Okay. Going in, today I’m speaking up for Pit Bull dogs everywhere who have been labelled as dangerous creatures given to indiscriminate biting of persons close to them. Granted, I’m basing my comments on the behaviour of just one Pit Bull, named Peppa, this one belonging to my wife Annette’s son, Alex, from her previous marriage. Peppa spends a lot of time with us and is yet to bite anyone either in our family or visiting our home. I concede she has growled at some folks, including me, for invading her space, but Peppa is generally a total joy, smart as a whip, and has developed an impressive familiarity with many English words – come, stay, lie down, no more, upstairs – and is also very adept at reading your disposition from your facial expressions. Merely from my brief interactions with her when I feed her minor scraps with something I’m eating, she has learned to read my facial expressions very accurately so that, for instance, after two or three morsels I give her, when I say to Peppa “no more”, showing her my empty hands, she will immediately walk away and flop down somewhere far from me – case closed.
In my wife Annette’s case, Peppa has learned from Annette’s inclination to share hammock space with her when it is okay to leap into the hammock when Annette is in it and to remain at rest in it until ejected. Similarly, when I am in a chair on our verandah on the ground floor, Peppa will approach me, without any invitation, and simply place her head in my lap in search of some snack or other but will immediately abandon her approach if I ignore her signal. She is very fond of mettai and will stand patiently in the yard, by our front door, making no sound, but with her expression indicating clearly “goodies” based on my habit of often giving our dogs tiny treats from time to time during the day.
In general, although we have a kennel in the backyard, the dogs sleep with us overnight in the house, and Peppa’s sanctuary (she developed this on her own) is the space under the bed in the room where Annette and I sleep on the second floor. Provided with a bowl of water in the verandah area, Peppa passes the night without bothering anyone in any way, and will wait in the morning to be taken outside for her toilet duties before any “accidents” occur. The proviso here, however, is that these dispositions are reserved for the residents….visitors are not given those considerations, so any prospective visitors to our residence, at 23 Oleander Gardens, are advised not to attempt entering the house unless an inhabitant is on hand to regulate your entry; Peppa has bitten no one in her several years with us, but our intervention is very likely in play there.
In brief, we have found that in at least one case these dogs are not the vicious attack creatures we have been warned that they potentially are. Provided we are at home, Peppa is an affectionate companion, with perfect behaviour when strangers arrive. However, there has not been an instance where visitors arrive without the human inhabitants around, and Peppa is our own only exposure to the breed, so if you’re visiting our residence, with all the “vicious Pit Bill” stories about, proceed with caution is my considered advice. Stay safe!
