r/PitbullAwareness

Pit bulls aren't inherently dangerous; we only ever hear about the extreme outliers. If Billy drives to work safely every day, it doesn't make the headlines. But if Billy causes a three-car pileup? That’s breaking news. If you don't drive, or don't own a pit bull, it's easy to look at media coverage and assume cars or dogs are inherently dangerous.

On top of that, "pit bull" is an umbrella term that covers at least four distinct breeds, and up to six depending on who you ask. Claiming pit bulls are responsible for most incidents is like saying "trucks" are the most dangerous vehicle on the road while grouping eight different manufacturers and styles under one single label.

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I'm in recovery from a severe affective disorder and two addictions. Two hospitalizations in the last few years. This is my raw, unfiltered situation. I need to lay it out in points, because my head is a mess.

1. The rescue.

I rescued a pitbull who was either going to end up on the street or be euthanized. She had no chance. I grabbed her because I couldn't stand the thought of her dying. At that time, I was also on the verge of collapsing myself. We were both hopeless.

2. The bond and the doubts.

During this year, I created a real bond with her. I love her. But I've always had, and I still have, doubts because of the statistics surrounding pitbulls. I've already played with fire in my life—with my addictions, with my mental health—and I got burned badly. I don't want to get burned again, and I don't want her to get burned because of me. The truth is, I couldn't take care of her in the best way. My illness made me absent. I have two addictions wrapped around my affective disorder. Some days I could barely take care of myself.

3. The ticking clock.

At any moment, I could have a relapse or a mental health attack. It's a reality I have to accept. And if that happens, she would suffer for it. I know, deep down, that she probably has better options than me. She could live in a more stable home, with people who don't disappear into their own heads for days. She deserves that stability.

4. The gray area (and my dilemma).

This is where I'm stuck. It's not black and white. Some days I wake up and I'm absolutely sure: I need to find her a new family, for her sake. Other days, I hold her and I can't breathe at the thought of letting her go. I want to keep her forever. The decision swings back and forth, and it's exhausting.

I need support. I need words. I need advice from people who have been through this—people who have rehomed a dog (especially a pitbull) even though they loved them. How did you do it? How did you deal with the back-and-forth in your head? How did you finally make peace with letting go?

I don't want a quick "keep her" or "give her away." I know life isn't that simple. I just need to hear from others who have walked this gray path. Because right now, I feel like I'm failing her no matter what I choose.

I recently started staying in a flat in a G+2 building , owner of the building is pettting a pitbull. He ensures that it is leashed in regular times. But the soon it sees me it starts barking and tries so hard to reach me that I fear that chain may break.

How to tame pitbulls, how to get their trust , are there any cheat codes if suppose I had to face this unleashed pitbull . It looks but I don’t think it leaves me without taking off some flesh from me

I recently adopted a 6 year old pit bull husky mix. I wasn’t really looking for a pit bull but in my area most adoptable dogs have some amount of pit in them so here we are.. They told me her only issue from finding a home is she can climb a 6 foot fence. We introduced her to our two labs and she was great! And when I walked her around a busy animal rehab fundraiser event (where I adopted her) she did amazing around kittens, toddlers, and dogs.

Come to find out, she is only aloof around well behaved dogs. My neighborhood is full of reactive and aggressive dogs, mostly German shepherds. Everyone else has normal poodles and retrievers, which she’s fine with. I learned she wants to fight these aggressive dogs. I immediately took her to a group obedience class and these classes will have up to 15 dogs and she has built her impulse control so that she will stay on a loose leash with barking dogs but you can definitely tell she wants to fight them. Like I will put her in a down stay and she will stay down but continue to growl and stare down at a reactive dog. In training class, if the other dog owner controls their dog, my dog will also stop.

So we are at that, she is very fixated on aggressive dogs but she maintains a loose leash and is able to follow me. Sometimes if the other dog is really crazy, she will start pulling at them. The only good thing is she never barks and kind of just looks like she wants to chase a squirrel but to a person who knows dog behavior, they would know she looks really excited to fight that dog.

I’ve recently seen in this sub pit bulls being “sparred” at certain conformation shows, and the behavior reminded me a lot of her response. It made me wonder how much of this could be genetic versus learned behavior.

For people experienced with pit bull-type dogs: how much can training override this kind of genetic predisposition? Is it a realistic goal for a dog like this to eventually become indifferent to aggressive dogs? If so how can I achieve that? If not, how do you guys work around this innate behavior?

This is a tough one. Using a throwaway account. Could just use some advice or resources from the knowledgeable folks on this sub.

