Lately I’ve been feeling very defensive about other people’s negative feelings towards Dakota. Because she’s a pit bull, there are many people who automatically categorizes her as an unsafe dog to have around. Knowing how sweet of a dog she really is makes me very sad to know how unfairly she’s being judged by so many people. Every little mistake she makes is deemed to be a thousand times worse in other people’s eyes because of her breed.

Dog obedience class is still going great, unfortunately some of the toy breed owners in the class are still skeptical of Dakota.There is one young woman in particular who is terrified of Dakota. During the past couple weeks in class, we’ve noticed Dakota’s prey drive being directed towards the young woman’s teacup terrier. After consulting with the instructor, we finally figured out what sets her off with these smaller dogs!

According to our instructor, when smaller dogs give off a vibe indicating they are terrified of another dog, Dakota’s instincts kicks in and immediately tries to dominate these smaller, weaker dogs. It really doesn’t help the situation when both the owner and the dog are constantly staring at Dakota with terrified looks on their faces. The instructor suggested to prevent things from escalating too far in the future, we should move Dakota far away from these dogs and avoid constant eye contact between the dogs. She also indicated this is not something we can “fix” because it’s Dakota’s prey instinct kicking in, but we can help her by pulling her out of these situations. Avoiding eye contact and socialization between unstable dogs and Dakota is really the key to keep everyone out of trouble.