It really is a shame....as a new owner of a pit bull mix, I am shocked at how much prejudice there is against the breed. Here are just a few of the things we've run into:

* In the park on a walk, people with other dogs make a really wide berth around Zula, and even some people without dogs
do the same thing.
* We visited one trainer who said he 'had no problem with the breed,' but then turned around in the next breath and said he
doesn't allow them in any group training sessions. Luckily, the next trainer I called was great, and said pitties are one her
favorite breeds to train because they do so well.
* And, we are starting to look at kennels for our vacation later in the year, and are running into similar issues - blanket
statements banning the breed, without even meeting the dogs first. I understand business owners have insurance
concerns, but that doesn't make it right. To re-iterate what Shanna said - there are bad and irresponsible owners of every
breed.

But, for every incident we encounter, there are many more where people want to pet her and love her up.

Even with that, though, I always tell Zula that she has to be an even better dog than others - a model canine citizen - to help dispel some of the prejudice of people we meet. (So far, I don't think it has sunk in completely, as she is sometimes pretty obstinant with heeling & coming - ha!) And, we feel a responsibility to be even better pawrents, and ensure we are advocating for the breed whenever we can.

What I hate about all of this is that Pit Bull is NOT A BREED! There are 5 different breeds that can make up the "pit" sub sector just like hunting hounds, terriers, etc. I have a rottweiler American Staffordshire Terrier mix. Am staffs are the most commonly associated "pit bull", but american bull dogs -the budweiser dog-, english staffordshire terriers, etc make up the group. It is totally a North American thing to classify dogs as such a breed, but inreality it does no exist. From experience, most people who say they have a pit do so for the sake of bragging that they have a pit bull. My baby girl is absolutely gorgeous, and looks like a rodesian ridgeback on steroids. When peopl ask what she is I say a Rottweiler Am Staff mix with a spoolash of Boxer -she is a cocktail!

But I too have had that same problem as other have had with people going way out of their way to avoid us, and all the time people ask me: Does he bite? Even though she is a she with the girliest face. If she bit, I would NOT bring her out in public. It is also silly that there are these bans when these dogs are trained not to hurt people, as when they fight them, the humans need to go in to break up the fights between rounds.

My baby actually came from a fighting ring. I got her when she was a few months old so she never fully exprienced it, but she was a handfull at first! but now she is the sweetest thing in the world and my 1yo niece loves her!!! it is all ridiculous! The only dog who has ever actually gone after me was a Golden retriever! Go Figure! It is all in the humans

Suzanne