Ranvir Singh: Preston born presenter wades in on American XL Bully debate on Good Morning Britain

Over the weekend, shocking footage showed the moment an Amreican XL Bully attacked three people in a busy Birmingham market.

The incident has sparked the government to announce they are considering banning the breed and this debate was the lead news story for the Good Morning Britain’s Monday morning episode this week.

Starting off the show, Ranvir said: “The footage.. it’s absolutely, utterly shocking, it makes your stomach turn.

“It just looks like a wild animal completely causing chaos and absolute fear. If you’ve ever even been just slightly scared of dogs, you know I was a little bit when we were younger, even a friendly dog coming bounding up to you can make you feel a little bit nervous but this is on a completely different level.

“I don’t know why we have these dogs, there are a 100 different.. varieties of dogs you can have so why own an XL bully?”

When her co-presenter, Ed Balls, warned her that in the second part of the show, an American XL bully will be coming into the studio with its owner, Ranvir replied: “It generally makes me feel nervous, I have to say.”

Later on in the episode, Ranvir appeared to somewhat defend the American XL Bully breed by saying she has seen moments of anger from her own family’s dog – a Cockapoo which she got during lockdown – and emphasising the importance of training.

Ranvir said: “Part of the issue they’re saying is people who got dogs in lockdown, particularly this kind of breed [XL bully] they haven’t been socialised properly.

“But my Cockapoo, there’s a thing called cocker rage, have you heard of this? I know it sounds a bit dodgy.

“They’re resource guarding. So my dog, he looks like a teddy bear… and I’m not joking, our dog was doing this resource guardian thing when he was little – I’d never had a dog before, I didn’t know quite know how to train him and it was lockdown.

“He would grab something, whether it was your glasses, your pen or piece of kitchen roll that had fallen on the floor, and he’d run under the sofa and if you put your hand down, he’d snap his head round and he’d bare his teeth and growl.

“I got scared and my son, whose birthday present this dog was, cried a couple of times because he was scared of the dog. I mean this is a Cockapoo!

“The dog now is lovely… but it’s about training.”