When I first visited the Richmond animal shelter, I went through the typical array of sad emotions when one walks the aisle between dog pens watching and listening to their desperate attempts to convince prospective owners to take them home. The one aspect of RAPs that made witnessing the penned-in animals bearable was seeing the great way that RAPs is run. It is a no kill shelter and the staff use whatever means they can to ensure the animals are both given excellent care during their stay and are found homes that will be lasting and loving.
While each dog at the shelter had its own tricks used to convince potential new owners that they were the most worthy of adoption, the first dog that I was taken by was a pit bull named Parker who was doing ridiculously athletic back flips off the inside of his pen. He would get about 8 feet of air and land perfectly each time. I couldn’t help but to ask about him. I was quickly introduced and allowed to take him for a walk.
I had never before walked a pit bull and had the typical preconceived notions of what they were all about: savage, unpredictable killing machines generally owned by thugs and drug dealers. Needless to say, I was concerned and as a result, throughout my walk, I did my very best to avoid making any possible movement or behaviour that could possibly result in Parker suddenly latching onto my leg and ripping off a chunk of my thigh. I wondered if this fear was legitimate. Where did this fear come from? He wasn’t a particularly big dog, thickly muscled for sure, but not necessarily intimidating to look at. I began to look into and challenge this fear as I spent more time at the shelter and fostered Parker shortly after our initial meeting.
After having taken Parker home for a week or two , I was beginning to realize that he was an incredibly balanced and well behaved dog. He would walk on leash without pulling, was great with other dogs and much to my delight, especially good with children. I began to ponder a life with Parker but had to accept giving him up after getting a call from the Shelter that his previous owner had come back to bring him home. Inevitably I had mixed emotions of giving him back in the first place. How could any worthy owner ever let their dog be given up to a shelter in the first place? What horrible parenting skills, I thought. Regardless, Parker was no longer mine and I had to accept this fate.
The next chapter of my RAPS shelter experience was when I was introduced to yet another pit bull named ‘Kilo’. Kilo, (now named Milo) had a typical sad shelter story, but with a tremendously happy ending.
Milo was found roaming the back streets of Richmond in such a state of starvation that he would very likely have died if he had been found even a day later. Unfortunately, his ‘sister’ a shepherd that he had lived with did in fact die as a result of going too many days without food and water. It is my understanding that the previous owner had drug addiction issues and had neglected to feed them for days on end. After reaching a point of desperation, both dogs managed to escape their neglectful home in search of food and water. Luckily for Milo, after putting his survival skills to the test, he fell into the hands of some of the best dog rehabilitators around.
After having been turned into RAPS, taken to the Vet for intensive care and being put on a great raw food diet, it was clear that Milo was going to survive. It is difficult for shelter staff to gage dog’s real personalities when dogs come into such an unnatural and scary environment, not to mention after having gone through such a traumatic previous life. However, it quickly became apparent that Milo was more than appreciative of his chance at a second life as he showed nothing but large licks to his new care takers. It wasn’t long before Milo had put on 30 + pounds of muscle and was beginning to attract the attention of staff and visitors alike. He had developed into a very handsome dog indeed: A shiny gold coat, white chest and paws and beautifully proportioned and muscled physique.
I was unaware of Milo’s presence during his first month of rehabilitation at the shelter. It wasn’t until I came home one evening to find him lying alongside Sonya, a RAPS employee. “Now this was a pit bull”, I thought to myself. Although I had challenged my previous fear of pit bulls by spending time with Parker and speaking with the shelter staff about their experiences in general with pit bulls, I couldn’t help but to behave delicately with this new dog I found in my apartment. Would he suddenly clamp onto my throat while I patted him on the head before bed?
The first weeks of fostering Milo entailed a lot of education. Not only about learning the basics of dog training in general, but also about what things I needed to be aware of as a new pit bull owner. Were there specific things I needed to prepare myself for relating specifically to his breed? After doing quite a bit of research on the breed, and becoming more sensitive and aware of media portrayal of pit bulls in general, I did in fact come to some new conclusions.
1) A Pit bull is an ‘umbrella’ term often used to speak of several different breeds of dogs.
