Not an Easy Pet

I have a dog. She’s 55-60 pounds or so, black-brown with super short hair, a curled tail and a blocky head. Hm, blocky head? Yes, we think she is part pit bull. And probably part lab.

We adopted Mocha in February of 2004. She had been seen wandering around in a neighboring suburb in January and a team of volunteers spent one frigid Saturday trying to catch her. She was smart enough to learn to back track in her own footprints to avoid them, but she’s not smart enough to avoid smacking her head into walls. It’s a conundrum!

After being chased for 8 hours, Mocha turned herself in the following Monday when factory workers showed up to work. This is what we knew about Mocha when we adopted her from PetSmart one Saturday. She was calm there, walking with one of the volunteers very well.

This is my warning to you – what you see at a PetSmart is not what you get.

She pooped in our house daily. She peed in our house. She bit a friend of ours. She goes after other dogs that get too close. She’s incontinent. The hair on her belly from her spaying took a year and a half to grow back.

Mocha is my difficult pet. The cats, also both rescues, have always been great. Not once have they sprayed anything, and even if my litter box cleaning isn’t up to snuff, they don’t poop anywhere else in the house, though they will poop next to the litter box. And the cat with claws only scratches at the furniture when he wants my attention (and he gets it immediately!).

Ah, but Mocha. She barks at EVERYONE she sees passing the house. Or sees by pressing her face into the fence and stretching it out until she sees a hint of movement. She’s extremely tense when people come to visit, particularly men. She’s snapped at people she knows and likes, only to be contrite when she realizes who they are (thankfully, never going for skin, just warning them away). The dog down the street in Wisconsin hates her, and my husband and I by association, because Mocha once bit her nose.

There are silver linings to her problems, though. She doesn’t bite other dogs with intent to really hurt them, just get them away. I think she does it out of fear, because when we’re walking her, and we see another dog, she’s on alert, but eager to get away away away (can we walk faster?) from the source of worry. She’s playful with the cats though she killed a groundhog in Wisconsin (Very. Very. Unpleasant.) She’ll listen to us even when off leash and in a scuffle with another dog. When we put her in a kennel she is extremely well behaved.

And I’ve learned things. Things about Pit Bulls - they’re not as astute as other dogs in sight and smell, so they have a harder time figuring out threats. Socialization is essential for these breeds of dogs. I understand dog behavior and warning signs much much better. And people who ask you if your dog is a pit – these are generally people who realize that pit bulls are maligned as a breed because of people who breed and train them poorly.

Mostly now, I keep Mocha from situations that could cause problems. It’s too much to ask of people to work with me on approaching a protective dog. She has a crate that she doesn’t love, but doesn’t mind either. She’s crated when we leave the house to prevent bathroom accidents (it also allows the cats a break from her playing). We work with her on a regular basis to keep her mentally fit and remind her that we’re in charge. (She can’t eat the food we put down until we say ‘go eat’. Sometimes I’ll forget, and the poor dog will be standing there, drooling, five minutes later.) She’s great with Luke now, but I’ll keep an eye on their interactions. And keep Luke from her food bowl, because even dogs with better histories than Mocha’s (though she’s never shown food aggression) can snap when someone goes towards their food bowl.

And next time, we’re buying a well bred puppy. And maybe adopting an older dog that someone gave up because it was ‘too old’ (an actual reason given, and for which, I hate people).