Here’s the hill I will die on
The majority of so-called “pitbull aggression” issues are really people issues disguised as the bully breed. I’ve been a foster for well over two dozen dogs over the last eight years, half of them pits/pit mixes, and I can tell you without hesitation that the so-called “aggressive” dogs I have had tended to come from situations where humans have seriously failed them.
That being said, I am not blind. These are powerful dogs. Saying they are exactly the same as a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel doesn’t help anyone, particularly not the dogs.
The Day My Foster Snapped at My Niece
I had a two year old pit named Bonnie living with me for about three weeks. Adored the older people in the house. Would have gladly turned belly up for a belly rub any time we looked in her direction. I thought I knew her.
My five year old niece ran up behind Bonnie while the dog was eating. Grabbed her by the tail. No malice involved; just a kid being a kid. Bonnie spun and air snapped. Didn’t contact, thanks be to god, but I still remember the sound of her teeth to this day.
That was my fault. I’d been so hung up on how down-to-earth she was with me that I had completely missed the signs of resource guarding around food. She’d been stiffening slightly when I walked by her bowl for days. I just hadn’t been paying attention because I thought she was “one of the good ones.”
There are no “good ones” and “bad ones.” There are dogs with specific triggers, histories, and thresholds. Your job is to identify what those are.
Predictable Triggers If You Just Pay Attention
The things I tend to see with pits are food, other dogs (especially same-sex), hyper activity high-strung situations where they are already aroused, and – this is a bugaboo for a lot of people – physical restraint when they are already upset. Many of these dogs have been dragged, pinned down, grabbed, handled inappropriately, or somehow physically manipulated by previous owners, so being held in place can set them off.
I’m not 100% certain about this but I have noticed that appears that pits who have been in shelters for several months are more sensitive and more reactive to sudden movements than those who are in shelters less time, longer. Could be coincidence, could be the strain the stress of the shelter exerts on the dogs, but I’d like to see the research on it. Long shelter stays seem to produce jumpier dogs in my observation.
Fortunately, triggers are manageable. Not always fixable but manageable. You don’t need to fix problems; you just need to work around them. You just need to make sure the dog isn’t placed in high trigger situations.
Practical tips that actually work:
- Feed in a different room, door closed. Does this mean I think the dog can’t be trusted? No, but if you ever eat something and the dog looks at you too hard, you’ll realize how fortunate you are if the dog stays still. Can you relax at night after everyone has gone to bed if the dog is loose in the house? Not if you’re worried about the dog grabbing your slippers.
- Learn what a hard stare looks like. When your dog bites he turns into a giant teddy bear. When he looks at something with his body stiff as a board and his feet planted in his mind that aggression is one bark away. That is your cue to intervene with high value distraction and treats.
- Keep treats everywhere you can think of so that any occasion that requires the dog to stop and focus on you is instantly recognized and rewarded.
- Get a good quality puzzle feeder, and stuff it with treats, so the dog is working on mentally stimulating things before dog meets. Do a walk before anyone else arrives, a walk after you arrive. Do a walk before people arrive.
- Exercise them before social situations. Tired dog is a good dog.
- Don’t correct the reactive dog with physical force. Here’s where I tend to get into arguments with those who still subscribe to those outdated theories about dominance. Force correction, yanking the leash, holding the dog down, yelling at it, pinning it to the ground – the minute you do that, you are adding additional stress to an already heavily stressed out dog. You just told him that the stranger he sees across the street and the stranger who is yelling at him in the house are the same thing, and the dog will respond accordingly. Great. Now he’s got two obstacles to his maintaining his composure: the stranger and you.
Why can’t you just be calm?
Look, I know how much you love this breed. I really do. I’ve cried over leaving fosters I really wanted to keep. And I really do think it’s irresponsible to pretend the breed doesn’t matter one way or the other.
Pits are the dogs that were purposely bred and selected for a certain set of traits. They have dog-snobbery. They have dog-selectivity. The breed really is different and that is important, even if not the way everyone seems to constantly claim it is.
I’d love to have a tiny little 15 pound Pit that is square and unbothered. I’d love it. I also think it’s not very smart to deny breed-specific traits exist. If we’re going to work with the dogs, we have to work with what we have.
What gets me is that the extremes – the people who want to ban the breed outright and the people who act as if the breed is flawless and not worth a second thought – are making it harder for the rest of us to get along with the animals. The truth should be somewhere in the middle, no?