#because pitties have a reputation for being dangerous and aggressive

[chaossmagic]

bucky: serving cunt

also bucky:

[mylordshesacactus]

Just adding if you don’t mind--the reason it’s really, really important not obfuscate this is that the “pit bulls are pibbly little angels who are only aggressive if they’ve been abused, nanny breed, aggression is a myth, etc” messaging is deeply, profoundly dangerous for pit bulls.

Misrepresentation kills dogs.

When people don’t know these things, they behave irresponsibly. I know people who LOVE pit bulls who now cringe when they see them in public due to so many “pibble parents” with highly dog-reactive pitties who respond with anger to the idea that...pitties are prone to dog aggression...that they don’t even attempt to train or appropriately control their dogs, leading to dangerous or just extremely rude behavior, which reinforces the stigma against pit bulls. If you take your pittie to the dog park and she loses her mind, reacting aggressively or defensively and freaking out the other dogs, it reinforces the idea that pitties are inherently dangerous--when actually, she was just unsuited to that environment and you, the owner, should never have put her in that position in the first place.

Dog aggression? Is extremely common. Dog reactivity/aggression is not some kind of moral failure in your dog, or in you as an owner or trainer! It’s sure as HECK not exclusive to BBMs, either. There are a lot of dog breeds with sterling reputations who also have a genetic predisposition toward dog reactivity. Akitas come to mind, actually.

By flinching so disingenuously away from the not-actually-that-important reality that bully breeds have a tendency to be dog reactive, you are actively hurting the dogs in question in two ways. First, by presenting that tendency as somehow Bad and thus adding to the stigma of a perfectly common temparament quirk that applies to many, many breeds of dog. And second, by actively sabotaging the chances of pit bulls being placed in good, well-informed homes where they can be happy!

If you want an easygoing, playful dog that can live happily with your cats and newborn and have fun going to the dog park every Saturday, and you’re doing research on what dog that should be? You need to know that a pittie has a high chance of not being that dog, so that you don’t end up frustrated when it doesn’t match the expectations you were given. You need to know that so that you do the appropriate temperament testing and take the appropriate precautions.

You need to know that so that dog and thousands like her don’t end up in an overcrowded shelter because you just weren’t prepared for the reality.

This isn’t...a bad thing, guys. Every breed in the world has their temperament quirks! (For the record. Temperament = biological, based in genetics. Personality = developed over a lifetime, can be shaped to a certain degree by experiences. Neither of these is the same as behavior, either.) Look at breed outreach for any AKC breed. Greyhounds are often wonderful apartment dogs but they’re sighthounds and WILL chase anything that moves. Border collies are brilliant and beautiful and can be trained to do absolutely anything; but they’re also high-drive animals that will become destructive and frustrated if they don’t have a job, so if you don’t already have a physically and mentally challenging job or sport in mind that you want to train your dog to do, they’re a bad choice.

Pit bulls are beautiful, sweet-natured, wonderful goofballs who will give 110% of their entire soul in order to be a Good Dog. They also have terrier blood, and thus a genetic drive to chase and kill small animals; no dog, but especially no hound or terrier, should ever be left alone with a small child, because small children move in ways similar to a prey animal or a toy. They’re large and powerful. And, like many other types of dog like akitas and many forms of terrier, they tend to be dog-reactive or dog-aggressive.

None of these statements has any moral weight on the quality, spirit, or potential for sterling behavior of the dog. They are not unique or scary traits. Pretending otherwise does nothing but hurt the entire breed, and the people who love them.

Pitbulls are precious. People who dedicate their lives to hunting them down and killing them deserve to die