pitbulls are they really mean??

Question

do they turn on there owers? are they really mean or is it the ower that makes them that way

Answer 1

At one point, I was asking the exact same questions. I was considering getting a pit bull because physically they were perfect for what I wanted. I wanted a dog that didn't get too big, yet was large enough to scare away intruders, or even take them down if the intruder didn't back down. I wanted a dog that didn't have long hair that would shed and cover all of my furniture and clothes in gunk. One that could play frisbee until we both fell over exhausted or curl up on the couch next to me while I watched TV. I wanted a dog that was healthy and free of the genetic diseases that run rampant in most AKC breeds. I didn't want a dog that drools all over. A pit bull was the epitome of everything I wanted in a dog.

Most of all, I wanted a dog I could trust around my family and friends, that would be friendly with everyone, but would literally inhale any threat to me or my family.

This was the sticking point. I had also heard of their reputation, and I didn't know enough about them to make an educated decision.

Are they prone to turning on their owners?
Are they born vicious?
Are they mentally stable?

I had to do a research paper for an English class, so I decided to knock out two birds with one stone. I found that there is ABSOLUTELY no evidence that it bulls are more likely to attack anyone, much less their owners, than any other breed. In fact, when temperment tests are given to pit bulls, pit bulls pass with an impressive 95%. The average pass rate is around 70%.

It wasn't long after that I got my first pit bull puppy named Scrappy. She was the greatest, and won everyone's heart that ever met her. She was also great with kids. In fact, when I had to move into an apartment after my difvorce, I gave her to my neighbors, who had 4 kids that just adored her. After buying her, I raised pit bulls for about 8 years. I've had over 100 total pit bulls, just during that time. I only had one that was an unprovoked threat to people. I put her down before she had a chance to get lose and ruin or end somebody's life.

Some quick facts...
Dog bites are the second leading cause of injury in children.he first is playing in a playground.
In 75 to 80% of dog bite cases, the biting dog was familiar with the victim, and most were the family pet, with the victim being, you guessed it, a child.
Most dog bites go unreported.
The median age of patients bitten was 15 years, with children, especially boys aged 5 to 9 years, having the highest incidence rate
The odds that a bite victim will be a child are 3.2 to 1. (CDC.)
Children seen in emergency departments were more likely than older persons to be bitten on the face, neck, and head. 77% of injuries to children under 10 years old are facial.
Severe injuries occur almost exclusively in children less than 10 years of age.
The majority of dog attacks (61%) happen at home or in a familiar place.
The vast majority of biting dogs (77%) belong to the victim's family or a friend.
When a child less than 4 years old is the victim, the family dog was the attacker half the time (47%), and the attack almost always happened in the family home (90%).
Since 1975, fatal attacks have been attributed to dogs from at least 30 breeds.
The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards. ("Baby Girl Killed by Family Dog," Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 9, 2000, Home Edition, Metro Section, Page B-5.)
After the United Kingdom banned pit bulls in the 1990s, a study showed that the number of dog bites remained the same even though the number of pit bulls had steeply declined. (Study cited in B. Heady and P. Krause, "Health Benefits and Potential Public Savings Due to Pets: Australian and German Survey Results," Australian Social Monitor, Vol.2, No.2, May 1999.)

In 37 years, 342 children were killed by dogs, an average of about nine children a year. Shockingly, approximately three children are killed each day, or 1,100 per year, by their parents. Delise notes that "A child in the United States is over 100 times more likely to be killed by his or her parent or caretaker than by a dog."

Even more surprising is that approximately 50 infants die each year from broken baby cribs, and 250 newborns die at the hands of their parents or guardians. In comparison, two infants, on average, die a year from dog attacks.

Feel free to send me a message if you want to know more. Pit bulls aren't for everybody. In the meantime, if you visit the links I provided, you will learn most of what you need to know.

