Reply to Anyone else have a pit mix?

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Anyone else have a pit mix?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. I do t think I am back tracking. I’m just trying to explain the situation accurately. He’s not a bad dog. He actually has a lot of great qualities. I’ve met way worse dogs. He rarely barks, he’s not clingy, he doesn’t have separation anxiety, we can easily leave him home for 4-6 hours, he’s not destructive in the house, he doesn’t have onerous exercise needs, he doesn’t shed much, he doesn’t beg or jump up in our counters. He doesn’t even come up our stairs. He has utterly *fantastic* recall. He has great bite inhibition. He’s snapped at all of us but very gently with his mouth. He’s never nipped or bitten, he must have been trained about how much pressure to apply by someone else.

The main drawbacks are: he doesn’t like strangers in his house (not a big deal to me personally) but he’s fine with people outdoors at the park or on the street or even in our backyard. And he’s not open for pets and affection 24/7. Now that we‘ve known him for a while, we can usually tell by his body language. You know how sometimes dogs will curl up in a tight ball to sleep? If he’s like that on his bed or “his couch” in his room he might give a very low, soft growl if you approach hand out to pet. But just as often he’ll stretch out and invite tummy scratches. We let him lead and have not had problems since we started doing that. When we leave the house and come home, he’s excited and happy to see everyone and get pets from everyone including the kids. He runs up to them as soon as they get home from school for pets. Then he goes back to doing his thing (he really likes to sit on the couch and look out the window).

He’s a very regimented dog. He likes to eat and do the same things at the same time every day. He likes to play in the evening and will play tug of war with the kids. But he ants to be asleep and left alone by 9 pm. I don’t feel like it’s that hard to respect this boundary?

Does this really sound so bad?

[b]Would it sound less bad if he weren’t half pit?[/quote][/b]

Him being half pit is important though. The dog's behavior is overtly not friendly and to a certain extent difficult ("it has to be on his terms"). [b]Him being a pit is important because if, God forbid, he does snap one day it can be lethal. [/b][/quote]

Just out of curiosity, does it matter that he doesn't have the typical pit head/jawline/musculature? OP described this in the first post. I am curious about pit mixes and safety issues as well.[/quote]

While important, it's not just about the dog's physical make-up. It's also the instinct and drive and viciousness they attack with. Pits and bully breeds are bred to kill -- they aren't deterred by pain or other typical counters. I'm not sure how his % of pit is a factor here but that would be my concern. [/quote]

The dog that OP describes is afraid of its own shadow though. According to her, he is afraid of people, stairs, and the kitchen (hardwood floor I'm assuming?). He runs and hides in his bed when he gets scared or wants space. I think they're fine to keep the dog as long as they observe his boundaries (such as not petting him in his bed). He doesn't sound like a vicious dog. He sounds aloof/reserved. Which, granted, is not the cuddly friendly family dog most people want. But unlikely to snap and bite out of the blue either. Sounds like the dog just wants to be left alone most of the time.[/quote]

The whole point of my post though is that his current behavior should not give her complete relief when there are intrinsic factors (breeding, instinct, physical characteristics) that can make this dog more dangerous [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics