Well this is our little blog dedicated to our journey on our experiences as new pit bull owners, and about our getting involved with this breed and our first steps at showing and working our dog.

Really just basically just documenting our journey through life together as a family and gushing about (and over!) our newest furry kid!

Hi, my name is Alyssa. I’m what they call a dog person I suppose. I seem to have a special empathy and spot in my heart for all canines. Granted I am a true animal lover, and I adore my kitty too, but flat out, I’m a doggie person.

I’ve pretty much always had a dog companion and friend. When the entire world was railing against me, I had my faithful bud at my side.

My last dog, Chop, was … well, if there is such a thing as a soul-mate … he was it. When we met … we were both sort of in the same place … tossed away and discarded and generally unwanted lol. I found him while I was homeless and bouncing from junkie house to junkie house at the age of 17 because those were the only people that seemed to care about me.

He greeted me with a wagging tail and an open heart, and as I learned more about his life, and how badly he was abused, I realized that I couldn’t walk away from him, and made a vow that I’d see him through. I talked them into giving me him, and cleaned him up as best as I could, and off we went. Homeless … and yet with each other … we were always home.

He was my center and my grounding and my best friend until Dec. 2005. For 18 years we took care of each other. He was around 5 years old when we first crossed paths … and we had a long good run of things – 23 years is pretty good for our canine friends, so I can’t really complain.

Needless to say, he isn’t and wasn’t replacable (none of our pets ever are of course!) and I was determined to be a better pet owner the next time I took on the responsiblity and commitment of caring for another dog … financially, emotionally, mentally, and lifestyle-wise.

Fast forward until November 2006 … and Ray (my other half) and I started seriously discussing perhaps getting another dog. At first it was more feeling out what breeds we’d be interested in. I’d been sort of idly reviewing breeds for about 6 months prior – you know … hmmm that breed might be fun or that breed has some great qualities. And of course kicking around such things like … “Are we stuck on a puppy? What about an older dog?” … “Did we want a mutt or a purebred?” … “How about a rescue dog or a pound dog?” … and the normal stuff.

To be honest I was leaning more towards a terrier or retriever type in my head … Chop was a Cockapoo (cocker spaniel and poodle) and there are characteristics and traits in poodles that I simply adore and really have come to love.

Anyway we’d been batting around the “what about this or that breed” for some time and started seriously exploring if this was truly something that we were prepared for and something that would be good for all concerned, the dog first and foremost, and us secondly.

Ray had mentioned pit bulls a few times but I was thinking a bit smaller lol. And then in January 2007 … I started really fighting the urge to have another dog. I started looking to get a puppy fix or doggy fix from the dogs around me trying to sort of keep it at bay, lol!

And then in February 2007 … two friends and co-workers got two pit bull puppies. One of them started bringing hers into work from time to time and I gleefully got a few fixes of puppy breath (man that smells so good! lol!) and then happoly offered to baby-sit at any time … thinking well I could work out my urges to have a dog by babysitting a puppy and you know, getting it out of my system.

Well … Madousa ( I simply LOVE how she decided to spell her name!) is a beautiful brindle pitbull puppy and is just as sweet as could be. And as you likely have already guessed, she wormed her way into my heart and I just totally and completely started falling in love with the breed, even though I was trying to talk myself out of it as fast as I was falling. LOL.

Here is a picture of this sweet little girl:

So we started really reseaching the breed, buying books, going to the library, doing searches online and finding good sites, talking to dog owners and breeders.

We wanted to be sure we knew what we were thinking about getting ourselves into. The legal issues. The commitment and responsibility that this breed requires. What impact this would have – this would mean a complete lifestyle change … were we willing to do it? COULD we do it?

The answer so far has been YES. Yes yes yes! We are both overweight and folks keep asking us (me especially, since I am the fattest, lol!) … you *do* know this is an energetic breed that requires at least 2 hours of commited time a day to exercise and play and train? Yes! We do! Really!

