K-9 fantasy advises locals to take caution in pit bulls cross-breeding
Every breed was developed for a specific purpose, whether it was hunting, herding livestock, or sitting on people's laps.
A local organisation would like to intensify its awareness campaign about various pit bull dog breeds.
K-9 Fantasy was established in 2021 to be a public platform which encourages young and old to share their love of animals through social gatherings, dog shows and knowing the different dog breeds.
With its #TyreChallenge, it has succeeded in changing the minds of some of the residents of Midrand, Tembisa, and surrounding areas who thought pit bulls were bred for fighting.
Co-founder of the organisation Miah Tsolo emphasised how important it was for the community to know the different breeds of pit bulls.
“[The name] ‘pit bull’ refers to all descendants of terriers and bulldogs. The community and media tend to misidentify these breeds. Not every dog is a pit bull but many dogs look like pit bulls,” he said.
According to the Pitbullinfo.org website, four breeds are commonly classified as the modern ‘pit bull-type’, and most belong to the ‘terrier group’ of dog breeds.
The website states that the American pit bull terrier is the tallest and most athletic of the four pit bull-type breeds. The American Staffordshire terrier is slightly shorter and stockier than the American breed.
The Staffordshire bull terrier is the smallest of the four. The American Bully is the most unique of the group as it’s the stoutest and closely resembles the classic bulldog breed.
Tsolo said it was important to understand these dogs as they were used as therapy and service dogs, agility champions, and search and rescue dogs.
“People own these breeds for different reasons. For example, as guard dogs, maybe it helps them with safety and security purposes but I wouldn’t advise a pit bull to be groomed to be a guard dog.
“For me, my pit bull is my friend and rehabilitation. Whenever I feel down, I will [put a leash on my dog] and take a long walk. It is a very de-stressing exercise and it also brings joy to look after it and train, all those phases are so satisfying.”
He added it was how one raised these dogs that influenced factors such as the dog’s behaviour.
“Irresponsible breeders, be it backyard or registered, have not adhered to the breeding standards as we still see a lot of cross-breeding of these dogs and that contributes to the temperament of the offspring… it is not in a pit bull’s nature to be human aggressive.”
Pit Bull Federation of South Africa’s spokesperson Lehanda Rheeder explained that the cross-breeding of any power breed was a dangerous game, not just with pit bulls.
“When you cross breeds you need to understand that you then are dealing with different sets of genetically programmed behaviour. When you cross a pit bull with a guard breed, you take fighting genes, genes that programmes a dog to hold, shake and kill and you add them to a set of genes that programmes the dog to have an element of human-directed aggression,” Rheeder said.
“When these genes are then added to behaviour that is inherited such as lack of bite inhibition and human-directed behaviour, along with a poor understanding of dog behaviour as well as the inability to read even the most basic dog behaviour, you have a ticking atomic bomb waiting for a place and time to go off.”
Leroy Mosito, the co-founder of K9 Fantasy concluded that people should be cautious when cross-breeding since every breed was developed for a specific purpose, whether it was for hunting, herding livestock or sitting on people’s laps.
Related Article:
https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/317132/head-lecturer-at-the-centre-of-applied-pet-ethology-speaks-on-the-history-of-dog-cross-breeding/
