THE BREED OR THE DEED
     Last Saturday, we talked about how the general public are now seeing the pitbulls in a racist kind of way.Nonetheless my blog this week, focuses on the cause of most pitbull attacks and your either going to agree with me or disagree on this, but it's about 99 per cent of the time, the owner. I say that because, let's face the truth, there are bad pitbulls out there, no matter how you try to reform them.So where does all this panic, and turmoil for a pretty wonderful breed come from? Yes, it starts with the owner and the type of people or persons they are. So to start with, what is a bad owner or an irresponsible owner? I know what your saying, "its not me, that's for sure," but let's research those thoughts for a minute.
     Owners who don't take or understand the responsibility of owning such a powerful dog would constitute a bad owner.
      Owners who have to do the fighting for their dogs by making them appear tougher wearing spiked collars, cropped ears and tails, would mean a bad owner.
      People who do not research the traits of pitbulls before owning them are also the culprits.
      Owners who leave their pitbulls outside all the time, thus not allowing them to socialize with other people or animals in their home are ticking time bombs. I mean think about it, if you were left outside all the time, wouldn't you have a tendency to snap or be pissed off?
      Owners who yell at or demean their pitbull dogs in public or in their households on a regular basis.
      People who physically discipline their dogs and beat them as a way of controlling them regularly are bad owners!
      People that have low self-esteem get pitbulls for a status thing to say "Hey look at me, I own a pitbull, don't mess with me, I am a bad ass!" another definite attitude of a bad owner!
      Owners who get a pitbull, and then let them run around in yards with small, lower footage fences are bad owners!
      People who walk their pitbulls on just a leash attached to a collar is unacceptable, another bad owner! A pitbull being as intelligent as it is, can easily slip its head through a collar and then you'll have a real problem!.A harness is more effective and restrains the dog better, which puts the owner in control.
      Another thing, although this might be up for debate, is people usually get pitbulls 2 or 3 years old, but these dogs are usually set in their ways, especially if there was no prior training with them.
      Irresponsible Owners such as the "Michael Vicks" out there who train these dogs to attack or fight for their own selfish financial needs. Any dog can be trained to kill or fight, regardless of the breed.
      Inbreeding cause bad pitbulls most of the times as they are interbred with Rottweillers, Labs, Sheppards and even Whippets. I know this to be true as my other rescue dog Okee, is in fact, a Whippet/Pitbull Mix, but not a more sweeter dog could you find in her.
      Generally, these dogs are not genetically sound in their brains, which can lead to madness as it puts pressure on their brains, in certain circumstances. Keep in mind, these are the types, you do have to be careful more so with and on your guard more often when people or other animals are around them.
      You have to socialize these dogs usually at younger ages and get them around people and other dogs.Then more than likely they will turn out just fine. Pitbulls by their very nature are protective animals. If you socialize your dogs, generally they won't be aggressive and another very important thing is to have them spayed or neutered as soon as possible. If people take time with their pitty's showing love, affection, understanding, and training, then their pitbull pet dog will give back the same to them.
       While it is understandable that seeing pitbull attack reporting on the news gets viewers all scared and riled up, hating the breed, it is wrong! Think about it, when was the last time you saw a newscast on a border collie attack, poodle or even a chihuahua? No, because, that is not what the newscasters want their viewers to see, and besides it does nothing for ratings. Everyone knows that the media tells us what we want to see whether it's fully researched or reported right?
       The fact that pitbulls have stronger jaws than most dogs doesn't mean they are going to use them.
       The only thing I worry about with our new rescue 2-year-old  pitbull Jewel about using her jaws on our blankets, pillows and recently my blue tooth headset which she decided was a chew toy. She loved the sponge earpiece especially which was to her liking.
        We find that our rescue pitty Jewel sees feels and reacts to things that Teryl and I are sometimes oblivious to or slow to notice. She is completely aware of her surroundings and in tune to such small things as a dog barking on our TV or even a video on our cell phone of wolves howling.
        It is the dog's owner's responsibility to implement psychological and physical boundaries for all their pets. This is for both to protect potential harm to others and to protect their pitbull dog. Every dog, regardless of the breed is unpredictable. No more than a factory worker who suddenly loses his job, picks up a rifle and shoots a store clerk for not having his brand of cigarettes.In conclusion, the only thing I can leave you with is please try to see your pitbull dog for what he or she is, not for what you want them to be.
        Once again, I leave you with another excerpt from one my 3rd book "Road History, when we actually did own a pitbull Sampson that was involved in an attack. As you read on, you will find out that things were not as they appeared to be. Have a great week and go get yourself a pitty as a pet.
The next day I picked up a load of flowers from a nursery in Chilliwack, destined for the “Western Grocers” company, that’s right, the same people that own Loblaw’s. When we arrived in Calgary, the next day I dropped that load off at the appropriate destination. As usual, it was time to reset my hours, so that meant we would get to see our buddy, Sam, once again. I picked him up, as usual, whereby he was rip-snorting and panting when he saw us, just all too happy to see his Mom and Dad once more. This time, I had proposed to Carol to rent a hotel room for the 48 hours, with just our little family and she agreed to that as well. Sam was so happy to spend time with us, and as usual Carol had bought him another stuffy which he absolutely loved. It was a wonderful two days, with ordering in take-out food, spending time with our Sam, watching some TV, and just generally relaxing for a change. When you drive up to 10,000 miles a month like I did, it sure took a lot out of me mentally and physically. As for Sampson, he would now get to spend that time with Carol and the family, so that was nice. Moreover, I just hated taking him back to that kennel, but this time, it might be different when we arrived back there.

