Weekly Medium Entry 5

I’m still in a bit of a pickle with my research. I’m focusing mainly on dogs with dangerous reputations at this point (especially pit bulls) and why they’ve gotten that dangerous reputation. Most of the statistics I’ve found around that topic address how a lot of dogs that are seen as dangerous have become so because of high publicity surrounding dog-attacks from their breed and the tendency for certain breeds to be bred and groomed to be more aggressive. For example, a person is more likely to adopt/breed and train a pit-bull to be a guard dog or even a dog fighter than say a Labrador. Pit-bulls were also originally bred for bull-baiting and some criminal organizations have taken to owning pit-bulls as a fear tactic and status symbol.

I still want to change the image of these dogs and make them more appealing to everyday adopters, but I will have to address that the fear of these dogs isn’t without some valid reason. Like I mentioned in my faculty brief, I do believe that dogs of any breed can be trained to be safe and lovely companions (though might be a bit tougher to train than others). Why I’m on the fence Is that I’ve also read a few articles about dog-training and how it’s important but not common enough for people to highly train there dogs. Sure, most folks will potty train and teach their dogs some simple commands, but there are a lot of issues surrounding pet owners not properly socializing their dogs with other animals or humans.

I think an interesting angle to look at this topic from is how humans often get certain kinds of dogs not just to meet their lifestyle needs, but because of the status and symbolism attached to that animal by culture. A question I have yet to definitively answer is; are pit-bulls owned by people for bad things because there are characteristics of the breed that lend to that or have pit-bulls been groomed for that purpose so frequently that that’s why they are associated with danger and aggression. It’s really a which came first the chicken or the egg kind of question and lots of sources have varying opinions on the answer to that question.