Love is a Pittie

I can't pin point exactly when I first became enamored with pitties, but it was probably around the time I first entered that Pet Smart's joint EHR adoption center (see: How It All Began...). Once I saw all the pit bull and pit bull-mix doggies that day, and then started volunteering there and saw how those dogs were always left in their cages while others got adopted, I began to realize the injustice. I don't think I really had an opinion on pits before. I knew the media gave them a bad rap, but I didn't believe any of it. I, like most people with a brain, knew it was prejudice at work, and that as with any person, any dog's personality or temperament will depend upon the individual and not the breed (or race or religious background or whatever else it may be). 

Photo from thefirstchurchofpitbullscd.blogspot.com/

A friend of a friend saw that I began volunteering and let me know that her sister Michelle worked there. I got in touch with Michelle via Facebook, which opened up my eyes to the horrible world that pit bulls live in. That's when I began wanting to help them as much as I could, and especially to have my next rescue be a pitbull or pittie-mix (although I had thought that Madison was a lab-pit mix... but I later found out she was not... more on that later). 

I do not use Twitter or Tumblr and really just use Facebook to keep up to date with people (and now to share hundreds of posts about dogs, rescues, pit bulls, etc), but I am obsessed with Instagram. (Feel free to follow me @boots_and_rico). 

It was one day, who knows how long ago, that I happened to accidentally click on the "Explore" tab when trying to post a picture. Of course, the adorable doggy picture caught my eye, so naturally I clicked on it. The username, @loveisapittie, intrigued me so I looked at the rest of her pictures. I was hooked. 

It's a Trudy butt (former foster of and photo from @loveisapittie)

I quickly learned that @loveisapittie, aka Emily, had two dogs of her own and fostered doggies from a shelter she works with. Through my immense stalking, It seemed she fostered quite a bunch already, and when they would get adopted, she'd take in another needy pittie and welcome it into her heart and into her home. She. Was. Awesome. I instantly loved her. She has gauged ears (ow), and many, many tattoos (side note: I've always hated tattoos -- too permanent for me, it's scary!) -- very different from my rather preppy style. But much like the "look" of a pit bull, did that matter? Absolutely not. It was her obvious huge heart that caught my attention (okay, the adorable pitties helped too). Since stalking her page on a daily basis, we began to chat more and more, and eventually became friends on Facebook (I know, MORE pictures of her/her dogs to stalk! Could it get any better?!). 

Emily and Hades (photo from @loveisapittie)

Emily and her (now three) dogs, Hades, Braylon, and Mercy Pi, live in Arizona. Living in New Jersey myself, it's not very likely we'll meet anytime soon. That doesn't stop my huge girl-crush on her though, my obsession with her dogs, my love for her mom's online shop (DeeGee Marie Gifts, omg love), or my daily Instagram "liking"'s of her posts. If anything, it only spurs me to think "hmmm... I could totally use a road trip out to Arizona..." 

Hades, Braylon, and Mercy Pi - how adorable are these mugs?! (photo from @loveisapittie)

Through Emily, I have learned of more awesome people. I started following what is my favorite blog, Our Waldo Bungie (you HAVE to read about their foster Moby, who just got adopted and now lives with these awesome people). I started following more dog-crazy, dog-obsessive, pit bull advocate, and just plain amazing people who love their dogs (and who posts a million pictures of their dogs) as much as I do! 

If you are looking to learn more about pit bulls and the true sweet hearts that they are (seriously, they're the most loyal dogs ever), and wish to see some ador-a-bull pictures of them in the meantime, please follow the lovely Emily. I promise you'll love her as much as I do (No I don't! I love her too much! And not only because my incessant begging of Jordan to adopt her former foster Jada led to our adopting Jaxson!)

