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My dogs never bothered anybody. They were both English Staffordshires, pit-bulls of sorts, but looking nothing like American Pits. They were taller, less muscular with more narrow faces, maybe some kind of mixes. Odie was a ball thief. If a dog was up there with a tennis ball Odie was going to get it. He would simply follow that dog all over until the dog goofed up and dropped the ball. Then he would snatch it, and he being some kind of pit, there was no getting it away from him. We had a living room full of tennis balls. You could grab that ball in his mouth, pick him up right off the ground, swing him around, and he was not letting it go.
He also developed various strategies for theft. In the beginning he went directly for the ball while still in the other dogs mouth. That seldom worked and he soon gave that tactic up. He would pretend to be not interested and wait for the dog to get tired of holding it, and then leap in to snatch it. He would try to get the dog interested in other things in various ways, so it would forget about the ball. Sometimes he would go and get a stick and bring it over like it was the greatest prize in the world, and then casually drop it near hoping the target would drop the ball and go for the stick. Most people understood. But one guy harassed me no end, because he wanted his ball back. I picked Odie up by the ball off the ground and said there is nothing I can do.
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