Moose
Jasmine and Moose
When my husband and I first met Moose, he was just another pit bull at the Humane League. Because of his breed, he had a greater likelihood of not finding a home and being put down. He barked a lot and jumped at the cage, but for some reason, my husband was drawn to him and wanted to bring him home with us. Although I have had pits my whole life, I thought it was a terrible idea. Moose was big and mouthy and jumped a lot, but we brought him home and after a few months, my husband transformed him from a scrawny stray dog into a well behaved friend. I had always wanted to get involved in dog therapy, so I signed Moose and I up for KPETS, a non-profit organization that promotes healing and rehabilitating benefits of the animal/human bond. My husband and I did a lot of work to train him, but the majority of the credit goes to my husband. After training, Moose and I started going into elderly communities, domestic abuse shelters and have just started training to become volunteers at Hospice. When I first started going to the elderly communities, some of the residents wouldn't pet him because of his breed. It broke my heart but I realized that it's Moose's job to become an advocate for his breed and help people along the way. Little by little, the same people who were afraid to pet him, now give him cookies, pet him and enjoy his visits. When I take him to domestic abuse shelters, the children tell me that they think pit bulls are mean, fighting dogs. But they quickly learn dogs have to be trained to behave certain ways and Moose has been trained to cuddle and be nice. I've seen many children in the shelter, come out of their shells, to tell me their story, sit and pet Moose and read books to him. Moose and I still have a lot of work to do but little by little he's making an impact. He's one of 30 registered pit bull therapy dogs in the U.S. I've attached a video of another pit bull therapy dog for your reference.