Pit Bulls: What's the appeal?

I understand the "Obama wants a pit bull in the white house" riff is only a half step away from "He loves fried chicken" but that idiocy aside oh my god if he got a pit bull in the white house I would be so very pleased.

My google for Obama's pitbulls comes up with nothing. Well, he promised his kids a dog, according to one search result.

http://ihasahotdog.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cute-puppy-pictures-nobody-came-birthday-party.jpg

I hate to break it to you kingfish, but my inner pedant can't stop from noting this is a bull terrier.

An ADORABLE one.

My google for Obama's pitbulls comes up with nothing.

I've seen it on the dumber pitbull sites and youtube commentary and such.

dumber pitbull sites!!??

My girlfriend has a pit. He's the nicest dog ever. It's too bad what he's done to her furniture though.

i know. those throw pillows just don't match.

I know it's a bull terrier. 'E still has the patch on 'is eye n' shit.

damn forks your dog is cuet but i'm totally afraid of pit bulls and always will be. shits always want to jump at your neck, tho most of the really bad pitbulls are ones rescued from fighting rings and you can't ever really get that aggression out of them.

They're not going for your neck; they just want to give you kisses.

"i know. those throw pillows just don't match."

That's pretty good.

I've had more bad experiences with cocker spaniels than I have with pit bulls. but then again, my friends who own pits are dog people and have raised them well. The pits I know aren't agressive at all.

"dumber pit bull sites": Some people have fuzzy wuzzy pit bull sites, some people like to celebrate carnage.

Jordan: Banjo has some aggressive moments, but mostly when/if anyone comes in the house unannounced or if they're actively frightened or trying to agitate her. Mostly she's a sweetie. As a rescue dog, you're right; we'll never know if she's had some early bad training that could make her more inclined to be dogwacky. We're doing our best to turn her into a puffball tho'. No serious scraps yet.

Jersey is the land of the not so friendly pitbull; we sometimes walk her in shadier parts of town and dogs come flying up against fences to kill... or worse yet, you'll see strays. Part of the reason we ended up keeping her is that there was a series of particularly savage muggings in our neighborhood; a woman on our block got hospitalized. Turned out to be a handful of teenagers who were just beating the fuck out of women and taking their money. We were giving the pup a trial run when that shit happened and I have to admit that I liked the idea of my girl being able to walk around with a pit at night. She says nobody hassles her any more.

Banjo's my first dog and if I had known then what I know now, I might not have gotten a pit. They're strong, strong-willed, really attention-needy and no matter what the circumstances are, she's always going to be the bad guy. On the other hand, she's the best dog in the world. So we got that goin' for us.

You're probably right about them as rescue dogs. I live in Jersey too, but I don't necessarily agree that it's "the land of the not so friendly pitbull". But I apparently don't live where you do, based on your description of your town.

Spot the pitbull:
http://www.war-online.org/Which_dog.htm

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/434031387_5b9284016b.jpg?v=0

I'm not really in a rough part of Jersey; some sections of JC are a little shadier than others. We do see a whole lot of aggressive dogs on walks sometimes; generally behind fences.

What "qualifies" as a pitbull is an interesting line of discussion; I take the tact that if people ask if it's a pit, it's a pit.

What part of Jersey you live in, Bill? And do you know anybody who needs a friendly pit as a play partner?

http://www.war-online.org/whowants_WB.jpg

I take the tact that if people ask if it's a pit, it's a pit.

First of all, it's "tack". Like in sailing.

Second, I don't really catch your drift...? If people ask if it's a pit, and it's not, they're just not very familiar with that kind of dog, surely. How can another person's ignorance reflect on your pet?

I live in Morristown.

That test is kind of disingenuous, because while most of those dogs are not pits, a good portion are bred to be fighting/personal protection dogs (also the pics are not exactly clear ones.) I mean people uncomfortable with Pits shouldn't be exactly relieved when you tell 'em your dog is a Presa Canario (these were the dogs that killed the lady here in SF a couple of years ago.)

That's true! But any bad feeling about those dogs shouldn't be transferred to pits, and shouldn't be fueling things like a state- or city-wide ban on one breed based on people's feelings about "guard" dogs in general.

i thought maybe that was the point of the test - that the "dangerous" dogs shown, which might be mistaken for pits, aren't actually pit bulls at all. several of the breeds shown i would consid much more dangerous than pits and are still bred more for guarding/fighting than for being pets.

xpost

(oops - consider, not consid!)