2) Most of the dogs that fall within this term were originally bred to be fighting dogs
3) There is a genetic predisposition for many of these breeds to be dog aggressive
4) Although historically bred as fighting dogs, these breeds are bred to be loyal to their owners and do in fact rank among the best dogs to be around children and families
5) Many cities, states and provinces have passed breed specific laws prohibiting the ownership of pit bulls or requiring pit bulls to be muzzled in public
6) Many of these laws that were enacted came as a result of the media’s portrayal of pit bulls as unpredictable and aggressive which was largely inaccurate
7) Many thugs and gangsters have been drawn to pit bulls due to their ‘tough’ image and through poor ownership, have propagated the negative image of pit bulls
8) Several other breeds of dogs rank much higher on numbers of attacks on people and other dogs
Regardless of the information that I learned through my research, I knew that it was of the utmost importance to be an especially responsible owner, since due to the largely skewed public perception, the risks were much higher. Pit bulls obviously need all the help they can get.
My first weeks with Milo were full of ups and downs. This had nothing to do with his character, as he was clearly a very loving, calm and dependable dog. It had to with owning a dog in a non-dog friendly suite. I had a good relationship with my landlords for the 2 years I had been living in my 1 bedroom suite and thought I could leverage this to my advantage and convince them that my dog would not destroy their house. Unfortunately they had previously had negative experiences with dogs owned by former tenants which inevitably made them more strict about having dogs in their house.
I was at least able to convince them to come and visit me and my new dog in hopes that upon seeing his calm demeanour, they might be open to having him stay with me. Of course, what I had really feared came true. Upon arriving at the door, and looking up the flight of stairs at his head peering down at them, they immediately said that there was no way they could accept him. My forewarnings of his ‘tough’ appearance did not have the effect I had wanted. ‘Discrimination’, I thought to myself. This attitude made me even more concerned and determined to know all I could about the perceptions of pit bulls that existed in the public mind. I was also very determined to find a way to keep him as mine. There was no way I would be one of those ‘flakey’ owners who would give their dog up to a shelter upon the first challenge or difficulty they encountered.
Luckily for me, my landlords did not live close to my house and I was able to sneak him in and out over the next while. Even luckier, they were selling the house and after a few months sold it to a couple who were much more open minded about having pets in the house. A simple pet deposit was all they required. What a relief for me it was. I could now move forward with my new relationship with Milo and work towards both of us being ambassadors for the breed.
Another positive development with Milo was that he became immediate best friends with ‘Kya’, an adolescent female German Shepherd, owned by Sonya. This allowed me to see just how well he could get along with other dogs. They were really a perfect match. Needless to say, Kya developed a huge doggy crush and would constantly harass Milo, trying to stimulate his more placid nature into a full -fledged play session. Although I was very strict about having him on leash in public, at night time, when all the families and kids had disappeared from the playground and park directly behind my house, we would watch both dogs run, chase, frolic and do what dogs do best when they are excited to be together.
I was quickly learning that I had scored one of the best dogs I could have imagined. He was fantastic with other people and children, patient, obedient and more than capable of developing good relationships with other dogs. I even found that many people in my neighbourhood were curious and excited to see him upon seeing him on his daily strolls in the neighbourhood. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that I look nothing like a gangster and he was always so well behaved giving off nothing but positive puppy dog eye energy to those he encountered. My biggest challenge until this day has been to prevent him from swallowing up random edible and semi edible objects on our walks together. This, I figure is his deeply entrenched survival instinct that came as a result of his period of starvation and near death experience. Needless to say, if I even wanted to encourage him to learn new behaviours, a simple treat would more than motivate him.
Being a responsible dog owner is a challenging road to undertake. It does take a lot of time, education and energy to meet the needs of your dog, regardless of how calm and well behaved they might seem. I generally fall back on Ceasar Milan’s 3 pronged approach to meeting a dogs needs: 1 - Exercise, 2 -Discipline and 3 – Affection. I strongly believe that if these principles are followed through with on a consistent basis, people will be much more likely to develop deeply fulfilling relationships with their pets. Furthermore, it will help improve the often misguided perception in many minds of the public that dogs behave as they do because of their breed or genetics alone. Of course these do play a part in determining dogs’ behaviours, but responsible and educated ownership can go a lot further in generating both a positive ownership experience in addition to a positive perception from the public in general.
It is important to remember dogs weren’t labelled ‘man’s best friend’ for no reason. I have and I continue to work on providing Milo with all he deserves, as he is in many ways my best friend.
