Copper is a cutie

Copper is not one of my typical shepherd- or rottie-mix fosters. He's a bully breed, or more accurately, a bully mixed breed. I don't know those dogs well at all. He's probably part American Bull Dog, part pit bull, maybe part boxer. Whatever he is, he's a very good looking dog.

The bully breeds suffer from breed prejudice more than any other dogs. They are banned in many housing complexes and sometimes in entire cities. They are powerful dogs and they had the misfortune of becoming popular with drug dealers and ghetto trash, not to mention dog fighting scum like Michael Vick. If trained to be aggressive, they are a danger. If raised properly, they are as sweet and loveable as any dog can be. Rather than banning the breed, enacting and enforcing spay/neuter laws, licensing regulations, and leash laws would solve this problem and many others.

I don't know the breeds well, however, and I'm not sure what kind of home to pursue for him. He's well behaved indoors; it really seems like he's been a household dog before. He's a bit on the alpha side though. He gets along really well with Teddy, and doesn't seem aggressive towards others, but he and Brady did get into it one day. It was a fight over food, and it was my fault. I had just introduced them and I fed them together without staying to supervise. One dog probably rushed the other's food dish and that set it off. I wasn't even aware of it until later. It was obvious that they had been fighting, both dogs were exhausted and both were covered with spit slime and dirt, but no blood. For those two dogs to have fought without drawing blood means that there was far more snarling and body slams than teeth involved in the fight. It was a boy fight. There was no real attempt to hurt each other, they just wanted to prove a point. Still, I have kept them apart after that. Brady is happy with Sparky, and Copper is happy with Teddy, so there has been no need to push my luck.

He's a sweet, sweet boy, however. He loves people, loves hugging and cuddling, and he comes when called. I tested him with cats the other day and he was curious but not aggressive. I guess I'd exercise the same caution I do when adopting rotties-- the adopter must be smarter than the dog. No tea baggers.

p.s. I put Copper together with Brady and Teddy today. No problems, they all played nicely. I'll supervise at feeding time.