I would say you'd make a fine Pit Bull owner if:
~ You have the energy for a larger breed dog: bigger messes, more exercise (usually, although Pit Bulls seem to vary in energy levels - the ones I've met love couch sleeping), etc.
~ You educate yourself. Smart dogs need smart owners. You'll have a better-behaved dog if you know how to approach all kinds of situations, or are at least willing to invest the time and energy to learn appropriate training methods, etc. These dogs do best with owners that ask questions and are constantly striving to improve their level of ownership. How do I handle this? What's the best way to teach them that? You don't have to be a trainer to own a Pit Bull, or have worked with dogs all your life, but you do need to be passionate about learning and evolving if you aren't experienced.
~ You're willing to put up with a little BS. Over the two years my boyfriend has owned Capone, we've come up against all kinds of responses, remarks, and situations both good and bad. To do right by this breed and your own dog, you need to be willing to either brush it off, or calmly and politely make an effort to educate people. It's a responsibility. Owning a Pit Bull also means you're cut off from a lot in the pet industry - groomers, boarders, doggie daycares, pet boutiques, dog parks, hotels, etc. Many of these places won't allow or offer their services to Pit Bulls and some are justified in doing so. I would not put a Pit Bull in doggie daycare, for instance. The inherent dog intolerance bred into Pit Bulls makes those situations too risky for everyone. Which brings up another essential issue...
~ You're real about the dog aggression/intolerance thing. This was a BIG concern for me, and I really had to sit with my navel and think it out. Did I want to manage this type of issue for the rest of the dog's life? At first, I thought No! Too much drama! But then I had to consider a few things.
First, having a Pit Bull requires you to shatter your fantasy of the "ideal" dog. At least it did for me. To begin with, I really believed somewhere in my core that a truly "great" dog could handle all kinds of situations and not flinch. My fantasy was something along the lines of Fido walking off leash with me everywhere (or at least some places), waiting quietly for me while I went to class, etc. Very much the Boy and Lassie scenario. I think all of us have heard some sort of variation of this story at some point of someone who actually had a dog like this on a farm in Missouri growing up. If we haven't, Hollywood certainly does a dutiful job of implanting it in our brains. And yes, there are dogs, rare rare creatures that are born that way, who really do walk Charlie to school and wait by the old oak tree until 3pm.
But reality is, most dogs are like most humans. You put any human in a stressful enough or tempting enough environment and he or she will make the wrong choice. It doesn't have to be a catastrophic choice, but it isn't the "ideal" choice. And dogs are the same way. The difference between a well-behaved dog and an ill-behaved dog is, to a certain extent, based upon the environment the owner creates for it. Day in and day out, having a good dog is 99% about never giving it an opportunity to misbehave. The rest can be attributed to the dog himself. And please understand I am NOT diminishing the importance of sound temperament - if that 1% is off, the other 99% is not going to fix it. I would never advocate that environment can make up for unsound temperament. My point is that owners of truly great dogs are not gifted with dogs that are inherently perfect, dogs that the rest of us could only hope to find. Truly great (temperamentally sound) dogs are made, not born.
It was really hard for me to truly grasp that in all its depth. Great owners give their dogs every chance to do the right thing and very few chances to do the wrong thing. No wonder they have so much success! It wasn't about the dog at all! Housetraining is a great example of this. Most trainers will tell you the key to successful potty training is never giving the dog a chance to go anywhere other than where you want him to go. If that means crating, tethering, outings every hour, then so be it. It's conditioning. And the same is true for all kinds of behaviors - chewing, barking, jumping, etc.
Of course, dogs are going to misbehave - it's virtually impossible to create an environment where your dog never, ever does something unpleasant. But that concept is the cornerstone of great dog ownership, particularly Pit Bull ownership.
Needless to say, once I really "got" this concept, it almost felt like cheating. My bubble was burst. You mean there are no inherently great dogs that just naturally do (most) everything right? I had been robbed of my hope of ever finding my very own Lassie! I'd heard the term "There are no great dogs, only great owners" but to me it just seemed like a tagline that the dog owning community passed around to pump each other up.
