Howdy from Lori and Lucy.

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Postby xallen » August 20th, 2008, 4:14 pm

Hi.

I'm Lori and I'm the accidental owner of pit or pit cross. She's somewhere around one year old, and is a gorgeous black and white. Lucy fell into my life a few months ago, and has since become a part of the family.

About 4 months ago, someone dumped her and her pups off in the rural area where we live. The pups all disappeared, she killed a chicken down the road at my parent's place, they wanted to shoot her because she's a pit and they didn't want anything else to get killed (they have ducks, chickens, rabbits, miniature sheep, and a houseful of kids). I felt that she killed the chicken out of hunger and felt bad for her and took he home with me, determined to find a good home for her. I called her Sweetie, because she is, but had no luck finding her a home. As soon as I said "she looks like a pit" folk's eyes would glaze over. I really didn't want to keep her as I have cats and raise angora rabbits and I couldn't imagine having a dog with such a strong prey drive. I also have 3 other dogs, and 3 kids and worried about the fact that she's a pit who's history I know nothing of. I've heard that a lot of dog fighting goes on around here, and I was afraid that she may have come from a bad place. She seemed sweet enough, but I didn't want to deal with bad genes or a bad upbringing.

However, after trying for a couple of months to find a home for her, I became quite attached. No one wanted her anyway, so I decided that Sweetie needed a real name and would be mine. My kids helped me pick the name Lucy for her and it suits her very well.

She is always with me (I don't entirely trust her out of my sight), and has proved a very eager to please dog. She has taken to training very well, and is extrememely well behaved right up until that prey instinct hits. Once or twice we've been out walking and she's spotted a possum or armadillo and all reason just flies out the window. She'll hit the end of here leash and seems absolutely oblivious to all else. All of my other dogs are allowed to run free when we walk (we live in a rural area, no neighbors or cars to worry about), but poor Lucy is always on leash. The couple of times I've tried to let her off, she's run straight to my parent's a half a mile through the pasture and I find here running up and down their fence ogling the chickens. I sometimes use a 50ft. long line to allow her more freedom when we walk (and also for training stays and recalls), and have recently ordered a muzzle to try out. I think that if she'll accept, it it will allow her the freedom to run like she wants to, without me having to worry about her running off and getting a lamb.
I have managed to teach her to leave the cats alone (never underestimate the power of Bil Jac liver treats), though I'd never leave her in a room alone with one.

She is so good with the kids, her patience with my two year old is one of the things that made me fall for her. He thinks they are best friends and she is so sweet to him. She lets him lead her around by the collar and will sit on command from him. At first, she'd come and bark at me anytime he was upset and would not stop barking at me until I tended to him. I'm happy to say she no longer does that, but she does still look out for him.

Anyway, I'm hoping to learn a lot from this site, and am particularly interested in learning more about dog body language. I think understanding her better will go far in helping with more advanced training.
Last edited by xallen on August 20th, 2008, 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby muse » August 20th, 2008, 4:23 pm

Hi Lori! :wave2: Welcome to the forum. Im sure there are MANY here who will be able to help you with training your girl.

Its awesome you took her in btw! Do you have any pictures of her?
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Postby cheekymunkee » August 20th, 2008, 4:25 pm

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Postby maberi » August 20th, 2008, 4:31 pm

Hi Lori, welcome to the forum
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Postby xallen » August 20th, 2008, 4:40 pm

muse wrote:Hi Lori! :wave2: Welcome to the forum. Im sure there are MANY here who will be able to help you with training your girl.

Its awesome you took her in btw! Do you have any pictures of her?


The only pictures I have are from the day I met her, and few from the few days after when she was first at my home and I was trying to find a hone for her. She looks rather pathetic in those, though, skinny (she had 5 kinds of parasites on top of having not eaten for a while) with milk bags hanging down. She's slicked up now and look like the pet that she is. I'll take a picture of her later and post. She really is one of the prettiest dogs I''ve ever seen (not that I'm biased or anything LOL)
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Postby iluvk9 » August 20th, 2008, 5:57 pm

Welcome to PBT. :)
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Postby Pit Bull Daddy » August 20th, 2008, 6:55 pm

Hi Lori :wave2:

Prey drive can be strong in Pits. I dogsat for my grandson for a couple weeks and his female was the same way; she would alert on anything on the walk. Even treating her didn't distract her but a second or two. The constant lunging was very annoying. >( If you can afford it take her to obedience school.
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Postby pitbullmamaliz » August 20th, 2008, 7:27 pm

Welcome! :wave: I wouldn't recommend letting her run off-leash even with a muzzle on - she wouldn't be able to defend herself, and she could still get hit by a car. I'm a big fan of the 50' leads. :wink:
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Postby xallen » August 20th, 2008, 7:43 pm

Do ya'll know how hard it is to take a picture of a dog that follows you everywhere? That was interesting. I love that she's so attentive to me, and we did spend a good deal of time teaching her to be, but it was still funny. Stay is a hard concept for her, but she was able to hold a sit and stay long enough for one picture. Every other picture was of her back half and she walked toward me.

Oh, I'm in Oklahoma, I left that out of my intro post.

Anyway here is a picture of my Lucy girl:
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Postby xallen » August 20th, 2008, 7:58 pm

pitbullmamaliz wrote:Welcome! :wave: I wouldn't recommend letting her run off-leash even with a muzzle on - she wouldn't be able to defend herself, and she could still get hit by a car. I'm a big fan of the 50' leads. :wink:


That is a good point. I'm really not too concerned about cars, but I guess if she did take off and not come back then she'd be bad off until we found her.

I think she needs more exercise than she's getting, though, and I'm really not sure how to provide a way for her to get it. We have hundreds of acres here, seems such a shame that she can't romp around like the other dogs do. We walk her, but she really wants to run.

I'd love to fence in a bunch of it with a dog proof fence, but I don't have the money for that.
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Postby iluvk9 » August 20th, 2008, 8:09 pm

Lucy is adorable!
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Postby madremissy » August 20th, 2008, 10:23 pm

:wave2: Hello and Welcome to PBT. Lucy is very pretty.
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Postby airwalk » August 21st, 2008, 12:38 am

Hi Lori, Lucy's beautiful. Welcome to PBT

You might do a search for springpoles - that might be a great way to get her a bit more exercise in a controlled manner.
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Postby TheRedQueen » August 21st, 2008, 12:42 am

OMG is she cute! :heartbeat:

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Postby amazincc » August 21st, 2008, 1:02 am

Welcome to PBT! :)
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Postby KJS » August 21st, 2008, 4:58 am

Hello and welcome in...I think the name Lucy fits her quite well...good choice...she is very pretty :mrgreen:
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Postby Jenn » August 21st, 2008, 9:49 am

She most definitely is a pretty girl, and YES it can be hard to take a picture when they are always too close to the camera. LOL

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Postby dlynne1123 » August 21st, 2008, 2:52 pm

Hey, I'm an owner of three APBT, all three are rescues....love em and take all precautions with them necessary. Hope to get lots of advice as well as exchange plenty as well!

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Postby Patch O' Pits » September 5th, 2008, 6:58 am

Welcome to the forum :wave2:
Lucy is very cute! :)
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