Adopting Pit Bulls and Other Bully Breed Dogs

If you are looking at bringing a dog into your home, a good way about that is to adopt. You can find all sorts of dogs at your local no-kill shelter and animal control facility, and believe it or not, you can find purebred dogs as well as mix breeds, puppies and adults, small dogs and big dogs. No matter what you are looking for, you can usually find it; sometimes it just takes a little patience before you find just what you are looking for. Just remember that if you are looking for a specific breed of dog, you can always find breed specific rescues in your area; you do not always have to rely on regular dog rescues and shelters that have all sorts of dogs and cats available for adoption.

When you have decided to take the plunge and adopt a dog, you want to make sure that you are ready for anything that may come your way.

You also want to be prepared for what you will see at the shelter. Sometimes it¹s not a pretty site to see. You¹ll find dogs of all ages, sizes, and breeds staring at you from the other side of the bars. It¹s not nice, but remember if you can save just one dog from living in a kennel, you are helping out.

Just like any other dog, you want to make sure that you have the proper time to care for, train, socialize, and love a bully breed dog, before you bring one home to your family and other pets. You want to remember that with any dog you will need time to be figure out and learn the dog and reshape the dog¹s current habits into those that you want to see.

If you are interested in adopting a bully breed dog such as an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, and Bull Terrier (there are others, these are just the more common), you want to make sure that you know the breed. Many rescues will not adopt out these dogs if you do not have past experience, but that is not always the case (below you will find common restrictions for adopting bully breed dogs).

Just remember that you can successfully rescue and adopt a bully breed dog, of any age and live happily together under one roof. You just need to know and understand the mindset of these dogs and, of course, it doesn¹t hurt to have past experience raising the dogs.

Common Restrictions for Adopting Bully Breed Dogs

• Past animal abuse charges: the more obvious restriction and for obvious reasons

• Young children: many rescues will adopt older bullies to families with small children but not younger puppies
• Same sex dogs: some rescues will not adopt a female bull to a home where there is already a female dog or vice versa
• Current dog: many rescues will still allow you to adopt a bully with a current dog, but many prefer that you adopt older dogs versus a rambunctious puppy
• Experience: The more past experience that you have with bully breed dogs- training, socializing, raising, and rescuing- the more likely you are to being able to adopt any age or temperament bully
• References: Some rescues require references to adopt bullies, which usually consists of your vet and one or two other people

Other clauses to some rescues, especially breed specific bully rescues may include:

• The dog be spayed or neutered before actually coming home
• The dog be an indoor dog, yet not left in the kennel or home alone for extended periods.
• The dog attend proper training classes with a local training group or training sessions with the actual rescue behaviorist (if offered)

And, as common sense goes, the shelter will assume that you will:

• Not leave the dog unattended with other pets
• Not leave the dog unattended with young children
• Not leave the dog unattended without proper constraint, such as a dog kennel or dog proofed room.

See the trends common sense says "do not leave a dog unattended."

There are enough myths about Pit Bulls and other bully breed dogs, so why shouldn¹t there be myths about adopting one.

The common myths about adopting Pit Bulls and other bullies can include:

• When you adopt a bully breed dog, especially a Pit Bull, you do not know what you are getting and it is automatically a dangerous dog.
• The dog is there for a reason, whether that be behavior or health, so I don't want it.
• Because many shelters have regulations that you can't adopt a bully, that must mean they're dangerous adopt.
• Puppies are better to adopt because you can train them and the puppy will bond better than an adult or older bully.
• An adopted bully is more likely to turn on the owner.
• The shelter is invading my privacy to screen my background before they give me the dog.
• Certain color coats are rare, which means they must be special.

These myths are pretty self explanatory, so I'm do not think they need to be covered in further detail. Just remember that a myth is called such because it is not necessarily true.

You can find these myths and others in more detail by clicking on Why Should You Adopt a Dog.