Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. ALL dogs can bite, maim or kill (small dogs have killed infants, for ex).

2. Focusing on the breed is a red herring, because there are lines in each breed that can have very different personalities.

3. Focus on the lineage of each individual dog. Some lines have been bred to fight, and those dogs are the most dangerous, because their escalation time from warning signs to killer lunge can be less than a second.

4. Focus on the environment of the puppy. Bite inhibition develops only when the dog is part of a litter that stays with its mother for at least 6 weeks, because that is when puppies learn that hard bites are socially unacceptable and will be met with pain and maternal correction.

5. Conclusion: adopt or rescue at your own risk and advocate for spaying and neutering. If you don't know the parents of the dog, and the puppy history, or worse, if you know that the dog was bred as a fighting dog or that the dog was born in a puppy mill and never socialized, you are putting people at risk. The risk is greater if you adopt a supposedly aggressive breed, but again, this is a red herring. A Golden can kill as well.

6. In a perfect world, people would get their companions from reputable breeders who breed not only to the physical standard, but also for mellow personalities.

Yet you would be hard-pressed to find an example of that, unlike the many horrifying examples with pits. Breed does matter, and anyone owning a pit is taking a risk.

Well, let's see. I also don't know that my husband isn't going to take a gun and shoot me and the children. I read those stories too, quite often in fact. There's a risk. That must mean I shouldn't have a husband, right?--I don't know that he isn't going to snap and kill me. It happens all the time.

I would not have a dog that I was afraid of. I never, not once, feared that our pit bull would hurt me or our children, or anyone else's children. (All bets are off for the intruder who breaks into the house while we're gone). And why is that? The same reason I'm not afraid that my husband will kill me. Because I know them.

I don't blame other people for not knowing my dog, but we had absolute, 100% trust that he would not hurt us. We observed his behavior and demeanor and reactions in all sorts of situations. Because he was solid as a rock, I never, not once, kept my children away from him for fear they would be hurt. If I had had that fear, we wouldn't have kept the dog. The first thing we did when we brought each infant home from the hospital was put the carrier on the floor so the dog could sniff and lick them. As they grew, they crawled over him, ate his food, chewed on his ears. If he got tired of it, he got up and walked away. Of course, he was not chained, he could walk away. And there were no incidents, ever.

So you can say, well, I was lucky. In 15 years of living in a house with children (and cats), somehow no one ever hit the "trigger" to turn on the vicious killer lurking under the surface of that pit bull. Or you could say, that was a good dog, the same as all the millions of other dogs that live in families and are trustworthy and never hurt anyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. ALL dogs can bite, maim or kill (small dogs have killed infants, for ex).

2. Focusing on the breed is a red herring, because there are lines in each breed that can have very different personalities.

3. Focus on the lineage of each individual dog. Some lines have been bred to fight, and those dogs are the most dangerous, because their escalation time from warning signs to killer lunge can be less than a second.

4. Focus on the environment of the puppy. Bite inhibition develops only when the dog is part of a litter that stays with its mother for at least 6 weeks, because that is when puppies learn that hard bites are socially unacceptable and will be met with pain and maternal correction.

5. Conclusion: adopt or rescue at your own risk and advocate for spaying and neutering. If you don't know the parents of the dog, and the puppy history, or worse, if you know that the dog was bred as a fighting dog or that the dog was born in a puppy mill and never socialized, you are putting people at risk. The risk is greater if you adopt a supposedly aggressive breed, but again, this is a red herring. A Golden can kill as well.

6. In a perfect world, people would get their companions from reputable breeders who breed not only to the physical standard, but also for mellow personalities.

Yet you would be hard-pressed to find an example of that, unlike the many horrifying examples with pits. Breed does matter, and anyone owning a pit is taking a risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My aunt and uncle had an adorable tan and white pit with a pink nose. Raised from a puppy, snuggled with all of us on the couch, ran miles with my uncle every day. Never saw anything aggressive in her, rarely even heard her bark. I also wondered how people could malign the entire breed and assumed it was dogs who were abused or mishandled that attacked. My uncle was talking to a neighbor in his yard about sports or something where the neighbor was speaking animatedly and gesturing with his hands. Out of nowhere the dog jumped up and attacked him and clamped onto his arm. It took both my aunt and uncle hitting her with a chair to get her off of him and my uncle finally was able to confine her to the garage. The neighbor required hundreds of stitches and my aunt and uncle had the dog euthanized.