         The dogcatcher, Tim had arranged to have the mother of the 14-year-old girl, meet with us as well as our dog Sampson. Was something up? or had the judge finally made a decision on Sam’s fate? Carol and I had both reluctantly agreed to finally face the consequences as towards Sampson’s actions regarding the attack. Nonetheless, I pulled up the driveway of the kennel that morning, not really knowing if we were ever going to see our Sampson again. We introduced ourselves to the young woman, along with showed her, as to one of the perpetrators on her 14-year-old daughter which was our dog Sam. What we found out that morning astounded all us, even shocked the dogcatcher, Tim, I might add. When the lady started to explain to us the story from her daughter towards the attack, I must say we were stunned, but extremely relieved. It seems that on that day when both dogs had gotten out of our back fence, they were running wild. When “Big Sexy” Sandi’s former dog had come upon the 14-year-old girl walking down the sidewalk that afternoon, he lunged at her. Sampson was thinking that they were having fun, so he pounced on the poor girl, but that’s where it all changed.

         Big Sexy, started to bite and attack the girl, but when Sampson realized his nephew was not fooling around, well things changed fast. Sampson was actually trying to pull his nephew away from the attack and in so doing, ended up scratching the girl across the stomach. However our dog, Sampson did not continue the assault on the girl, nor did he bite her in any way shape or form either. I asked the young lady how she knew of this, and she told me those were the words spoken from her very own daughter! I can’t begin to tell you how Carol and I were relieved to hear this startling information, as it most certainly would assure of Sampson’s life to be spared or so we hoped. 

         Tim, let us know that he would immediately resubmit new court documents, so hopefully now, Sampson’s life would be spared. It ripped my heart apart to place my dog behind bars that morning before we left, but I now had some hope for Sam’s survival at least. Unfortunately, we had to head to Calgary to get back on the truck, but this time, we were definitely in a better mood about it. Therefore, I grabbed another load from High River this time and headed south down to the United States with it. Our next load was heading for somewhere in Washington, I can’t seem to recall exactly where at the moment. I mean I can’t tell you how many times Carol and I would be driving on the I-90 West route on our way to Vancouver. There we would be driving over the legendary Columbia River while gazing at fire-red sunsets while traveling down the open road. We would also see large tugboats pushing these gargantuan barges with “god knows what containers” floating down that mighty river. This time, it was nice to travel a different way and see some truly really different sights for a change. When we arrived in Seattle there were always crazy sights I passed by such as a giant inflatable sun wearing enormous black sunglasses near a K-Mart.

         One time when we were getting fuel at a Flying-J Truckstop in Washington we saw the oddest thing. There were these Barbie and Ken dolls tied to the roof rack of an SUV just leaving the parking lot, as I pumped the diesel into “Beauty” that day. Chalk it up to just a few of the odd things you see on the open road trucking. We were well into the fall of 2007, and the trips with Dial were starting to get a bit more varied in where I was going now.

         I remember we had more freight of beef going to Nebraska at first, but we picked up a trip from there by heading right back to the Dial yard in Akron Iowa. That load was going to Brampton, Ontario so once again I would get to stop in on my brother Chuck and his family. I would probably catch my Dad and his new wife too, as well as my Mom, there always seemed to be at least one day to do this with on these trips.

         Well as it was, I did see a good portion of my family, only, this time, it was a bit different when we unloaded at the drop point in Brampton. We picked up another empty trailer when we switched out a trailer with another driver at a Husky Truckstop in Mississauga this time round. This new trip was quite the opposite, as we were heading to New Jersey of all things. As it was I had to drive passed the Welland Canal on our trip through to Buffalo, so we made a half day tour out of the canals there.