The Pit Bull Life: A Dog Lover's Companion

Adding to the growing body of work aimed at educating the public about bully breeds, this title is a wonderful introduction to a much-misrepresented dog. Although less academic than B. Dickey's new book, this title is an excellent entree to bullies. Divided roughly into two sections, the book first tackles pit bull history and then the science of dog aggression. Importantly, the authors—Franklin is the founder of advocacy group Pinups for Pitbulls; Lombardi is an author and former Associated Press pets columnist—discuss the fallacy that you can tell what breed a dog is by looking. They explain the pit bull isn't even a breed but that dogs are classified as such based on an arbitrary set of physical characteristics that can appear in any mixed-breed dog. Also included are sections on the benefits of positive training, BSL (breed-specific laws), why you should adopt a dog and what to expect when you do, and how to talk to people about pit bulls.