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| Florida State Fair Pure Bred Dog Exhibit |
| Pit Bull Awareness Day October 25th, 2008 |
| Responsible Dog Owners Day A Tampa Bay Kennel Club/AKC Event |
| What can you say about something that has gone better than you could have ever dreamed possible? That's where I find myself today trying to convey to you just how successful the Mid Florida APBTA Purebred Dog Exhibit has been at the Florida State Fair. Successful isn’t really the right word either, because quite frankly, we rocked! I know I was nervous and psyched going into this venture. How would the other AKC clubs feel about our, “pit bulls,” being there? After all, according to the news media our dogs do eat little children, you know! And, because of all this uneducated media hype these days, what type of reaction would we really receive from those walking through the exhibit who knew nothing about this breed except what had been learned from that same biased, lopsided and incorrect reports? How would our dogs handle themselves? Would the public be receptive to our weight pull demonstrations, or would it be deemed just another cruel activity for the pit bull? So off we went the first morning of the fair proudly displaying ribbons and trophies won by our dogs; these are show dogs we were ready to proudly tell the throngs! We were armed with pictures upon pictures of pit bulls and children; from beginning at the turn of the century to the present. Let’s remember that during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the pit bull was truly the American family dog. The flaps to the exhibit tent open and here they come. Some instantly recognized our breed; telling us stories of their own pit bulls, and believe it or not, the numbers where quite high of those that had proudly saved pictures of their pits on their cell phones! You gotta love it! Then there were those who had no idea what they were petting until they were told. ‘I thought these were vicious dogs’ was mostly what we heard as people giggle while being kissed and licked all over; by the dog of course! Over the course of the six days we had our exhibit open we were given several opportunities to perform weight pull demonstrations for the audience. The supervisor of the exhibit would post the times of the shows in the morning and I found it so exciting that the bleachers were full come “show time!” We came prepared with our drag sled to show and talk a little about training and conditioning. We also had our pull cart and heavy weights that we used. But, I must confess, the highlight for me was when an older gentlemen in the crowd wanted to take a ride on the cart being pulled by one of our dogs! He loved it, the dog loved it, and the crowd loved it. So we had our opportunities to ask the people sitting and watching us, ‘What do Teddy Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Michael J. Fox and Rachel Ray have in common?’ They all owned Pit Bulls of course! And, we had our opportunities as well to tell those that came to pet, hug and kiss our dogs, to remember and vote against breed specific legislation; that it could be their breed of choice next. So in summary, we boast ourselves to be a responsible owners group, we came as a responsible owners group, we conducted ourselves as a responsible owners group, but more importantly we walked away being respected as a responsible owners group. Yes, we have already been invited back again next year! From the bottom of my heart I feel our group of enthusiastic pit bull owners breathed a little life back into this old exhibit. Our enthusiasm about being there and passion for our dogs were contagious. Did we convert any non-believers in the breed? Absolutely, and without a doubt! Many more now understand it is not the breed, but the unresponsible owner who is at the root of the pit bull issue, and now they too can tell others about the beautiful, well-cared for, loving, muscled athletes, known as the clownish pit bull they interacted with at the Florida State Fair. I think the presence of our dogs far exceeded everyone’s expectations. |