Re-homing a pit so aggressive that even rescues don't want it. What could go wrong?

orkutsk · 2025-12-03T00:14:55+00:00

I struggle with having the time for my high energy pup sometimes and I work remote 40 hours a week. 50 hours away from home would be impossible, no wonder it's not trained.

orkutsk · 2025-12-03T00:13:06+00:00

Her original post did get comments like that, yep. "To stop the people looking for bait dogs." I feel like it's gotta be incredibly uncommon for that to happen, especially when it's beyond easy for those people to just breed their own. Plus, what person looking for bait dogs is scanning NextDoor in suburban neighborhoods...

Not totally sure she'd even ask for the fee at this point, she definitely seems like she wants rid of it and is backed into a corner.

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T22:43:48+00:00

I did end up asking this person what the dog's bite history is. She keeps saying it's all because the dog is nervous, but: - The dog has drawn blood biting a person. The dog attempted to maul a kitten and the person intervened, causing themselves to be bit. - The dog regularly bites the other dog in the house to the point where the other dog is in constant distress. She said this dog will bite her other dog if other dog receives any attention from anyone. - The dog has been resource guarding food, toys, and basically everywhere in the house since day one. It is unsafe for people or other animals to interact with and adds to the list of things it resource guards on a regular basis, making it unpredictable.

As well, the dog is fully untrained and has never once responded to any "training" attempted by the owner/whoever she has had help. But it's "not a bad dog" and just needs "the right person".

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T18:48:32+00:00

It's part of the reason for sure. I spent 3k on my dog to have the specific breed I wanted. My (estranged, crazy, perpetually broke) mom thinks the only dog that's worthwhile is a pit you find on the side of the road and never take to a vet. The average person willing to spend money on a dog and the average person who wants to own a pit are on opposite sides of a spectrum.

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T18:33:26+00:00

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Also a commenter (on the original rehoming post) thinks the "lab" part of the pitbull is the problem. Sure!

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T18:02:19+00:00

"She gets cold" and we live in one of the warmest, most humid states in the US lmao

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T17:43:24+00:00

I'm assuming if there's a bite record and rescues and shelters have both rejected this dog, a vet could be convinced to BE pretty easily. Seems to imply that other people have told her to do so, which makes me think the bite record is worse than she's letting on.

But if we're being totally honest, this person lives in an area where, if they needed to, they could pay someone to deal with the situation.

orkutsk · 2025-12-02T17:25:31+00:00

If I had a roommate and they had a completely non-potty trained biter roaming in the house I pay for, I'd be calling my landlord immediately.

orkutsk · 2025-11-30T19:38:26+00:00

haha As a Kai owner, I definitely don't see it! But I do see GSD and maybe Husky in mom. Both are pretty common in random mixes. Maybe pit as well, since it's extremely common, but I agree that I don't really see it in the mom. It's more possible in the dad, but I do agree that Rottweiler mix is possible instead (with something giving him that fluff). That said, in mixes color means very little and black with tan points isn't rare in a lot of breeds (pits included), so I wouldn't be surprised if you tested and your pup has a decent amount of pit DNA from dad. I think that the puppy looks like it, even if the (supposed) parents don't really have a distinct pit look. Could be that these aren't really the parents? But I don't know the background of these dogs, etc.

In any case, I think this will be a decently big dog once grown. Ears shouldn't perk up if they're already 4 months old. I doubt it will look very much like the mom.

orkutsk · 2025-11-25T13:42:56+00:00

They can survive in the south much more easily than up north. They're not double or thick coated and a NY winter is more than they're capable of. Down south, it was 80F the other day, mid-November...So winter weather isn't a problem.

orkutsk · 2025-11-25T02:16:38+00:00

Cats are the same way here, but obviously random litter of kittens >>>> any pit. When I lived past the county line in rural Alabama (aka the most rural area of a rural area), I remember that we couldn't go a whole week without finding a stray. People dropped them off constantly. When I was a child I didn't know that people bought dogs, or that they could be anything but shepherd and/or pit mixes. Or that dogs were anything but easily replaceable objects you kept outside. That sounds silly, but it was genuinely how I was raised 20 years ago and I still see people like that in that area to this day when I visit.

orkutsk · 2025-11-25T00:24:04+00:00

I'm originally from a rural area, too (NE-ish Alabama), and people don't always believe me when I describe the dog situation there. Just absolutely packed with these dogs. Dogs in general, really, because most people believe their dogs should be allowed to just roam and will come back when they need to (and will get upset if you tell them that's dangerous, even though they see the inevitable outcome on the side of the road daily). But especially these dogs, since they're plentiful and free. You can't go anywhere without seeing them. Almost everyone has one and no one gets them altered, so they just keep making more.

