Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I think you miss the point too. A pitbull's bite is exponentially more powerful than a bite from a GSD, so temperament really is not the issue. IF they snap, then they cause incredible damage.
Sorry, but that's just not true. Pit Bulls do not have extraordinary jaw strength nor do their jaws "lock" any differently than other dogs. I would never own a pit simply because I think they have been poorly bred and are unstable. I also wouldn't want the liability. But I hate to see misinformation spread around. My older GSD is 170 pounds (very unusual for a German Shepherd). He has a huge head and jaw. I promise you that his bite would be much stronger than a smaller pit bull. My younger GSD weighs about 85 pounds. But she has a small head and jaw. She could not bite with as much strength as the average pit pull. It all comes down to the size of the dog and the threat that the dog perceives.
Citation needed? Here you go.....
"In more recent research (published in 2009 in the Journal of Anatomy), Dr. Ellis and her team were able to show that the size of the animal and the shape of its jaw predicted bite strength. The larger the dog and the dog's head, and the wider the jaw, the higher the bite force turned out to be. The dog breed with the largest head and widest mouth is the Mastiff, so it is perhaps not surprising that it has been recently measured as having a bite strength of 552 pounds-just shy of the bite force that the lion has. This force exceeds that of all breeds measured to date."
NP here. The problem is that pit bulls are known to bite and hold and won't let go. Other large dogs (and most dogs in general) bite and release. Pit bulls were bred for this quality of biting and holding on (and grinding). They were also bred to go from 0 to 100 in a second. Meaning, unprovoked and attacking suddenly, without warning, and holding on is a specific characteristic that you see more in pit bulls than other dogs (probably as a result of bad breeding).
That's the problem. (and I know they don't lock their jaws, but they do hold on.) If you've ever actually witness one of these unprovoked attacks where the pit hangs on (and is incredibly difficult to get off), you'd know what I'm talking about.
Until you've seen it, it's hard to believe.