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Where is that pit bull thread when I need it?

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Don't let his dorkyliness fool you. He's 130 lbs of pure gentleness.

That said, he'd eat you if you ****ed with my house. Great pyrenees and giant schnauzer are badass dogs. His K9 teeth are well over an inch.
 
I'll give you one guess which breed did this...

It's ridiculous they keep saying **** like this but you never see a story that says "he was such a gentle mutt until one day he killed my kids". But you hear it all the time with pits. When are people going to wise up that a dog still acts on instinct and breeding and these dogs are bred to fight and kill. Yes, not trained to do so by the current owner but eventually a century of in-bred aggression comes to the forefront.

We as a whole need to take accountability about how we train them as far as being a little too aggressive with them by introducing them to things they shouldn’t be introduced to,” dog trainer Allen McCoy told Action 5 News. “Because I look at it as with the pit, it could be aggressive, but a mutt could be too, depending on the environment.
 
I haven't read through this thread, but I'm guessing everything pro and con has been talked about. If you look on the internet you'll find a lot of arguments both pro and against pit bulls and I've pretty much read them all.

I'll just add my anecdotal evidence here. We got a pit mix last year and he is the best dog we've ever had. He's the most friendly and good with humans and other dogs pet we've ever had. He almost never barks, has an easy coat to take care of, and is great to be active with.

I would highly recommend a pit as a pet.
 
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There are many dog breeds that will not be dangerous no matter if you raise them perfectly or not.

Seems like there is a very high level of difficulty to raise a pit so that there is zero risk that it will lash out in a potentially deadly attack.

On the first page of this thread I said that I wouldn't support a ban on Pits but I probably wouldn't protest too much if there was one in my area.
 
There are many dog breeds that will not be dangerous no matter if you raise them perfectly or not.

Seems like there is a very high level of difficulty to raise a pit so that there is zero risk that it will lash out in a potentially deadly attack.

On the first page of this thread I said that I wouldn't support a ban on Pits but I probably wouldn't protest too much if there was one in my area.
This. It's shocking how many of these stories start with some version of "this was the best dog we ever had, friendly, loved kids, never barked, so much fun, for 10 years the sweetest most faithful dog we ever had... Until he snapped and killed the neighbor kid who was just sitting in his front yard." The unpredictability alone is bad enough, but coupled with what a dog like this can do it's nearly criminal.
 
I want to start by saying that i really think that im the biggest dog lover on the planet. I always have to pet every dog I see. Pitbulls included (though I have bit of trepidation when i pet them). Most pitbulls will be great dogs just like every breed of dog. They are almost all great.
The big difference is that if a dog attacks, at that point the breed makes a huge difference. Labs are pretty big dogs. Generally bigger than pitbulls. Yet if a lab attacks me im not in any real trouble. I will probably need a few stitches and have some bruising but will be ok. If a pitbull attacks me then im in serious danger. Probably still wont die but a decent chance that I will be maimed and have life long injuries.
Plus, everyone has a story of a pitbull attack. For myself, a pitbull jumped our back fence and killed our kitten (I have had 5 cats in my life and that one was my favorite :( ) another pitbull attacked my dog (a healer/cattle dog mix) and left him pretty bloodied up (he had no chance in hell of standing a chance in the fight) while we were on a walk. It came flying down the street after having got out of the house and attacked my dog with no warning.
A different pitbull attacked my dog on a camping trip and left him bloodied up once again. Lucky in both cases the owners came and got hold of their dog or my dog would be dead.

They are just different enough to be way more dangerous. And again, im a HUGE dog lover and I love pitbulls too but with so many amazing breeds out there available I cant understand why people would choose a pitbull.
 