We were all truly shocked and saddened by it - it changed my opinion on dogs in general, to be honest, and I'm hesitant to have one as a pet (I know this is super paranoid). Meanwhile my aunt and uncle's daughters were really traumatized by the whole thing and went the other direction - they both rescue pits and post pictures of them with their kids, insist that they are still great family dogs. It's insane.

I just posted about a similar attach (different breed, but also one that's much maligned) and neither me nor my husband have ever been the same around dogs after he was attacked.

My mom's Australian shepherd was attacked by a pit on a walk -- the pit came flying out of nowhere and bit off half her ear. Owner was close behind, very distressed.

I've never heard of a golden retriever or cocker spaniel doing this.

Some cocker spaniels, the red ones as well as the black ones, have a problem called "cocker rage" that seems to be something between a hair trigger and a seizure that will cause them to bite, out of the blue. I had a friend who had to put their cocker down after it bit their niece. Other dogs have had this "rage syndrome", it appears to be genetic and a major fault. Pit bulls have never been reported to have rage syndrome, they seem to attack or kill as a breed, not a genetic fault.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_syndrome

Anonymous wrote:My family had a pit bull growing up. I loved him to death! He was the sweetest dog - so patient and loving - even when I would pull his ears or tail (like most kids, I could be rough on pets). He never growled at me or anyone in my family, BUT if anyone rang the doorbell or if we had other people come over - he would go berserk! We were a military family and when we moved to base housing, we weren't allowed to bring him. I cried for days when my parents gave him away.

Looking back as an adult, I think we may have just gotten lucky. It's impossible to know for certain, but I would never take that kind of risk with my own kids. That being said, I'm nervous around ALL new dogs. My good friend has a scar on her chin from where another friend's border collie (you know, a Lassie dog) bit her in the face.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My aunt and uncle had an adorable tan and white pit with a pink nose. Raised from a puppy, snuggled with all of us on the couch, ran miles with my uncle every day. Never saw anything aggressive in her, rarely even heard her bark. I also wondered how people could malign the entire breed and assumed it was dogs who were abused or mishandled that attacked. My uncle was talking to a neighbor in his yard about sports or something where the neighbor was speaking animatedly and gesturing with his hands. Out of nowhere the dog jumped up and attacked him and clamped onto his arm. It took both my aunt and uncle hitting her with a chair to get her off of him and my uncle finally was able to confine her to the garage. The neighbor required hundreds of stitches and my aunt and uncle had the dog euthanized.

We were all truly shocked and saddened by it - it changed my opinion on dogs in general, to be honest, and I'm hesitant to have one as a pet (I know this is super paranoid). Meanwhile my aunt and uncle's daughters were really traumatized by the whole thing and went the other direction - they both rescue pits and post pictures of them with their kids, insist that they are still great family dogs. It's insane.

I just posted about a similar attach (different breed, but also one that's much maligned) and neither me nor my husband have ever been the same around dogs after he was attacked.

My mom's Australian shepherd was attacked by a pit on a walk -- the pit came flying out of nowhere and bit off half her ear. Owner was close behind, very distressed.

I've never heard of a golden retriever or cocker spaniel doing this.

Anonymous wrote:My aunt and uncle had an adorable tan and white pit with a pink nose. Raised from a puppy, snuggled with all of us on the couch, ran miles with my uncle every day. Never saw anything aggressive in her, rarely even heard her bark. I also wondered how people could malign the entire breed and assumed it was dogs who were abused or mishandled that attacked. My uncle was talking to a neighbor in his yard about sports or something where the neighbor was speaking animatedly and gesturing with his hands. Out of nowhere the dog jumped up and attacked him and clamped onto his arm. It took both my aunt and uncle hitting her with a chair to get her off of him and my uncle finally was able to confine her to the garage. The neighbor required hundreds of stitches and my aunt and uncle had the dog euthanized.

