It’s common knowledge that pit bulls have a bad reputation for being mean, vicious or evil pups. It’s a frustrating stigma, as that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Pit bulls are more often extremely loyal, loving and compassionate animals, but due to the way a handful of them were raised by abusive & neglectful owners, their breed gets an awful rep and some cities have even gone as far as to ban them. Thankfully, there exists a plethora of programs that are trying to change people’s notions about Pit bulls. And they’re accomplishing this by not only putting them in caring family homes, but by training them as K9 officers.
Collaborating with Austin Pets Alive! and Universal K9, The Animal Farm Foundation is giving this breed the training it needs to become an official K9 unit.
While the program is beneficial to the dogs, it’s even more beneficial to the local police departments.
“Instead of spending $10,000 to $15,000 for a trained Belgian or GSD, they are now taking pit bulls from shelters and training them, and they are proving themselves to be amazing police and military K9′s.”
And since Pits are extremely obedient and tough, they can be trained to do almost anything officers need them to do. Many towns and cities have already adopted Pit bulls into their K9 unit fold.
Trainers that work for Austin Pets Alive! have stressed that a dog’s past has little to do with their training. “AFF [Austin Pets Alive!] stresses treating each dog as an individual — we can’t base their behavior on their appearance or their past. Clifford doesn’t speculate or dwell on their past. The dogs don’t either. Let them be dogs,.”
The only problem officers have run into is getting the dogs to be more aggressive towards people. How ironic?
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