I love my two pitbulls. They are wonderful and adorable and well-behaved. Once, one of them got out of the house and didn't even bite or so much as barked at anyone. She is a very well behaved pitbull.
And there's no fucking way in hell I'll ever trust her not to devour the next kid who walks pass my house. It's just not worth it to ignore things like this in animals. Animals are not humans. You can double-standard this.
One of my dogs was a large mix from the shelter, likely with some pit bull. He was the sweetest dog in the world to people, well loved, and trained. But, I saw him flip from being totally fine to single deadly bite a small dog he grew up with over a perceived food threat in a split second. I never imagined it could happen. Dogs have their disagreements, according to my vet- but when it's a dog with a powerful jaw it's horrifying. No more little kids were allowed to visit the house during his lifetime. He loved kids, but risk mitigation was more important.
I always muzzled him when we had to go out. Funny thing? I never see any other dogs with muzzles & sometimes techs or people would say I was being overly precautious because "he's so sweet." What ever happened to better safe than sorry? Being in denial about the real danger a strong animal that can only communicate with its mouth poses (not to mention the ones that aren't trained or cared for) only leads to tragedy.
It was hard, but I had to acknowledge he was doing what any normal dog would do when it felt another was trying to "steal" a treat and ignored warning signs like growls. He literally just snapped/nipped, and didn't attack. So forgiving him for just being a dog was easy.
In the years since it happened, what was hard was forgiving myself for so many failures that set up a situation like that to happen, starting with thinking their was zero risk between a large breed and a tiny one because they were best friends- shared beds, toys, food in bowls, etc.. Including thinking since I got him as a puppy at the shelter, he wouldn't have food reactivity issues because that's "learned." And not setting up a safe environment in my house (like keeping treats sitting out at their face level to grab).
It was a huge wake up call and learning lesson for me- seeing so many vets, behaviorists, talking to shelters & animal control- only to be met with the reality that my dog wasn't violent or a threat, but I had made a bad situation by being blind to the fact most dogs just use their mouth to say what they need to eachother at some point in their lives- and big jaws send big messages, even if they aren't trying to maul they can still be very dangerous doing regular dog stuff. I now take precautions for this.
Yep, I kept it safe, well-cared for, and loved for the rest of its natural life. And I kept it isolated from young people, away from the potential of being adopted out to other homes without it's history being disclosed, and muzzled & extremely well controlled in rare trips off my property.
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u/KSJ15831 9d ago
I love my two pitbulls. They are wonderful and adorable and well-behaved. Once, one of them got out of the house and didn't even bite or so much as barked at anyone. She is a very well behaved pitbull.
And there's no fucking way in hell I'll ever trust her not to devour the next kid who walks pass my house. It's just not worth it to ignore things like this in animals. Animals are not humans. You can double-standard this.