Should i respond differently???

Man you have to be way more careful, that could of a been a big mess and even though it wasn't your fault, due to your dog's reputation you have to be the careful one. Remember that was someone else's house pet, mate,and from his actions afterwards he deffinitly wasn't being a jackass. A simple "she's not friendly" has worked for me one every occasion, I never go into details and I never stick around to talk about it.

 

I don't think its a defeatest attitude. I think its a different means to fight a never ending battle.
You can fight tooth and nail, spend untold amounts of money and proclaim to the world what your breed of dog is, and some will respect that others won't.

What since does it make to "create" a situation where you HAVE to defend the breed to people who already have their mind made up, when you can simply head it off with misinformation.
The news media and AR groups uses misinformation all the time to give the public a negitive perception of Pit Bulls and their owners.Why play into it? I say fight fire with fire.
If your dog does something to leave a negitive perception in someones mind, such as growl, lunge, or try to get their pet, you are compunding the problem of negitive public perception by proclaiming its a APBT, and that "its just their nature to be animal aggressive". These people have had it pounded into their heads that Pit Bulls will kill and eat thier pets and that dog fighting rings use them as bait to make them aggressive. Not only are you lamenting these lies in thier mind by proclaiming what your dog is, you are drawing unnecissary attention to yourself.
As pasionate as you are about the breed, their are those that are as pasionate against it, and nothing you say or do will change that.

If you change one persons mind, thats great, but if in doing so you confirm the negitive perception in one persons mind, what have you accomplised?

I guess what I am trying to say in a nutshell is. If you put yourself and your dog in a situation that would give somebody a negitive opinion, then just say its someother breed of dog.No need to give people a negitive perception of the breed as a whole because of one incident.

Explaining to people that APBTs are naturally dog aggressive, doesn't do anything to improve peoples opinion of them either.

 

I have a situation I ran into the other day... I do service work at peoples house and this lady showed poodles back in the day and still has about 20 of them and we were talking about dogs and what not and she asked me what kind I had? My response was "Do you believe everything on TV?" She goes you have pit bulls I said that I do have APBT and that how the media blows a lot of it out of proportion and the positive things that I do with my dogs as far as shows go... I believe that in a way I changed this lady's mind that all "pit bull" owners are bad.

I AM NOT ASHAMED TO OWN AN APBT!!!!

 

I've been through it over and over again. I've been setting tile for 10 years and you tend to have ALOT of conversation with people about all kinds of things. People who have dogs generally will end up talking about them. One guy inparticular stated that he hated Pit Bulls because one attacked his little lap dog and he started beating the thing and it bit him. What can you say to a man who has scars all over his hand to convince him that not all APBTs are like that. I mean, this turned into a heated discussion. Good thing I was sub-contracting that job through a friend of mine and it wasnt for my company because when I left this mans house, we werent exactly on the best of terms. Lets just say there were a few tools thrown and some colorful language being used and it wasnt by me. He was sincerely pissed off that I was trying to defend my breed of choice. I would have bit the old fart if he kept it up. There's just no convincing some folks.

 

Thats a great story.

Again its not a matter of being ashamed to own a APBT, or "Standing up for your right" to own one. The original post was what approach to take in a particular situation.
I noticed in your post, that before telling the lady what kind of dog you had you ask her if she believe everything she seen on TV.
This is an excellent "Posturing" move on your part. If you would have just said I have a Pit Bull and it likes people but is dog aggressive she may have had a less then favorable attitude.

 

I feel the same way. I have rarely had a good experience when I told someone what breed my dog is. They tend to think that I don't know what I am talking about because of his coloration anyways...

If there is another dog around, I will usually tell them that he is a bulldog and that he can sometimes be dog aggressive and I don't want to risk having him around other dogs. Sometimes sounds much better than just outright dog aggressive.


If there are no dogs around and the person seems somewhat open-minded or are showing my dog a lot of attention, I might tell them what breed he is (as long as the breed is allowed in the area). Usually, the person just acts like everything is fine but moves away from my dog in a hurry or they started bashing the breed with no intent to listen. As far as I can remember, the only times I have had good encounters was when the person either owns an APBT or if they know someone who owns one.

 

The thing is.. it's not like my dog is aggressive.. he's a sweetheart.. he won't move until I tell him to.. but yet, the guy actually took a step back like my boy was gonna get his dog.

