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| Meet Ms. Coco... (Renee) | ||||||||||||||||
| She is a 95 pound, registered, purebred American Pit Bull Terrier. She was born 4/10/97. She was subjected to 6 months of a religious training schedule, morning/noon/evening, 45 minutes per session without weekends or holidays off. She can do the following on command: sit, bark, eat, distinguish the fetch of 'stick' 'ball' 'rope' or leash for a walk, settle down, take a bow, lay down, jump, get on something, get off something, stay, come, stop (heal), and drop whatever is in her mouth--even food. She can jump off the ground to a distance that would make Mike Jordan blush. Her tail is strong enough to clear a table and she | ||||||||||||||||
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| has every bit as much grace as a proverbial bull in the china shop. While she gives the clear impression that she is scared of her own shadow (if she backs into a box and it makes a noise, she'll dart the other direction), she also makes it clear that her territory is hers and her pack's. Anything on the other side of the fence is safe. But I wouldn't cross the line. She's never attacked or shown agression to a person, but when the neighbor's Chow attacked my mom's pomeranian (with whom Renee loved to play), she came through the front screen door and only broke off the attack when called off by my mom (a good sign that she'll listen when admonished), even when the other dog | ||||||||||||||||
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| continued the attack, Coco heeded and refused to retort. Opting instead to usher the little dog into the house and shield the pommie from the chow. I've always heard that Pits will act like the sweetest friends until they have reason to do something. I firmly believe that with responsible upbringing, APBTs can be more affectionate, more loyal, more intelligent, more predictable than any other breed. This would be a good time to recall a personal experience that sent me to the ER one night. I walked into the house of my brother's friend and was met with the snarlling jaws of a dog as it greeted me with a skin-breaking, muscle-spraining bite to the ankle, totally unprovoked. That dog was a poodle. No large breed dog has ever done close to that kind of damage to me in 35 years. Renee has had her ears pulled, her lips pulled, her nose pinched, her tail abused by kids and met the torture with eyes pleading for salvation (which she promptly received--[why take the chance?]). She has never snapped at the vet, not when he filled her with 60cc of antibiotics, or poked and prodded the abdominal pucture wound. She didn't even yip when the chip was implanted. The only skin breaking that she's inflicted has been on me... all during play time, and usually with her monster paws. |
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| Renee's friend pictured above is a 13 pound smooth fox terrier, Chloe. After a tense and controlled meeting of the two over the course of a couple of days, they consider each other 'pack' now. Although Chloe prolly thinks Renee plays a little too rough sometimes. | ||||||||||||||||