So how exactly does this relate to owning a Pit Bull? Well, if the idea of managing a dog with inherent dog aggression/intolerance sounds like too much work, consider how it's different from a wide variety of other behaviors that we humans find unpleasant. Dogs naturally want to bark, chew, dig, potty where they want, etc. It takes a lifetime of micromanaging to address these inherent tendencies. Sure, over time you can condition them to choose other options or avoid certain behaviors, but you won't be able to wean the dog-ness out of them. Eventually you buy a baby gate, or chew toys, or you start feeding them separately, or you know to stay home if there's going to be a thunderstorm, or or or. There are an infinite number of ways in which we alter our lives to accommodate the needs of our dogs.
With Pit Bulls, this means no dog parks or off-leash walks. If you have other dogs or pets it means crating or separating them when you're not home or able to watch them. It means watching your dog's body language in the presence of other dogs. It means not leaving valuable items and chew toys on the floor where the dogs could fight over it.
As I started going through this list in my head, it started to sound like a lot of Don'ts, and I'm generally not a person who likes a lot of Don'ts. You probably aren't either. But I also started to think about how that list would be different if I got that Border Collie I'd wanted. Hmmm...well I might be able to get away with not separating them when I left, but to be honest, a dog of any size much bigger than my Pug could harm her. For that same reason, it wouldn't be wise to leave precious chew sticks out on the floor anyway. Based on where I live, a place where there are lots of cars and squirrels and unpredictable objects, off-leash walking wouldn't really be something I'd be comfortable with anyhow. (Besides, Border Collies are notorious for trying to herd vehicles and dying for it). The only thing I had to let go of was the dog park.
Dog parks are great and dog parks are horrible. They're great because they provide people with small yards (such as myself) to exercise their dogs in fenced areas. They also can be useful socialization tools, sometimes. But they suck too. I've seen a lot of dogs fight at dog parks. I've seen a lot of really stupid people be inconsiderate of other owners and their dogs by letting the dogs "work it out." I've seen dogs get sick from all kinds of things they picked up at the dog park. I've seen puppies and timid dogs get rolled and picked on and attacked by other dogs. It can be a nasty place. For me, it was something I could forgo. I have access to a large yard where I can live out my dog-playing-fetch fantasies without fear of what another dog might start. (Regardless of who starts things, the Pit Bull will be the one on the front page of the newspaper!).
But back to the issue at hand. It's important for me to assert that while you can influence your dog away from lots of naturally ingrained behaviors, you should NOT approach Pit Bull ownership with the intention that you are going to condition the dog intolerance/aggression out of your dog. It would be irresponsible of me to say so. There are lots and lots of Pit Bulls living in multi-dog households who have never tried to go after the cat and have never taken a chunk out of the other dogs. (This was one truth that I kept in the front of my mind when I was reading the very serious Pit Bull literature about dog aggression and multi-dog homes and I was starting to get freaked out. I know several people who have multiple Pit Bulls, not just multiple dogs with a Pit Bull, and everyone is doing just fine). But again, these households are managed with the Pit Bull's inherent dog intolerance/aggression in mind. The dogs in these households are all indoor dogs, and they're all crate-/house-/leash-/obedience-trained, too.
So all of this reading and talking to Pit Bull owners and trainers really forced me throw out my original "ideal" dog fantasy and replace it with a new one. If I wanted a great dog, I was going to have to be the one to create it. And "great" did not mean "absolute freedom" and it did not mean my dog could withstand just any situation. I was going to have to be selective about what I let my dog experience, just as parents are selective about what they let their children see, hear, and say. But on the other end of this epiphany came a renewed appreciation for what dogs could teach us. Just as humans are fallible, so are dogs. Just as we are products of our environment, so are dogs.
I like them better for this fact.
