New "foster" mom in Pittsburgh

by **Zofiava** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:28 pm

My name is Rachel, I am 28 years old in the Pittsburgh area. I have 2 daughters, who are just shy of 8 and 9, and I have been married for almost 10 years.
I have never owned a APBT, but have gotten to know many amazing ones, along with their people. I know a lot of people that do rescue work with them, and my store sponsors charity events for some local APBT rescues. At the present time, I am fostering a pit puppy, that I would guess to be about 11 weeks old. Apparently I'm a terrible foster though, because I do not know that I can give this guy up. I've named him Pouncey, he was pouncing on my weeds as I was pulling them today, and I am a Steeler Fan

I've joined this forum to learn more about raising him up to be the best guy he can be, he has tons of potential, and I want to help him maximize it!

At home, I also have two American Mastiffs. They have taken right to this puppy as well, and it's been great. Tons of snuggles, kisses and playtime. Here of some pics of little Pouncey, Ti (brindle-2) and Kingston (Fawn-4)

My daughters each have a pet rat, Simon and Jack, who they love very very much. They are really great pets! Lastly, we have 6 chickens. They are a blast!

I really hope to learn a lot about raising an APBT. I've got a lot of great support in place, but I am looking forward to the wisdom to be learned here!

Thanks!

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:41 pm

Welcome Rachel! Thanks for fostering!

by **Ilovethepits** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:43 pm

WELCOME to you and your big family!

This is my favorite trainer, Emily Larlham's training blog: http://www.clicktreat.blogspot.com/

by **Zofiava** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 3:50 pm

Thanks so much, and as you can see in that last pic, he had LOTS of weeds to pounce on! We've been getting TONS of rain!

Thanks for the training link as well!

Quick question, as I was reading around the board, I saw the comment about APBTs sometimes going from being best buddies to not liking one another. Is that a general experience, or just something that happens sometime? Does it matter if the other dogs in question are not APBTs? Kingston and Ti get along really well, and have a good thing going, they are left alone together and are always great, it didn't occur to me that (if I end up making him officially mine) they may have to be separated past the crating period.

by **Ilovethepits** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:00 pm

I think it is something that people have to keep in mind no matter what breed of dog they own. I have read of many experiences where people had dogs (of varying breeds) that lived together in harmony - until something happened, a fight broke out and dog/dogs were injured and even killed. Even with golden retrievers, or other dogs you wouldn't think of.

I guess with the American Pit Bull Terrier the incidence of this is higher because they have been bred to fight. So the short answer would be yes in the future the dog may not be as tolerant of other dogs as he is now. There are a lot more people on this forum with muti-dog households that have much more experience than I have ranging from dogs that get along well to strict management to strict crate and rotate households.

I personally have 2 mixed breed dogs and they are separated whenever someone is not home with them.

by **Zofiava** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:11 pm

Thanks for the info! I really do love this puppy! I have someone who is interested in potentially adopting him, but I am really torn about letting him go anywhere.

by **Curly_07** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:22 pm

Welcome and thank you for fostering!

I have 2 pit bull breed dogs. They get along great together, but I never leave them unsupervised. One is 9, the other almost 5. I've fostered many over the years, and it really just depends on the individual dog. Some were very dog friendly, some dog selective, and a small few were actually dog aggressive. It's just something you have to be aware of that could happen once the dog reaches maturity.

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by **Zofiava** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:41 pm

Well, as the days go by, it's getting harder and harder to imagine him not being part of our family.

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:51 pm

From one failed foster to another, well done.

Hugs!

by **Zofiava** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:59 pm

It's not quite official yet, but my husband called me twice today while the puppy was visiting his potential new family, and said "did you tell her that you aren't sure we are placing him yet" and "You know, I'm ok with whatever you decide" (which is my husband speak for; "I want him but I don't want you to know that I want him").

My husband is usually the one who says "NO MORE ANIMALS!!!!"

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:05 pm

I'd run with it.

My hubby loves our current foster. If he wasn't illegal, he'd be staying.

by **Zofiava** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:34 pm

It's weird, but every once in a while I get a twinge of "maybe I should leave well enough alone", but then I go back to "but I want him!" I was just looking at my yard and seeing a part that a more athletic/determined dog could climb and escape and realizing that it would be 10s and 10s of thousands of dollars to have some other kind of fencing put in (my yard is a weird mix of plateaus and slopes and concrete walls with old wrought iron gating). So with that in mind, am I opening up a crazy can of worms? My neighbors have dogs that run free, and they have snapped at my dogs, and my dogs just back up, like geez, what's your problem.. I am worried about that too. UGH!

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:07 pm

Ah well I think there's a solution to every problem IF you're willing to find it. We don't have a fenced yard so Mt guys are never out there unattended or unleashed. It means I get a lot more exercise walking my dogs.

by **Zofiava** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 5:13 pm

I brought said issue up to my husband, and he had a solution.. so that was that!

He spent the day at work with me and found his voice. He is such a great guy.

by **BellaNSophiesMom** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 12:38 pm

So sweet. He looks sort of like how I'd imagine my Sophie girl must have looked as a puppy. Except her opposite eye is black and she's got an eyebrow that I just melt over. LOL.

We have two pit (mixes? I really don't know for sure what they are but for ease of everything, I just call them pits) and a four-foot wrought iron fence along the backside of our yard, which backs up to a walking path. My girls could jump the fence, I suppose, if they wanted, but we have a hotwire around the bottom of the fence (we live on a corner house of a circle, so one fence is brick, the other is wood and the back is wrought iron to go with the rest of the neighborhood and HOA stuff.) They've never jumped it, but we have a had a couple of incidents where we forgot to turn the fence back on after mowing and weed eating, and Bella dug out and ran through the neighborhood saying hello to everyone, haha. Unfortunately, not many of the people who walk in our neighborhood like pit bulls and they were scared of her. ...(oh well, that's for another day) ...

Bella is a very smart dog, so she knows when the fence isn't on, ha. She came right up to my husband when he went outside to get her, however, so she knows that she isn't *supposed* to get out of the yard. ;-)

Good luck with Pouncey, he's precious!