Lately i've been fighting with my customers to defend my pit

its ridiculous nowadays how stupid people are... my pit is at my work with me during my work hours and she comes home with me at night. why? it is my way of socializing her since i dont have time otherwise. i want to make sure she has as much human contact as possible, and it has worked out very well. she is very friendly and very sweet towards everyone. yesterday, a customer came in and began to browse around, til he came across my pit staring straight at him. ( she is very, very alert and observant). he immediately started cussing and decided to give me some advice! he said "you know you losing a lot of customers having dogs like that at your store". i got up and forced a smile. I told him that it was okay, that she was only a pup and that she wasnt aggressive at all. she got up and put her front paws up on the counter (she cant even see over the counter) and began to lick the air. this is her way of extending a welcome and asking for a pat on the head. he yelled out " you need to tie her up before she jump over it and kill one of us!" i calmly told him that she was saying hi and told him that she couldnt jump high enough to clear the display cases. but i told her to get down and gave her the "lay down" command to show him that she was well trained. then he started to talk his sh*t. i was really pissed off now.he kept on going on and on and on. cussing and talking his sh*t about how pits are killers and that im crazy to own one. he said "you best go tie it the f*ck up over there" i told him that he was in no position to tell me how to run my business and i told him to leave the store, that he wasnt welcome here no more. so then he called security and the police on me. he told them that my pit tried to attack him. i was sooo mad, i just started laughing. it was soo ridiculous that i had to laugh. when they saw that my pit was very sweet they just left. people must really be bored ... they dont have anything else better to do... ruin other peoples days....

sorry for the long story, but i have to add one more quickie before i go....
as i was helping a customer, i was interrupted by a low pitched growl from my pit...
i was shocked to hear her growl, because she never growls.... i look up and there is a grown ass man standing there w/ a rubber crocodile toy in this hand... he is flinging it in the air as if he was taunting my pit... so my pit growled because she sees him as some crazy guy that she doesnt trust... and he jumps back and says the most smartest thing... " oh wow, your dog is aggressive" well what did you expect?? did you think she was going to come lick you ? hell, if i was pit.. i woulda ripped your arm off.. but hey... thats just me...

 

you are right Jenn, people now days are stupid, always quick to judge when they really know nothin of what they speak, just what they hear, i have alot of people around here that tells me wait til one of your dogs gets loose, don't let strangers go around them, you better keep a close eye on them cause they'll turn on ya, etc. Yet none of them has ever owned a APBT in there lives let alone been around them to understand what sweet and wonderful animals they are. but yet they think they have the right to put there 2cents in

 

Sorry to hear that. You did the right thing on trying to let the man know how she really is. Trying to educate an adult is a whole lot worse than trying to educate our youth now a days.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I have a business too, I've brought mine to work before and everyone loved them. The ones who questioned because of what they were and if they were mean I would go on this whole spill of how they are the most loving dogs and they aren't human aggressive and give them the whole background of the APBT and then they see how mine acts and love them. I have alot of customers that everytime they come in they ask how my dogs are.
Some people are stupid though- I've had people act like that to me- I just tell them the facts and if they don't believe me then they can go to you know where- lol

 

jenn -

For years my mother told me this and I hated hearing it as a kid, but it makes so much sense now:

Choose your battles wisely,
Never start a fight you cannot win
and
Timing is everything..............

Good luck!

 

Good advice...

 

That guy is a jacka$$. oviously ignorant.

Diesel- very well said.

 

these things dont surprise me anymore. i've heard just about everything. I just smile and roll my eyes, let them wallow in there own stupidity.
My father told me my dogs were going to cost me thousands, and were going to attack people- His border collie since that statement 5 years ago has bitten 7 people.

My Aunts x-boyfriend told me the same thing- since this statement 2 years ago he has had his "friendly" Chesapeake Bay's taken by animal control, had the cops called on him because of them, had to put some to sleep.

Had an old neighbor years ago tell me who vicious my pups were, how they were going to kill her and her dogs (this is before i had gamedogs), called animal control on me numerous times- you can imagine the smile on my face when AC came out and basically told her she was crazy and to shut up

But the best was when this same lady brought her "very friendly/loving" shar-pei into the clinic that i worled in, and the dog had to be muzzled AND sedated to give it a check up.... i think my face hurt for the rest of the day for smiling so much.

Basically what im saying is take it with a grain of salt. No matter what you have/say/or do there is ALWAYS going to be some a$$hole that thinks otherwise, and is going to be a jerk about it. Just ignore it, you arent going to change there oppinion, and getting you excited and pissed off is what they want. Just smile and ignore them.