In fact, that was one of the main assets for us! To NOT exercise and walk and train the dog would be paramount to being abusive and neglectful … something that neither of us would ever do! And though we might be lazy for our own health … one often does for their kids what one will not do for themselves, lol!

And playing and training and walking your dog isn’t as boring as using a stairmaster, it’s fun and challenging and a bonding time for ALL of us as a family unit. It will get us out of the house and into the fresh air, and doing things together and having quality time with each other and our fur-kid.

I mentioned something like that to a co-worker and she said something that just really rang true for me … that maybe … I *needed* a dog in my life to effect change, to shake it up, re-prioritize things and gain a new, less selfish perspective. That perhaps a dog was exactly what I needed to challenge and start changing my life and myself for the better.

The more I thought (and think!) about it … the more right it seems. I am much better as a person when I have a canine pal … it’s grounding, rewarding, and so amazing to have that sort of bond.

I did get in touch with Madousa’s breeder in February … but then heard nothing so we decided to branch out and see what other breeders were around us. I just wanted to see some puppies at this point or at least the parents … and we started looking for the right pitbull breeder that was near us, as we weren’t really ready to try looking in other states. We wanted to try to see if we could find the right dog for us locally.

Mind you, we kept our minds open for rescue dogs … but we were very interested in possibly showing our dog as we felt that would just be a fun thing for us to do as a couple with the fur-kid … and that requires knowing the lineage, and plus we have a cat and we really wanted a clean slate when it came to other furry critters.

We do normally get all our animals from the pound, so we understand the importance of rescue, but this time we were really leaning more for a puppy that we would know where it came from and have a clear picture of it’s genetic background.

If we are ever in a position financially and space-wise to rescue or at least foster … both of us are willing … but right now … we just can’t.

In any case … while researching and looking for not only a good breeder, with the right motivations and aims we started realizing that there were a LOT of differences in regard to pitbulls.

Neither of us were really interested in the newer “monster bullies” or the “XXXtra bullies” … part of what we liked about the breed was the more traditional build: smaller, compact, muscular, athletic … you know, staying true to the roots of the breed.

We didn’t want the bowed front legs or the emphasis on the width of the chest and head, though we both like bulldogs and mastiffs … we just don’t like that look in pits. Not saying the other is wrong, just isn’t our taste. We were amazed at how many breeder sites claimed blue was a rare trait with how many books, magazines and sites saying that is a myth, you’d think that angle was not very effecive, lol.

Along the way we started learning a little more about conformation, and doing dog shows and competing and working one’s dog, and this really cemented our original interest even more.

And then we found our breeder.

I simply really like her. Both Ray and I do. She has been so patient and nice with us … giving us good information, and willing to really be there throughout the puppy’s life, which is something that we place a lot of value on: the invested and ongoing interest in their puppies and how they are doing.

Her dogs are simply GORGEOUS. And so sweet. (I think I’ve fallen a touch in love with the dam of our future puppy, she is such a lover-baby and her puppies are simply amazing and just so wonderful, I could literally gush about them all for hoursssssssss and yes, I have found myself doing exactly that, LOL!)

And we really like the idea of having a dog that we can do things with, that is highly intelligent, challenging, devoted, fearless, energetic and capable of even being a service dog for either of us in case we fall as that possibility does exist for one of us at some point needing some sort of service dog.

We’ve attended a dog show so far to see what we were looking at getting involved with, and we had a lot of fun getting out and seeing the different breeds and watching what went on. We are very interested in taking our future fur-kid as far as he wants to go as long as he is having fun and enjoying himself, we’ll be pleased as punch to go along for the ride, LOL!

So that is a little bit about our background, where we are coming from, and how we came to this point in our lives so far.

We hope to have our puppy in about 4-5 weeks and I’m sure this blog will start growing daily at that point, LOL!

So please feel free to check back and see where we are in our journey! I’ll likely be the main poster, but Ray will post every so often as well. Ray is a photographer and I’m learning, so I’m sure that we will have TONS of pictures by-and-by!