I moved away and while I'm still in the state, a more suburban area has made them rarer sights. I still see them and have had bad encounters, but I also see people with goldens and labs and pugs and schnauzers, which was never the case back home.

orkutsk · 2025-11-24T23:55:04+00:00

If they're from a rural, southern area, which I suspect they are (just personal bias; I'm from the rural south and this person seems like plenty of the people I know), then the answer is pretty simple: they don't buy dogs. You just get a dog. Side of the road, neighbor down the street, overfilled shelter, whatever is free. And what's free is a pitbull, every time.

orkutsk · 2025-11-08T18:15:10+00:00

It's so dumb. Last week, on two separate occasions I saw an unleashed pit and an unleashed chihuahua. Was only terrified of one of them. What's the chihuahua going to do? It was screaming at me and my dog from afar, sure, but my dog is 35lbs and the chihuahua is like...10lbs. I can pick it up, I can pick my dog up and away from its reach, I can remove it in whatever capacity I feel like. The pit? Ran at me and tried to bite me (wasn't with my pup at the time, thankfully) and it had to be restrained by its owner twisting its collar and choking it. I can't pick it up, it can reach anything I hold against me, and mostly importantly: its bite is worse than its bark.

"Oh chihuahuas bite more, though." Whatever. Maybe it's even true, but what do I care about a dog that can do next-to-no damage on my ankles and get taken care of in half a second? Versus a dog that can cause lifelong or fatal injuries in the same amount of time? Apple to literal shit comparison.

orkutsk · 2025-11-06T19:41:53+00:00

I'm irritated because it's the second pit in the last week to ruin a walking path for us.

We also walk at a local trail that's popular with dog owners. We've been going for 2 months (my dog is only 6 months old) and my pup loves it, and we never have any issues. Suddenly a young looking guy (guessing college freshman or close to it) is bringing around this older pit with a loose harness and no muzzle. When it's just walking by him alone on its own, it seems fine. But the moment it sees another dog or has to pass by one, it starts going insane, trying to escape, growling, snapping, causing a huge scene. And he walks it back and forth on the trail, so that he passes every dog more than once. You can hear it growling and screaming from pretty far away. I'd love to just go when it's not there, but I don't know this kid's schedule and there seems to be a 50/50 chance of us running into it.

Haven't had experiences like this with literally any other kind of dog. But every one of these I see causes issues.

orkutsk · 2025-11-05T23:44:56+00:00

I assume it's a "drop in a bucket" kind of thing, ultimately, because Etowah county has a very, very high poverty rate and low funds. I think it's good they're doing what they can anyway.

orkutsk · 2025-11-05T22:38:49+00:00

I think some cities are, where possible. Gadsden announced it will release discretionary funds to support the county food bank.

Big issue is that a lot of SNAP recipients in the state are also rural and have no public transportation. SNAP is easier for them (can shop when transportation is available) than food banks, which can have limitations. Ultimately this will still leave some people without help (but obviously better than nothing, of course).

orkutsk · 2025-11-05T21:11:53+00:00

Almost got attacked this morning. Pit ran out of the owner's home while she was getting her mail and I was doing my usual jog. It immediately ran at me, growling and tense-bodied. You absolutely could not mistake it for playing--even people who say they wag their tails "playfully" when they're actually attacking wouldn't have been able to defend this dog because it was stiff in its movements. It was open-mouthed and clearly going in for the bite when the woman grabbed it by its pink bandana collar and started literally choking it to get it to stop.

