This is simply untrue. When two dogs that are different breeds are bred you don't get a 50/50 mix of the qualities. If this were the case everybody would breed a great dane and a doberman. You could get a dog that looked like a huge doberman but had no dobe qualities at all, or vice versa.

Pit Bulls are working dogs. They need exercise, discipline, and they need to keep their mind occupied. So if the owners aren't doing that the dog is going to go crazy.

Now we add in the fact that they were original bred for bull baiting, so it is natural for them to be aggressive towards other animals.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn from the OP that the woman walking her dog was not controlling her dog properly.

(Side Story)

I grew up around and raised dobermans. I've since trained working class breeds by helping owners learn what they need to do to balance their dog out. Now we ALWAYS train our dobes to sit whenever other dogs were around and they weren't leashed. I still remember and incident to this day where our female was at the vet. There was a smaller dog who got away from his owner and he found his way into our room. The small dog got real fierce and was practically asking to get killed. Soon after the owner comes in and literally stands there for 30 secs telling us how cute this little rat is as he continued to bark and antagonize our dobe.

Now replace my dobe with an improperly trained pit, and the pit attacks the small dog (only because the pit feels threatened) while the woman stands there explaining how cute the dog is. And it will ALWAYS be the more aggressive dogs fault. Pits are no different than any other working class breed, when properly trained they are the best/loyal dogs in the world.

You've used the term pitbull more than a few times in this thread. And quite obviously everyone knows what you're talking about. Ban that.

SFthis

it doesnt take away from the fact that these dogs are a mix of ferocious vermin killing terriers and super strong bulldogs and that they have been carefully selected to perform well in the dog fighting ring. ---or out in the country taking on a wild boar with 5 inch tusks.

it's entirely possible that the people you know have selected the tamest of the tame in their breeding program.

nonetheless i would never leave my children in the presence of their dogs even if they appear to be gentle.

same with some other breeds.

i wouldn't be afraid to leave them around a great pyrenees tho

As I said earlier, my next door neighbor has a pit bull named Missy. There is a chainlink fence between my yard and the neighbor's yard. I was mowing the lawn about 2 feet away from the fence. I went from the front yard towards the back. Out of the corner of my eye, Missy comes running and she's barking furiously and jumps into the fence. There is 100% no doubt in my mind that if the fence wasn't there, the dog would have bit me.

You seem to think they are harmless. Would you trust a pitbull that was in the same room with your 3 year old kid or niece or nephew for 6 hours? Even one that you personally own? Especially knowing that there is a possibility that this child could put off "scared energy" and trigger the little cutie pie to rip out your son's throat?

Great post.

Ok great. So we just have to ban people who give off nervous energy around big scary dogs.

Also ban bad people that want cool scary dogs.

ya, because it will be really easy to tell some 10 year old kid walking down the street to man up and dont be nervous/afraid or the dog will rip your neck out.

Also, everyone saying pit bulls cannot be trusted have never watch The Dog Whisperer. Cesar Milan has SEVERAL pits and usually uses a pit when his case requires the assistance of another dog

I would never choose to own a pit bull. That being said my wife owned a pit bull when I met her so i kinda got forced into owning one. He was absolutely with out a doubt treated with a lot of love and he still was completely unpredictable.

I grew attached to him because that is my nature and he was cool with my wife and I but if he didn't know you and you came in the house........ good luck dude. He seemed to think he was protecting my wife or I mostly.....

He attacked a Park Ranger one time. He was sitting under me in a chair on a leash while I fished. Park ranger comes and he didn't make a sound just sized him up and charged. Pulled the chair out from under me and bit the guy right in the side.

Would never own one again. I would never trust one either fwiw.


**Cliff notes**

Owned one
treated it great
mean as ****
they suck
dog bit 3 people
do not want

"Buster's a nice dog. Just don't look at him funny. You got kids? Buster likes to play with kids. Just make sure they don't act scared though."

Daddy

Using Cesar Milan as an example is pretty flawed. Obviously in an under absolutely perfect conditions, they are going to be more well behaved than the average home. I'm not disagreeing with your sentiment though.

I have no problem with harshly punishing bad dog owners, but we should be doing it to bad owners of all breeds.

I didn't realize we had a 10 year old poster here in OOT

Yeah I agree with this. It's not practical to assume everyone can be Cesar Milan. But the methodology does work.

OPs story is pretty wild, tough spot for you sounds like it was handled decenty though.

Its just part of the culture...lol please get a life.

Yeah I think holding the owners personally accountable if their dog attacks somebody is the right answer. Breed them if you want, pay the consequences if they get out of hand. Whether or not the vicious dog is a pitbull shouldn't matter.

I'm more referring to Daddy (posted above). This pit goes into other homes where the environment is far from perfect.

I really think the best answer to all of this is that dogs that are bigger than 'x' size should require some kind of license to own them. The class should be easy, and short, and should teach the owners more about their dogs.

You are never going to be able to outlaw a breed, and making owners do a little work to own something that is capable of seriously harming another person is a very reasonable thing to ask imo.

untouchable,

you are getting severely owned in this thread.

I didn't see the beginning of the attack. But it happened in front of the Chinese place - while the car the pit bull jumped out of was parked in the first spot on the side. I asked the woman and she said she just walked out the door and it attacked.



In any case it really bugs me when owners of aggressive dogs try to blame the other dog's owner for somehow instigating their dog to attack. I've seen it happen at Starbucks by my house several times with the same dog. The guy was trying to blame the woman for "hesitating" with her dog, and thus somehow setting off his dog. I basically went off on the guy the second time I saw him do it. The whole idea is you are supposed to be in charge and that dog doesn't say boo if you don't want him to. So either that dude isn't in control of his dog, or the dog thinks he's been given the green light to attack. Both bad.

Right. But I don't think anyone is saying that EVERY SINGLE pit bull is crazy. Just that a higher percentage than normal seem to be crazy, and their craziness seems to be more vicious than some other breeds.

Plenty of vicious small dogs (pitbulls aren't particularly large I don't think). Plenty of docile large dogs. I don't see how size is the issue.