The American Pit Bull Terrier

The PitBulls Senses

• Sight: Pitbulls can detect movement at greater distances than we can, but they cant see as well up close. They can also see better in less light, but cant distinguish many colors.
• Sound: Pitbulls, like all dogs can hear about four times better than we can, and they can hear high-pitched sounds especially well.
• Taste: Pitbulls have fewer taste buds than we do, so they're more likely to try anything..and usually do, which is why it's important for their owners to monitor their food intake. Dogs are omnivorous, which means they eat meat as well as vegetables.
• Touch: Pitbulls are social animals and love to be petted, groomed and played with.
• Smell: A Pitbulls nose is his greatest sensory organ. A dog's sense of smell is so great he can follow a trail that's weeks old, detect odors duluted to one-millionth the concentration we'd need to notice them, even sniff out a person underwater.

Robust, quick and brimming with vigor, today's Pit Bull is an intelligent roughneck who wants to please and is ever hopeful of being a lap dog. Supremely confident, he views the world as a giant play house created especially for his amusement and is something of a perennial puppy: He enjoys playing tug, catch and other games, well into old age.

Good-natured with children, the Pit Bull has the sturdiness not to mind if his tail or toe is accidentally stepped on, and possesses the capacity to play for hours. The Pit Bull Also enjoys training sessions, and learns quickly as long as his trainer is fair, firm and praises a job well done.

--The Personality of A Pit Bull--

Contrary to popular hysteria and media hype, the dogfighting fraternity neither bred nor trained the Pit Bull to be aggressive toward people. Imagine anyone wanting to work with a dangerous dog for hours every day in a keep. Because they were handled in all sorts of circumstances, fighting dogs had to be friendly, steady and reliable around people. Today, a properly bred Pit Bull is so exuberantly happy upon meeting her owner's friends (or even friendly strangers) that new owners sometimes worry that their dog is too sweet and fun-loving to protect their home and family. The protective instinct of the Pit Bull usually surfaces when the dog is around 10 months old, although the time can vary by three months or so. A Pit Bull with the correct temperament will not threaten to attack a human without a very good reason, it will begin becoming alert to the doorbell or the sight of a stranger approaching the house. The young dog doesnt need any encouragement to guard his owners and his home, and is best allowed to use his own discretion. There have been numerous cases proving the exceptional ability of the family Pit Bull to sense, and signal to his family, when a person or a situation could be dangerous. Exceptions to letting a Pit Bull guard at will should be made if the dog is overly aggressive, or if he is destined to be used in a specific type of protection work. Pit Bulls enjoy being the center of attention, are confident enough to adapt to unusual surroundings and have a higher than usual tolerance for pain. These traits place them among the top breeds in canine therapy work. They gleefully show off their obedience training or their favorite tricks at children's hospitals, senior centers and schools for the mentally and physically challenged. Pit Bulls exude self-confidence, not only at home, but in the park or noisy city street as well. While the degree of aggression toward other dogs varies between individals, Pit Bulls are often so self-assured that they ignore dogs of other breeds rather than pick fights to prove themselves. But this is not always the case. You should be aware that from 6 months of age on, your Pit Bull could suddenly develope a desire to test his strength against other dogs. That's one of the reasons why training is so important.