JMO

 

thanks everyone for replying to my post! i was just soo irritated by whats been going on lately! everyone constantly tries to remind me of how pits can turn on you and that they arent good dogs.. my pit will happily do all basic commands and more... she is my lapdog... the best dog i ever had... she even whines when she hears babys cry...shes very intuned to her surroundings and reacts accordingly... her parents are very well mannered and well tempered dogs as well... i tell people that but they dont listen... and when i ask them what type of dogs they own.. they tell me.. rottweilers, german shepard, boxer, chihuahua and etc... how funny! so those dogs must be under the same category as golden retrievers huh? so i usually end the conversation by telling them that i have a chihuahua and yorkshire terrier at home that bite to kill.. so if they want... i can bring them to work next time

 

I think that the media's influence on the general public is the root of the problem. People are too inclined to believe the garbage they see on the stupid box then to make informed decisions for themselves. It's frusterating for me because my job is working with the advertising media.

I have both of my dogs out in the public alot, so I know what you're talking about. My Birdie is training to be a service dog, so I always try to make her look less scary by painting her toe nails, putting funky or fancy collars on her or T-shirts and that makes a big difference.

For some stupid reason, people are less intimidated by a pitbull with sparkly nail polish and rhinestone collar on. Maybe she needs to wear a T-shirt with the company logo on it or something to break the ice, so people are more receptive to her. I do this constantly with Birdie and it works.

That being said, I find it ironic that the ads that have brought in the most revenue for the landscaping company that my husband and I own have featured our Pit Bull, Petey.

And we aren't talking about inner city or urban areas either, we're talking areas with houses that sell for $250,000 and up with serious landscaping.

We get more new business calls when I run a patriotic ad with Petey in it. I put a pulling harness on Pete, loaded a landscape wagon with red, white and blue flowers, stuck an American Flag in one of the pots, tied a patriotic bandana on him and used it in an ad for the Fourth of July. Our phone rang off the wall.

I don't even bother to run ads unless Petey is in them anymore because we get barely any response from them. And our customers call to ask us why we didn't put him in the ad!

This one brought in over $10,000 in new business. I only ran it once or twice.

 

you also must take into consideration some people simply do not like dogs period. Some people are scared of dogs no matter what the breed is.... and as fun loving and great your dog may be, anyone who has a phobia or has been attacked by a dog that "seemed friendly" will say otherwise... so one should be carefull when trying to push their dog on another human.

You are in business to make money, no? Maybe you didnt need this "gentlemans" business but word travels FAST....is it so bad to simply tell this customer Im sorry you feel that way, i can assure you she will not bother you ... Instead you let her stare the guy down? How is that helping the cause any by aggrevating the situation... While it is your business and you may run it how you see fit, (and the guy was a complete idiot) just remember some people simply do not care for dogs period (unless you are running a dog related business lol then i doubt you would have a dog hater come in ..)

just another perspective on the matter...

 

Good Point! This is something you need to address and train YOURSELF and your dog how to deal with if you plan on keeping her with you at work.

Even though I have the legal right to take Birdie with me where ever I go as a service dog, I always try to be considerate of how other people and merchants may feel about dogs & her breed.

First of all the dog NEVER goes up to anyone. PERIOD. It sits, stays and waits to be approached to be pet. It should not jump, bark or otherwise ask for attention.

If we encounter a person who is obviously afraid of a dog, I go out of my way to be considerate and move away from them as quickly as possible. I don't stop to explain, tell them she's friendly etc. Just apologize if I can and go. If I can't leave immediately, I put her in a down, stay until I can.

Depending on the situation, I may or may not try to educate someone who starts in with the "Killer Pit Bull Diatribe".

One of the most effective tools that I have found for dealing with public reaction is training. Birdie has been trained with both verbal and hand signals so that I can give her a command she immediately obeys.

For example, with the first guy, you could have given the down & stay hand signal, then diffused the situation as best as you could. The dog jumping up and asking for attention just fed into the situation.

I have also taught Birdie to ignore any kind of stimulus around her as well as annoying people. She focuses on me alone. This is not easy and takes ALOT of training. Now, I can walk through KB Toys with the oinking pigs, barking toy dogs, flying things on the ceiling and a bunch of kids running around & Birdie completely ignores it all.

With the second guy, a leave it, then down/stay would have helped that situation. She would have ignored him completely.

I have quite a bit of info about training dogs to be in public that I could e-mail to you if you'd like. PM me for it.









