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Post by bluetrees on May 13, 2011 8:05:52 GMT -5
Thanks Christina. She was a good dog.
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Post by loverocksalot on May 13, 2011 8:19:16 GMT -5
So if I post this photo on my facebook it can add to the photos showing what a good babysitter the dog is? Who is taking the photos. Obviously the kids are not alone with the dog. Even today we take photos of our children with the dogs, does not mean we leave them alone together. I think when someone back in the day said that their APBT or whatever was like a nanny, I think they meant that the dog could sense trouble, or upset and maybe let someone know something was wrong. The story Suzi speaks of is awful. But probably very common that a young child gets left alone for a moment long enough for something to happen. In fact I have been guilty of allowing this to happen. long before I had a dog. My youngest was babysat by my aunt who had a mixed breed dog, not sure what he was would have to look back at photos but no way any pit bull for that matter. She would often leave my son in a car seat on the floor and the dog would sit next to him and watch over him while she went to wash dishes or whatever. I think many people have done this in the past and my aunt believes that dog watched the baby and if he even squeeked he let her know to tend to baby. So I think that is where this term may have come from. situations like that. I doubt people actually used the dog as a full time babysitter. However I dont think it is a good idea to use it as a breed characteristic as it may make some people think it is a good idea to leave children with an APBT or any breed however we all know what could happen when the Pit Bull accidentally scratches a child in this day and age. Now as a more educated dog owner, I would not allow my child to be left with the dog although this can happen easily in a home where you are very comfortable with your dog around. Although At this point in life if I had a young family member around the house I would probably feel very comfortable with Rocky walking around that I would likely leave the room without even thinking about it. Suzi's story will stick in my head for the future. It is possible some day I will have an old Pit bull and a grandchild and I will remember that.
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Post by suziriot on May 13, 2011 10:56:30 GMT -5
Interesting.... Love-a-Bull took down the post on Facebook. I think it's pretty pathetic when people can't handle having an honest discussion about these things. The world is not going to end just because we disagree or, heaven forbid, that you are proven wrong about something. Too bad, because I was hoping that my post with the story of the bitten baby might get the point across to people that regardless of the historical inaccuracies about pit bulls being nanny dogs, NO DOG should be a babysitter.
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Post by suziriot on May 13, 2011 10:59:49 GMT -5
CA, it is a sad reminder that these things can happen very quickly. I'm working on putting together some animal safety lesson plans for our case workers to take out with them on home visits to families. Hopefully the parents will take the information seriously.
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Post by loverocksalot on May 13, 2011 11:05:41 GMT -5
I think it is a good message to get across. We have animals in our house and it becomes daily routine of life. We are so busy that we forget what we are doing and it is easy to miss that the dog was sleeping in another room and just entered the room where baby is on the floor sleeping while we are busy doing things. A story like that etches in my mind forever.
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Post by emilys on May 13, 2011 11:07:06 GMT -5
Interesting.... Love-a-Bull took down the post on Facebook. ... really? ;D ;D ;D I'm thinking of offering a reward to anyone who can find any source between 1900-1930 that refers to either the SBT or APBT as a "nanny dog". Because if the pit bull has been known "for 100 years" as a nanny dog, you'd have to prove it by a reference in an historical source. My money would be safe...
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Post by suziriot on May 13, 2011 11:10:35 GMT -5
Interesting.... Love-a-Bull took down the post on Facebook. ... really? ;D ;D ;D I'm thinking of offering a reward to anyone who can find any source between 1900-1930 that refers to either the SBT or APBT as a "nanny dog". Because if the pit bull has been known "for 100 years" as a nanny dog, you'd have to prove it by a reference in an historical source. My money would be safe... Bwahahahaha!!!
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Post by lovemybully76 on May 13, 2011 12:45:15 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about what happen Suzi, that's so sad. As stated in a post above, I think people use the "nanny dog" term because they want it to be true. It's like people make everything they here about the breed(good or bad) into the truth. IMO, if people who are trying to advocate for the breed would spend a little more time on educating on the breed and responsible ownership they wouldn't have to focus so much on rumored truth like the "nanny dog" etc. Just my opinion.
