Time for a bit of a throwback!
When we first got Brandi, we realized VERY quickly how deeply the "pitbull" stigma was engrained into the general population. We hadn't had a dog in our entire married life, so this was a new adventure for us as well. Being excited, and knowing that she'd had a pretty iffy past we wanted to take her out and let her get all the love and attention she deserved.
What we ran into instead was the stereotypical "crossing the street" behavior.
Now, our girl? She's something! She thinks everyone in the world wants to love on her and pet her and scratch her butt. Needless to say, she was devastated to find out otherwise and didn't understand what was going on.
I made the decision at that point to make her look like the princess she is, hoping that the new look would allow people to see beyond the broad chest and football head.
Guess what?
It worked!
I remember one of our first conversations was an older lady who was terrified of pitbulls. In spite of us repeatedly telling her that Brandi was a sweet loving dog, she was still scared to get close to her, even though she was VERY INTERESTED in the fact that she was wearing a full floral arrangement on her collar! We spent about 20 minutes talking with that sweet lady and by the end of our conversation, she was scratching Brandi's head and telling her what a good dog she was.
That was one of the initial talks, and we've had many, many such interactions over the years. I tell people all the time, it's very hard to be scared of a dog wearing a bow and pearls.
So yes, we're all about making your dog look as cute as possible, but underneath it all, the Booftique exists to start conversations that will change the minds of people who are open to a new outlook. So when you see our hashtags #alwaysadvocating or #notsoscary? Now you know why!