 

i am sincerely disheartened to hear all of these bulldog owners say they would avoid telling people what their dog is or flat out lie to them. when we fail to stand up for ourselves we lose our rights. cowering away from the issue does not do any good for responsible owners. this is an issue that needs to be tackled head first without any hesitation. lying to people? you gotta be kidding!!! that is the same reason we have a hard time owning this breed! because of liars! if you know your dog likes to "play" with other dogs, get outta the darn way when you see another dog. don't bring trouble upon yourself and then sit there wondering what the heck happened. this is proposterous. you better believe that if someone asks what kind of dog i own i am going to say with a proud and resounding voice an APBT!!! and if you don't like it you and your labradoodle can keep walking on. seriously guys, this whole complacency thing is going to be a big contributing factor to our breeds demise. stand up for our rights. yeah, in the short term it may be easier to say it is not an APBT, but those who choose to do that are crippling the chances of the rest of us having a loud voice. and to be completely honest, if i ever encountered a situation where a bulldog owner lied to someone so as to save themselves a minor headache, i would have a few choice words for them. either you are going to jump all the way in or you aren't. there is no getting your feet wet to test the waters on this one. educate, educate, educate. ignorance is not bliss!!!!

 

That's the thing, I don't know how all these trainers say,"Socialization is key to a puppy's development.." And I bet a lot of people learn that when they get a puppy.. but then, again, they cower away as if everyone who owns an APBT, or any APBT they see is the damn devil. And I've even had idiot vets/trainers tell me that they don't like APBT's.. and ask me why I got one.. how can you be a trainer like that? A trainer is supposed to be able to handle all types, aren't they? And they're supposed to be experts in the dog field, to some degree.

But there are A LOT of people who've made up their mind, that's hard to change.. and it's not like I wait for negative people w/ their pets, but I'm willing to wait to see the possibility of meeting someone on a walk who's not as ignorant or as resistant to learning about the breed, who will actually allow their dog and mine to play.. socialize.. etc.

And there's also those many times, when you get so pissed at the other person, you just wanna really cram some knowledge down their throat..

I overheard a lady conversing with a pet shop owner once.. pet shop owner asks her what kind of dogs she keeps.. she says that she has American Staffordshire Terriers.. the store owner was like,"Ohh, a pit bull.." Then, the lady says,"No, American Staffordshire's were never bred to be aggressive, they were bred from England to be pets only. Pit Bull Terriers were bred to be aggressive and will bite anything." I just look at her for a moment, and kind of wanted to chime in, but she seemed like she'd be stubborn about it, from the previous conversation.. so I just got some aquarium supplies and left.

 

Can I ask 1 question? Why is the 4 yo up the street even walking on a leash, dont his parents love him? Or is he just onre?.... LMAO.

But no I lie all the time, I dont need to be a 24-7 breed advocate when instead of changing minds of ignorant people it just increases my chances of not getting a home or insurance or having people come over because theyre afraid of the word "pitbull" So youd not believe how many people dont bat an eye at me when they ask what kind of dog I have and I say oh hes a game dog. LOL ...you know how many people have just nodded like they know and never asked anything else...lol. One even asked oh... like the kind you play games with? I was like thats it exactly...or I might say hes a boxer since that head is hard to lie about its the next closest thing and Staffordshire terrier is getting to well known as a sub name....but you will lie once you spent too much time on trying to educate people who dont want to learn or come along a time when you feel discriminated against when you get denied a place to live because of your dog.... and a week later some homo yuppie bastards with a Lab get the same place you were told didnt accept dogs...

 

That's exactly another reason to lie nowadays.. housing, insurance.. all that can be determined on just what breed of dog you own. I bet Welsh Corgis aren't on their list, but I bet a Welsh Corgi will be more likely to cause insurance harm than an APBT.

 

Other dogs start fights too and it doesn't really take much at all one false stare and you could of had a terrible mess on your hands. Especially with big dogs like GSD's who have strong hard mouthes and absolutly freak out when they fight; everyone there was bound to have gotten biten had something broken out. I have 2 patterdales that absolutly will not tolerate any other dog, their 12 pounds and 17 pounds, and no signs of aggression until it's far too late.