The End of an Era for Pitbulls

A pit-bull, a dog that descended from the Old English Terrier and the Old English Bulldog, is a dog that combined the athleticism of a bulldog and the gameness of a terrier. They were used for dog-fighting, thus giving them a  natural aggression. Pit bulls are outlawed in many places across the world, however, the question is, why?

In the resolution of the novel What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, many of Gladwell’s best writing for the New Yorker was exposed. In Part three of the three part novel, the last chapters were about personality, character and intelligence. From the Most Likely to Succeed to Dangerous Minds the last chapters of this novel where full of those three characteristics (Personality, character and intelligence).  However, what caught my eye was the last chapter, Troublemakers, or what Pit Bulls can teach us about crime.

One sunny winter afternoon, “Guy Clairoux picked up his two and a half year son, Jayden, from day care and walked him back to their home in the west of Ottawa. Jayden was straggling behind, and, as his father’s back was turned a pit bull jumped over a back- yard fence and lunged at Jayden,” (394).  One pit-bull had had is mouth on Jaydens head. Jayden father “Punched the first dog in the head, until it dropped Jayden, and then he threw the boy towards his mother,” (394).  A neighbor watched in terror and screamed for help, until a neighborhood boy came running with a hockey stick. In, the end, no one died or was severely injured, Lucky. However, the questions still remain, why are all pit-bulls restricted in places across the world? “When we say that pit-bulls are dangerous, we are making a generalization, just as insurance company’s use generalizations when they charge young men more for car insurance then the rest of us,” (396).  They assume that young men will cause more damage, even though many young men are perfectly fine drivers. That is why pit bulls are banned. “Because we don’t which dog will bite someone,” (396). Just as in my rising action post, many dog owners can’t even dare to think that their cute, adorable dogs are dangerous and that is the reason that these kind of events happen.

In the end of the novel, I was very satisfied with the resolution. Pit bulls where banned in Ottawa, however, are all pit bulls dangerous? Of course not all. Many have proven to be some of the best dogs in the world, however, even though a small fraction are dangerous, they have caused a huge effect on the rest of the pit bull population.  Again, “It’s always easier to ban a breed,” (410).

Featured Image found at this site

 

 

Memes that Woof

Cesar Millan, or the Dog Whisper from the T.V channel National Geographic, has changed many owners and dogs lives forever towards the better side. In the Novel What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell has pulled out some his best writing from the New Yorker and one, explaining the complicated life of Cesar Millian. The Memes below depicted the many challenges and obstacles Cesar has faced in his life and training dogs.

My first meme, “Sheltering Suburban Mom,” describes what many dog owners in the US feel towards their dogs. Cesar Millan is brought to a home in one of his episodes, where a Chihuahua named Bandit is seemed to be more favored than the owners own son. “It is all about him. He (The Dog) owns you,” (147).

The Second meme describes the way in certain places dogs are treated to the equivalent of children. Not only did Bandit (From the previous meme) go through three dog trainers and fail them all, his owner still thinks of him as “Our baby. He was in need of being nurtured and helped and he was scared all the time,” (147).

The Third meme, The awesome social awkward penguin, depicts that Cesar Millan does not only train dogs in his show. He also trains Human. If the owner of a dog does not take  the roles that is needed to take care of a dog, the dog does not behaves well, and becomes out of control.

My last meme, Futurama Fry, shows that even though Cesar was a great dog trainer, he did have his own flaws. “Cesar related to dogs because he didn’t connect to people,” (146). He and his wife had to attend therapy sessions and his wife threatened to divorce him if he refused to attended. He also almost tried to commit suicide after their divorce, however, he was able to get back on his feet and begin to live his life again.

Featured Image found at this site

Meme Generator Site

The Hidden Secrets of Ketchup

Have you ever wonder to yourself  “Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard but only one variety of ketchup?” Well, before reading the exposition of the novel What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, I had never thought about it. To be honest I am not quite a fan of mustard, however, ketchup earned the sauce of my early childhood award. I would put it on my food that I absolutely hated. It was a way to hide myself from the food I didn’t like and make it taste more of what seemed familiar to me.

“There are five known fundamental tastes in the human plate: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umani,”(44). Heinz, the leader in sales of the worlds ketchup wanted to push their ketchup to have all of these five tastes in one dip of their ketchup. They set out on a  extensive market- research project were researchers would go into households to watch he way ketchup was being used.  One key lesson Heinz had learned from this experiment is that “Small children tend to be neophobic; once they hit two or three, they shrink from new tastes,”(46). When a two or three year old “Was confronted with something strange on his plate- tuna fish, perhaps, or Brussels sprouts- he wanted to alter his food in some way that made the unfamiliar familiar,”(46). Thinking to my past I could always remember myself getting a plate of pasta that I didn’t favor and putting ketchup on it to make it taste good.I had wanted to subdue  the content on my plate.  “Ketchup could deliver sweet and sour and salty and bitter and umani, all at once,” (46). Thinking back to when I was in my early childhood, this scared me. Every time I was confronted with something new or different and forced to eat it I would let ketchup do the job of hiding that fear of eating something utterly disgusting.

Even to this day, I still sometimes use ketchup when I am made to eat something new.  The next time, however, when I get the ketchup from the fridge,  I will remember this book and put the ketchup back and try something new.

Featured Image found at this site