[AntonioMQ]

Hello everyone..... I've recently come into possession of what i believe is an apbt. She is from the hood and has been made to fight. I've taken her to the vet and they patched her up and gave me antibiotics. She was really tore up. Its been a couple weeks since i found her and she is a wonderful dog. All her wounds are almost completely healed. I had an actual trainer from the local petsense along with some trainers he was training (ha) come and "evaluate" her. He brought along his lab he was training to be a drug dog. And after the evaluation while both animals were on a leash we let them sniff and play. That's right all they did was play. I've joined this site in hoping to gain some knowledge. So any advice as to what would be the best food or toys or anything of that nature would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.



Cursh

[68AttendGem]

Thanks for taking in this girl. She sounds like a true prize.
You should get lots of helpful information on here as far as food, toys etc. Take a look at the stickies under nutrition and toys and equipment. Also, be sure you look at training (sounds like you already have a good line on that)

How old does the vet think she might be?

Who knows if she is an APBT, or one of the many mixes out there, but one thing is for sure... She's one lucky dog!

[AntonioMQ]

The vet said she was about a year old. And i've been lurking on here for a few days, so i know better than to call her an apbt without knowing for sure. Haha. The vet said she had to have been fought. He said she was too healthy to just be a stray and just got in random fights. She was and still is really healthy (no ribs were showing or any obvious health problems other than she had been tore up). I'll see if i can post the pictures from my phone so you can have a look and see what you think she is. When we first brought her home she would barely do more than eat and go to the bathroom. Now me and her take walks (getting her used to walking on a leash and collar) everyday around my yard and play fetch, she likes to get the tennis ball then wants me to chase her to get it back but i dont chase her cause i know its going to make her think thats how to play. After a few minutes of her not bringing it back shell come to me then well play for a while. So far i am very happy to have her although her fence and dog house are just what i could come up with. But once christmas is over i'll get her into class and start upgrading her stuff.

[preptarra]

Sound's like you've made a new best friend!

[HugoSimon]

Cursh welcome! Thank you for taking her in and I would love to see some pics of her.
What benefits my dog the best is a one hour walk everyday. Most days if its not too hot out we walk two hours. She loves to be on the springpole more then anything. Another good workout is the boomer ball (Zoo Balls, Zoo Toys, Balls For Dogs, Herding Balls, Animal Enrichment, Indestructible Plastic Ball - Boomer Ball) that she pushes around the yard.
Dogs that are exercised well stay out of all kinds of trouble.

[Yarmark]

Shes one lucky girl! How do you know she was made to fight? Do you mean bred to fight? Or she looks like she was forced to fight?

[twinaircant]

I am glad you took her in. I can't wait to see pics and hear about her more often.

[ssupermegatone]

Pictures please

And I second the Boomer ball and spring pole suggestions. Also, the Kong Wobbler is a great food puzzle if you are feeding kibble

[ppaelkos]

Hello everyone..... I've recently come into possession of what i believe is an apbt. She is from the hood and has been made to fight. I've taken her to the vet and they patched her up and gave me antibiotics. She was really tore up. Its been a couple weeks since i found her and she is a wonderful dog. All her wounds are almost completely healed. I had an actual trainer from the local petsense along with some trainers he was training (ha) come and "evaluate" her. He brought along his lab he was training to be a drug dog. And after the evaluation while both animals were on a leash we let them sniff and play. That's right all they did was play. I've joined this site in hoping to gain some knowledge. So any advice as to what would be the best food or toys or anything of that nature would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.




Cursh

WEll, just SAYING. that while the dog may have had some gashes here and there.. DOESNT mean it was FIGHTING DOG. I HIGHLY DOUBT THAT YOU ARE GOIN TO INTRODUCE A RANDOM FIGHTING DOG to a another dog WITH OUT ANY REACTION.

[Intockatt]

Not unless it was a ... whats the word? I can't think of it right now but a dud. A dog used as a bait or something. Those dogs don't have any desire to fight and wont. Not all dogs used in a fight are a killer.

[freevideoandoicsI]

As pookie so eloquently tried to say ()... there are no such things as "bait dogs" - the whole point of putting a dog into a pit with another dog would be to condition the dog, and how can it be conditioned if the dog it is against doesn't even put up a fight? Makes no sense

Anyways, to the OP... Good on ya for wanting to educate yourself on the proper care of your new pup! Please check out the stickies regarding Dog Aggression, as your dog is still young and may develop dog/animal aggression as she matures. There are also a ton of topics on good foods, both kibble and raw diets, so you can decide what works best for you! We'd love to see some pictures when you're able to figure out how to post them! Does she have a name?