Answer 2

Most dogs it is in how they are trained. This is mostly the same however since there are so many people using pitbulls in situations where they make them mean, there is not a long background of frienly ones. Kind of like it hasn't been bread out of them yet. You can never bee 100% sure if a dog will become aggressive or not. The best thing to do is make sure you are getting a dog from someone who has information on the blood lines dating way back. The farther back you can go with proof that they were only used as show dogs the better your chances are to get a more mild tempored dog. I think years from now it won't be so bad. The more they are bred for things other than fighting the better they will be. I have met some very friendly pits.

Answer 3

Look these have no idea what they are talking about. I've owned this wonderful and noble breed for 20 plus years. 5 APBT in total .I currently have 2 females now my Piper and Tigger.Check out some good web sites where you can talk with knowledgable Pit owners about the breed and their experiences.Some websites are Pit Bull Forum ,Pit Bull Project , PBRC , and the last one where I get news letters is pit lovers .com. Jason Mann is very knowledgable about these dogs.These dogs are so severly misunderstood by the general public.If these dogs turned on their owners or bit I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have owned 5 dogs.

Here's a little story. Last year my hubby had a severe accident in our driveway where he broke his leg. The break was not like any normal break. His atv flipped off of his truck and he flipped the other way. He called 911. Both of my dogs where out side with him when this happened. He couldn't walk to get them back into the house. Emergency came, the police , ambulance. My girls let all these people onto our property to help their daddy ,and not one incident. Why? Well socialized ,bred , and loved Pit Bulls will act this way.

Answer 4

They are VERY strong dogs with HIGH level energy! They can become aggressive if left alone a lot or abused! Generally they are not aggressive towards other people and are in fact a great family pet! As long as there are not any other pets around! They are naturally dog aggressive because it's in their blood to fight! If it is an only pet and is given LOTS of exercise and love they are great pets! As a matter of fact.. have you ever seen homeward bound? Chance is a pit bull! Owner are responsible for the way their dogs act 110% its not just the breed if a dog does not have a good strong "Pack Leader" or strong gentle owner it will become a hellian! Good Luck! I hope that helps!

Answer 5

I'll bet most that turned on their owners had a bit of owner abuse in their history.

A properly bred and raised Pitbull can make a wonderful pet. A good breeder will breed properly for things like temperment. If a potential breeding dog shows any signs of bad temperment, they will not choose to breed that dog to make sure this potential doesn't pass on to future litters.

If I were going to get a Pitbull, or any other breed for that matter, I would be looking for a good breeder with a good reputation for loving the breed and one that breeds to improve and maintain the high quality of the breed and bloodlines.

Even if one comes from a not so reputable breeder, they can still be a good dog if raised properly, with love and proper training. It's the idiots who want that tough dog and do what they can to make them mean that actually are giving this beautiful dog a bad name.

Answer 6

MOST ARE NICE DOGS, a few are nasty (and that would true concerning ANY breed of dog). The nice ones are typical of the pit fighting breeds. The nasty ones were usually made that way because of a ruined puppyhood (neglect, teasing, lack of socialization, abuse, etc.) or because of backyard breeding (poor/ questionable genetics). A properly socialized and trained pit bull dog is a fine companion for children and adults AND IS SAFE TO OWN. I believe that almost EVERY pit bull attack can be prevented by a.) Only purchasing a dog from a good breeder; b.) Proper socialization of the puppies; c.) Proper training of the dogs; d.) Proper supervision by responsible adults; and e.) Proper containment when not supervised. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE FOLKS!!! This is true for all dogs, not just this one breed. When a breed gets a bad reputation for biting, these same principles apply. It is foolish, and foolhardy, to focus on the breed instead of proper dog breeding and management techniques.



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Answer 7

I really hate this generallizatoin most people think Pit bulls aren't good dogs but what it really comes down to is how they are trained. If an owner trains a dog to bite well DUH it'll bite but not neccaserilly what you want it to. Pit bulls are wonderful dogs when trained properly most people don't have the time but to have them mellow and obident like teddy bears they need to be taken on walks at LEAST once a day in the park some where very large b/c pits are very teritorial and if the get used to a certian area they will become defense so DON'T fence them in the back yard all day DO take them on walk as much as possible and in as many different places as possible to prevent their instinctive teritorialism

Answer 8

No dog is mean or Not mean. Some's temperment vary between thier parents and line. Pitbulls have a bad name because they are much stronger than other dogs. Thier jaw muscles are stronger than any other dog so people want to train them and use them for dog fights. When a person is mean to a dog a dog will be mean. If a person is nice a dog will generally be nice. It depends on the dog and the situation. Saying that all pitbulls are mean is a generalization.

