Play date in XL Bully house

[Bonneylass]

School mum has invited my son over to play. They own an XL bully. Apparently it’s a lovely dog and they have 3 kids at home. I really don’t want him to go, I just don’t think it’s worth the risk. Is it best to make up an excuse or just be honest? Interested to hear from owners of XL bullies how you would react to this. She’s a lovely lady and ideally I don’t want to piss her off.

My DC are 16 and 17 and I wouldn’t let them in a house with an XL bully!

How many times have we read “much loved family pet…”, “docile XL bully…”, “XL bully with no behavioural issues…” followed by how they ripped someone’s face off?

They’re always friendly and well behaved until they’re not.

You’re doing the right thing, OP.

I’m glad it’s not just me that says no to play dates at a house with a xl bully.
my little boy has a really good friend and her mum is lovely, but I just cannot let him go to her house with that type of dog.

That's putting alot of trust in the owner though, that she would keep it in the crate and it wouldn't accidentally get let out or even manage to escape.

@kurotora what are you talking about…what we are currently calling the Cane Corso?? The Cane Corso has been around since the time of Ancient Rome, the American Bully was first bred in the US in the 1990s!

Yes people cross XL bullys with mastiffs, but this does not create a Cane Corso! The Cane Corso is an FCI recognised breed, which has been around for thousands of years! Yes they were saved from “extinction” but they certainly were not mixed with the American Bully in order to save the breed!

An XL bully mix is exactly that, a mix! If you look at the DNA you will see many other breeds mixed in to form the XL bully in the first place. The only reason mastiffs are mixed in is to make them bigger, it can be any mastiff breed, not necessarily a Cane Corso, depends on who is breeding the dog in the first place. Anyone who is breeding a dog to make it bigger or produce a “rare” colour etc, should not be breeding any dog imo, but that’s probably for another thread!

Please do some research and get your facts straight before throwing another breed under the bus!

I think honesty is good here - if she can see she is costing her children friendships, she may reconsider her choices. Hopefully she's only costing them friendships, and not their lives/faces/limbs.

The only idiotic comment is yours.

I don't know why you defend these dogs and the idiots who own them. Do you never read/watch/listen to the news?

No, be honest and invite her child to yours.

The dog may be fine with the lady’s children but you just don’t know how it may feel about a child who is not from the dogs family being on its territory. I would not let my young child go. Play date elsewhere?

Same here. Regardless of how many adults are in the room, it takes a second for a dog to pounce!

Would you let your kid go to a house with a pet tiger?

And when they do the adults can't do anything

Precisely!

No, no, no and no.

All these dogs are "lovely" and "wouldn't hurt a fly" until they're not and someone is dead.

It is not worth the risk and I don't think I could be friends with someone who had one of these animals in a home with children.

The Cane Corso was an extremely rare breed here in the UK until post-Covid. Now we have them on every other street. How do you scale up a population that fast? Outcrossing and inbreeding. One of those outcrosses is the XL and I can tell you that for a fact because I have encountered some of these low life “Corso” breeders - most of whom also used to breed XLs. I’m sure there are people preserving the Cane Corso but I can assure you the majority of “Cane Corso” bought on Pets4Homes or from Scott down the road who just had a lurrrvely litter are mutts. You will surely see loads of dodgy “Corso” attacks as this scales up further after the XL ban.

Yes cane corso another nightmare breed. A neighbour of mine 2 doors up had one of these staying with her a few weeks ago (she had a bully dog for a few weeks a couple of years ago as well, which ran into my house jumping about all over the place and scratched my son leg) Anyway I was so worried about this cane corso, it looked and sounded awful. But I thought calm down it’ll get out and bite someone else and then it’ll be gone, and that’s what happened, I came home a few weeks ago and there was a police man pointing a taser at it. Within minutes the street was full of police shouting at people to stay in their houses and cars. They eventually took the bloody thing away. Thank god

I'm still puzzled at these 'lovely ladies' who have these dogs.

