With dogs, it's about how you raise them

I’d like to take a minute to suggest that pit bulls are good-natured dogs whose reputation has been ruined by bad-natured owners.

The preconceived notions that I’ve run into are based on news media coverage of “the violent, the bad and the ugly,” pit bulls at their worst—barking ferociously, biting and latching on, foaming at the mouth, and attacking small children and dogs.

I own a 1-year-old pit bull, well mostly pit bull. The other part is probably some sort of hound or hunting dog. When he sees something he often lifts up one of his front paws, sticks his nose forward and has his tail straight back. (Although I don’t think he could “hound” something up unless I physically showed him where it was.)

His name is Shahine, it means eagle in Persian and was the name of my family’s golden retriever when I was two years old.

My boyfriend owns a pure bred 5-year-old pit bull. Her name is Indie, after the great Indiana Jones.

I took them up to Lone Pine on Sunday for a little hike up the mountain. It was my first time up there and I didn’t see any signs for leashes. Perhaps they were there, I just missed them.

We walked up the trail for a bit (well, they ran laps around me and the rest of the trail) and met a dog. It looked like it was part rottweiler and it was on a leash.

The dogs, of course, bum-rushed him, tails wagging, noses sniffing, to say hello and moved on with their sniffing. The owner was nice, the dog was nice, I was nice, we were all nice and cordial, and then moved on with our day.

We walked up to the top of the Cliff Trail and turned around to walk back down to where I parked.

A quarter mile down I ran into a couple of ladies with two corgies and a dog that looked like it was mixed with a German shepherd. The lady with the corgies started screaming at me.

“My dogs will fight! My dogs will fight!”

“You are supposed to have them on a leash! My dogs are on a leash, they’ll fight.”

Now, Shahine was off in “la-la land” in the bushes and Indie ran to greet them. The German shepard mix wagged his tail and the corgies started barking.

I called Indie back, and she came. I called Shahine, and he came. The corgies were still growling and barking

I waited, told them to sit and put them both on the same leash to appease the ladies below me.

The dogs didn’t fight me, they didn’t ignore me, they didn’t growl and gnash their teeth just hoping for some fur and flesh to grab onto.

I think most people say that pit bulls are unpredictable. All dogs are unpredictable if they’re not trained right. Just like children are if they aren’t raised right. It’s all in how you treat the dog. And I think pit bulls have a history of being treated particularly poorly.

They’ve been shoved into fighting rings where they are supposed to fight to their deaths after being kept in cages and riled with sticks. They fought, and are still forced to fight, for their masters, to whom they are extremely loyal.

At one point in American history, pit bulls were “nanny dogs,” who looked after children. For the same reason, loyalty to their owners.

They have a ton of energy. They are sweet. They lick a lot and often act like lap dogs, even though they are massive. When they smile or pant, I can see how it could be intimidating to those who don’t know better, all their teeth show and their tongue hangs out of their massive mouths.

Indie and Shahine bicker with each other over bones, etc. But I’ve never seen them act like the dogs everyone believes them to be.

I take them for walks a lot and they are as good as any dog. They are trained, listen well (unless a deer leg bone or squirrel takes over their hearing), are happy, and they don’t bark at people or dogs on the trail or in the park.

They do want to say hello to everyone, just like every other Labrador, beagle, golden retriever and border collie I’ve seen. But then they move on with their merry lives, smelling urine and chasing scents.

I’ve encountered a lot of negative attitudes about the dogs. I’ve had people swear at them, yell at me, push the dogs, yell at me, be scared and then yell at me some more (you know, just in case I didn’t hear their extremely loud voices the first times).

“Oh god, it’s a pit bull,” I’ve heard. “Get away, get away.”

Now, if someone treated you like that, how would you react? Angrily. Upset. Defensive. And that’s exactly how I react. The dogs just move on to the next blade of grass. They know when they’re not wanted.

The only time I’ve ever seen my dog bare his teeth is when food or a toy is involved, or he’s scared. And I think most dogs have a tendency to react the same way.

Over the last six months, I’ve heard of a pit bull attack in Great Falls and an English bulldog attack in Creston.

It made me sad. Those are the types of things that are terrible for everyone involved, especially the victims, and I think that the owners should be held responsible for their pet’s behavior.

I know that I try to make sure my dog can never be accused of anything, or even be put in a situation that could end badly, because of the breed he is and all the connotations that come with it.

It’s my job to make sure my animal is raised properly and behaves correctly. Because he is just a dog in a human world, and I am the human that makes that world a safe place for him to be.

While he is still a puppy, he will someday be a dog, and he will be a dog I am proud to call my own.