We hope you don’t mind this break from your regularly scheduled Stevie Wonder programming — we wanted to dedicate one post to yesterday’s Neighborhood Pit Bull Day in Baltimore, where I had the great pleasure of photographing more than 100 pit bulls and their owners. I also got to meet two of our long-time blog readers, which was especially thrilling.
The event was put on by Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and BARCS, and had a great showing — more than 130 dogs were registered at the event. Dogs and owners came for the dog-related info — including “ask the trainer” and “ask the vet” booths and a Best Friends info booth, and for goodies — including free dog food, snacks, and squeaky toys. But even though many people came for the booty, I think the most valuable part of the event was the health and safety-related features that people got to explore just by being there. A vet booth was on site to microchip dogs and hand out vouchers for free vaccines and free spay/neuters, and people could trade old or low-quality gear in for new, properly-fitted collars, harnesses, and leashes. I loved seeing all the dogs trotting around the park in their new collars, snacking on ice cubes and organic doggie treats, and hearing the owners talking excitedly about going to get their dog vaccinated or neutered, or finally getting to talk to a trainer about how to deal with a particular issue.
For me, the photo booth was especially fun, of course. I got to meet more than 100 dogs and their families. It was so beautiful, seeing how people of all stripes love their dogs and how proud they were to have their photo taken together as a family. Baltimore is an amazingly diverse city of incredibly warm people, and I felt lucky to get to interact with so many of them — and their gorgeous animals — at the event.
To close, a collection of portraits from our booth.
Love and a Six-Foot Leash 
What a great gathering! It sounds like an event not to be missed. I’d love to go to something like that, maybe not with Beryl but Frankie wouldn’t look out of place:) He’s got a little bit of some sort of bully in him somewhere. Your photos are gorgeous and you gotta love that big bully infectious grin:)
Sounds like a great weekend. Great job with the photos too, not the easiest conditions with the backlight. Looks like a bunch of happy families, thanks for sharing.
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
What fabulous photos! Unfortunately, I didn’t make it out there as anticipated – just too much to do and too little time 😦 I heard it was a great event, and you rocked the photobooth!!
wow, what a fantastic event. and your pics are really amazing, I love how they show such a wide variety of people who all have one thing in common…pit bull love!
Love it! A great event for the pooches and their people and showing the community that these are wonderful dogs!
What gets me is the wide range of appearance in these dogs. My daughter has a West Highland White calendar, and they could put the same dog on each month’s page and you’d never know. All these dogs look so different, you almost wouldn’t guess it’s one breed. And from what I understand, “pit bull” means much more than the AKC’s definition of American Pit Bull Terrier….
That is so absolutely true. Do you know our good friend Sarge the Elderbull? He does a nice job of reminding us why it’s silly to make any kind of generalizations about pit bulls — they are all individuals and should be treated as such. Not only can their appearance vary widely because they’re not a true narrow breed, but their personalities, too!
Not familiar with Sarge the Elderbull. Sounds like someone I’d like to meet, though!
If you are on facebook, that’s the best place to get to know him. His name is Sarge Wolf-Stringer. He also has a blog: http://www.elderbulls.blogspot.com/
Love the pictures! It’s amazing how diverse the pit bull lovers are too. I’ve been talking your blog up to a bunch of different rescues around town. I’m sure their fosters are going to thank me eventually 🙂
I’m so sad that we weren’t able to make it to this event! Looks like it was a lot of fun, and I would have loved to finally meet you in person. I’m glad it was a big success though… and the photos turned out great!
I was thinking the same exact thing…the owners are just as varied as the dogs. But one thing we always notice is how proud everyone is of their dog. When we’re out with the pooches, we have so many people coming up to us and pulling out their phones to show us their dogs too. And what a great education program!
Great photos! Such happy pit bull families. It looks like a wonderful event. I’m glad to see it’ll be in Los Angeles in October.
all those smiling people and smiling dogs…. they made ME smile!
beautiful photos; thanks for sharing
All those floppy tongues! So cute! What beautiful dogs!
Such a diverse group of people and pits! I am educating myself on the breed and it’s always amazing to me how the size of the pit varies. Some are huge! Others are small (aka Gonzo). No matter the size, I love seeing the smiling pitties with their humans and with little people. Love the photos – thank you for sharing them!!
What a cool event, great pictures
Benny & Lily
Can’t wait to get my photo via email! It was a great event and the photos are a fantastic idea… it’s so neat to see all those smiling faces. 🙂
Erin,
Which one were you? You should’ve said hi!
I have been processing photos for our blog friends faster than the others — with some 100 families to process, it’s going to take some time to get through everything! Thanks for coming out yesterday, we had so much fun 🙂 Aleksandra
Great photos of people and their pitties!
It was so much fun, and nice to meet you Aleksandra! I fell especially in love with that big chicken Chopper (fourth picture down)- what a sweetie- as well as the second picture- the big guy with his “baby sister” who was just a big puppy!
