Comments on: Pit Bull, Bronwyn Dickey

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 19:10:00 +0000

Oh how interesting! I don’t think I can read this – I can’t handle the dead dog thought and my own sweet pea is just turning into an old man – so yeah no. But am definitely going to pass this title on and your awesome review! How maddening and sad.

By: Katie @ Doing Dewey

Katie @ Doing Dewey — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 03:03:00 +0000

I have nearly zero tolerance re: dead dogs, but I love learning interesting facts and stats like those you shared. What a crazy thing!

By: Katy

Katy — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 05:47:00 +0000

I don’t think of pit bulls as particularly dangerous to people, but I still don’t think they’re very safe dogs to have as pets, especially if you don’t have experience training aggressive breeds. Every pit bull I’ve ever known has been super sweet and friendly with people but aggressive with other dogs. I know this may all be coincidence, and a few instances don’t necessarily mean anything. But when I think of pit bulls, I think of a puppy that my cousin’s roommate got a few years ago. He was the sweetest little pup when he was small. I would walk into their apartment and sit down, and he would launch himself across the room and into my lap. And they were careful, from the beginning, to take him to the dog park and socialize him to other dogs. But as he got older he got more and more aggressive, and they couldn’t train him out of it – and then his owner took him to her parents’ house and he killed the family dog and had to be put down. Obviously that’s just one story, and it’s a really extreme example and not likely to happen, but it does make me very cautious about dogs that have been bred to fight.

By: Katie McD @ Bookish Tendencies

Katie McD @ Bookish Tendencies — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 13:19:00 +0000

In reply to Jenny @ Reading the End. I have a chihuahua. There's a pic of her in my bio on my blog if you care to see her cuteness. :)

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:01:00 +0000

In reply to Shannon @ River City Reading. NOPE SORRY! I mean, the fire dog story does exist, but you've already heard it (and my version has more color commentary and made-up but fun details), so... There are some other heartwarming stories, like about organizations that provide free veterinary services in poor neighborhoods, but yeah, there are also a bunch of dead dogs. There's even a picture. It's horribly upsetting.

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:00:00 +0000

In reply to Jeanne.

Dickey says they never actually were called nanny dogs! She says that’s another myth — people started repeating it in the 70s, but it wasn’t true in old-time England. I’d actually never heard of that before Dickey mentioned it. New informations!

…also I hope it is indeed true that you enjoy dogs in people’s houses. Since my own dog has lavished such extensive love upon you. :p

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:00:00 +0000

In reply to Kerry M. Holy SHIT. Someone said that to your face? When you had the dog with you? Your sweet little dog?

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:57:00 +0000

In reply to Stefanie@SoManyBooks.

Honestly, my childhood dog was a big black poodle, and people were scared of HER. So I get why people tend to be scared of larger dogs, and I’d obviously rather have a tiny dog mad at me than a large one. But yeah, it’s about the owners and their treatment of the dogs far more than it is about the breeds. There’s some amazingly heartwarming bits in this book about organizations who go around to poor neighborhoods and offer various kinds of pet assistance — like building fences to keep the dogs in. And Dickey herself talks about how her family went through tons of pets who were very badly behaved, and it was because her family was screwed up and broke and even though she loved those dogs so much, she just didn’t have the ability to provide for them the way they needed. It was sad. 🙁

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:53:00 +0000

In reply to Shaina @ Shaina Reads.

Aw, I love you too, Shaina. I love you, and I love COLD HARD FACTS.

Nope, I have no information about rates of aggressiveness by breed. I’m not sure how that could be tracked either, really! Like the only measurable outcome of aggressiveness that I can imagine would be biting, and we’ve already gotten into why those stats are unreliable. Plus I’m guessing that if you did observational studies of aggressiveness in dogs, that people would rate neutral behavior as aggressive more often in dogs they already believed were aggressive. So if I had to guess, I’d guess that data doesn’t exist either.

By: Jenny @ Reading the End

Jenny @ Reading the End — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:49:00 +0000

In reply to Katie McD @ Bookish Tendencies. #1 no YOU are the best. <3 #2 I bet your dog is an amazing dog. Because yeah, it's all about training. What kind of dog, can I ask? (You don't have to say, I am just curious.)