[CarmenSanches]

As pookie so eloquently tried to say ()... there are no such things as "bait dogs" - the whole point of putting a dog into a pit with another dog would be to condition the dog, and how can it be conditioned if the dog it is against doesn't even put up a fight? Makes no sense

Well Teal, I wouldnt say they are no cases of bait dogs, but only because the genius that is the H$U$ put that out, and dumb ghetto kids who dont know what real dog men do thought "oh shit THAT must be the way to do it!". I mean only retarded kids would put an emaciated dog in with another dog and "fight" them. No person with two cents for a brain would think that thats how you match dogs.
But 99% of the time, its just a dog getting into a scrap or getting out of the yard that creates these "bait dog" marks. Same with that bullshit about "filing their teeth down so they cant fight back" crap.
Its all media born bullshit to make any stray dog have a "story" so that they sound so pitiful and that dog fighting is horrible and oh my God the wittle pibbles would never wanna fight, THEY FORCE THEM

[freevideoandoicsI]

Well Teal, I wouldnt say they are no cases of bait dogs, but only because the genius that is the H$U$ put that out, and dumb ghetto kids who dont know what real dog men do thought "oh shit THAT must be the way to do it!". I mean only retarded kids would put an emaciated dog in with another dog and "fight" them. No person with two cents for a brain would think that thats how you match dogs.
But 99% of the time, its just a dog getting into a scrap or getting out of the yard that creates these "bait dog" marks. Same with that bullshit about "filing their teeth down so they cant fight back" crap.
Its all media born bullshit to make any stray dog have a "story" so that they sound so pitiful and that dog fighting is horrible and oh my God the wittle pibbles would never wanna fight, THEY FORCE THEM

Right! What I meant was, in the real world of matching dogs they didn't use weak/restrained animals as "bait dogs" like punks these days do. So I guess there ARE "bait dogs" these days... but it's only idiots who think that's the proper way to do it.

[CarmenSanches]

Right! What I meant was, in the real world of matching dogs they didn't use weak/restrained animals as "bait dogs" like punks these days do. So I guess there ARE "bait dogs" these days... but it's only idiots who think that's the proper way to do it.

Thats true. No self respecting dog man, now (in other countries) or then would ever do that bullshit. That doesnt prove shit about the dog if you set it on a skinny, weak, restrained or whatever dog. The point is to prove your dog against competition. The shit that happens because the media and H$U$ want to ruin this breed by making up lies.

[Intockatt]

I actually have seen a few documentaries (recent) that says otherwise. And they were people who do these things as a living and not by some punk ass kid that thinks its fun. Bait dogs are still used even by professionals. They are used to give their potential fighter a taste of blood and to test them to see their will to fight. Though dogs who don't fight back are normally culled immanently. Some might get away.

Though with saying that you cannot claim that the dog was used for fighting just because it found its way out if the ghetto. However it does increase the chances; Especially if you know that there are drugs involved. There are other factors that could contribute to abrasions and and malnutrition. Just take care of the poor girl and see her to better health.

[CarmenSanches]

Course they do. There would never have been bait dogs if the H$U$ never invented them.

Thats complete bullshit. No real dog man uses bait dogs. The point of matching dogs is to prove who has the superior competitor in the pit, tossing a real fighting dog on a puppy, injured/sick dog doesnt prove anything.
The "taste of blood" thing proves how much of a lie that "documentary" was. Sure dog men would test their dog in a match, similar to a wrestler grappling with an opponent, but the dogs were muzzled (I believe in some way) to prevent the younger dog from getting hurt, this was not to give the dog a "taste of blood" this was to let the dog build strength and get a feel for how things work.
Again, complete bullshit. There are dog men who have kept cold dogs for YEARS often then entire life of the dog, just because a dog wasnt DA and didnt want to fight didnt mean the owner would cull the dog. It was common also to breed the cold dog, because cold dogs can throw hot dogs and make champions
. Thats more of that H$U$ propaganda to get you to believe that all dog men were evil vile people, when in fact they werent and most treated their dogs as good if not better than you do.
It wasnt uncommon for a completely cold dog to be kept, lets say 6 year and then have the dog turn on and prove out to be a champion. So killing young dogs because they dont show DA right away is useless for their purpose of producing and having the champion dogs.

What were the names of the "documentaries" you saw?? I would love to see them. You however need to go into the history section and read about what really happened when matching dogs was legal and stop folling all the media crap and stuff you get out of those paid for by H$U$ docs.

