Try to quickly summon an image of good-with-small-children dog, and chances are you'll picture something adorably Benji-shaggy. Or maybe a sweetie-pie golden retriever, or a loveball of a lab. It's not likely, at least not in today's perception of the breed, that an American pit bull terrier leaps to mind.
But not so long ago, pit bulls were brought in as "nanny dogs," the trusted caretaker pups to watch over kids.
Vintage photographs recently posted on a personal blog show off the breed as babysitter.Our old dog, Roxie, was half pit bull. Nobody would have been able to attack the Ragin' Mrs. when Roxie was around, unless they somehow managed to kill the dog first. But Roxie would rather curl up on the couch with you than be aggressive. She was a very protective lovable lunk, who just enjoyed life.
The so-called aggressive breeds are mean and violent because someone makes them mean and violent.
3 comments:
I agree. Our local mechanic has one that wanders around the shop, looking for anyone to pet him. He carries around a small tire that is his chew toy, and sometimes he'll play tug-o-war with it. Gentlest dog I have seen.
I'm on my 5th Pitt. I've had them since I was a teenager. We had a Boxer and a Siamese cat when I was a kid growing up. My latest is a beautiful Blue female just over a year old and already 72 pounds. I wanted a smaller female like Candy, 46 pounds soaking wet. Oh well, when they take your heart you have to take them home.
One of my favorite expressions is still, "He'll be on that like a pit bull on a two-year-old."
Maybe I'll just change it to "Rottweiler."
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