Pit Bull Art: Gone to the dogs...

Randy Grim with Stray Rescue of St. Louis has been trying to rescue and revitalize the breed through his art. His message is very clear in the various pieces on display now in the Saint Louis University Museum of Art. Some of the pieces were even created by pit bulls themselves (with paws, tails and teeth.)

This art is very inspiring to pit bull lovers because it shows how many creative ways there are to spread the message about this down-trodden mis-understood breed. Words and pictures, blogs and articles, advertisements and public appearences- all help change minds. The more people hear and see both the sad side of the pit bulls' plight as well as the happy side of family life with a pit bull- the more homes these brave animals can have.

I love seeing new and interesting ways to affect peoples' consciences about these dogs and I love what Mr. Grim was able to do with his art.

Read more here.

Science & Dog Facts- Did you know...

Did you know?

1) When humans and dogs interact, both release "oxytocin" - also called "the hormone of love" which reduces stress. It is the same hormone that women release when they are breat-feeding. Scientist postulate that this is the reason why people with dogs are less likely to have heart-attacks and more likely to survive a heart-attack.

(www.newpuppytrainingsecrets.com)

2) It only takes 25 years to create a new "breed" of dog.  For example- the Dogo Argentino was created over 25 years to take down boars (without killing it) while able to be around children.

3) Dogs can have huge vocabularies. While humans know 60,000 words - most dogs know around 150 words. However, Chaser the border collie from South Carolina knows 1,022 nouns, understands verbs and categories and learns up to 40 new words a day.

(www.abcnews.com)

4) Dogs, like humans, read facial expressions from left to right (because we make expressions a-symmetrically). However, dogs to not read eachother's faces left-to-right and no other animal has been discovered to read faces in this way.

5) Studies have shown that dogs do not feel "sorry," but rather are expressing submissive behaviors in reaction to our reprimands. (For example, control groups of dogs also so "guilt" or submissive behaviors when they hadn't done something wrong.)

(look at that guilty face)

6) Dog-owners are able to tell the difference between six different dog barks (separation, strangers, hunger, playful etc...)


Source: Howstuffworks.com Podcast, "Does your dog really love you?"

Animal Farm Foundation Posters

Thanks to Animal Farm Foundation to reminding us all not to group pit bulls together-- they are all different and unique, all of them when through different experiences and have different reactions to other dogs and people.

One way I'd like to generalize however, is to assume that they all like love- they all are capable of receiving and enjoying human love and companionship- no matter what they have been through.

Enjoy their new poster-campaign:

House guests

On Wednesday night I had two of my very best friends from High-School over for drinks and a night of catching up. They had met Winnie before- always a charmer- but had never met Bruno.

We don't have guests (other than family) often enough to train the dogs adequately so they tend to rush up to guests and jump on them a little. They tend to not jump on us much when we come in- but strangers and guests affect them completely differently--

Winnie-ever the anxty teenager--thinks they are potentially going to rescue her from her suuuper annoying family and goes to greet them wild with happiness.

Bruno thinks they are perhaps going to hurt him so he barks and wags intermittantly, waiting for them to extend a friendly hand so he can calm down. So we have to explain that it will just take them a few minutes to adjust.

The hard thing for guests that I have come to realize is that Bruno looks like a killer--

rawrrrrr

...so it is hard for them to be freindly to him at first- which is the only thing that will calm him down (This is probably how Bruno developed this complex- he is scary looking- so people are frightened of him- so he is frightened back and the process if self-fulfilling unfortunately.)

Luckily we have two rooms- and gave Bruno some time to adjust (all he needed was 5 minutes) and when he came back and saw everyone sitting calmly, he was able to greet them more appropriately. I really appreciated how much of a chance my friends gave him- they really trusted me when I told them he wouldn't hurt them and confidently allowed him to get used to their presence. They petted him and scratched him and eventually I think he won them over.

After a few drinks, one of my friends remarked that we could make a lot of money having him play a scary dog in movies because of his scary look and giant head:

Of course, this is hard for me to imagine because I see him as a big cuddly teddy bear who saves me money on heating bills:

What do you all think? How do you deal with your pit bulls' appearence with strangers, friends and family-members?

Upcoming Lecture

If you are in New York City and interested in Pit Bulls, I suggest attending this lecture which I heard about through the excellent Animal Farm Foundation website.

JANUARY 26, 2011

4PM

Fordham University School of Law

Join the National Canine Research Council for their presentation, The Pit Bull Placebo: Media, Myth and Politics of Canine Aggression at Fordham University.

Fordham University School of Law

140 West 62nd Street

New York, NY 10023