My daughter and her hubby adopted a rescued pitty - my DH and I had a FIT! We told her the dog would kill her and her kids in their sleep, he would terrify the neighbors, ya ya ya.....all that other stuff the MSM feeds us.
Then I met the dog - best dog ever too. If I could steal him away from her I would. He allows the little girls to play dress up on him, they sit on him, if the baby crys he lays down by the crib until Mommy can come. He weighs 110 lbs and thinks he is a lap dog. In fact, we love him so much we adopted a Pit of our own - who might lick you to death. Pit’s are not for everyone, they are stubborn and strong - you have to let them know YOU are the boss, but if you are successful, they are excellent companions.
In fact, my four pound cat has beat both Pits into submission, so believe me, it can be done.
LOL. At 110 lb., is he just pit or also something else? My younger dog was supposed to be half Black Lab and half Great Dane, but turned out to be half Black Lab and half Pit. He weighs about 84 lb. and is the silliest, friendliest, bumpiest dog I’ve ever owned. Of course, my 8 lb. cat, AKA “Princess of Pain,” had to each him proper kitty manners.
:)
Our terrier mix rescue is part pit - you can see it in her face when she looks directly at you. But she is the most sweet-tempered dog we could have ever asked for, which was key to our adoption because part of our intention was to help our oldest at least manage her intense fear of dogs.
A year later, and she has never snapped or growled at any of our three kids, alternately terrorizes and runs from our old gramma cat, loves all people, loves all dogs even more, just an all-around love fest from her all the time.
She does play hard, and she has the most amazing jaw I’ve ever seen - if she doesn’t want to let something go, there’s no getting it from her, and when you play with her, it quickly becomes apparent that she never closes that jaw on a human hand intentionally, because on the rare occasions when she accidentally clamps down, the pain is blinding. :) But very brief because she immediately lets go, having a great knowledge of what’s ok and what’s not.
She is mortified when she feels she is in trouble, is incredibly compliant and submissive, and is just the best choice we could have imagined. Meanwhile my daughter is no longer afraid of any dog in our neighborhood. Now if only we could adopt a storm...
On the other hand, my cousin has a true pit, and while she seems completely fine, her sheer size is downright frightening. :) I’ve never seen a more powerful looking dog, and she’s extremely protective around their four kids.
With regard to the article, when we adopted her we were asked what town we lived in - some of our neighboring ones have also outlawed pit ownership, even mixed breeds.
My grandmother had a pit bull, it never attacked us but I have to say that my dad was the only person who ever played with that dog, and I thought he was brave. :-)