Can you tell why I wanted Jada so badly? (photo from @loveisapittie)

I have a soft spot for handsome Hades (photo from @loveisapittie)

I love this pretty girl, oh, and Mercy Pi too (photo from @loveisapittie)

  

Graduation Day

Sup, dudes? Jax here. I've got big news! I grad-yoo-ated last week!!

showing mommy my sits

It was a pretty big deal. I've been going to the schools for almost two months now. My lady's name was Jessi and she taught me lots of ways to get "good boys". I did watch me, sit, down, stay, come, drop it, leave it, take it, walking nicely on the leash, and so much more! 

I graduated?! No way! 

Sit is the easiest. I just put my hiney on the ground and I get lots of good boys and treets! Leave it is SOO hard! My mommy drops delicious noms on the floor or holds them RIGHT in front of me and I'm not allowed to eat it! OMG it's torture. I do it though, because Jessi and my mommy make suchhh a big deal about it when I leave the noms alone, and then I get lots of pets and kisses AND I get a nom for leaving it! It's a pretty good deal.

My friend Brinkley was there as well. She graduated too, can you believe it?! Actually, all of us graduated. It was pretty exciting!  We all got da-ploh-mas (my mommy was so proud!) and a bag of yummy noms. We didn't get to keep the hat, but I really didn't like it anyway. I only sat so nicely with it because my lady Jessi held a nom up and I knew I'd get it if I did my sits nicely.

Our da-ploh-mas! 

Take my picture - I'm beautiful!

All this graduating is exhausting!

Anyway, my sister Maddie Poops is taunting me. She has Ellie the Elephant by the head and keeps walking right by me. She's such a tease... RIGHT?! It's time to go show her who's boss! Later, dudes!

Dogs and Kids

I've been meaning to write this post for almost two weeks now, but I was really sick for more than a week + super busy. I want to make sure I get to it though, because it's very important. (Let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert. This is just what I have read and seen to be true.)

Having kids and dogs in the same house is a tricky thing. Make that a "pit bull" and it gets even trickier. Not really, but that's (unfortunately) what too many people think. I would like to think that anyone who could think logically would agree that it is NOT the breed, but the individual dog that determines whether a dog is dangerous.

That being said, if you are going to have a dog (ANY kind of dog) and kids in the same house, supervision is a must. This is especially true of small children, who may not understand how to act around dogs. Dogs can't talk, duh, but they will let you if they don't like something. If you’re listening (watching) you can avoid a horrible situation like a dog biting a child.

I took Jax to puppy kindergarten a couple weeks ago when I witnessed the perfect example, prompting this post. In his class, there was a beautiful lab/pittie mix with her mom and a little girl. The mom had had dogs before and took them to training as she is doing now with her family’s new dog. She seemed like a great mom, a very nice lady. I in no way mean to allude to anything else. I just happened to notice a common mistake that she made while in class.

Towards the end of class, she was talking with the trainer and wasn’t paying attention to how her daughter was interacting with their dog. The girl was stepping on the dogs tail, pulling its ears, and “sitting” on it’s head. The dog was giving the right signs to indicate that it didn’t like what was happening: she was whining, moved her head away when the girl was trying to sit on her, would “freeze and stare” when the girl was pulling her ears, and eventually started softly growling. The mom missed all this, and the girl was obviously too young to recognize the warning signs, and the dog snapped at the little girl.

Thankfully the girl was fine. The dog was just giving another warning – snapping, not biting – but it could have been avoided. I was really impressed with the response when the mom asked the trainer how to avoid something like that happening.

The trainer responded that while she had been busy talking to the mom, she hadn’t been paying attention to how the girl and dog were interacting, but that to avoid something like that happening it would require teaching kids how to act around dogs, and lots of supervision. She was very truthful and said that it was likely the little girl was doing something the dog didn’t like (it was at that point that the little girl was “dancing” on the dogs tail again), and that the dog gave warning signs that it was hurt or didn’t like it.

As I said, the mom and daughter were very sweet, nice people, but the supervision wasn’t there and what wasn’t a great situation could have been a lot worse. If you have a dog and kids, or even just when your dog is around kids, please remember to supervise, supervise, supervise!

An adult should also supervise walks!