Would you feel comfortable letting your dog around a pit bull?

[misterW]

Here's my situation:

I have a 2 year old unspayed female (Eva) who I've had since 8 weeks. We live in a rural area, which has its pros and cons as far as dogs. On one hand, we go for long, unleashed walks in the woods every day. On the other, she doesn't have as much opportunity to meet other dogs as she might elsewhere.

From the beginning, I made attempts to socialize her w/ dogs and people.

With people, she is great. I take her everywhere and she is a favorite at all the local hardware stores.

It was hard to find other dogs for her to play with. I actually put ads in the local paper searching for playmates. I found one dog, who she still regularly plays with, and a few others who she sees infrequently. She is great with these dogs.

I also took her to a dog park about once a month whenever I visited my girlfriend, who had moved to DC. She was shy at times, but also made many friends there.

However, as she grew older, she has become fairly territorial of our property (with regard to dogs). I know that if a strange dog showed up on our property, she would let them know that it was her place, in no uncertain terms. This is not unexpected, and I don't really have a problem with that. There was also an instance where we stopped by at a friend's house and they unexpectedly had a guest with a bull mastiff. When we got out of our vehicle, the mastiff trotted right up to me and Eva took exception to that, getting in his face and doing the whole snarling/fighting routine that doesn't include any actual biting. The dog backed away, and they were relatively fine after that. I suspect the dog being male made him much more tolerant of her behavior than he might otherwise.

Now to get to the point:

My friend has a male neutered pitpull and has expressed in interest in having him meet Eva. I am not concerned with the pitbull being aggressive initially; I am just concerned what might happen if she decides to act tough with him. I wouldn't want some stupid, harmless display of hers to trigger an actual serious attack on his part.

Suppose for the sake of the argument the pitbull has no history of attacking other dogs. Would you still be concerned?

Of course, if they were to meet, I would arrange for it to happen on neutral territory. Anyway, thoughts?

[N Smith]

Yes I would be concerned, not because of the breed but because you have no control over your dog. What may seem harmless to you is not harmless in dog, the previous bullmastiff could have been very confident, more mature or just naturally more tolerant - he was the exception, not the rule when it comes to dog who act like yours.

If you PROPERLY intro these two you could have everything go great, but I would not intro them by letting them sort it out themselves. On leash, neutral ground after they have had a leashed walk together for the first few times, then go from there based on their behavior. No face to face at first, only butt to face, until they start to exhibit play behaviors. No posturing, vocalizing or aggression allowed!

I would get a handle on your girls "protectiveness" (IMO - Insecurities) now. It will only get worse in the future. IMO, aggression should not be demostrated by a dog unless the owner/situation calls for it (ie owner is not there/unconcious or something). This will take desensitization, a whole lot of patience and time.

If your girl at all exhibits these behaviors at the dog park, stop taking her there. Allowing her to practice these behaviors with no consequence is not OK, neither is putting her in situations where she feels the need to defend herself. She should look to you to protect her.

Have you used marker training before?

[fuzzybunny]

I see no harm in meeting on neutral territory and going for a walk with both dogs on leash. I would not let them meet/sniff or anything before the walk. Assuming the walk goes well and neither dog has displayed inappropriate behaviour, then I would let them meet on leash and see how it goes. I would do this on a few separate occasions before they are off leash together. I'm not a big fan of just letting two dogs off leash and seeing how it goes, especially if one has displayed some inappropriate behaviour in the past. Better safe than sorry.

[Courtney]

I'm not comfortable letting my dog around any breed that is unkown to me.

[kiya]

I hate to admit there have been pits around when we've been out & about, I steared clear, but I did not know them.
Some pits are very sweet, I'd rather get to know the dog without my dog then make a decission.

[Courtney]

Can't playing, interacting & training with you be enough for Eva?

I don't understand the need for our dogs to have doggie friends and play dates? Maybe I'm a stick in the mud lol

[DJEtzel]

I would have to know how the dog played with other dogs, take them for a long walk, and let them meet on leash to control both dogs. Some pits play absolutely great with all other dogs, some have a very low threshold and if something sets them off, they will kill whatever dog is closest. You would have to either know how to notice the signs of a short fuse, trust that their owner knows, or take the risk, always.

[misterW]

Originally Posted by Courtney

Can't playing, interacting & training with you be enough for Eva?

I don't understand the need for our dogs to have doggie friends and play dates? Maybe I'm a stick in the mud lol

I'm sure it could be. This would be more about convenience than anything -- ie if the two got along well, I could visit the friend without leaving the dog behind. Or vice versa.

[misterW]

Originally Posted by DJEtzel

I would have to know how the dog played with other dogs, take them for a long walk, and let them meet on leash to control both dogs. Some pits play absolutely great with all other dogs, some have a very low threshold and if something sets them off, they will kill whatever dog is closest. You would have to either know how to notice the signs of a short fuse, trust that their owner knows, or take the risk, always.

Yeah, the thing that concerns me is the potential short fuse. That might be pretty difficult to spot before something happened.

[gsdraven]

It would depend on the individual dogs in question... not just the breed. Not all dogs have the same play style which can lead to problems. I've noticed that bullys play different from shepherds and that it doesn't always go over well with one or the other. How well it's tolerated depends on the thresholds of the dogs involved.

If your goal is to bring your dog along, they don't necessarily have to play as much as they just need to tolerate each other.