LINK- Pit bulls’ surprising past: Nanny dogs

June 3, 2011 in Links

Try to quickly summon an image of good-with-small-children dog, and chances are you’ll picture something adorably Benji-shaggy. Or maybe a sweetie-pie golden retriever, or a loveball of a lab. It’s not likely, at least not in today’s perception of the breed, that an American pit bull terrier leaps to mind.

But not so long ago, pit bulls were brought in as “nanny dogs,” the trusted caretaker pups to watch over kids.

Vintage photographs recently posted on a personal blog show off the breed as babysitter.

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