I have a dog who is seriously aggressive towards other dogs and small mammals. She’s about 8-9 years old (not sure because she was adopted out of the shelter 6 years ago). About a year ago we had a horrible accident where she attacked another dog which is how I found out just how aggressive she is. At that time we decided not to BE, and she lives a happy but limited life in our mostly going out in our very secure 6 ft fenced in yard. She’s muzzled when she leaves our house or yard. We are super attached to her and also aware of the high level of management and risk that comes with owning her.

There was always a question mark for my partner and I about children in general. And an even bigger and sadder question mark when it comes to what happens to our pup if kids come along. I just found out I’m pregnant. It’s very early on and I’m still processing it. It comes as a complete surprise, we were not trying.

There is a part of me thinks that we can make it work…that she’s getting older and by the time the baby is crawling she’ll be well into her senior years and even then we can keep them separate. I will also say that she has never shown any aggression towards children. I have never put her in a situation where she could be dangerous to a child but she has met young children leashed and muzzled and has not shown any aggression. She’s very appeasing and friendly towards all people (I think I read something about that possibly being a trait common for lines of pits that are dog aggressive).

Another part of me thinks that it’s extremely naive and dangerous for me to think there is any world in which we could keep her and have a child. Again I’m still processing everything and I thought we had more time with her. I know that having a baby is going to change everything about our lives and I can’t put our child’s life at risk.

I also know I can’t base my decision off of strangers on reddit. But any thoughts or resources would be nice. I wish there was a rehoming option for her but I just don’t think that exists.

Hi just for context, I have two small terrier dogs and one of them was attacked by a pitbull during 2020. ( note: the dog that attacked my dog in 2020 is not Nonni, the dog i’m talking about in the current situation) No hate towards pit bulls, i think they’re really cute actually and i don’t believe a creature can be completely evil. I’m saying this since I’ve seen some talk about pit bulls being created for the purpose of dog fighting and (not being taught to) attacking their own family at some points but i really don’t know if the information is true because it came from the internet and from people that just completely and utterly think pitbulls are demons with anger issues.

Anyway, I have a neighbour that’s older with hand tremors or arthritis in her hands, I don’t remember which one it is but it’s something that affects her holding the leash. She has this pitbull named Nonni and she’s cute but I’ve never interacted one-on-one, and without my dogs, with a pitbull even though i think they’re cute like all other animals, and I think that’s because my mom keeps trying to make me think the same way her opinions are on pitbulls which is that they’re the most dangerous animal that people have as pets (besides tigers and stuff like that) and that they’re just muscle dogs that are intimidating and could never love a family the same way another dog does. i don’t get the being intimidated by a pitbulls wide look but i’m aware of the bite force and weight pitbulls have.

I wasn’t really like intimidated by them (besides for my dogs because of the thing in 2020) until she was coming around the corner of our sidewalk coming from the side of the street to the walkway to the area in front our town homes, i was doing laundry at our shared laundry room in between our houses and the walkway she was beginning to walk in, and the leash slipped out of her hand and the dog super chased me until i got inside the laundry mini building. It was pretty scary but obviously i’m not going to blame the dog, it’s an animal, sometimes they do stuff like that, and i just read that running away isn’t a good way of easing the situation so i wont do that again lol. I talked to her after it happened and she explained she had something going on with her hands and showed me her hands (i don’t remember if they were shaking or stiff) and there was something wrong, no fault to her but there is something wrong there.

Recently I’ve been a little nervous the dog will get loose again and attack my dogs or me, and since I live in Southern California it’s always hot asf so I don’t usually wear sweaters and jeans so in case i do get bit there’s a barrier. If there was that thick of a barrier I would die of heat stroke in the summer if we’re being serious. Im still pretty traumatized from my dog being attacked by the pitbull during 2020, plus the pitbull that attacked my dog bit my dog on the nape of the neck and almost got to his brain so Im not gonna let that happen again.

So to sum it all up, is there like a fingerless glove combined with a leash so the dog getting loose doesn’t happen again?
also are there any safety harnesses i can put on my dogs in case anything does happen?
also no hate for not saying the dogs name or the woman’s name. i dont want to expose the woman and calling a dog Nonni is weird for me because my family’s italian-american and we call the grandmother Nonni so it’s weird to call a dog the same name loll.
I still think the dog is cute though, I just want to know what I should do to keep me and my dogs safe. Without being super nice for a second though, i don’t think anyone should be worried about being attacked by a not wild animal in their own neighbourhood and i’m only worried about this one dog, we have other large dogs and i think two other pitbulls in our neighbourhood. my dogs have interacted with the other dogs too and the other owners seem to know you need a little focus and a lot of weight distribution to keep a large dog back when they’re excited or being a little crazy. anyway please let me know what i should do :) and no i won’t call where ever people call to get dogs taken away from their owners.