We were all truly shocked and saddened by it - it changed my opinion on dogs in general, to be honest, and I'm hesitant to have one as a pet (I know this is super paranoid). Meanwhile my aunt and uncle's daughters were really traumatized by the whole thing and went the other direction - they both rescue pits and post pictures of them with their kids, insist that they are still great family dogs. It's insane.

Anonymous wrote:As the research points out - what is being described is exactly what makes them more dangerous than other breeds. They give no warning and the attacks come out of nowhere. These dogs are described as sweet, loving etc and I don't doubt they are...until they aren't. Then it is too late.

Anonymous wrote:When we moved into our neighborhood with our two spoiled rotten and very docile big dogs, we immediately spent $6000 on a sturdy privacy fence for our large yard. A few weeks later we went to a neighborhood get together and everyone was going around introducing themselves because there were several new families there. When we introduced ourselves and said where we lived, someone immediately popped up and said, "Oh - YOU GUYS have PIT BULLS." You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone looked at us with huge, frightened eyes and mothers held their children close.

Here are our dogs:



Both are mutts. Both are rescued dogs. Both have been spayed/neutered since they were 9 months old. They are both completely worthless as guard dogs because they are so spoiled that they cannot IMAGINE anything bad happening to them (we got them both when they were less than 6 weeks old).

The black dog is, according to our vet, a lab/pit bull mix - not sure of the ratios. She is absolutely wonderful with kids - she has never even growled at man or beast. I am not sure she even knows how to growl! She will, however, lick you to pieces, and she is capable of knocking someone down with her exuberance. She loves nothing better than to have kids roll all over her. She weighs 75 pounds and due to her extremely LOVING nature, I don't ever leave her alone with kids. For that matter, I don't leave any kids alone with either of my dogs, even though the other dog has no features or evidence of pit bull lineage.

But our neighbors still think we have pit bulls. They would tell the media in an instant "They have pit bulls over there" if asked. They have asked us off and on if our fence is secure, and when we assure them that it is, they always say, "Oh good - because we wouldn't want your pit bulls to get out."

Sheeze!

The issue with pit bull and pit bull/mastiff mixed breed dogs is that they are so often sought out by BAD OWNERS - owners who neglect them, leave them chained in a yard, or ignored outside for days at a time. They often don't neuter them either, or allow them to interact with the family much if at all. They encourage "tough behavior" from these dogs.

I used to have a boxer. Not a pit bull - a full bred boxer. We were clearly told by the breeder as well as in books we read, that we should not encourage tugging sorts of games with a boxer, because they can get carried away and clamp down with their jaw - it's instinct.

I know it's an old line, but there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is mind-boggling to me that people are willing to take this risk. I hope they are completely banned in the near future.

Herding dogs herd - it is in their genetic make up and intrinsically makes them happy. Why are breeds known for agression any different? It's genetic and under the right circumstances that lovable, wouldn't hurt anyone pit will kill. For those who think agression isn't a function of genetics I encourage you to read this articles. Research now shows the argument "“That aggression is not heritable is not tenable"

http://www.animals24-7.org/2015/11/10/the-science-of-how-behavior-is-inherited-in-aggressive-dogs/

This was fascinating, thank you.
from the article:
"The heritability of abnormal aggression in certain breeds of dogs can no longer be denied. The bodies of these dogs have been selected to execute a killing bite more efficiently than other breeds. These dogs share physical conformation to the task of killing, including exaggerated jaw muscles, heavy necks and shoulders, and body mass that makes defense against an attack much more difficult. Among people who want dogs who can kill, these are the breeds of choice because they are physically more fit for it than other breeds."

Anonymous wrote:As the research points out - what is being described is exactly what makes them more dangerous than other breeds. They give no warning and the attacks come out of nowhere. These dogs are described as sweet, loving etc and I don't doubt they are...until they aren't. Then it is too late.