The changing face of “America’s dog” — and what it says about us

As the COVID-19 pandemic first swept through the United States a year ago, dog adoptions skyrocketed. In particular, America fell for Comet, a scene-stealing Golden adopted by the Tanner family on ABC's smash-hit sitcom, "Full House" — cementing the breed's status as a "cultural phenomenon," according to the American Kennel Club. Denver, which repealed its longstanding ban on pit bulls earlier this year, described them as such: "a pit bull is defined as any dog that is an American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or any dog displaying the majority of physical traits of any one or more of the above breeds, or any dog exhibiting those distinguishing characteristics which substantially conform to the standards established by the American Kennel Club or United Kennel Club for any of the above breeds." It's a concept deeply familiar to Bronwen Dickey, the author of "Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon," who told the Los Angeles Review of Books that as she set out to research the topic, she was shocked at the way people spoke about pit bulls, often using language that many would otherwise recognize as racist. These programs included "Pit Boss," a series that follows Luigi "Shorty" Rossi, a "little person with a big heart," as the show's tagline goes, who rescues pit bulls that are often bigger than him; "Pit Bulls and Parolees," a self-explanatory series about the life-altering relationship between the recently incarcerated and their dogs; as well as the National Geographic Channel's dog obedience show "The Dog Whisperer with Caesar Milan," which often featured Milan's own pit bulls, Daddy and Junior, as well as redemption narratives for other ill-behaved pit bulls.