Cat Ballou loves to ride in the truck.  Open that door, and she's up and in, waiting patiently for her seat belt to be hooked before we can begin.

She is the quirkiest dog ever to own me, this Humane Society refugee with a penchant for bullfighting, pigeon chasing, chair stealing and treat panhandling.  No poker player, my Cat Ballou.  What you see is what she's holding.  But still there is much I wish I could ask her, like "With clean water in a bowl in the kitchen, why would you shoulder the bathroom door open to lap out of a stopped-up toilet bowl?"

"Why do you love, but only love, the crate with the mattress Della the Catahoula Cur scattered all over the kitchen?"

"Why when I am writing are you only happy jammed into the back of my office chair, leaving me perched on the front ledge, trying to make dog food money?"

When I'm ridin' dirty, pit bull on board, she glues her nose to the air vents.  I suppose it is the "safe dog passenger" version of the usual motley canines riding shotgun in our backcountry, heads jammed out through the window, ears, eyes, nose vulnerable, dangerously so, to anything they encounter at 60 miles an hour.  And of course, I want to ask, "What IS it that you're smelling through those air vents?"

I guess I'd ask her about the violence thing, too.  All of a sudden, she doesn't want to play with the two big male Labradors.  She wants to fight them, bully them, MAIM them. She finally put Finn on three legs for about a half day.  Where did this come from, and why, after all has been peaceful since her coming her in January.

And then I am reminded of the introduction to a great training book, Jos Stahlkuppe's prosaically titled Training Your Pit Bull.  Jos writes, "(There are) two basic truths about Pit Bulls:  1.  The Pit Bull does not have to be trained to fight.  Aggressiveness toward other dogs is, to one degree or another, an inbred characteristic in most Pit Bulls.  2.  While this aggressive nature toward other dogs varies from Pit Bull to Pit Bull, it cannot be corrected by training.  Any book or individual that does not acknowledge these two immutable truths about the Pit Bull is incorrect and shows very little understanding of this very special kind of dog...The Pit Bull was designed not as a pack dog, but as a solitary combatant against another solitary combatant.  One of the training maxims that is incontrovertible about the Pit Bull is that you can never trust such a dog not to fight with another dog (italics, the author)."

The answer is ceaseless training, ceaseless vigilance, of establishing leadership and consistent reinforcement not just of rules, but compliance with those rules. By putting that dog is as many controlled situations stacked in the dog's favor as possible, so that more and more there are fewer and fewer unfamiliar, threatening situations for the animal.

I have always told clients who bring dogs here that they have two obligations: To protect the dog from itself as well as its surroundings, and guard against imposing the dog on others.  Owning a pit bull raises the pucker factor on all of this high and tight.

So we go to dog friendly stores and restaurants, but we go at slack times.  She has collars and leads that fit her, and that fit different settings and circumstances and training objectives.  So far, that's consistent with the Labradors, the Cur, the pointer who live here.  

 I am awake when I take my dogs in public, just as I am awake when they work in the woods or around water.   I am awake to our surroundings, to our actions, to bypassing trouble.  But with Cat Ballou, it's all of that times 10.  Part of that is her nature;  part of that is the cultural perception of her race.  With a Pit Bull, it's not only guilty until proven innocent;  it's guilty from the jump.  

I cannot help but make the comparison to legally carrying a concealed weapon.  If you take that responsibility as seriously as you must, if you are committed to training as seriously as you must, the result is that every time you slip that gun inside the waistband of your pants, into safe containment in the vehicle, you are, as the young folks say now, "fully woke," as alive as you can be to your surroundings so that you can remain safe and proactive.

I love this dog.  However, she will not be a danger to the other animals on this farm, nor will she be a threat to people we meet on the street or who come invited into our home...and that's going to require more of me as a trainer and as a partner than any dog has ever asked.

I believe she's worth it, this Cat Ballou, worthy of that sort of investment.  The question is, Am I worthy of living up to my end of this partnership?