Just remember, a stray is sometimes just that.. a stray. Sometimes on the street for weeks, months, maybe even years before someone finds them, scars and wounds happen when they have to fend for themselves. Not every mark is from gang bangers, fighting, drugs, or deliberately inflicted by a human, sometimes shit just happens to strays.

[Intockatt]

One in particular is Animal Planet Investigates: Dog Fighting Expose. the other doc was with the BBC.

---------- Post added at 10:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

The Dog Fighting Exposed one was terrible to watch. Not in an acting sense but what these guys did to their dogs. It was one of those late night 3 am shows and it even showed them electrocuting their dog because it wouldn't fight. I haven't read about the history of dog fighting. I don't know how they treated their dogs back then. But this isn't back then and there are some very sick people out there who don't give a flying shit about their dogs and will do the unimaginable to them just because they wont do what they want them to.

[AntonioMQ]

Wow. First of all let me thank everyone for being supportive and for the helpful information.

@HerWay Thank you for the link. I've been giving her bones the biggest bone they have at petsense to chew on but she destroys them in a few hours. Maybe those boomer balls will last a little longer.

@destinoscelgo I believe she was fought yes, and probably bred to fight. But there is no way of being absolutely sure. I'm just going on my thoughts and those of a vet and a very experienced dog trainer

@tiffseagles and slayergirl Thankls for the suggestions and support

@kamikaze First of all the sarcasm isn't needed. I came here lookin for help and to educate myself. Second of all did you see the dog? Either shes been fighting or had slept in a pile of barbed wire for a day or 2. It wasnt just "gashes here and there." And the vet said it couldnt have been from just being a stray and getting into random fights because of how healthy she was. Someone was fighting this dog and trying to taking care of her. And third of all just because she didnt show aggression towards the other dog doesnt mean she didnt fight. I dont like to fight but if i was put in a ring with someone and they hit me, im gonna go into ass whippin mode, JUST SAYING.

And to everyone else trying to be helpful, i'll try to get some pics up. Keep the suggestions coming. Also is there an ignore button or a way to block someone?

[HexcewlyRette]

Just because using a "bait dog" is and was pointless or not helpful to professional dog matchers, doesn't mean it hasn't caught on as a terrible but common idea with teenage jackasses trying to look tough in front of their friends. My last dog was seen thrown from a moving car. He was picked up imediately by a couple waiting to cross the street, he was taken straight to a vet, not to a shelter. He was estimated to be 5 months by his teeth, but was very emaciated and had old wounds at various stages of healing, including a partly healed broken leg and a newly broken tail. He had new injuries, some of which were road rash, and some of which were new, barely clotted dog bites. He was so small and weak that I can't imagine what damage he could have done, but his mouth was taped shut thouroughly enough that it removed most of the hair on his muzzle. The tape was wrapped back around his ears tightly enough to cut off circutation badly enough that he lost the tip of one ear.

This wasn't on the news, he was never even in a shelter who was trying to create sympathy. he went straight from the vet to a friend of the vet who fostered him and put him straight on pet finder, where he was only described as an abandoned puppy who had suffered some kind of abuse. I didn't even know the extent of his original injuries (or about the tape) until he was a little over a year old and I took him back to the same vet who cried with me when I talked to her about every thing I had tried to get him to come around, and how I ultimately felt the only safe thing was to have him put down. I will never know how much of his temperament was genetic and how much was created by very early abuse. I do know his agression and fear were only directed at kids, especially those around 12. i believe that if he had been genetically 100 % stable he could have gotten past his trauma considering all the work we did with him, but the sudden blind terror he showed if he saw groups of young boys was so specific.

my point is, no one ever suggested the words "bait dog" to me until the day he was put down, when the vet told that the newest injuries where definately dog bites, and why the hair was patchy on his muzzle. I DO think it is often a ploy to make a regular banged up stray seem extra deserving of a home, but depending on where you live, there are some stupid shit heads who do think letting their dog attack some restrained little thing will make them tougher.

It sounds like you found a nice little dog, good luck! As I said, I think my boy had some crossed wires genetically, so many of these dogs are super resiliant and love and trust people even when people don't deserve it. just know that some bully breeds get along well with other dogs much better at a year old than they do later on, though there are certainly plenty of exceptions.

[AntonioMQ]

I tried my best. I hope they aren't too big or too small. So give me your opinion, You think she's an apbt or a mix? if a mix what mix do you think?

She still has some scaring but these are from a few days ago. Shes almost completely healed.