Pit Bull Attack...divine intervention

[striker55]

On my daily bicycle ride there is one pitbull in a fenced in yard. He seems pretty mean, occasionally he breaks out and he is the opposite. He couldn't care less about you on the outside. Now my neighbors dog is the opposite of that one, if he's with his owner he's friendly ( my observation from afar) but if he's loose watch out.

[texas yankee]

Remember that all dogs are ANIMALS, and regardless of what Anthropomorphic qualities anyone wants to attribute to them, they are driven by instinct, without any type of reason tempering the instinct. My head is gonna explode if I read another story about a pet pit bull that was raised from birth by a loving owner, and the dog was quiet and nice to everyone, and never even growled at anyone - until he chewed the face off the guy's grandson. I feel bad for the guy whose dog chewed off his grandson's face (I feel far worse for the kid's parents), but I'd feel really bad if the dog chewed off MY grandson's face - but the dog's owner was apparently willing to take that risk - I'm not. So when your dog is off leash and uncontrolled and chases me on my bike, or get's through your fence and runs loose and chases me when I'm out walking, or approaches me and my grandkid in an aggressive manner, I'll shoot first and move on without any remorse at all - you may be willing to take a chance with an animal, but I'm not.

[C-dub]

A bad dog is a bad dog. Some pits are bad. Many are good. Many dogs of any breed are bad. With the amount of poor breeding that goes into many pits or any breed I am amazed there are not more problems.

Poor breeding? American Pit Bull Terriers were originally bred to compete in blood sports: bull baiting, bear baiting, and dog fighting. People wanted a dog that was as powerful as a bulldog but with the tenacity and killer instinct of a terrier.

Yeah, poor breeding. Irresponsible breeding. And irresponsible owners.

I've been out of it for a little while now, but I trained dogs for a few different sports that included various forms of tracking, scent discrimination, obedience, and protection. I did that for many years at all levels including international competitions. I've done helper/decoy work for many different breeds at the local, regional, and national level. This includes, but is not limited to Pits (aka American Staffordshire Terrier), Rotties, Dobies, GSD, a couple Mastiff variations, Belgian Malinois, Bouvier de Flandres, Dogue de Bordeaux, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and Border Collies. I've seen good and bad dogs. I've seen some bad dogs that were too weak to compete at each of those levels, but their owners tried anyway and probably ruined an otherwise good dog. I've seen some dogs that should have never been encouraged to bite a human in the first place. Stupid humans made a bad or questionable dog a very dangerous dog.

And the parents of most of those dogs I saw and trained had passed temperament testing. Some easily and some barely. Some probably didn't, but judges let them slide hoping the next judge would weed their prodigy out if they were unsuitable. All of those dogs, hundreds to thousands, are just a spec compared to what is out there being bred in someones backyard. We saw it in the 50's, 60's, and early 70's with GSDs due to the popularity of movies like Rin Tin Tin. It just took longer for us to see the repercussions then because movies weren't as wide spread as just a few decades later. Then in the 70's and 80's after "The Doberman Gang" movies. Then in the 90's a little while after "The Omen." I'm not aware of a movie that did this for the Pits. There was the live action "101 Dalmations." More recently there have been a couple movies with Malinois' and especially since their work with the Navy SEALS. Malinois breeders are terrified what might happen to their breed. Every time we saw the public awareness surge for a breed the breeding got out of control and thousands to tens of thousands of poor breeding took place to make money structure suffered some and temperament SUFFERED big time in each of those breeds.

I will step down off of my soap box now. I am not an expert in this field. There are a lot of people I know that make me look like a preschooler on this topic. Think of me a little like State Farm Insurance in this area. I know a thing or two about dogs because I've seen and done a thing or two with dogs.

[03Lightningrocks]

A bad dog is a bad dog. Some pits are bad. Many are good. Many dogs of any breed are bad. With the amount of poor breeding that goes into many pits or any breed I am amazed there are not more problems.

Poor breeding? American Pit Bull Terriers were originally bred to compete in blood sports: bull baiting, bear baiting, and dog fighting. People wanted a dog that was as powerful as a bulldog but with the tenacity and killer instinct of a terrier.

Yeah, poor breeding. Irresponsible breeding. And irresponsible owners.

And the parents of most of those dogs I saw and trained had passed temperament testing. Some easily and some barely. Some probably didn't, but judges let them slide hoping the next judge would weed their prodigy out if they were unsuitable. All of those dogs, hundreds to thousands, are just a spec compared to what is out there being bred in someones backyard. We saw it in the 50's, 60's, and early 70's with GSDs due to the popularity of movies like Rin Tin Tin. It just took longer for us to see the repercussions then because movies weren't as wide spread as just a few decades later. Then in the 70's and 80's after "The Doberman Gang" movies. Then in the 90's a little while after "The Omen." I'm not aware of a movie that did this for the Pits. There was the live action "101 Dalmations." More recently there have been a couple movies with Malinois' and especially since their work with the Navy SEALS. Malinois breeders are terrified what might happen to their breed. Every time we saw the public awareness surge for a breed the breeding got out of control and thousands to tens of thousands of poor breeding took place to make money structure suffered some and temperament SUFFERED big time in each of those breeds.

This is spot on. 38 years ago I was an avid bird hunter. Had and trained two Brittany Spaniels that were great bird dogs. They had become very popular as they also made great family pets. Over a five-ten year period I saw the backyard breeders fire up and darn near destroy the breed with poor breeding.

The Pit Bull became a popular dog for dog fighting thugs in the late 70's early 80's. They started intentionally breeding them to bring out their worse traits. The people who desired these dogs were not the most savory of people. they mistreated them to make them meaner. Their temperament did not look much like the friendly Pit Bull, Petey from Little Rascals, any more. Pits are very tenacious dogs which makes them more dangerous than other breeds once they go off. They will latch on, commit and not let go. I have seen many Pit Bulls that were sweet and lovable dogs. It is too bad there have been so many people use the breed for nefarious purposes. They are ruining it.