Melanie Wagner of Dayton is working to help change the perception of these dogs and help all dogs find their forever homes.
“We got our first dog growing up when I was in middle school,” Wagner said.
The first family dog was Molly, a German Short Haired Pointer, chosen by her father who had grown up with the breed.
After graduating from high school in Fort Wayne, Ind., Wagner came to Dayton as a freshman at the University of Dayton. She followed her older sister, Alyssa, who was also attending UD.
“I wasn’t planning to go to UD, but I visited Alyssa, and I loved it!” Wagner said.
Wagner majored in business and marketing and had a minor in Spanish, which she thought would give her more career options.
Wagner had planned to move away from Dayton after graduation in 2011, thinking she’d end up with a job in a much larger city, like Chicago or Indianapolis. But she quickly found that Dayton had more to offer than just UD. She ended up taking a job at Standard Register and started searching for a place to live.
“I rented an apartment in the Oregon District,” Wagner said. “When I moved there it was so different from how it is now. There were quite a few boarded up buildings and my parents thought I was crazy!”
But within a few years, Wagner said she fell in love with Dayton and watched as it began a revival of sorts.
“It was such a fun place to live in my early 20s,” Wagner said.
It was around that time that Wagner started thinking about getting a dog of her own and began looking online at rescue and adoption organizations.
“I adopted Julep from the Animal Resource Center (ARC),” Wagner said. “I really just wanted to feel more settled, and I thought having a dog would do that.”
Credit: Greg Murray, Cleveland
Credit: Greg Murray, Cleveland
But before long, she realized that she needed more space and a yard for Julep, and she bought her house — a former “Rehabarama” home — in Southpark in 2016. Shortly after that, she started a new job at Premier Health. But in 2020, after the COVID -19 pandemic hit, she was given notice that her position was being eliminated.
“The universe knows sometimes what you need,” Wagner said. “I was feeling like I wanted a new challenge, so I applied at Caresource and was hired as a content strategist.”
Wagner was committed to being a good pet parent to Julep, and she didn’t think that much about adding additional dogs to her family. But after doing some research, she realized that there were local dog rescue organizations who needed people to provide foster homes while their dogs were awaiting adoption.
“My first foster was Waffles from the Humane Society,” Wagner said. “I guess I’m what you call a ‘foster fail,’ because we ended up keeping her.”
Credit: Greg Murray, Cleveland
Credit: Greg Murray, Cleveland
Wagner became involved with Dayton-based “Adopt a Pit” after agreeing to foster a German Shephard mix named Spock in July of 2019.
“The misconception is that Adopt A Pit only has Pit Bulls,” Wagner said. “But they try to focus on all dogs that might be less adoptable for whatever reason.”
Shelter dogs who end up living in homes, even temporarily, tend to become better socialized and have an increased chance of being adopted.
“I’ve fostered everything from German Shepherds to lab mixes to a tiny Yorkie,” Wagner said.
When she first began volunteering with Adopt-A-Pit, Wagner said she didn’t have much experience with Pit Bulls. But she did know about the misconceptions and negative associations with the breed.
“They really are the sweetest dogs,” Wagner said. “My partner, Travis (Knight) and I were talking about former fosters and which ones we would most take back. All of our answers were pit bulls!”
Pit bulls, in fact, can be eager to please, extremely smart, very loyal and loving family dogs. And Wagner said that it’s the human factor that has caused problems with the breed.
“Humans exploit these dogs and if they are vicious, it’s solely because of that,” Wagner said.
Wagner wants people to know how rewarding it is to rescue a dog who may otherwise end up in shelter or worse. She and Knight have now fostered 32 dogs and have happily sent all but Waffles off to their forever homes.
“Good rescue organizations can help people find the perfect dog for their families,” Wagner said. “You can’t tell just from a picture online. No dog should be excluded just because of breed. In the end, they are all just dogs looking for homes.”
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