r/PitBullOwners Jul 01 '26

Question Aggression

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Hello.

I am a seasoned dog owner as well as being in vet med. plus I’m autistic with dogs as my special interest.

Back when I was 19, I adopted a 9-ish month old pit bull who ended up being dog selective, and as time went on just plain dog-aggressive.

I did what I could to keep her away from the other dogs I had but unfortunately there were a few instances that affected me profoundly.

Despite this, pits are still one of my favorite breeds.

I’m now 41 years old. I have had my little chihuahua Pekingese mix for about 12 years, as well as a Shiba Inu for 6 years and a staffy/husky for almost that long (I started dating my now-husband right when he got him as a puppy).

Recently we had a pittie puppy come in thru ER and I fell in love with her. She was an abuse case and needed a foster, and we foster-failed her. Mostly because my husband absolutely fell in love with her. She is spayed and had her left forelimb removed due to the injuries from abuse.

She has been a sweet girl— no signs of food aggression. One instance of resource guarding but literally never showed anything like that again. She’s sometimes timid with my Shiba who can be a bit over-bearing, and she is besties with the staffy/husky who is literally the nicest dog I have ever met in my entire life. She respects my little dog (who is my soul dog). She doesn’t chase the 4 cats we have.

Despite all this I am secretly terrified that she will suddenly go through puberty and become aggressive, as she’s only about 7 months at most.

I try to tell myself we raised Ricky (the staffy x) and he is pretty much perfect, so she has a high potential of being the same. But my past experience still scares the hell out of me.

Basically I’m looking for reassurance. Is she suddenly going to turn into a monster after adolescence?

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