Post by susan on Feb 20, 2012 9:07:08 GMT -5
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Pit bulls dispel stereotypes at American Bully Show at Carlisle Expo Center
StoryDiscussionImage (5)Pit bulls dispel stereotypes at American Bully Show at Carlisle Expo Center
By Lauren McLane, Sentinel Reporter The Sentinel - cumberlink.com
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Matthew Harris/Special to the Sentinel
Julianna Kizima, 13, of New Jersey works with her 5-month-old American Bully Paladino at the Exquizite Bully Affair held at the Carlisle Expo Center on Saturday.
Certain breeds of dog evoke certain associations - Labs call to mind playful, eager, loving, faithful companions; German shepherds are often thought of as guard dogs; chihuahuas spark cravings for Taco Bell and pit bulls are aggressive, mean dogs that can't be trusted.
On Saturday night, breeders, owners, trainers and handlers of some of the most commonly mis-perceived dog breeds were working to dispel that last statement.
For the second year running, 521 Shows held an American Bully Show at the Carlisle Expo Center. The American bully is a new breed of dog, established in the mid-1990s through breeding American Pit Bull Terriers and Staffordshire Terriers. It has some bodily similarities to the bulldog - short and stocky, with a thick chest and the characteristic upside-down triangle mouth and smushed-in nose - but is unrelated.
Because of its lineage with pit bulls, some people are afraid of the dogs, as they are of pit bulls.
"If a pit bull bites a person, everyone from here to China hears about it. If a Lab bites a person, everyone asks, ‘What did the person do to the Lab?'," Rico Carrasquillo, a dog owner, said.
The dogs are only as aggressive as they're raised to be.
"If a (pit bull) dog is raised right, in the right hands, it does good things. In the wrong hands, it does bad things. A full-grown dog has the mind capacity of a two-year old child. You got to train up your dog to behave well same as you train up your kid," he added.
Breeds
The point of 521 dog shows is to give people a chance to see what the so-called "dangerous" breeds can do when they're raised and handled properly.
"This is the American Bully Show. They're dogs that get a bad name, like pit bulls, bull dogs, and razor edges (a specific breed of pit bull)," Joseph Harrington, CEO of 521 shows, said.
"These are all purebreeds in their classes, the standard, the pocket, the XL, the extreme. We want to change the negative stereotype people have of the dogs. It's all about how they're raised," he added.
The sentiment that it was nurture over nature was one shared by all the dog owners, breeders, handlers, trainers and spectators at the show.
"It's all in how you raise the dog," Eron Whitehurst, owner of American bully Lena, who later won best of show for her age group.
"They're bred for a purpose. The human aggression has been bred out of them," he added. He chose the American bully because he liked the breed's loyalty, athleticism, companionship, people-friendly demeanor and skill with kids.
Although the dogs show aggression toward each other in an effort to attain alpha dog status, he said, they're not aggressive toward humans.
According to the United Kennel Club, pit bulls were used during both World Wars for delivering messages, and that "aggressive behavior toward humans is uncharacteristic of the breed and highly undesirable."
The club notes that the breed was initially created for catching small prey and baiting bears and bulls, but when the baiting was deemed inhumane, they were used to catch rats in pits (hence having "pit" added to their name) and used in dog-fighting. Their loyalty to their owners, general loving demeanor and gentle nature led to them being domesticated easily and used as guard dogs, Because of their herding nature - they were bred from a bulldog for athleticism and a terrier for gameness by British men looking for hunting dogs - they can be trained to be aggressive, but can just as easily be trained not to be.
Read more: cumberlink.com/news/local/pit-bulls-dispel-stereotypes-at-american-bully-show-at-carlisle/article_7d01f8ea-5ab5-11e1-b227-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1mvl4vHro
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