Of all the dog breeds out there they choose an XL Bully.

There is nothing lovely about people who own these dogs and I would have nothing to do with them, not even for play in the park without the dog.

I agree we will soon see a spate of attacks by Cane Corsos. That's not because there is anything wrong with the breed, or they've suddenly turned evil. It's because they're becoming popular with the former XL Bully owners/breeders/twats. The same as Pitbull before them and the same as the x-breed that will come next.

I also agree that they're being crossed with XL Bully types to make bigger dogs but the resulting pups are not Cane Corsos, they are crossbreeds.

And this is precisely why banning breeds will never reduce dog attacks. The issue lies at the other end of the lead. Until we look at that side of things there will always be another "monster" x-breed waiting in the wings to be abused and corrupted by money-grabbing, idiotic thugs.

Most of the advocates against BSL warned that the Cane Corso would be next on the eejit's hitlist before the ban even came in. Anyone who works with dogs could see it coming years ago.

Re: supervising children around animals the point is not to step in after an attack begins but to prevent one by knowing and watching your dog. Very few, if any attacks, come out of the blue. Dogs are very adept at giving clear warnings they are unhappy with something, the problem is we are not very adept at "listening" to them.

If we really want to see a change in the number of attacks we need to start by educating dog owners so they can see the warning signs and take action before it's too late, or better yet, educate them not to put the dog in a situation where they feel the need to give warning signs.

@Frequency , what you say is very wise , but from what I have seen of the owners of these dogs . They truly think their “ fur baby “ is a softie cuddle monster, who “ wouldn’t hurt a fly”, so they don’t bother to learn about dog behaviour.

I know of two women who own these dogs. Both have had experience of the criminal justice system, but both now work in prisoner rehabilitation.

Due to their backgrounds, this is not only the sort of work they want to do, it's one of the more limited options available to them.

They live, as they describe it, in "pro crime neighborhoods". They feel safer having these dogs. And yeah, they have kids.

Are they bright, or lovely? Not really. But they're not bad people, and they have their reasons.

I'd agree, based on the videos of "cute" dog/child interactions on Faceache I see, XL Bully owners are not the only dog owners who believe their dog is a "softie", and ignore all the very clear warnings the dog is giving.

99.99% of dog/child videos on Faceache leave me feeling physically ill. The things people put their dogs through to be "cute" and get "likes" on Faceache it's a wonder any child makes it through living with a dog.

Fortunately, most dogs, even XL Bullies, will remove themselves or restrain themselves. You have to remember we only read about the times it went wrong. The Daily Fail et al don't publish anything about the thousands of XL Bullies/Pitbulls/Staffies/status dogs of the moment who lived long and peaceful lives in their families. It's also worth noting that the media gets the breed of the dog wrong in the majority of their reporting. Often the breed cannot be established even by veterinary professionals. 80-something % of dogs who go on to kill are thought to be undetermined crossbreeds, but the Fail et all will always lay the blame on the status dog of the moment.

However, education has been proven to work in places that have trialed it. I can't remember them all, but the Calgary model is often quoted as being the most successful and it places no restrictions on breeds. I'm not sure how well it would scale up to be implemented across an entire country but other countries have implemented education and noted a reduction in attacks. I'd Google/search through old files and notes but I've been awake all night with a chest infection and CBA.

It would be a hard no from me.
I'd tell her nicely and politely but stand firm.
You have to put your child's safety first.
Maybe suggest something else.

I'm a confident dog owner brought up with big dogs . I wouldn't let it happen but I'd be up front about why .
I read yesterday that 1% of dogs in UK are xl bullies but 75% of dog fatalities are from them. They aren't a dog should be anywhere near kids .
I always in the past believed that it wasn't the dog but the stupid owner.
I can't with these dogs .

Fuck that.

'A dose of reality' - that's exactly what it is.

How can she be so clueless and put her children in harms way like that??
It makes me sick.