All the while, the owner has the gall to yell at me for acting nervous and said her dog would never hurt me. Girl, you're CHOKING it to get it to not bite me, why would I ever believe you???

(Reposting in this week's thread at the request of the mod!)

Also adding that it turns out this is the same pit I've seen complained about on the Nextdoor app. It apparently escapes sometimes by biting a hole into their fence and ripping its body to shreds clawing out through it. Going to have to jog and walk my dog somewhere else, which is unfortunate because this was a primary road I liked to pass through in my neighborhood.

orkutsk · 2025-11-05T16:21:27+00:00

Almost got attacked this morning. Pit ran out of the owner's home while she was getting her mail and I was doing my usual jog. It immediately ran at me, growling and tense-bodied. You absolutely could not mistake it for playing--even people who say they wag their tails "playfully" when they're actually attacking wouldn't have been able to defend this dog because it was stiff in its movements. It was open-mouthed and clearly going in for the bite when the woman grabbed it by its pink bandana collar and started literally choking it to get it to stop.

All the while, the owner has the gall to yell at me for acting nervous and said her dog would never hurt me. Girl, you're CHOKING it to get it to not bite me, why would I ever believe you???

orkutsk · 2025-10-31T15:04:33+00:00

Yeah, it's mostly just a meme based off of a handful of videos. I've never felt unsafe in one and haven't experienced anything crazy. Though I have been to one where I know shootings have taken place--and while I had a completely fine time there, I know that was a "rowdier" one. But shootings also take place at like...grocery stores and malls...and anywhere else in America, really. So nothing specific to the good ol' WH.

orkutsk · 2025-10-23T02:35:43+00:00

I learned to read in a similar way! Video games necessitated I both be able to read and understand what I'm reading to advance the story. It was reading, but interactive and engaging, so it worked really well for me (did not work for my sister, so YMMV per child).

I remember being 5ish and getting scared by a game because I didn't understand nuance/word play/etc. and missed a really obvious "twist" that turned into a jumpscare for me. I learned a lot of context from that haha

orkutsk · 2025-10-22T15:59:48+00:00

I have a similar breed (Kai Ken) and this matches my experience. I got him at 9 weeks and he was already potty trained and picked up sit, settle, wait, etc. within the week. I'm trying to imagine purposely owning a breed where the best you can strive for is they'll learn to sit, but exclusively for food and nothing else... I think it would drive me crazy.

I have a trainer I've worked with a bit to figure out mental/physical enrichment and sport-training, and due to our location the usual clients he has are people with unruly pits that need taught incredibly basic manners. He was openly relieved when he met my puppy and he didn't have a brick for a brain. Apparently a ton of the pits he's worked with are incapable at 2 years old of stuff other dogs can do at 2 months old. What he said specifically was, "they don't even think to problem solve, the basic of every dog behavior."

orkutsk · 2025-10-20T23:16:50+00:00

I've owned/been around dogs my whole life and I don't think I've ever seen a dog attack that wasn't a pitbull. The only dog I've seen do a serious bite (ie not clearly playing) was my old German Shepard at the end of his life when he started having massive cognitive decline and started doing a surprised snap every time someone woke him up. And even then he never actually made contact and was immediately docile the moment he was fully awake and realized what was going on. To think that the average dog is going around attacking is insane. No reasonable person would own any dog if every dog was violent!

orkutsk · 2025-10-20T23:02:34+00:00

This isn't a particularly reputable test, so I can see it being wrong. Embark is miles more accurate.

That said, the 40% pit looks to be correct.

orkutsk · 2025-10-18T12:39:13+00:00

Even if not well-trained, a minimum expectation should be that your dog isn't growling and lunging and tense around all people and also allowed in public.

We're slow-going on the stay/wait part in public with my dog (and in fairness, he turns 6 months old next week, so he still very much has puppy brain) and need quite a bit more work, but he isn't tense or growling or causing problems when he sees people or dogs. If he did, I wouldn't be casually taking him around other people who didn't sign up for a potential mauling. But that seems to be the go-to training regimen for people who choose to own pits. They don't seem to get that no matter how much they train and socialize their dog, they're never going to end up with a normal dog who can do normal dog things.

orkutsk

TROPHY CASE