[Falik]

mr clueless, thanks for the wonderful advice. You are right, but many people do not know you should do tons of research before adopting an unwanted pet from their neighbor. Honestly I didnt want anything to do with dogs for the longest time. I tried owning 3 other dogs before Cruz. 1 pitbull and 2 labs. My hillbilly husband kept the dogs outside, never trained them and I couldnt stand being around them. Grew up with cats. Ive always been intrigued but cautious around apbt dogs. I love their strength but at the same time had the normal fears a lot of other people had.

My neighbor got a puppy over the summer. While his wife was away on vacation he asked if me and my son could help him out with taking care of Cruz. We kept him overnight a couple times and over at our house during the day a few times as well as my son going over and letting the pup out to pee.

Cruz was an unintentional mating. The owner of the pregnant mother wanted to spay her when she was full term and destroy the pups. The vet techs rather, delivered the pups and took them home to nurse them. Cruz stayed with the vet tech till 6 weeks. Cruz had no socialization with his litter, but other dogs and cats. Then my neighbor adopted him and kept him another 6-8 weeks. After all the research I have done about this, I might not have adopted Cruz if I knew better. I was told there shouldnt be any issues with not being with the mother and litter. We spent the last 5 months battling his mouthing problems and finally seem to have it under control.

My neighbor had been saying that having a pup was too much for him and his older female apbt was starting to mimick some of Cruz bad behavior (digging while being kenneled outside) One day he called me and asked if I wanted Cruz. Because I had already been around him, loved his energy I jumped and said yes. By the time I got home from work, Cruz was already my dog.

I never thought I would get another dog (especially a male), nor ever thought I could get attached. I was wrong. I jumped in, made some mistakes and have been working hard to turn things around for my pup. Ive had him 5 months. Ive been on this site a short while but am very active. Im still learning. I posed this question to get a better understanding of why someone would use that term to describe a dog aggressive dog.

And Mr. clueless, YOU ARE SO RIGHT. But I honestly dont think if I did years of normal research about apbt's the term CUR would have come up. Should I have lurked this forum for years before getting a pitbull?

Cruz was presented to me as a pitbull. The people who gave him to me, think there is a breed called pitbull. They think their other dog is a pitbull and not a terrier type. From my research the best guess I have is that their other dog might be more like american bully. She is a monster of a dog 85 lb female. Cruz more than likely has some other breed in his mix. He is quite big for 8 months at 60 lbs, has fully pricked ears, very blondish type of fawn coloring with a black and white mask. Not very common from what I have seen. I see fawn all the time, but it is more beige looking, not yellowish. my dog regardless definately has bully characteristics, but a little more independance than what I see other people describe with their dogs.

So since I screwed up and didnt research my dog before getting him... I spend a lot of time every day researching behavior, nutrition, health, training, and the breed also working with my dog. While it is fun to tell someone they should have researched a breed before getting one, it doesnt help anyone after the fact.

Basically I rescued my pup from owners who would have never taken him for walks (they dont walk their other dog) never let him meet and greet new people at the house (keep him unsocialized) kennel him in a 6x6 dog run outside in the summer, and punch him and hit him for going to the bathroom in the house and other behavior issues, and alpha roll him and scare the shit out of him.

Cruz also has severe hip dysplasia, which I know they never would have done anything about. I will be providing him surgery. I neutered him right away (which is a good thing, you dont want to breed dysplastic animals) and have provided all the necessary vaccinations. The previous owner has lost dogs to parvo and probably would have lost Cruz too.