The guy in the yellow shirt (smiling with his little tan dog) thanked me profusely before leaving, talking about the importance of showing off good owners and good dogs, and how happy he was with the event.
I’m so glad to hear that everyone was pleased!! The guy in the yellow cracked me up. He was such a funny guy, and clearly is in LOVE with that beautiful little tan dog 🙂
Just found your blog through another volunteer at BARCS. I stopped by the event yesterday for a few minutes after my BARCS foster baby was adopted in the morning. I have to say, you have got a really great blog here and I’m so glad I found it! I love reading about other peoples’ adventures in fostering and of course, I have a big soft spot in my heart for the bully breeds 🙂
All those pretty pitties! 🙂 super!
Looks like it was a great event. Definitely post if you do it again next year! Maybe I’ll be able to come check it out then!
Great photos, everyone looks so happy! Sounds like it was a wonderful event.
These photo’s are beautiful! Thank you so much. Is there any way you can post more of them?
Hi Jaime, were you there yesterday with your pooch? I plan to process the rest over the coming week and post them all to a web album somewhere, but if you can describe yourself/your family and dogs to me, I can probably fish you out of the pile and do yours first, then email it to you . . .
Jaime is one of the very dedicated Pit Crew volunteers!
This makes me so happy! There’s no other breed that can connect with so many different personalities and still fit in perfectly!
– Formerly T2 – My life with pit bulls
GREAT photos – of people and pitties!! Thanks for sharing.
-Gizmo, Bart and Ruby, who as rotties, all look alike – until you get to know us!!
Alex, the photographs are absolutely wonderful. You really captured the love that these people have for their dogs. It was so nice working with you on the photos. Maybe we can do it any at another event. Thank you!
I love that this is a real thing in the world. That such a day as Neighbourhood Pit Bull Day even exists. I’d love to start something like this in my own community. If only I wasn’t so shy!
This was a great event that made our entire weekend! My family is the second picture down. We will cherish this picture of our little family forever. I not only fell in love with Tyson (1 yr 7months), but with the whole breed! Such loyal, loving and sweet dogs!
Thank you for coming to our city! We appreciate it more than you know 🙂
Kristi your family was beautiful! Thank you for coming.
The photos are amazing! This is our first time at this event and everyone we met were really nice and helpful. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the event. We cannot wait to get the e-mail of our “family photo” from the dog photo tent.
Thank you for coming Rita!! Responsible pit bull owners are my favorite people.
What a diverse range of pups and owners! Aleksandra, you are doing so much to educate people about pit bulls. A picture speaks a thousand words 🙂
Amazing pictures! I love people who love their pit bulls!!! I rarely see red nose pitties here in our big city and was thrilled to spot so many in the photos you published. Wilbur however wasn’t so excited and had to remind me that there is no red nose pitty out there that can compare to him.
I have to agree.
These are fantastic fotos! They illustrate the perfect essence of the bond between Pits and their keepers. So nicely done!
What a great day in the park too…
Awesome pics and awesome event! I didn’t realize you guys were from that area. I was born in DC and spent a ton of time in and around Baltimore.
Love the diversity in the pitiies – and the families!
-jennifer
animal haven
nyc
These pictures are amazing! I can’t thank you enough for all of your hard work at the event, everyone raved about the photo booth! It’s really great to see how proud everyone is of their pit bulls in the pictures. Thank you again so, so much!!
Lisa, Thanks so much for putting it together. It was an honor to work with you on this. I especially loved manning the photo booth, because I got such an intimate window into the loving relationships between these dogs and their people.
Wow! That sounds like such a fun day! I would love to attend sonething like that up here in Jersey 🙂
Those pictures are absolutely beautiful! You have such an amazing talent Aleksandra where you capture the most wonderful moments between these gorgeous dogs and their families. I especially love the last pic with the beautiful dog looking at his/her person… I think that perfectly shows the bond these very special dogs have with their people 🙂
thanks for all you do!
WOW neighborhood pit bull day!? NYC definitely would LOVE and need that! The photographs are outrageous, the photographer, the people, and the pups!
What I really love about your photos is how they showcase the diversity of people who love Pit Bulls! It sounds like it was such a great event.
Beautiful pictures, people and especially the dogs! Thank you for posting this blog and from those of us who work here at Best Friends, we are so proud of our Neighborhood Pit Bull events and the five shelters, including BARCS, who are a part of our Shelter Partners for Pits program! The are rocking it, getting more Pitties adopted to forever homes and spreading the word that these are wonderful dogs who got a bad rap in the media-change is happening!!!!
Some good-lookin dogs! Sounds like the event was a smash.
Beautiful photos! It truly was a fantastic event. Looking forward to the family photo we took with Layla, our BARCS pittie.
Hi Meg, thanks for commenting. I hope to have the photos processed and emailed out by the weekend or early next week. There were more than 100 dogs in my shoot! Be well, Aleksandra