It was one of those nights last night, where I laid next to my husband in bed and sobbed. Experiencing fertility issues has led me to think of our dog, Daya, as my baby. I remember the breeder handing her to me and when he did, I quit asking questions. I quit worrying about her breeding and her parents which is something people should never do when considering a pit bull as an addition to their family. I am a major advocate for the breed and have never met a truly dangerous one that was not a result of the owner and their horrid practices. Naivete is not becoming, and in saying that, I am fully aware that temperament issues are something you cannot train "out" of a dog. When my 'baby' was about four months old, I was told through the grapevine that the breeders had been forced to euthanize most of their pit bulls, they had been banned from ever breeding again, and in an unrelated matter, the mother to my puppy had been put to sleep for going after a child. These kinds of people are what are known as backyard breeders and they are always a dangerous choice when purchasing an animal that has the muscle and raw power that a pit bull does. If you were to google dogs most likely to bite, you will find several other breeds included in the statistics as "the most dangerous dogs". These include: Akita's, Alaskan Malamutes, Boxers, Bull mastiffs, Chow Chows, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherds, Great Danes, Presa Canarios, Rottweilers, and Huskies. I once spoke with a cable installment man and he informed me that the breed that was most nasty and poorly behaved in his experience was the Golden Retriever. All of this dancing around the pit bull breed cannot change the choice in front of my husband and I. Our baby girl charged my husband's five year old several times yesterday while husband was at work and at one point smashed her face into our child's face, leaving a bruise on her cheek. She did not once open her mouth or attempt to bite, but the aggression was there and it was scary. My husband and I had a barbecue planned for that night, and when a friend walked through the house, one that was well known to Daya, had been at the house incredibly often, and walked through the living room, Daya bit him. She did not break the skin or draw blood, but she bit him well enough to cause a full grown soldier to cry out. About ten minutes after that, she bit our five year old and again, there was no broken skin or blood, and she didn't bite hard enough this time to even cause a tear to fall, but my stomach hit the floor all the same. The dog spent the rest of the evening kenneled, and my husband and I mulled the choice. By bed time we were pretty positive which choice we were going to make. Daya has been through obedience training and we even had a private trainer out to the house at one point to do a personality assessment. She advised us to socialize her more, but that became impossible without a muzzle. Even with a muzzle she still acts like she hates the rest of the world except 'mommy' and 'daddy'. I can't fix her personality. We have certainly tried. I wish to God I could be naive and selfish and say that we could fix this and we could train it out but it doesn't work that way. She has become more and more of a risk and it would indeed be selfish to force others and my husband's daughter around Daya simply because she is my surrogate baby and my heart is breaking. My husband and I have decided to put our precious girl to sleep after his daughter goes back to her mother. She is also very attached to Daya so it will be easier to do it while she is gone and then have her grieve when I am not. I am so very torn... Inside and out over this. My heart is breaking and I wish I could go back and be more responsible about shopping for a pit bull so that this situation would not exist. Word to the wise: you want a new dog? Put out the time and potentially the money to visit the animal several times first. Meet BOTH parents first, no excuses, research the bloodline to figure out if the breeders know where their dogs come from, ask for references from other previous buyers, make sure they are not backyard breeders looking for profit only. My vet once told me that good breeders only breed to advance the species. If the litters you are looking at come from dogs that may be temperamental, do not buy a puppy. All puppies will look cute and cuddly initially, but I can assure you, that may not always be true. I would give anything to go back and undo my irresponsible pet owner purchasing, and it would save me the heart shattering choices we face now.
