# How do you read your bully's body language?



## bigdogmom (Feb 9, 2014)

I am curious if reading your bully's body language is different from reading your other dogs.

Scenario: Yesterday our ACO asked me to evaluate a 3 year old pit bull named Diesel. He was on a 10 day quarantine for a bite. The owners surrendered him, saying he was good with kids, cats, and other dogs, but aggressive to strangers, and had bitten an adult but hadn't broken the skin. (This is not automatic quarantine at our shelter.) 

A couple hours later we received a bite report from the local hospital. The skin was broken, but barely; require antibiotics as do all animal bites, but did not need to be closed or even bandaged. Hospital bite reports equal automatic quarantine.

So ... yesterday was day ten, and I evaluated him. He had never seen me before and was just as sweet as could be. He was a bit anxious and whined a little as I took him to our outside exercise pen, but then he was fine. He played well, even tug, enjoyed a game of chase, and then came up and snuggled. 

Anyway, I am not seeking answers about this particular dog since that's just not something you can do over the internet, but I'm wondering if there are different body language cues that you see with your bullies; that you don't see with other breeds that you've owned. 

I have noticed that reading a bully's face is a bit tricky - the classic "worry" signs I see out of other breeds generally mean the bully is just interested in something and not truly anxious. Anything else you may have noticed?


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## redog (Oct 14, 2005)

Well there's a lot that you need to experience before you can label body language. Not real dif between breeds except the outcome. Tail position, fixation...man I can go on all day! What I suggest is you get experience, I mean, your decision or recommendation is detrimental to the safety of people and other animals involved in the dogs future. You must be sure before you place a dog. You find the individuals threshold, push that dog to the edge and make sure you can bring the dog back from it. These dogs are GENETICALY PRE DISPOSED TO DOG AGGRESSION. You need to accept that and handle it accordingly. My rule is never set the dog up for failure.. That means single dog households only and never mislead an adopter to believe these are cute, cuddly dogs that can be handled by a novice dog person. Be prepared to put down a great dog if you can't place it properly. Pm me and I'll give you the phone number to a lady near Chicago who can give you good insight on what you need to know. She helps out other rescues who are new to the pit bull breeds and she's someone you should get to know.


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## ames (Jun 6, 2010)

I personally don't think it's different. Granted I'm only having interaction with dogs at our shelter and my own dogs so who knows what breeds they are. But there are so many and not every dog displays them the same. I know one dog who raises hackles when playing. I know another dog that raises hackles when scared. Another that does it when they are aggressive. Raising hackles in itself could mean many things it's depend son the situation.

My dog closes his mouth when he is not comfortable in a situation Other dogs pants or yawn. My dog does that as well but it's more when he doesn't know whys going on. I just feel all dogs display the same language but it can mean different things which makes it hard on some people who I off a script and assume x+y=z

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