Quote:
Originally Posted by LesPaulFan
Daniel Tosh said something about pit bulls. Its like having a roided up MMA fighter sitting on the couch with you. They look really scary to me
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Dogs are very clued in to how you perceive them and their behavior reflects your attitude. Most people are clueless about this, they view a dog's behavior as a function of the dog's personality, They seldom realize that the dog is really reacting to them.
One of my rescue dogs is probably an American Staffordshire terrier. No papers, just a mutt rescued off of the street, but his picture could be the poster for that breed. He's a little overweight, but he'd be a big boy regardless and probably scales around 90 pounds. He's the alpha dog in the house and is about 10.
I've had a few people visit recently. The first were my sister and her husband. They've been dog owners for their entire lives and they own two rescue dogs, both pit bull mixes. They've known my dog for years but neither of them is anywhere close to comfortable with him. They think he's scary looking, because of his size. My sister will grudgingly pet him a little bit but she's happiest with him a ways from her. Her husband won't touch him and he didn't even sit down this last time he came over. My dog reacted to this by thoroughly checking them out. He never showed any signs of aggression, his demeanor was relaxed, he demonstrated that he'd have liked some attention but there was an uncomfortable dynamic coming from the visitors, so I took control of him and gave them the distance from him that they wanted.
The other visitors were a couple that came over to look at a motocross bike I had for sale. Both were dog friendly and, while the husband spent most of his time looking at the bike, the wife spent all of her time interacting with the dog. She let him do his initial inspection then they became fast friends. Almost immediately he was on his back on the floor, getting his belly rubbed. Before they left, he was sitting on her feet while we were all out in the garage looking at the bike. She'd never had a pit bull, the closest was an English bulldog, but she couldn't get enough of him. He loved every minute of it.
When people and dogs interact, it's the people that are in control of the outcome. Be mindful of this when you are around dogs.