Author: Charmaine Johnson-Augustin Publisher: ISBN: 9781449032913 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
When one thinks of a Pit Bull one may picture a vile, aggressive animal ready to strike and devour. Remember that Pit Bulls are very strong, energetic, agile and powerful dogs. They also are very resourceful. Determination is probably their most notable trait. Whatever they set out to do, they put their heart and soul into it. Whether it is escaping an inadequately fenced yard to chase the neighbor's cat, or destroying your new couch when left home alone, or climbing into your lap and shower you with kisses! They just don't give up easily. Being a powerful dog, they may require sufficient and adequate control. An insecure person who wants only an aggressive dog to bolster some personal human inadequacy should never become an owner of one of these dogs. An uncaring or negligent person should not buy a Pit Bull or any other dog for that matter! With that being said, a very important characteristic of Pit Bulls is their love of people. These dogs are indeed remarkably affectionate, and often crave attention. They are wonderful coddlers and nothing beats a good belly rub. In fact, most Pit Bulls think that they are lap dogs! They usually are exuberantly happy upon meeting their owner's friends or even friendly strangers. So much so that new owners sometimes worry that their dog is too sweet and fun-loving to protect their home and family. A multitalented companion, the well-trained Pit Bull is suited for a variety of exciting activities. They excel at obedience, agility and weight-pulling competitions, events which showcase intelligence, trainability and strength. In addition, the Pit Bull's pleasant nature makes him or her, an ideal candidate for therapy work with people. Human aggression, severe shyness, and instability are not traits typically found and accepted in Pit Bulls. Dogs with these traits are not good representatives of the breed and should not be placed into adoptive homes. Like any other breed, Pit Bulls could develop behavior problems if mishandled, abused, poorly bred, or unsocial. In such instance they could result in displaying inappropriate aggression. A large, strong, powerful dog's attack can do a lot of damage if unchecked. This is why serious temperament evaluation is so important when dealing with dogs of certain size and potential. Unlike the myth propagated by the media though, human aggression is not a problem specific to the Pit Bull breed. In fact, Pit Bulls tend to do better than average in temperament tests. These dogs really do make wonderful, loving and very loyal companions as long as you understand them well, and know how to establish your leadership in a positive way. Something very important to keep in mind with Pit Bull type dogs is their background as fighting dogs. Humans have created very specialized dogs through emphasizing desired traits and eliminating unwanted ones. It is no different with the Pit Bull breed. The American Pit Bull Terrier has been 'selectively' bred for hundreds of years to fight other dogs. Even in dogs that are not recently bred from fighting lines, the urge to rumble can arise at any time. Not to strongly emphasize this fact is to be negligent.
Author: Bronwen Dickey Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0307961761 Category : Pets Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
The hugely illuminating story of how a popular breed of dog became the most demonized and supposedly the most dangerous of dogs—and what role humans have played in the transformation. When Bronwen Dickey brought her new dog home, she saw no traces of the infamous viciousness in her affectionate, timid pit bull. Which made her wonder: How had the breed—beloved by Teddy Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Hollywood’s “Little Rascals”—come to be known as a brutal fighter? Her search for answers takes her from nineteenth-century New York City dogfighting pits—the cruelty of which drew the attention of the recently formed ASPCA—to early twentieth‑century movie sets, where pit bulls cavorted with Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton; from the battlefields of Gettysburg and the Marne, where pit bulls earned presidential recognition, to desolate urban neighborhoods where the dogs were loved, prized—and sometimes brutalized. Whether through love or fear, hatred or devotion, humans are bound to the history of the pit bull. With unfailing thoughtfulness, compassion, and a firm grasp of scientific fact, Dickey offers us a clear-eyed portrait of this extraordinary breed, and an insightful view of Americans’ relationship with their dogs.
Author: Bronwen Dickey Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0345803116 Category : Pets Languages : en Pages : 402
Book Description
The controversial story of one infamous breed of dog--a New York Times Bestseller ("Animals" list). When Bronwen Dickey brought her new dog home, she saw no traces of the infamous viciousness in her affectionate pit bull. Which made her wonder: How had the breed—beloved by Teddy Roosevelt and Helen Keller—come to be known as a brutal fighter? Dickey’s search for answers takes her from nineteenth-century New York dogfighting pits to early twentieth‑century movie sets, from the battlefields of Gettysburg to struggling urban neighborhoods. In this illuminating story of how a popular breed became demonized--and what role humans have played in the transformation--Dickey offers us an insightful view of Americans' relationship with their dogs.