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Post by RealPitBull on May 20, 2011 7:39:24 GMT -5
Just felt like stoking this fire ;D I pulled up this blog just now and it says this: "The pit bull apologia would have you believe that their fighting bred dogs are just like any other dog in many ways, but so superior in their unparalleled love and devotion for children they were commonly known as "The Nanny Dog" throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If pit bulls are held in low esteem today, it is only due to ignorance and the gullible acceptance of biased news reporting because, once upon a time, pit bulls were the most beloved dog in England and the United States."It's a long-ass blog that I don't have the attention span to read right now but I scanned it and I don't THINK there are any actual REAL 19th/early 20th century references to anything called a "Nanny Dog". Someone read this whole thing and report back - ;D I think there is a whole bunch of cross-polluted historical info in there that maybe I'll have to sort out at some point later in this thread. We'll see.......... thetruthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.com/2010/08/nanny-dog-myth-revealed.html
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Post by karladbmb on May 20, 2011 8:08:24 GMT -5
I read it. I wanted to gauge my eyes out, but I read it. Lee illustrates the Bull Terrier's unsavory past by revealing that Bulls-eye, one of the meanest dogs in literary history and Bill Sykes' sidekick and alter ego from Oliver Twist (1838) was a Bull Terrier. Dickens describes Bull's-Eye as having a face "scratched and torn in twenty different places..." and..."who by a certain malicious licking of his lips seemed to be meditating an attack up on the legs of the first gentleman or lady he might encounter in the streets when he went out." Charles Dickens also seemed unaware of the Bull Terrier's special powers as a nanny, but was aware of the pit bull's capacity for human aggression. So it's a Bull Terrier, but it's also a Pit Bull? WHY are so-called "pit bull" advocates enabling this way of thinking??
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Post by emilys on May 20, 2011 9:41:01 GMT -5
I read it. I wanted to gauge my eyes out, but I read it. Lee illustrates the Bull Terrier's unsavory past by revealing that Bulls-eye, one of the meanest dogs in literary history and Bill Sykes' sidekick and alter ego from Oliver Twist (1838) was a Bull Terrier. Dickens describes Bull's-Eye as having a face "scratched and torn in twenty different places..." and..."who by a certain malicious licking of his lips seemed to be meditating an attack up on the legs of the first gentleman or lady he might encounter in the streets when he went out." Charles Dickens also seemed unaware of the Bull Terrier's special powers as a nanny, but was aware of the pit bull's capacity for human aggression. So it's a Bull Terrier, but it's also a Pit Bull? WHY are so-called "pit bull" advocates enabling this way of thinking?? as I recall, the breed/type of dog in Oliver Twist is not mentioned. But the original illustrations show a bull terrier-ish dog. At that time historically, the bull terrier was more or less the same as the dog that later became known as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier in England (which became the APBT in the USA) That blog is one of Colleen "dogbite.org" Lynn's I believe.. and it's an example precisely of why we shouldn't use the "nanny dog" term. There IS no historical use of that term to apply to the APBT and it makes us look foolish to make the claim
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Post by RealPitBull on May 20, 2011 9:45:53 GMT -5
^ Yeah.
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Post by suziriot on May 20, 2011 16:32:00 GMT -5
So one of the things that people were saying in the comments on that now deleted FB post was basically "even if it is a myth, it's a positive one so what's the big deal?" I keep hearing this. Well in the first place, even if a lie is a nice lie, it's still a lie. And when people use the nanny dog thing to get the public to like pit bulls, and then people find out that it's not true, they think "see, all the positive stuff about pit bulls is false and they really are bad." There's no reason to make stuff up. Let the dogs be what they are, and change minds by telling the truth. There are plenty of wonderful things to share about our dogs that are not lies or myths.
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Post by michele5611 on May 20, 2011 17:48:07 GMT -5
Couldn't agree more Suzi. These very same people don't realize that the pit bull haters will use misinformation and or lies against the breed.
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Post by wannabeowner on Jun 4, 2011 8:20:42 GMT -5
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Post by karladbmb on Jun 4, 2011 11:10:17 GMT -5
Grr. This guy is REALLY grinding my gears. At this point the stolen images are annoying me more than the untrue information (he stole them off the main page of our website, dontbullymybreed.org) . He didn't even bother to change the file names! Plus, right-clicking is disabled on our website, so that just shows he went out of his way to obtain the images. I just sent him an email asking him to remove them. Normally, we'd be fine with other educational sites posting our vintage photos, with credit back to us, but that blog post is the opposite of educational. Not to mention that the photo on the article isn't even a pit bull....
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Post by emilys on Jun 6, 2011 13:01:38 GMT -5
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Post by pittilove29 on Jun 9, 2011 13:19:14 GMT -5
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Post by bubsy on Jun 9, 2011 19:52:50 GMT -5
There was a long FB thread about the shooting of an APBT by NOPD a few days ago...it all started with a report of an officer being attacked by "vicious pit bull", then we got multiple people posting about the breed originally being nanny dogs or babysitters. Why does this have to be our defense??
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Post by RealPitBull on Jun 10, 2011 9:31:26 GMT -5
then we got multiple people posting about the breed originally being nanny dogs or babysitters. Why does this have to be our defense?? Makes us all sound dumb, IMO Focus on the PEOPLE not dubious facts and figures that no one outside of the inner circle of the breed cares about. Dogs that look like Pit Bulls are biting and attacking people with frequency, regardless of how many times you say "but...but...but....they used to be nanny dogs!!"
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