How many times have you heard people say that Pit Bulls are a very aggressive breed? Probably more than a few. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I pretty much heard a lot of that. There weren’t many studies done, so word of mouth was pretty much the way you would hear about things like those. And much like today, word of mouth is not always your most reliable source.
I heard a lot of terrible things about breeds like the Pit Bull, the Doberman, and the Rottweiler. One of the things that I kept hearing more about was the fact that you shouldn’t have these dogs around your home if you had children. This made my whole concept of what these breeds were, change in a very negative way. One of my neighbors had a Doberman and we were all scared of him.
He also had the full-on ‘menacing Doberman look’ with the clipped ears and all the works. We didn’t go past his house that often but when we did, we made sure we went running. One of my friends started telling some stories that ended up being fake about the dog sometimes breaking out of the fence and biting people. After I heard these stories, it made me worry even more.
None of the neighbors that I knew had a Pit Bull which made the legend of what the breed was, pretty much grow in my mind. I had heard stories of these dogs fighting to their death and stuff like that. Whenever I saw their pictures in a magazine or on television, the way they looked seemed to confirm that they would be capable of such things.
After I grew up and moved, I got the chance to see them in person. This turned out to be one of those experiences. I witnessed how they were nothing like I had grown to believe. It turns out that they were extremely protective of children, especially the ones in their home. They also liked to exercise a lot and seemed to have an ever-lasting energy.
One of the things that surprised the most was the fact that they loved to play. They played for hours and would not turn into these monsters I had been led to believe. The following video shows you just how true this is. A couple of dogs who had been used for fighting were rescued, and sometime after, got reunited. Not one of the people there was ready for what they were about to see!
