Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I am currently researching the APBT breed. I have some questions for poeple who have owned their dogs for a long period of time.

1. Do you dogs get along with the other dogs in your household, and if they do do you keep them seperated when you are not home. I have read that it is not a good idea to keep ABPT around your other pets when you are not at home. I plan on doing this, but I am just curious to see how many others do.

2. How many of you have a fenced in yard, and how many have a kennel? I am not sure which I would do, just want a general idea. I will have my dog in the house when we are not home.

3. How many muzzle their dogs when out in public? I have not seen this as an opition on the websites I have gone to. I would think this the perfect soultion to preventing fights, but I also don't want to add to the vicious pitbull sterotype, which a muzzle might portray. I plan to enroll in obediance training when the dog is still a puppy anyway, but I thought this woulb be a good precaution.

4. I have done some and will continue doing research, but I just wanted to get some overall views on the breed from experienced owners. I will not get any kind of pet that I am not 100% sure I can give a wonderful life. Any responses would be a wonderful help in my research. Thank you.

On #1. I meant that I plan on keeping my other animals seperated when I am not at home.

Hi Pooh!
I would love to answer some of your questions..
I have a pit bull (Emily), and a JRT/Pug mix (Duncan). I must tell you, they live in complete harmony! They love eachother dearly and hate to be apart. They are fine when left alone, although I must seperate them because Duncan will potty in the house when unsupervised. I do not seperate them because I am afraid that Emily would ever hurt Duncan. Emily is very gentle with Duncan, as Duncan is about 35 pounds lighter than her! I have a fenced in yard, but I never let Emily out without supervising her. She has a lead that I put her on, on top of the fenced yard. I would not consider a kennel because I never leave her outside for an extended period of time. The reason I keep her on a lead is really more because I am just afriad of what would happen if she ever got out... my husband thinks I am crazy. He asked, when he was installing the lead "Why did I put up this 6 foot fence again?!" Emily is NEVER muzzled. She is a perfect lady when around other dogs and people. I bring her to the dog park and around with me in PetCo and PetSmart and I have never had a problem. I don't see a need for a muzzle, and if you need one then you shouldn't be out walking your dog where there are people and other animals!
Keep in mind that Emily was a rescue dog and that I did not raise her from a puppy. I was really lucky what I got her, and I firmly believe that if you raise a dog right, no matter what breed, they will be the pefect companion and pet.
I hope that this helped!

Duncan (JRT/Pug) & Emily (APBT)

I have a 1-1/2 yo male. Our biggest problem is that he likes to jump on people to say hello. At 65 lbs that's a lot of dog. He is very friendly.

When we go out he is in a crate because he tends to chew stuff in the house. However, we have NO problems with him around our cats or other dogs. I worry more about my chow mix.

I would never consider a muzzle. If it appears that there will be a problem with another dog when we go out (like to Petco) we just head in a different direction.