Stereotypes

Stereotypes

I've never liked them. White. Black. Rich. Poor. City girl or hillbilly. They are never fair and usually lead to hurt feelings. Brad and I experienced a stereotype tonight with our dog Dakota. She is a black pitbull Labrador mix and quite possibly one of the sweetest dogs you could meet. She is intimidating with her breed and small but muscular size but she honestly wouldn't hurt a fly. We have had Dakota for just over a year now and she turns 2 in October so she is still very much a puppy at heart.
She tends to get out and run and when she is running, listening is the last thing on her mind. Brad took her on a car ride last night to the local red box station to get a movie and when they got back she jumped out of the truck and took off down the street. Brad casually walked in and said "Megan, guess what!? Our dog ran away again!" I stopped what I was doing and went out front to call her and brad went out back. She never goes far and usually comes home within 5 minutes - I'm pretty sure she likes being fed and sleeping on our bed. This time was different. It took less than 5 minutes but this time our neighbors two houses down were outside and decided to make our lives difficult. They were yelling and screaming at brad to get Dakota off their property or they were going to call the cops. The lady went as far as to ask her son to hand her a baseball bat so she could beat Dakota!! Yes, please do that. That won't make our dog attack you at all!! They were saying that Dakota charged at the little girl and that she as growling at her. We know our dog and how she reacts and Dakota doesn't charge. She does this thing in our yard hat we have dubbed the Dakota 500. She races around out yard full speed 3-4 times and then is exhausted after. All Dakota was doing when she left the truck was doing a Dakota 500 around the block.
Now Dakota had been cooped up all day because she has kennel cough and it's being treated, but for the time being she shouldn't be around other dogs. She is like any living creature;if you are kept inside all day, when you have the chance to get out and stretch your legs you are going to take the chance.
The stereotype that pit-bulls are means dogs frustrates me. Yes, she has an intimidating growl but what dog doesn't? Dakota only attacks you in kisses and puppy pounces. She has never bit or attacked anyone. She listens to us when it really matters and is a good dog. It frustrates me that people think that she is a mean dog. Don't judge a book by its cover.
Back to our neighbor. After we got Dakota calmed down and a leash on her, brad did the brave thing and brought Dakota back over to the neighbor so they could get to meet her and see that she is a nice dog. The lady wanted nothing to do with brad and told him to leave or she was calling the cops.
This part really bugs me. If the cops were called it would be a 'he said she said' sort of thing. She could say that this mean dog tried to attack her little girl and that's all it would take to get Dakota hauled away. This is where stereotypes come in. Dakota is labeled as a mean dog because of the people who choose to train pitbulls to fight and be aggressive. Pitbulls are incredibly loyal and obedient dogs. I have heard that poodles are actually more aggressive and hurt or kill more people than any other breed. Never would have thought that!
It's aggravating to think that these people who were yelling and screaming at us to get Dakota away from them can ruin our whole evening and rethink our dog. We would never put Owen or anyone else is danger.