Originally posted by: Looney
Nothing wrong with rotts and doberman... they're great dogs. Pitbulls on the other hand, i don't like. A dog that was specifically breed for fighting, is just too psychotic for most people. I think for pitbulls, ownership should require a license.
You need to understand one thing about Pits and most other fighting dogs. They were bred to fight OTHER DOGS, not people. A pit that bit it's owner during a fight was put down. Many, not all Pits are dog agressive, and usually it's same sex agression. Some love everyone, including cats, ferrets, etc. Mine was a "wuss" unless provoked to an insane point, my cat bossed him around most of his life. When he was attacked by other dogs, he took many "hits" before retaliating, he didn't want to fight, he was always wanting to be friends. But after a certain point, he would respond, and the first time he did, it stunned us, since he showed no signs of any real fighting ability at all. He was strong as hell, just kind of a clown. My present dogs, Dobe/Lab/Husky mixes are much less forgiving, but just about as cuddly. The female will fight anything on four legs that comes into "her" yard. But the neighbor's kids come in to get a ball, and she wants to play with them. A mentally normal dog knows the difference between a dog and a person.
My old Pit mix, and 99.9% of the ones I've been around over the last 40 or so years (The neighbors had one when I was a little kid, and have met many since then) are the cudliest dogs of all, great with kids and any other person, even people they should have been cautious of. One neighbor of mine had a Pit stolen during a burglary! He got the dog back when the idiot burglar took the dog to the same vet my neighbor did. The vet recognized him right away, and knew he was stolen. He kept the guy busy in a exam room until the cops came. The dog had been gone for two weeks and was upset to leave the guy, until my neighbor came to get him.
Another neighbor had one that loved me, so insanely it was almost embarrassing, but hated other male dogs, and would attack one on sight. He was fine with most female dogs, but never around another male dog. He loved little kids, and was totally trustworthy around them. They could, and did do things to him that almost any other breed of dog would have not tolerated it, but he, and most Pits did, and actually liked it.
A normal pit is the opposite of psychotic, they are insanely stable. With their huge pain tolerance, they don't panic when stepped on. My old dog hurt himself playing several times badly enough that if it was you or me, we would be curled into a ball on the floor. Instead he wagged his tail like it was nothing. My friend's daughter groped, poked and hugged him to the point he hated it, but he sat there and let her do it, until she got tired out, and went to sleep with him laying up against her.
If abused though, and the fighting guys, especially do have to abuse them to "make them mean" since a normal Pit loves just about everyone. There are many working breeds, including some of the Done and Shepherd lines, thay ARE people agressive, with people they don't know.
I'm a big guy, and I'm not really afraid of any dog, but I'm cautious when I meet a strange German Shepherd, or St. Bernard. I have been bitten by a GS, and my Pit was attacked by the biggest one I ever seen. If my dog had been say, a poodle, he probably would have been badly hurt. Instead, the Shepherd learned that attacking an unknown dog is a dumb move, and you can get hurt badly doing it.
But I've met a few great GS's, and I don't want them "licensed" or "restricted".
A St Bernard got carried away wanting something to eat he thought was in my pocket. He got pretty nasty and tore my pants all up before the owner drug him away. I don't want any restrictions placed on them either.
Sure, there are a few bad Pits out there, and they should be restricted, after they do something that shows they are agressive towards people. But to single out Pits is the dog equivelant of racial stereotyping. Just because the dog is a xxxxx doesn't mean it's mean, psychotic, etc.