This is my evil, vicious pit bull, Carson. 
That face. You know it’s a killer.
We live on a pretty busy street with a lot of foot traffic. Every day, when Carson and David are playing fetch, Carson will walk up to people strolling past our fence. Usually, he trots up to the fence with a tennis ball in his mouth, tail wagging.
It wags at a pretty good pace, as you can see.
And yet…
Some people will walk off the sidewalk and into the street to get away from him.
Away from the dog wagging his tail and holding a tennis ball.
He’s half Labrador.
But all people see is pit bull. Or, their misconception of what a pit bull is.
I just see a sweet and slobbery, love-filled dog.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s such a shame that people rush to that judgement. We have several wonderful pits that are out and about in our neighborhood on leashes with their owners, just as happy and sweet as can be.
I’m sorry you have to deal with people who are just fearful from what they have heard about the breed. Makes me think about how everyone was so worried about sitting on a plance next to someone of a different nationality or decent after 9/11.
Education is so important and I will pass this on to my own friends. We need to wake up! Living in fear is not a good thing.
it’s so heartbreaking. i have to admit that more than a few years ago, i was the naive person who would hear “pit bull” and worry about the temperament of the dog. but once i met one face to snotty-cold-wet-nose, how could i ever think that these dogs were vicious? i won’t say they’re the most intelligent creatures i’ve ever met, but the worst harm they’ll ever do is knock you over because they’re lovin’ you too damn hard. or he can whack you pretty good with that exuberant tail!
I hate to admit this because Gussie-boy is our first baby, but I think I would trust our (future) newborn son more with Nitro, the 125 red nose pit (who looks an awful lot like Carson), before I’d leave the kid alone with Gus. He’s THE most loving, gentle giant I’ve ever met. Yes, his bark is pretty scary, yes, his farts smell like rotten garbage covered in hair and set on fire, and yes, people sometimes walk up to the front door of our shop and see him lying on his back doing the boogie dance to itch his back will run away, but he really is the sweetest stink monster around. I usually tell people ‘don’t worry about the big guy…but watch out for that little black one!’
haaaaaa. we call those his “atomic farts.” how on EARTH do they do that?
there’s no doubt that if i had kids, i’d have no other dog than a pit bull. they are the sweetest, most loving, most playful dogs i have ever met.
when people come to the house, they freak out about the pit. and then they want to pet the fluffy dog… i have to warn them, because the chow will take your fingers off if you look at her wrong, but the pit bull– he’d like to lick your toes, now.
Sorry I meant sitting on a plane…not a plance :)
Christy Carpenter recently posted..Health and happiness
Carson is adorable. I love his face in that second picture. We have three pits so I completely know how you feel. I’m constantly bewildered why anyone would ever be scared of my dogs. Their loss and my gain though really. My dogs are awesome, more cuddles for me :)
i would very, very gladly have a house full of pitties. the rescue where we got carson from describes the breed as “full of wiggles and kisses.” who doesn’t want that?!
THE sweetest dog I’ve ever been around was a pure bred pit. That dog wanted nothing more than to love on you, and his favorite thing was to sit on your feet (yes ON) and lean into you–it’s like he wanted as much of you to touch as possible. Of course, he’d knock you over doing that, but it was done in LOVE.
Sadly the problem with pit bulls isn’t the dog but the owner. When we were looking for our dog, we looked at all the shelters and one in particular was filled with pits that had been trained to be vicious (a lot of gang activity). I felt horrible for those dogs–just like I would for any dog that was mistreated by their owners–because in a shelter that’s 95% pits, you know those dogs aren’t going to get saved. Especially given the media attention that badly behaved pits get.
Ginger recently posted..The Moon
oh, that’s so true. if you look at our carson, you can see that he’s got a big,nasty crag in the top of his head. we don’t think he was used for fighting, but someone (dog or human) decided that that poor guy didn’t deserve to live– and yet now, he’s the gentlest, sweetest creature.
every so often, david and i look at him (who, as you said, will knock you over out of LOVE) and wonder– what horrifying things do you have to do to a pit to make them vicious? my brain can’t even comprehend– because even ones that have been to hell and back would rather lick your face than bite it!
Gosh, he looks all Lab to me. (Okay, with a touch of pit bull.) Who doesn’t love a Lab?!
Ada recently posted..Smoke Gets in My Eyes
this is so true… While I don’t have a pit, we have good friends who do and he is a beautiful and SWEET dog. People have misconceptions about Rotts and German Shepherds too, which I’ve only realized recently. It’s so odd to me. A dog wants love. When we love our dogs, they love right back. The end… If we train our dogs to be mean- OR are mean to our dogs- they’ll be mean.
I have a Bullmasitf and people are petrified of her. Origianlly, we did get her as a protector and she does keep away people that could possibly be a threat but I get so mad when acquaintances of my husband (usually a group of guys) start talking about what they would do is she came after them. They would kick her or use an object to hit her.
I’m getting worked up just talking about it.
My dog is not a beast. She is a pet. She is my baby. I want to ask how they would feel if I did that to their child when it got near me.
My dog is protective, especially of me, but she is not vicious.
These are some pictures of my baby:
http://foodfashionfaith.blogspot.com/2011/09/jasmine-rides.html
http://foodfashionfaith.blogspot.com/2011/08/walk-in-park.html
http://foodfashionfaith.blogspot.com/2011/08/yes-i-am-worst-blogger-ever.html
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oh! she is absolutely gorgeous.
we’ve been talking about getting a mastiff– so many rescues out here have pit/mastiff mixes that are just too big for most people to adopt. we hope to be the mastiff people once we have a house of our own!
people have the “what would you do if he went vicious?” talk with us all the time– it’s so incredibly hard to explain that– he won’t. he just wouldn’t, not ever. we could never, nor do we know anyone that would ever, stoop to the level of abuse that would be NECESSARY to make our pit bull fight back. he’s the kind of dog that looks at his butt when his tail wags so hard into a wall the noise scares him. when he gets miffed at you, he just LICKS YOU HARDER.
i have a chow chow that i got before david and i started dating. she is WILDLY protective of me, as chows are of their owners. she lays at my feet whenever i’m in the house, and lays by the front door, waiting for me to get home from work. while she doesn’t bite (or, really, hasn’t bitten anyone yet, i should say), she is a barker– and often steps up to be my protection unit if anyone comes in the house. that’s what dogs are FOR, and as a woman? i’m so happy i do have at least one protective dog in the house!
My friend said stated that Jasmine must have had great owners before us becasue she is such a sweet loveable dog. I proceeded to tell her that we are her only owners. She is spoiled rotten but for that she has given us unconditional love.
My husband and I got her a couple months after we married (in ’07) but I am the care taker. So she is extra protective of me. When my husband and I wrestle she gets really worked up and she does a bark/growl thing that makes us all take a minute and I reassure her everything is ok and she leaves the room. haha
Even once, we woke up in the middle of the night to someone throughing a rock through our car window she was all worked up but she would not leave my side (as my husband went chasing down the crazy guy). It was as if she was saying she was protecting me. That is why we got her and she has been great.
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