Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Pooches: On Dogs & Tolerance

When I was growing up I had a big, crazy mutt that I had been responsible for picking out. Though we went through 4-H training with him, he still had bouts of craziness where he would walk across the kitchen table, jump over our fence and even growl at us. And the growling was just a given. Especially if you were anywhere near his food.The funny thing is, even with 3 kids we never thought twice about his growling at us. It was just accepted that's what dogs did.
 Flash-forward to our adulthood where we have our 2 pooches who we have never heard growl in the whole time we've owned them. Even when we take their favorite bones from their mouths, or the time when a crazy man in a cape waved around and yelled in Miss M's face.
We were reminded of this when  Jade posted this cool article on our Two Pitties Facebook page detailing how pit bulls have such good temperance they were known as nanny dogs. And of course, we can go on and on about how great our pooches are, so we have this video. Here is Miss M, just trying to relax and listen to the Bears game. If she has a reason to be angry, it would be now, but just watch what she does instead. We call it "Miss M's Lips":

19 comments:

jet said...

haha that is so annoying, I would have bitten that pokey finger!

Anonymous said...

lol! our poor dogs, how we torment them!

I feel compelled too comment, because this is spinning around the internet, that the APBT was never called "the nanny dog" in the US. It's just not a phrase historically used here. Of course we know from many many photos, that pit bulls were indeed family dogs and often posed/played with kids.. but that's a different matter. I think we need to be historically accurate about our dogs... and that includes acknowledging the difficult fact that one of the reasons they are so incredibly tolerant towards us is that they were selectively bred for that trait... by the dogfighters who didn't want to get bitten when they were in the pit with the dogs. I am by no means defending dogfighters or dogfighting, which is disgusting and cruel by any measure.

Alison said...

I like that Miss M was totally over it after 15 seconds but patiently let you poke poke poke. I try to take lessons from my pit bull (Sharona) and apply them to everyday life-- I call this WWSD (What would Sharona do). Inevitably, Sharona would be patient, kind and turn the other cheek.

Corbin said...

Corbin is pretty tolerant, but definitely not as much as Miss M!!! She is such a sweetie :o)
-Corbin's momma, Jenn

Two Grad Students and a Pittie said...

We can totally relate. All Dental Student does i torture Havi. Steals her bone, throws her ball, pokes her hears, plays with her lips, and she totally takes it. Were lucky she has such a sweet temperament. It cracks us up that she lets us poke and prod her...just another great thing about our pups!

Kate said...

Ms. M knows the best defense is a little slobber :)

Two Pugs in a Pod said...

Hahaha, that is so cute!

Unknown said...

That is one patient girl! I love that instead of snarling or growling, she just licks you to death!

Kari in Alaska said...

isn't it interesting to see how perceptions of what is acceptable dog behavior is acceptable has changed?

Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

Kristine said...

Ms. M is a lot more tolerant than my dog! Not that she is overly growly but she will let us know she is not pleased by either sighing very loudly or walking away.

It's funny how different things are now. There is a lot of stuff we did with my childhood dog that I never would with Shiva. Like leave her outside alone for hours on end. Back then it was just what one did.

Unknown said...

We are super impressed and delighted with how tolerant MOlly is. My husband has found a new favorite game where he hides from Molly then scares her when she comes into the room and instead of getting angry she gets so excited and wiggles and play bows at him. She also lets us hold her like a baby and play with her mouth to check out her adorable underbite.

2 dogs + 1 cat + 2 humans said...

Very cute!! I need to get a video like that of both of our two, we can do anything to them - especially Snoopy!

Shauna (Fido and Wino) said...

The dog we had as a kid, Toby, was totally food aggressive too- we just knew not to go near him when he had anything he figured passed as food (dog food... mice... birds...!). Kayloo and Mickey aren't at all food aggressive- so funny that we would never accept it now, but didn't think anything of it then.

Kirby, CGC said...

OMG, if you did that to Kirby you probably wouldn't have fingers left...good girl Miss M!

Kirby's mom

Two French Bulldogs said...

momma does that nonsense, BOL
Benny & Lily

Wyatt said...

What a sweetie you are, Miss M. Not a mean bone in your body :)

Wyatt

kissa-bull said...

that is not furry nice to do to such a diva like miss m. growling is quite beneath her im sure.tee hee

pibble sugars
the pittie pack

pee.s
we are featuring a new pibble woggie to our blogville community on our welcome wednesday post

Peppy Sheppys said...

Ha! Pittie calm! Of all our dogs Otis Pittie is definitely the most laid back who tolerates pretty much anything we do. And he's very laid back with kids. And he's never growled! Never thought about that. Edgrr, on the other hand, is named after his propensity to constantly be growling (he's not aggressive, just bossy.)

Sheps w/Pep, Otis & Edgrr

Susan Campisi said...

Miss M, you have the patience of a saint.

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