"That's true! But any bad feeling about those dogs shouldn't be transferred to pits, and shouldn't be fueling things like a state- or city-wide ban on one breed based on people's feelings about "guard" dogs in general."

I totally agree. The issue here is really more function than breed, but because a large portion of fighting dogs in the US are pits, it's an easy leap for people to make.

Most of the dogs in that pic that are most pit-like are basically pits by another name and they are not terribly common here in the states outside of dog-fighting circles (not that they are common there either.)

Anybody who breeds dogs to fight, or uses a dog to look tough, should be put through the grinder they use to make dog food.

"A little boy came in the store with curiositeeeeeeee....he gave the crank a heck of a yank and Johnny Goodbank was meat."

Anybody who breeds dogs to fight, or uses a dog to look tough, should be put through the grinder they use to make dog food.

-- Bill Magill, Friday, May 16, 2008 12:12 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

why do ilx's woman-hating types always get so defensive of pets

I didn't realize you were defensive of pets, Ethan.

I was always under the impression that these things were pretty dangerous, but I went to visit my uncle in Phoenix, who has a pit and a rottweiler (Cooter and Babu, respectively), and oh man are they a couple of harmless dopes! Loved those two.

But man they look fuckin mean so nobody breaks into their house.

What's wrong with lookin tough? Not that *I* could pull it off or anything...

I _really_ don't wanna get in an argument about semantics in a pit bull conversation, but "tack" signifies direction and "tact" suggests an attempt to mollify (as an abbreviation of "tactic", I presume). I'm of the opinion that you could use either, but "tact" is more what I'm going for here: people who ask if a dog is a pit bull have already decided that it is and will actually argue that they know better if you say she's mixed or a mutt or whatever.

Anyways, the only people who seem to care about this stuff are breed fascists and breed banners; both of whom can fuck right off. Banjo, by all my reading and discussion, seems to be most if not all pit but I don't consider that any more a mark of pride or shame than the fact that she's a snorer.

I always found the "my pit bull makes me a man" front to be paper thin. You do realize that you are literally carrying a bitch around on a string, right?

I love rotties too. Got to meet my first rottie when some friends of the Ethiopian roomie at a house that I had just moved into flew home and left their dog with us while they were overseas. I was often the only one around the house and I discovered that we were housing the dog when, without explanation, she showed up sitting in front of the door of my room. Apparently the friend used to live in my space and the dog was protective. Once we made friends, I ended up using her as a couch and reading books while leaning on her. Great dog.

I love when random thug-types are all saying they wish they had my pitbull-bassett because they want a tough-looking dog:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/lapsnit.jpg

...buh?

Man. Big dogs that think they are lapdogs - CLASSIC.

Except when your legs fall asleep.

Or want to get another beer.

Abbott, your dog is awesome.

My uncle's rottweiler is kinda that way. Has no concept of his size and is always leaping up on you playfully and knocking you around.

forks seconded

He's totes rad, thx, he just doesn't look like a vicious killer.

Sure he does! Look:

<Img src=http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/igotabeefpastry/lapsnit.jpg>;
"Who I trust? Who I trust? Me, that who."

Wow, way to fuck up, Austin.

"Who I trust? Who I trust? Me, that who."

HAHAHAHAHA oh man :D

i love rottweilers.

LOLZ, my gal just wrote me to say that this rhino video reminded her of our pup: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/species/about_species/species_factsheets/rhinoceros/asian_rhinos/index.cfm

tofu's wrong abt "tact" btw, even if like e.g. "case and point" or "could care less" it's working its way into the lexicon based on sheer volume of misuse. Hint: even the logic is flawed, since it's not idiomatic to say a tactic is "taken".

BUT I'M NOT GOING TO TELL HIM B/C SCARY PIT!

Mmmmmaybe you're right...? I've been using it in that fashion for years and this is the first time anybody's ever said anything.
This looks like a job for Will Safire.

William Safire's Rules for Writers:

* Always pick on the correct idiom.

"why do ilx's woman-hating types always get so defensive of pets"

This is a little strange.

I wouldn't pay too much attention there.
On the way up was a bridge over a cascading stream they had to cross; and under the bridge lived a great ugly troll , with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.

Also: I will shy away from tack/tact in future.