friends, family and JQP are just something you gotta get used to, sadly. Although I still get poop from one of my family members, TBH the average person doesn't react as violently today to my mentioning the fact that I have a Pit Bull as they did when I first got into the breed. It's actually a marked difference. So I'm happy about that and the occasional weird/bad remark is easier for me to take, now.
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Post by tracilg on Jun 11, 2008 8:37:20 GMT -5
We've been bringing Babe to just about every one of our son's baseball games so she has plenty of opportunity to interact with people.
Overall, most people are not even aware she is a pit bull mix. And 9 times out of 10, when people ask what kind of dog she is and I tell them, they respond favorably and comment on how well behaved she is. (Which always amuses me because I think she is a DEVIL!!!)
To me, it's heartening to see that there are people out there (not including my SIL) who are willing to judge the animal for itself and not just judge based on breed. Hopefully, we'll reach a point where the majority of people are like that.
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Post by andone707 on Jun 15, 2008 3:30:36 GMT -5
If people haven't bother to do a bit of search and find out about the breed itself, can you blame them? I mean, I don't promote anyone having a negative vibe on any breed just because of what supposedly what they have heard from other folks or the influence of the media. However; if all they have heard is bad reviews time after time, how can you blame them for not knowing what to expect or expect the worst for that matter. It really shouldn't bother you at all or at least do what you have done. Teach them about the breed and how wonderful and loving these beautiful pups can be. But there are plenty of cases that i know of, that i wouldn't trust anything around the "bully" type. why? because i have been around such byb and owners whom take pride in seeing a dog act vicious with a high drive on animals and human. Not a pretty site on what can happen seeing this kind of unacceptable behavior from supposedly" owners whom care for their dog and the breed. Back then i didn't quite understand how an animal can all of a sudden react a certain way. After reading about the things that are done in order to have accordingly to them a protected dog you begin to understand how such creature can become unpredictable and quite dangerous around others.
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Post by emilys on Jun 15, 2008 8:51:00 GMT -5
really all you can do is let your dogs speak for themselves. Isn't that how many of us came to fall in love with the breed? I know I did. All I knew was what the press had told me; I had never actually met a "pit bull". When I started volunteering at a shelter and met some, my mind was completely blown.
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Post by hammer4 on Jun 15, 2008 22:51:57 GMT -5
When I mention to my clients or friends that we've aquired an APBT I get some serious negitive vibes, I then 'Try" to explain that what they've likely heard isn't true, i.e. media lies ect. if they don't want to beleive me..fine, I then ask them why they think so many folks prefer APBT's..kinda makes them wonder.. ;D
I'd asked alot of folks about APBT's, heck, I have been attacked by one long time ago at one of my former clients home while I was building him a deck, lucky for me old Bones was chained up, I now see that they trained him to be a guard dog or such, that he's not that friendly towards strangers. Anyway, out of all the folks I asked, very few said...get another breed, and here I am.. ;D
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