I'm totally enamored of my son's new puppy. If you've ever seen cute little puppies playing or sleeping together in the bottom of a cardboard box then you know how completely irresistable they are. So I couldn't really blame my son when he brought home this tiny little dog he'd adopted outside of the Safeway where he works. Chris didn't want me to say no to the puppy ... so he lied to me about the puppy's parentage.
Mom: "What kind of dog is he?"
Chris: "He's a lab mix"
Mom: "Mixed with what?"
Chris: "I'm not sure"
I should have known by the name Chris chose for him ... Judas ... but it took me a few days to catch on to the fact that this teeny, little, beige, piglet-looking, puppy is a pitbull mix. Rut roh, right? His name is Sir Judas Bacon. The Bacon is for me because, initially, he looked like a baby pig. The Judas is for Chris because, of course, he needs a "pitbull" worthy name. Right? And the Sir is something the puppy has earned over the last few months since he joined the family. And he deserves it.
Of course the idea of having a pit scared me to death. I was sure that as soon as he got big enough he would eat my cat Motown, fight with my dog Teddy and bite my child's face off. I thought all that because I was as caught up in the hype as anybody else would be given what little most of us really know about this breed. So, secure in the knowledge that 1) mom would get stuck with some of the puppy responsibilities, 2) the puppy was small enough (for the time being) to drop kick if he got aggressive, and 3) he'd be moving out with Chris at the new year, I accepted him as our newest family member ... voila! ... and immediately got on the internet to educate myself for what was sure to come. I was intrigued, shocked, mystified and appalled with what I found there over the next few weeks.
Judas and I had a bit of rough start due much more to my ignorance than puppy error. I kept trying to master him mistakenly thinking I had to be tougher than him. Not so. All I really had to do was be a pack leader, give him a little respect and he fell right into line. I'm happy to say that I was as wrong as it was possible to be about this little dog. He is everything my internet research said he should be. His energy, his willigness to please, his gratitude for the smallest attention and affection, his intelligence, his loyalty and his ability to truly give and receive love outpace anything I've ever seen in a dog and has notched out for him a HUGE place in my heart. I have fallen for this pit and I will never look at pitbulls the way I used to again. They are special dogs. They're a little more than everything a dog should be. They are not the villains and monsters they've been portrayed to us to be. I've learned that the saying "it's not the breed, it's the owner" is not an excuse, it's the truth. (And I've learned that the NFL's Michael Vick should spend the rest of his life in jail -- but that's a story for another day.)
What I respect most about this breed is their "gameness" -- the willingness to see it through to the end no matter what (anyone who knows me will understand why that resonates with me so strongly). Admittedly that gameness is exactly what makes them excellent fighters ... but that gameness makes them excellent at whatever they're asked to do (fight, protect, sniff for drugs, cuddle). It's up to the owner ... which is why not everyone is a suitable owner.
In the category of "did ya' know" things that surprised me:
1. There are no less than 26 different breeds of dogs commonly mistaken as pitbulls. So not all "pitbull" attacks even involve pitbulls
2. The little dog in the shoe with Buster Brown is a pitbull
3. The #1 drug sniffing canine officer in US Customs is a pitbull
4. That cute little dog that belonged to the "Little Rascals" is a pitbull
5. That pits are used all over the world as service dogs, search and rescue dogs, and canine officers
5. That since the late 1800s and until just recently, pitbulls were the #1 trusted family dog
6. Do you know about BSL (Breed Specific Legislation)?. That dogs are being outlawed based solely on their looks and physical characteristics -- not on their temperment or their deeds? Don't we call that prejudice when we do it to people???
7. Did you know that BSL includes not only pits, but german shepherds, chows (my gentle Teddy), rottweilers and dobermans --- yet, the number one biter in the US is the dalmation?
8. Did you know they've already been banned in the UK and New Zealand?
9. Did you know that the "dogmen" stay in the ring with their dogs and encourage them to fight? If that's not a strong testament to a pit's non-human agression/dog-only aggression than I don't know what is.
Here's three of the literally hundreds and hundreds of videos made all around the world on this breed in order to combat BSL (Breed Specific Legislation).
In my view, we're we're pointing an accusatory finger at the wrong end of the leash.
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