Author: Ann Coulter Publisher: Crown Forum ISBN: 0307449874 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
“Liberals seem to have hit upon a reverse Christ story as their belief system. He suffered and died for our sins; liberals make the rest of us suffer for sins we didn’t commit.” Who are the victims here? To hear liberals tell it, you’d think they do nothing but suffer at the hands of ruthless entities like the “Republican Attack Machine” and Fox News. Really? It’s just another instance of the Big Lie, of course, told so often that some people have actually started to believe it. In Guilty, Ann Coulter explodes this myth to reveal that when it comes to bullying, no one outdoes the Left. Citing case after case, ranging from the hilariously absurd to the shockingly vicious, Coulter dissects these so-called victims who are invariably the oppressors. For instance: •Single mothers: Getting pregnant isn’t like catching the flu. There are volitional acts involved–someone else explain it to Dennis Kucinich. By this purposeful act, single mothers cause irreparable harm to other human beings–their own children–as countless studies on the subject make clear. •The myth of the Republican Attack Machine: The most amazing thing liberals have done is create the myth of a compliant right-wing media with Republicans badgering baffled reporters into attacking Democrats. It’s so mad, it’s brilliant. It’s one kind of lie to say the Holocaust occurred when the Swedes killed the Jews. But it’s another kind of lie entirely to say the Holocaust occurred when the Jews killed the Nazis. •“Brave” liberals: In addition to being beautiful, compassionate tribunes of the downtrodden, liberals are brave. I know that because they’re always telling me how brave they are. Why, five nights a week, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann courageously books guests who completely agree with him. It doesn’t get much braver than that. •Obambi’s luck: While B. Hussein Obama piously condemned attacks on candidates’ families, his media and campaign surrogates ripped open the court-sealed divorce records of his two principal opponents in his Senate race in Illinois. •The offenders are offended!: Republican senator George Allen’s career was destroyed when he made a joking remark to a privileged Indian American harassing him at campaign stops. When did rich kids become a new protected category that must be shielded from words that are insulting in other languages? How did Sidarth become a specially anointed victim? What did we ever do to India? And why didn’t we ever hear about the far more offensive anti-Semitic flyers of Allen’s opponent Jim Webb? One essential and recurring truth about self-righteous liberals, says Coulter, is that “they viciously attack all while wailing that they are the true victims.” With Guilty–a mordantly witty and shockingly specific catalog of offenses that liberals would rather we ignore and forget–Ann Coulter presents exhibits A through Z.
Author: Deborah Thompson Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476645566 Category : Pets Languages : en Pages : 213
Book Description
What do dogs mean in America? How do Americans make meaning through their dogs? The United States has long expressed its cultural unconscious through canine iconography. Through our dogs, we figure out what we're thinking and who we are, representing by proxy the things that we don't quite want to recognize in ourselves. Often, it's a specific breed or type of dog that serves as an informal cultural mascot, embodying an era's needs, fears, desires, longings, aspirations, repressions, and hopeless contradictions. Combining cultural studies with personal narrative, this book creates a playful, speculative reading of American culture through its canine self-representations. Looking at seven different breeds or types over the last seven decades, readers will go on an intellectual dog walk through some of the mazes of American cultural mythology.
Author: Martha B. Wood Publisher: iUniverse ISBN: 1491719257 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 203
Book Description
OUT OF MY MIND is a delightful, eclectic collection of engaging narratives by author Martha Wood. These were developed as the authors mind was, as she puts it, Set free to play. Written in short story style, some of the anecdotes are amusing, as in Funny Names, or Things I Always Wanted to Do, But Thank God I Havent; some serious like It Shouldnt Hurt, or The N Word; some fictional such as Elizabeth, the Queen, or Treasures from the Attic; some poignant as in No One Ever Says, Hi, or Where Sorrow and Gladness Meet; while yet others are instructive like Dealing with the Odor, and Until We Eat Again. For a little mystery, there is The Gunslinger, and Congratulations on a Dedicated Life. All, though, give voice to thoughts set free and permitted expression.