I want to start by saying that i really think that im the biggest dog lover on the planet. I always have to pet every dog I see. Pitbulls included (though I have bit of trepidation when i pet them). Most pitbulls will be great dogs just like every breed of dog. They are almost all great.
The big difference is that if a dog attacks, at that point the breed makes a huge difference. Labs are pretty big dogs. Generally bigger than pitbulls. Yet if a lab attacks me im not in any real trouble. I will probably need a few stitches and have some bruising but will be ok. If a pitbull attacks me then im in serious danger. Probably still wont die but a decent chance that I will be maimed and have life long injuries.
Plus, everyone has a story of a pitbull attack. For myself, a pitbull jumped our back fence and killed our kitten (I have had 5 cats in my life and that one was my favorite :( ) another pitbull attacked my dog (a healer/cattle dog mix) and left him pretty bloodied up (he had no chance in hell of standing a chance in the fight) while we were on a walk. It came flying down the street after having got out of the house and attacked my dog with no warning.
A different pitbull attacked my dog on a camping trip and left him bloodied up once again. Lucky in both cases the owners came and got hold of their dog or my dog would be dead.

They are just different enough to be way more dangerous. And again, im a HUGE dog lover and I love pitbulls too but with so many amazing breeds out there available I cant understand why people would choose a pitbull.
Agreed. And the fact that dog breeds are completely arbitrary and man-made means if we let one die out it isn't like we lost part of nature or anything. They are prime examples of humans messing with other organisms' genetics. Not one of these "breeds" exists in nature, they are all man-made. So if one goes sideways, then let it go, stop breeding it, and focus on the others. That was done already to even get us where we are now for breeds. Plenty of in-between versions were purposely bred out of the lineage to get whatever breed they were going for in the first place. So just let it go.
 
This thread makes me sad. There are so many great dogs in shelters that won't get adopted because of the type of thinking in this thread. These dogs could make great pets.

I would guess that the two main complaints from dog owners are excessive barking and excessive shedding. Pits don't excessively bark and they have a short coat that is super easy to maintain. Pitbulls truly love humans to the point where they really are the worst guard dogs if they aren't trained to be because they just love up on anyone that they meet. We had our dog for about 3 months when my brother came and visited from out of town. He made it in at about 1am and we were worried our dog would bark and wake everyone up. He didn't bark, just was super excited the next day to meet him.

I don't believe Pitbulls are more aggressive or more likely to randomly snap than any other dog. There are many studies that have basically shown this. Here is a link to one that I believe is pretty comprehensive: http://www.fairdog.dk/elements/documents/research/canine-behavior.pdf
In other studies Pitbulls have shown to have a temperament similar to a golden retriever or lab. I have seen some research that suggests Pits are slightly more likely to be aggressive towards other dogs, but that certainly isn't the rule. My dog loves other dogs. He's one of the most popular dogs at the dog park. We also see many other pit bulls at our dog park and they are all super friendly and great dogs.

Bite statistics are not super reliable, and almost all of the primary research that looks at them makes that disclaimer. However, I still think it's pretty clear that Pit's cause more severe biting incidents than other dogs. I believe this is due to two things. First, Pits aren't as vocal as other dogs. They don't growl or bark as warnings that they are agitated. If you understand dog body language it's all the same, but if you aren't familiar with dog body language you could be caught off guard. The second is that Pits have large mouths and strong bites. They don't have the strongest bite and they don't lock their jaws, those are both myths, but they are stronger than a lot of other dogs.

Even so, targeting Pit Bulls, has shown to be very ineffective. Breed specific legislation has either shown a very minor reduction in dog bites or no effect. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0208393 . Breed specific legislation can be harmful in that it can lead to even more stigmatization of breeds and inaccurate reporting of incidents. https://www.researchgate.net/profil...ness-and-recommendations-for-alternatives.pdf

Anyway, I hesitated to post more here because this is a sensitive topic. I obviously love my dog and feel bad for the dogs in the shelters who won't get adopted. I also understand that many of you have bad experiences that have formed your opinions, which I respect. I think it's fine for someone to say that a Pitbull is not the dog for them, but I really find it disturbing to read about Pits as "ticking time bombs" and needing to be culled. I would hope that those who have the situation to vote on breed specific legislation will consider the primary research and not just the biased trash that you can easily google and find on the internet.
 
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