I get lots of e-mails and phone calls from people who have adopted Pit bull Terriers from a shelter. The main challenge for most of these new dog owners is dog on dog aggression. The message usually starts out something like this, “When my dog was in the shelter, he was in a run with other dogs, and wasn’t fighting, so why is he aggressive when he meets a new dog now?” No one adopting a shelter dog should assume that just because a dog is OK in a run with other dogs at the shelter, it’s going to be a breeze to introduce and allow your new pit bull to play with dogs. Sometimes, it works out this way, especially if you have a trusted shelter volunteer as we do, Debbie Fan at West LA shelter and Andrea Franks at the South LA shelter, but no one is perfect, no me, not Billy and especially not the dogs that we rescue!
This was the case for our boy Bruno, a beautiful young Pit bull Terrier, who was red listed at the South LA shelter. He was in a run with a couple other intact male dogs and did fine day after day. No fights. No aggression. When Andrea sent me his plea, Billy and I decided to check him out. At the shelter, Billy took him out of the run, walked him in front of lots of barking dogs. He saw no leash aggression, and no aggression towards the dogs going back into the run. In fact, he seemed submissive. We rescued him. Then everything changed when Billy entered our Vet’s waiting room. Not only did Bruno growl, he snapped, challenged on leash and went crazy at every dog in the waiting room. The staff was even concerned. Billy called his change in behavior a “180” meaning he went from being a scared submissive shelter dog to a scared out of control rescue dog in less than an hour.
The first day at our kennel was also not good. He literally barked for an entire day. He didn’t connect with me and wouldn’t listen. I could tell that he was fearful and very leash aggressive when walking past all of the dogs in their runs. Billy started running him on his bike, taking him on correction walks and dominating him until one day he was ready to meet some dogs out in the yard. The big day that we had all been waiting for!
The first dog that he met was Cookie. She immediately could sense that he was fearful and agitated. She retreated, he went after her and it looked as though he was going to attack her. I called him off and he submitted. We ended the meeting on a positive note, short and sweet. The next day, Richard and I put him out with a small group of all female dogs, Cookie, Danity and Sasha, all of my good girls. He was agitated at first but started to play. We then added Red Stripe and Chasui. This blew his mind. He was mentally exhausted, we put him up. The third day, the same dogs + Edwina. What a difference, he actually loved to chase and wrestle with Edwina who dominated him. We added a few more dogs until he looked around, so happy, he was in a dog pack! Bruno had done it, he was now chasing and playing. He was no longer agitated and fearful. He now allows a new dog to investigate him, all over which is absolutely essential when dogs meet. If a dog is so fearful that he will not permit this to happen, the result is usually aggression. A classic example of flight or fight syndrome.
The mistake that some people make when adopting a dog like Bruno out of the shelter is mixing up fear with dominance. Bruno is not dominant, doesn’t want to be dominant and becomes aggressive when he feels that he needs to be dominant. He is relaxed and happy being in the role of the subordinate dog. This is where he fits in. One might assume at first that he might be a dog that could never be adopted with another dog, fearing that he would be aggressive when it’s just the opposite. He will need to be adopted or at the very least, be exposed on a regular basis with a calm balanced older dog who he can follow. If you adopted or rescued a dog like Bruno and there are a lot of pit bulls like him out there, please be patient. If you live in the Los Angeles area and need help, please reach out to us. We offer a free Pit bull walking class every Sunday. Stay Positive + Be Patient!
Bruno is currently up for adoption.
See BRUNO’S BIO