fa11ingstar

Hi there. I have been breeding pit bulls for about 10 years now, my husband longer. We have had a total of nine pits all together in our home. Not at the same time mind you (with the exception of mommies and puppies until they were rehomed). 4 of them were rescued from abusive or neglected conditions. 2 were bought and paid for from a breeder and the other three are offspring of the two from the breeder.

First of all if you are thinking of buying a pit bull or rescuing one you need to consider the following things or you will have issues with your pit bull.
1. Do you have enough space for this animal? They are very cute when they are little but they do get big and have alot of energy. They need alot of room to run. I do not recommend a pit bull or any larger dog if you live in an apartment complex that has little to no yard. Not exercising your pit enough will lead to aggression. They need an outlet for their energy and they love to run.

2. Do you have enough time to devote to this animal? Pits are very emotional animals and attach to their masters like a baby would to its mother. they require about the same amount of attention as a toddler. If you work 40+ hours a week and like to go out on the weekends quite a bit, a pit bull is not for you. You need to spend at least an hour a day just exercising with a pit bull or they can get stir crazy and you will end up with an animal with too much energy that eats the legs off your ktichen table or develops aggressive tendencies.

3. Can you afford to feed this animal? Pits eat alot and generic dog food is not always the best choice. We feed our pits a special formula made for their breed. Even grocery store dog foods are roughly 20 dollars for an 18lb bag that will last about a week for one pit.

Now as for the temperament of pit bulls... All i can say is that i have 4 children under the age of 6 and the pit bull was the best choice of family dog. It is devoted to my kids and myself and extremely protective. The mailman can not even deliver the mail if my dog and kids are in the yard together. I fully believe that my dog would probably attack anyone that came near them or me if he did not know them.This does not make him vicious at all it makes him cautious and for us this is ok. We live very rural and having an overprotective dog is a good thing. We have wild animals that can stray onto the property, and any strangers this far out here are likely up to no good.
Dozer believes he is a lapdog however and loves to snuggle like any animal. He weighs 80lbs though, so you can see how this could be an issue. He is a perfect playmate however. My kids jump on him, pull his tail, and generally harass him the way that kids do and he has never once even growled at them. I can not say the same for grandma's husky.
The only issue i see with people and their pit bulls is that they forget that dogs are a pack animal. When you bring a dog (especially a pit) into your home it sees it as being part of a pack. You need to make sure that you are firm with your pit bull or they will think they are the alpha. Other than that they are the most loyal, loving dogs i have ever encountered.


So if you still want a pit you need to decide if you are getting a puppy or rescuing.....
IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN DO NOT RESCUE A PIT BULL........... it can be potentially dangerous for a child around any animal recovering from abuse and pit bulls are dangerous animals when they need to be. Their bodies were designed with fighting in mind and when an abused animal is in a new situation it can get confused and lash out. THIS IS NOT THE ANIMALS FAULT, this is the fault of the abuser. A rescued pit is going to demand much more of your time as well. It will need to build trust with you because it has been abused. Try to think of them like they are small children, they have about the same mentality. Abused animals will need special care and special bonding time with you. It can be very difficult. It took one of the females we rescued six months before she would come around me and my husband when we were awake. She would hide alot and just watch us as if she were waiting to see us hit one of the other dogs. Another of the rescued ones would freak out completely when you picked up anything that looked like a baseball bat or golf club. you can see how this would be dangerous around children. It never got over the fear of these objects and when i say freak out i am talking about the scary pit bull snarling growling that you see in movies. He would attack these objects if they were left unattended. This did not make him a bad dog. It just made it hard to play golf. Its very sad what some of these animals have to endure.

If you are going to a breeder I suggest you research the breeder first. If the breeder does not ask you the first two things i did i would be leery of him or her. Pits have become popular and too often they are being over bred, inbred, and not taken care of when pregnant. Also we have come across breeders trying to get rid of pups long before it is safe. If this occurs you will need to bottle feed the puppy. Puppy formula is like baby formula and available at petco and petsmart. It is just as expensive as baby formula as well.

Pits get a bad rep from the people that raise them. Saying all pit bulls are evil is to me the same as saying (insert whatever race) is evil. There is no such thing as an evil race of any kind. man or animal just evil people.

Here is a trick to get around that whole pit bull thing. The AKC does not recognize pit bull as a breed. It recognizes the american staffordshire terrier and the staffordshire bull terrier. They are both technically pit bulls and the ABDA classes them as such or as American bullies which are mixes of the two breeds. So do what i did tell your mum that you have an Amstaff. They wont know the difference. My mother never has gotten that i have pit bulls. in her mind pits are these evil dogs that will rip your throat out. However she will snuggle with my amstaff on the couch none the wiser. lol.

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it goes a little deeper than just mistreating the dogs imo. You could love your dog to pieces and still end up with a dog that ends up aggressive because you've never disciplined it and taught it the rules, thus the dog, or really any animal, wouldn't see you as their leader and as soon as you do something they don't like.... they get " aggressive "
Discipline is just as important in raising a well behaved pit/dog/animal as giving it love is