Author: Martha Teichner Publisher: Celadon Books ISBN: 1250212510 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
*An Instant New York Times Bestseller!* A memoir of love and loss, of being in the right place at the right time, and of the mysterious ways a beloved pet can bring people together, from CBS Sunday Morning News correspondent and multi-Emmy-Award-winning Martha Teichner. There are true fairy tales. Stories that exist because impossible-to-explain coincidences change everything. Except in real life, not all of them have conventional, happily-ever-after endings. When Harry Met Minnie is that kind of fairy tale, with the vibrant, romantic New York City backdrop of its namesake, the movie When Harry Met Sally, and the bittersweet wisdom of Tuesdays with Morrie. There’s a special camaraderie among early-morning dog walkers. Gathering at dog runs in the park, or strolling through the farmer's market at Union Square before the bustling crowd appears, fellow pet owners become familiar–as do the personalities of their beloved animals. In this special space and time, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner’s world. As fate would have it, her friend knew someone who was dying of cancer, from exposure to toxins after 9/11, and desperate to find a home for her dog, Harry. He was a Bull Terrier—the same breed as Martha’s dear Minnie. Would Martha consider giving Harry a safe, loving new home? In short order, boy dog meets girl dog, the fairy tale part of this story. But there is so much more to this book. After Martha agrees to meet Harry and his owner Carol, what begins as a transaction involving a dog becomes a deep and meaningful friendship between two women with complicated lives and a love of Bull Terriers in common. Through the heartbreak and grief of Carol’s illness, the bond that develops changed Martha’s life, Carol’s life, Minnie’s life, Harry’s life. As it changed Carol’s death as well. In this rich and touching narrative, Martha considers the ways our stories are shaped by the people we meet, and the profound love we can find by opening our hearts to unexpected encounters.
Author: Linda Beail Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 0415893364 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
Using the notion of "framing" as a way of understanding political perception, the authors analyze the narratives told by and about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election - from beauty queen, maverick, faithful fundamentalist and post-feminist role model to pit bull hockey mom, frontier woman, and political outsider. They discuss where those frames are rooted historically in popular and political culture, why they were selected, and the ways that the frames resonated with the electorate.
Author: Sophie Gamand Publisher: ISBN: 9781590565827 Category : Photography of dogs Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
For decades, pit bulls have been demonized by society and portrayed as hellhounds. They've become the most feared, hated, and abused of all companion animals. Some cities and even entire countries ban them, while the media persist in associating them with viciousness. This unjust reputation has sealed the fate of millions of dogs, who face prejudice around the world and languish in shelters, where they are the most euthanized. In America alone, hundreds of thousands of pit bulls are put to sleep every year. Since 2014, French photographer Sophie Gamand has been composing portraits of adoptable pit bulls from more than thirty shelters and rescues throughout the United States. Many had been waiting for years for a home. Adorning her models with handmade flower-crowns, Gamand tells each dog's story and celebrates their inherent personality, vulnerability, and individuality. Posted and shared widely on social media, the portraits--at once charming, candid, and deeply affecting--have not only led to hundreds of dogs finding loving, forever homes, but have also spurred efforts to destigmatize an animal whose reputation for violence says more about us than it does the character of the dogs themselves. Full of moving, honest, and inspiring stories of individual dogs and their lives (and deaths), Pit Bull Flower Power presents a vivid, beautifully composed cross-section of Gamand's extraordinary work. The book also serves as a testament to the caring people who work in animal rescue, the passion and dedication of those who provide homes for these animals, and the dignity, forbearance, and love of these dogs, who are at the mercy of humans.
Author: Carol Raj Publisher: Pelican Ventures Book Group ISBN: 1522301216 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 145
Book Description
One unlocked car door, one glance to the left, and suddenly impoverished retiree Muriel Smith is hurtling down the road at an alarming thirty miles per hour! Will the teenage carjacker really shoot to kill? Muriel can't die yet. Not until she's accomplished something to make her daughter proud. Not until she's seen her great-grandchild, the unborn baby her granddaughter isn't sure she wants to keep. It seems Muriel is running out of time. Especially if her survival depends on her driving skills! Muriel and her carjacker find themselves on a wild adventure that has them both falling "victim" to Muriel's curious prayer life.
Author: Charmaine Johnson-Augustin
Author: Bronwen Dickey
Author: Bronwen Dickey
Author: Ann Coulter
Author: Deborah Thompson
Author: Martha B. Wood
Author: Martha Teichner
Author: Linda Beail
Author: Sophie Gamand
Author: Carol Raj