I can e-mail you the stuff I have about dogs with public access if you you'd like.

 

you ever thought the guy might have been up to no good,,,and don't like dogs like ur pitty because he knows he's being watched and what would probroly happen if he tryied to harm you,,,

 

I know how you feel. I was in lowes the other day looking at fencing for my dogs and i was talking to one of the people who worked there. I was trying to explain to him what i wanted. I told him i was building a fence for my dogs. He asked me what kind they were. I told him i have a husky/chow mix, 2 pit mixes, a pit, and the 13 pups. Hes like oh great. Yeah own a dog that will turn on you.

So i bit my tounge a bit and told him i would trust my pit more than any other dog or person that i have met. I tried to explain to him that pits dont "turn". That there are reasons like bad breeding and bad upbringing that make them aggressive towards people. Hes like ok come back and tell me that after your dog rips your throat out. Then he went over to a friend of his and told him that i said that pits wont turn on you. They had a great laugh about it. I had to resist the urge to pick up the closest object and smash him in the head with it.

No matter what you do people will always have a low opinion of pits. I just think of all the times that i have been able to show people that pits arent evil man eating beast. One win helps you to forget the losses. Atleast until the next person comes along.

 

Yeah alot of people around here think that pit bulls will turn on you and they deserve to all be shot. Makes me so mad when someone tells me that my baby is a vicious killer when all he wants to do is play and give kisses. Scrappy loves all people. The only time that I have ever heard that dog utter a growl is when someone that we didn't know came in the yard.

 

I guess it has to do with where you live, in CA. Here where I do, just about every street has pits. So, no problems. That guy was just being a jerk. He saw you with a business and thought, that kind of dog belong'd in a yard chained up. Maybe, he was a big wimp.

 

rocksteady: I never said my dog stared him down. She was laying down next to me and sat up when he came in. She was just staring at him as he walked in. As any person or pet would do unless they are incoherent. She approached the counter only because I told her to say hi to him. She got up on her hind legs and gently placed her front paws on the counter. Which, by the way, is too high for her to even look over. So she began licking the air. When he refused, I calmly told her to go back to her spot and laydown. And she did so without hesitation. I never push my dogs in any way to a person. I am very aware of the prejudices against this breed and am not looking for trouble. Besides, I dont mind if I lose a customer like him. Everyday that I spend with my dog is important. She is constantly learning and absorbing everything thats around her. I value my time with her more than I value his money. Or anyone elses at that. The rest of my staff and customers just laughed at him after he left. It was ridiculous the way the man was acting. All he had to do was calmly ask me to tie her up, he didnt have to cuss at me.

Hoyden: My pit is very well trained and knows what to do even when I dont tell her to. She can tell by my body movements. If we are walking and I suddenly stop, she knows to sit down. She knows about 2 dozen commands. She never barks or growls unless its night time and someone that doesnt sound familiar approaches the house. But with the second guy, when she growled, I told her to be quiet and she did so immediately. I told her to lay down and stay. She did so but she made sure he didnt leave her sight. She kept eyeballing him until he left. Which I didnt mind because if she was to totally ignore him, she would not be much of a dog would she? BUT i would appreciate any info on training! I dont think my pup would be able to walk through KBtoy without sniffing out those little suckers.

ghost1: Thanks for understanding! I am a jeweler, so I can be a target.

njchmin: Some people are soo stupid. They seem to think you asked for their opinion. Good job on keeping calm. I would have got their names and wrote management a nice letter.

scrappydoo: People have nothing better to do than to go around opening their mouths about things they know nothing about.

missybee16: Yeah im in LA county area, everyone has pits too! Around here, its either you love them or hate them. You know how it is.

 

PM me your e-mail addy and I'll get bunch of stuff out to you.

Please don't take offense to my comments, I am of the opinion that the best thing we can do for our breed is to present well trained, well behaved pit bulls in public.

As one old busy body commented to me in the mall when Birdie and I were shopping, "I thought all these dogs were bad, bad, bad. Then I saw your girl here pick up your phone and give it to you, then she sat nicely even when those little boys ran RIGHT up to her. Maybe somebody's feeding us a crock, heh?"

No amount of discussion would have come to that.

The info I have is geared towards handicap service dogs, but the portions regarding proper behavior in public are really great.

 

I did not take offense to your comment at all! Im actually thrilled to know someone that actually trains pits. Most people usually dont take the time. Somethings I tried to teach her but wasnt successful until I did my own research on their characteristics. That helped me understand her drive. I will pm you right now. WE need to learn the "pick up the phone" trick.