You know they say Pit Bulls and kids do not mix, but for anyone who owns a Pit Bull and has children or has children around you know the truth. When properly trained and watched, both are GREAT together, just like any other dog breed in the world. All dogs should be watched like hawks around kids for safety concerns, no matter the breed. That being said and all, let me introduce my nephew JD.
JD is 16 months old and a little devil like most kids his age are. He's very sweet, loves to give hung and LOVES Nubs and his Aunt. His eyes light up, he starts to squeal, and claps his hands when ever he see's Nubs or myself walk into my Parents house.
That day my Dad picked up a battery powered car for JD, and we were teaching him how to drive it around the yard. He finally got pushing down the gas to make it go, but still couldn't understand how to turn the week to drive it around.
JD LOVES Nubs to death, I have a feeling as he get's older, they will be best friends when JD is visiting my parents house. Already he tries to come over to my house (I live behind my parents house) when he first stops in before he goes over to their house.
"Hi Doggy!"
"No Kissies!!!"
No, JD doesn't like Nubs at all, not a bit!
And then just a few extras of my nephew
Dancing in the car
"Ferret! Gotta get the FERRET!!!" (Ok it's a squirrel, but he doesn't know the difference)
Lesson of the story? Young kids and DOGS in general get along great even Pit Bulls. Just training, and a watchful eye is all it takes.
UPDATE on Nubs leg: Its been 10 days since Nubs went to visit the Vet. He still limps, but it's a lot less then he use to, and it's a lot less severe then it use to be. I'm hoping that this is a sign that it is healing, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Another 18 days before it's time to get him back to the vet. Keep your fingers and/or paws crossed for good news. Nubs is getting a little chubby without his daily workouts. Still looks great, but is looking out of shape lol.
So Nubs limp has gone from not much of anything to he can hardly walk on his back leg at times. So yesterday I called the vet and made an appointment for this morning to get him in. 8:40am rolls around and we walk into the vet.
Video of Nubs limping (not the best but you can see it)
Nubs has this thing where he KNOWS that when ever he is out and about and there is a desk or table, the people behind that desk/table has wonderful things called TREATS! So we walk in to the Vet and what does Mr. Social Butterfly do? Why what any larger dog would do, jump up and places his paws on the top of the desk and with this look of "Please feed me" in his eyes, begs for treats with a mournful whimper that says it all. The Vet Techs fall for it, hook, line and sinker.
After I pull Mr. "I'm never fed and I'm horribly abused. Please love me because this woman doesn't" away from the desk and 4 vet techs loving on him, I get him on the scale. 67.7 lbs. WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! Tell me, how in the WORLD does this dog GAIN weight when he's eating less food then ever??? He should be around 64lbs maybe a bit less. While he doesn't look fat at all, he's getting to the point where you can only slightly see his ribs and that beautiful waist line is starting to slowly go away. I never can win.
We sit down in the waiting room and Nubs HAS to sit with me on the bench. So much to the amusement to the 5 other people in the waiting room, decides to shove his head in my stomach and then does a roll over and I barely catch him as his back in falls off the bench. Doofus... Everyone in the room just lets out a laugh which instantly in Nubs mind equals "GOOFY TIME" and that's what he does. He just starts to give me a face full of kisses, slaps me across the face with his paw, and puts that ol' silly grin on his face while looking at everyone in the room. Yeah, He's knows how to work a crowd.
We get into the room, and this is where he starts to act a bit scared. The last few times we've been at the vet he's ended up getting poked, prodded, and violated so he started to get a bit worried. That's when I pulled out the bestest most wonderest treat on the face of the earth, CHEESE. Guess who didn't care one darn bit about all the things the vet tech was doing to him? Yup, Nubs did end up catching the poor vet tech off guard though and have her a nice kiss, when her mouth was wide open. Ick!
The rest of the event was sorta uneventful. The Vet took Nubs into the back room to knock him out and play with that leg. Talk about amusing watching this huge Pit Bull walking toward the lobby tripping over his own paws, running into the Science Diet cart, and then tumbling head over paws onto the floor landing with his legs going in all different directions, and then just looking up at the laughter roaring through the room with that silly grin of his like he was saying "I meant to do that!"
The Good news? His hips look perfect. The vet did some x-rays to make sure he wasn't missing something (and didn't charge me for them!) and there is no movement in the knee that shouldn't be there. The Bad news? His knee is unnaturally tight, and almost too tight for it to work at all.
Solution? Rest rest rest rest rest! 4 weeks of R&R and a half of a pill a day of Deramaxx. No running, jumping, pulling, agility, nothing fun. Just short, easy walks and nothing more.
This weekend I had to make a choice, go to a weight pull in Three Rivers or go to Dog Day in the Park in Grand Rapids. Last year I went to Dog Day in the Park http://www.dogdayinthepark.com/ and had a blast with Nubs, so I decided to head that direction today, and man was it fun.
It's been a while since Nubs was out in that sort of event where we was walking in, out, and around all these dogs so I knew it was the right choice to keep up on his social skills which has been slicking due to all the attacks over the past few months. Nubs did excellent as always. He was really good with letting all the strange dogs sniff him and sniffing them himself. I can't be prouder of him.
We showed up at the event about 11:30am after getting loss trying to take the back way to the event. So it took me 2 hours to get there instead of the 1hr 30mins. Go figure. I really need my GPS back. Nubs was wound up and ready to go as we began the walk into the event.
After marking like a mad man, we begin the event by walking though some of the crowd doing "sits" and "watches" getting warmed up for the trek around the area. We go from vendor to vendor with Nubs stopping in at every booth saying "HI! Treat please!!!!". If they weren't paying attention to him, Mr. Social would just walk up to them and nudge their hands with his nose like he was saying "Um HELLO! I'm down here!!" Trying to convince Nubs that not everyone in the world wants to pet him is just impossible. He's such a nut.
"Can't say no to this smile!"
I don't know what it is about Nubs, but people just seek him out to pet and love on him. We were approached more times then I could count today with people saying "I saw you at this event last year and I just LOVE your dog" or "I saw you earlier and just had to search you down". What is it about this dog that just has people searching for him? I don't mind really, it's a great time to chat it up and educate people on the breed. I guess I'm just shocked at the response I get when out with Nubs.
He did end up showing people what the breed is all about though. We entered in the "Fastest Kisser in 15seconds" and took 3rd place. Lost by 6 kisses. *shrugs* In my view it was a major win. Hundreds of people got to watch a girl get slobbered on by her Pit Bull surrounded by other dogs. Can't have better propaganda then that.
Then Nubs got a special treat, he ran his first Lure Course ever. He was hot already but enjoyed himself. His first run was PERFECT! He LOVED it. I wish I got that one on video but I was so sure that I was going to have to run it with him that I didn't bother to tape it :( But here are runs 2 and 3
I should have kept my mouth quiet!
Part 2
And run three
And to show you what it should look like, here is a Doberman, A Boxer and then 2 Boxers running the course:
