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Ok... please, I don't mean to be nitpicky (maybe I do) but the breed is an American Pit Bull Terrier. So call them Pits, or Pit Bulls or APBT's , but a "pitbull" is not a breed.  - done.


Shell,
I am curious too about the questions Nicole asked- does your brother title his dogs?  Compete in events (CGC, weight pull)?  Does he do complete health testing (includes hip and elbow x-rays, cardiac and thyroid tests, as well as testing for genetic problems?  Does he have waiting lists for his litters?

If the answer is "no" to any of these questions, I'm sorry to say that he is only contributing to the problem of the many,many Pit Bulls who do need homes.

Lucian has a weird new habit of climbing up on our very wide windowsills and sitting there- this should be especially amusing as he continues to grow.




We went for a nice walk around the neighborhood last night (I'm taking care of a diabetic cat for 2 weeks who lives about a mile away):

I am going to fully agree with what was stated in the "Good Pit Bull Post".

As someone who has extensive experience with Bully breeds for the past 9 years (I own a 6yo APBT, have fostered and continue to foster countless bull breeds and did behavioral work at a bull-exclusive shelter), here are my experiences with these wonderful dogs:

1) Pit Bulls make lousy guard dogs!  (I had to teach my girl to bark/growl by wiggling my eyebrows and now when I ask her to make noise, she lets out this coonhound-esque bay while waggling her entire rear end). This is a breed that was bred for many, MANY years to be extremely non-human aggressive. What sense would it make to breed a dog that was once used for fighting to turn and latch onto the human that was trying to intervene and break up a fight? - none.  A human aggressive Pit is not a stable pit.   It is true that they may have dog/animal aggression, but not all American Pit Bull Terriers are this way.  An APBT that shows a tendincy towards human aggressive should get one simple solution - an injection of pink juice.  It may sound harsh, but these wonderful dogs don't deserve any more bad press.

2. I'd just like to throw out a few statistics...b ecause the math frustrates me:
The information at http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html is meaningless at best.

“According to the Clifton study, pit bulls, Rottweilers, Presa Canarios and their mixes are responsible for 74% of attacks that were included in the study, 68% of the attacks upon children, 82% of the attacks upon adults, 65% of the deaths, and 68% of the maimings. In more than two-thirds of the cases included in the study, the life-threatening or fatal attack was apparently the first known dangerous behavior by the animal in question.”

When you lump together “pit bulls” and “pit bull mixes” - essentially redundant designations that encompass an extremely huge population of mutts, along with another popular breed, Rottweilers you get just over 50% of serious dog attacks. Is this a surprise? A pit bull is in the eye of the beholder, and when that eye is a news reporter looking for a fantastic story or a policemen, it’s usually the dog that just bit someone.

The statistics regarding children are also misleading. Most serious dog attacks are on children. Period.

Then lets look at these:
Let’s take the (Very flawed) CDC statistics (a study they did where they tracked dog bites from 1979-1998) for an example, even as flawed as they are.
“Pit Bulls” (and mixes) are responsible for 76 deaths in 20 years according to the study. That averages out to 3.8 deaths -per year-.
Okay. Sure.
In 2004, there were approximately 1,117 children that died by neglect and/or abuse at the hands of their own parents, according to the Admistration for Children and Families. That averages out to 3 *per day*.

Are we working to ban parents too?

Well, Lucian was a big hit at the vet as always yesterday!  The tech is a friend of mine and made sarcastic comments about how "He's so fearful and unsocialized" and "Dan, it's obvious you don't take him ANYWHERE" as he puttered around behind the counter, greeting everyone and everything (including hissing cats) with a wagging tail and a grinning "smile". 

He got a good look over and a ton of praise on his development, though Justin (his vet) still can't believe how big he is (or how big he's going to be!)- he weighed in at 47 lbs yesterday and looks fit and strong!

Look how big she's gotten!
It's great to get an update and to hear she's been placed in a great home.  I know it was a hard decision to have to make.

I am not a fan of cropping as a whole, and being that your boy is so obviously oversized, I wouldn't think you're thinking about the show ring for him, so wouldn't it be a moot point to put him through it?  Just like MaryAndDobe's said - 12 weeks is EXTREMELY late for a crop - 7-8 weeks is the norm with 9 or 10 being the absolute latest I've ever seen a vet want to do a crop (and most of the vets I've worked with wouldn't crop).

We're still settling in from our big roadtrip, but Lucian had his moment on the scale today!  He turns 14 weeks today (5/26) and is weighing in at.... 41.9 lbs    Where did my 11 lb mini monster go? 

I promise a huge picture vomit soon

http://www.itchmo.com/read/lab-reports-cyanuric-acid-in-dry-food_20070524

Not like we didn't know it was a yucky food already....