Because the energy was different with extra people and a camera, plus I started the whole feeding process an hour later than usual, a fight broke out, inside the kennel. Edwina, went nuts and went after Bertha who was in her run, Larry who was on his way into his run, double backed and started attacking Edwina. The fight was over before it started and all the dogs calmed down faster than I calmed down so that Adrianna could start filming the dogs in the play yard. I set her up behind a fence and of course the dogs were all curious. Dogs that I never thought would care about the camera, like Sasha, wouldn’t stop barking, others like Bruno and Askim actually liked being filmed and really showed off all their play skills for the taping. The energy level was high, so I released half as many dogs as I normally put out together. Curtis never recovered from new people and a camera watching him, but Majick could care less and enjoyed his time out playing.
When Adrianna went inside the kennel area to film, it got really crazy, all the dogs were barking, some lunging at her, others just curious about the camera. Once we were outside of the runs, where we could talk, I asked her, I told her, “Now you see why adult pit bulls don’t get adopted out of the City shelters when they are shown in a caged environment’. The same dogs that she had seen playing in a pack, enjoying themselves, wrestling with other dogs and climbing on the ramps and tables looked like they were dog and people aggressive “behind bars” of their runs. When anyone evaluates a dog in a caged environment like a kennel or a shelter, one isn’t really seeing the “real dog”, in most cases. This is especially true for dogs that have been neglected and abused, as is the case of most of the dogs in our rescue.
Take our wonderful rescue dog “Precious” as our example. Today, she was out in the yard, playing well with all the dogs while Adrianna filmed her. An hour later, in her run, she was lunging and barking at Adrianna and the camera. The day before, she was calm, mellow, the best behaved dog at our PETCO adoption. If you saw her at the kennel in her run today, you would never believe that this is the same dog. It’s all about energy, environment and controlling or not being able to control the environment. This is especially true for American Pit bull Terriers who are very emotional dogs. Introducing an extra person, especially one with a camera can and did set off fireworks today. It’s all a learning process for me, no matter how many times I see and deal with my dogs aggression. As my teacher Brandon Fouche has told me many times, aggression is the highest form of communication between dogs.
Adrianna will be finishing up her thesis and graduating in six weeks. I can’t wait to see her final project! We appreciate her selecting our rescue as her final project.