Answer 9

first to the last person to answer you...chance was NOT a pitbull,he was an american bulldog...now on to your question....pitbulls are a victim of media hype!!! other breeds bite people every day but it dont sell papers or raise ratings to report about the family cocker spaniel or lab biting the kids and causing permenant scars or damage....I have rescued pitbulls for 6 years and have knelt down next to a pit just after being left to die from a fight and it looked up at me with a look of thanks and reached out to lick my face as I lifted it up to safety....these dogs were not bred to show aggression to people...in order to fight they had to be handled by humans so the last thing these jerks want is their own dogs to bite them...alot of the "pitbulls" that are blamed for attacks arent pitbulls at all but some mix that because of color or the fact that it has a blocky style head automatically become "pitbulls"...punish the deed not the breed!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

It depends. Now here is what it depends upon.

(1) Breeding. Behavior is an inheritable trait since it is controlleed by the brain and all the neurological biochemicals. All breeds get the odd member who is tempermentally unstable. We are even seeing aggression in extremely well-bred Goldens these days because of overbreeding. (Too many mediocre dogs bred to meet the demand and thus poorer quality dogs in everything including temperment.)

Now Pits whose real names are STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIERS and AMERICAN STAFFORSHIRE TERRIER have really taken a hit in the gene pool. They became popular with morons who prized dogs who were aggrssive and actively sought out members of the breed who could be molded into unhappy animals who would respond aggressively. These are your backyard breeders who could care less about the dog's familial genetic history healh or temperment.

Well-bred Staffies who are produced by serious responsible breeders who breed for good health, stable temperments and trainability are delightful pets. (I've worked wth them in my obedience classes, never owned one.)

(2) ANY dog - and I repeat ANY dog - of any mean can be made angry, volatile and aggressive. It is all in how they are handled and trained.

Take any dog and tie it out and make it live alone. It will be poorly socialized so that everything is a threat, poorly trained so it will fight back and stand its ground if someone suddenly tries to make it obey; and extremely defenisve abou itself and its territory.


(3) Staffies are TERRIERS. Terriers of any type can be pig-headed and stubborn - not exactly going to the stars of the obedience or agility rings. In this I include every single terrier from the Airdale to the Norwich.

(4) Terriers are very prey driven which means the love to chase after things that move - and in their case tha means small things since they were bred to kill vermin live rats and moles.


So you take really really bad breeding practices, and produce a dog that by nature is stubborn and independent minded (politer than pig-headed) who loves to chase small things and dig after them and put it in the hands of morons who don't know how or won't learn how to train a dog , and how have this image that they have this rough ough dog which they are going to be toough with and not treat as a loving pet. What do you get? A recipe for disaster!!


Now a well-bred Staffie of either type, treated as a beolved family member living in the house and properly trianed is a sweetie.

30 years ago it was Dobes that were the bogeymen of the dog world. Had the same problems and rep - and for the same cause. Overbreeding by idiots and bad handling

The lesson: DO NOT BUY FROM SOME BACKYARD BREEDER

Go to the website for the 2 breed clubs and find a GOOD breeder:
http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cfm?action=national&display=on&breed=224

http://www.amstaff.org/

Answer 11

Hi , you need to know that pit bulls do have a hard history,,why??they started breeding them for fighting and that is called the hot breed and for that the hot tempered are passed on to there pups and on and on,, you need to know the history of where the pit bulls came from and how the where being breed and raised,, i have see some very nice tempered pit bulls, and at the same time i have seen some very nasty tempered ones,,, when my son was 11/2 years old ,a pit bull mix bit him up ,he received over 50 stitches around his neck and face area.
good luck
Leena