Are Pit bulls naturally aggressive or are they trained to be aggressive?

Question

I am not getting one, I was just interested due to the tragic events happening in the UK recently relating to these types of Dog.

Answer 1

The answer is a little bit of both...

Pit bulls have been "bred" to be aggressive, but temperament testing has proven them to be no more likely to attack or bite than any other dog. But because of the breeding, when they do bite the attack is more aggressive (strong jaws allow them to bite deeply and hold on).

There are many people who raise pit bulls as guard dogs, attack dogs, and fighting dogs. When a particular breed is used regularly by owners who encourage aggressive behaviour, the dog gains a bad reputation. This is the result of how the animal is raised, NOT an indication of the dog's temperament.

"Labradors and cocker spaniels are statistically more dangerous."

Bans on pit bulls target the wrong end of the leash.
Please, watch the following video showing the role humans have played:
http://www.pitbullproblem.tk/

Pit bull attacks are RARE. Recently the majority of dog bites have been to children from labs and retrievers simply because those dogs greatly outnumber others as pets (previous to this, most bites came from poodles and german shepherds). Children often unintentionally provoke a dog and need to be shown how to treat animals. For example, most dogs don't like hugs, and children show affection by hugging. A younger child might grab a handful of fur or pull fiercely on a dog's ear. It's wise to supervise children with dogs (and in general).

(Keep in mind that pit bulls are not a single breed. The name commonly refers to several breeds, including the American Staffordshire terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier and the American pit bull terrier.)

Answer 2

Absolutely Trained to be aggressive. Regardless of some of the answers on this board, Pit bulls who are well bred and cared for will NEVER be agressive toward people. They may show some aggression towards other dogs and animals due to their history. The bully breeds originated in England as bull baiters, fighting bulls before they were sent to market. It is thought that this tenderized meat was better tasting and therefore worth more money. When bull baiting was outlawed in the UK in the late 1800's people had to figure out what to do with their pits. They decided to pit (no pun intended) against each other and take wagers on the outcome. This is how dog fighting began. Anyways, due to the nature of the fights, the dogs always had to remain polite to people, so that fights could be broken up and the animals wounds could be treated, etc. In fact, up until the 1950s or so pit bulls were the most popular breed in America due to their great nature as family pets. They were even used on loads of patriotic posters during WW2 as the All American Dog! It is only in the last 20 or 30 years that shady characters have taken these dogs and turned them into the monsters you hear about in the media and manipulating their strenths (loyalty, trainability, strength) for their own greedy, nasty needs such as dogfighting and protection for gang members and drug dealers. I have a pit at home who is so tough that he pees with excitment when certain visitors come by our house or he goes somewhere very exciting (like petco). He is great with my other dog (a German Shepherd mix).

Answer 3

They are "naturally" other dog and animal aggressive because of the jobs they were initially bred to do.

They are NEVER supposed to be human aggressive. A human aggressive pit bull type dog should always be humanely euthanized and never bred. This is NOT an allowable trait in sound, well bred pit bull type dogs.

Sadly, due to all of the irresponsible breeding, cruel training and handling, there are dogs that do wind up being human aggressive. But for every "pit bull gone bad" you hear about, there are many more that NEVER create a problem, you just never hear about them, because the media is not interested in reporting the successes of these dogs, just the tragedies that are, in one way or another, always human based.

http://www.libertydogtraining.com

Answer 4

Yes pit bulls are naturally aggressive. It is what they were bred for in the first place. They are fighting dogs and not recommended as a family pet. They need to be trained to NOT be aggressive by an experienced handler. The story in the paper is very tragic, but it will hopefully make people think twice about having a dog which is on the 'dangerous breeds' lists as a pet!

Answer 5

Pit Bulls were originally breed to be a war dog. They are naturally aggressive but can be trained to be a family dog. Most Pits aggression is installed in them by the owner. It is the way you raise them. Just like most children. Just because they have the tendency's to do bad things does not mean you need to condone them. It is all how you raise them and there life experiences. Pits will always be protective over there territory, rather be there house, toys, or owner.

Answer 6

One thing you have to remember about any dog, they all have the instinct to be aggressive, whether they use this or not depends on the owner. All dogs still have a little piece of the wild left in them, if they are put in a situation where they have to defend to survive, even little dogs they can become feral quite quickly.
The pit bull is often the bad guy because of the one fact, their bite ratio psi out ranks any other dog bite. Only wild dogs are born to be aggressive, and even they are kept in check by the pack.
I only know of one dog that would be close to being born with to much aggression and that is the Caucasian mountain dog. These dogs weight in over 200 lbs and are used primarily for herd protection against wolves. They have the instinct to protect the owner or flock. At that size it wouldn't take much for them to take anything down.
So the answer is No, the pit bull is trained to use what they have by abuse. Unbelievably the pit can also be trained out of fighting mode. It just takes someone that knows dogs!

Answer 7

no animal's nature is to be aggressive. it's a learned behavior, usually from neglect of owners. i've known way more aggressive chihuahua's than pits. but pits can do more damage than a chihuahua is why they are always the one's on tv. if you research the breed you are getting, know what you are doing and what to expect with that dog for the most part. then you take the proper steps to prevent unwanted behavior, such as proper feeding, vet care and training and socilalization. almost every dog would be well behaved. keep in mind pits and most bully dogs were bred to fight other dogs and be a friend to humans. it's us humans that have allowed them to become aggressive towards other people. if you take a dog and throw it out in a yard or tie it up, and never expose the dog to anything but that area and yourself, then you are asking for trouble. the dog will be very insecure about new things and will react poorly. it wasn't the dog's choice, but rather how they were treated. when you see pits being called loving housepets, you never hear that the dog had never left the house, or wasn't taught to respect humans. the humans just let the dog do what it wanted and didn't do anything to provoke a bad behavior, so when something that the owners couldn't predict happened the dog didn't know what to do. it's the owner for the most part and not the dog. this is what really needs to be focused on.

Answer 8

I love Pit Bulls, they are an intelligent athletic dog. In the 20's they were bred to be fighters- to be aggressive towards other dogs yet loyal to their owners. Pit bulls today still exhibit some of that if they are not properly trained and socialized. They are not naturally aggressive towards people- that comes from neglect or abuse from the people around them or their living conditions.

Answer 9

As all the pervious are answers to the emotional side of the equation. Truth is that they were part of a breeding program that has this trait made to be the domanant trait for breeding- these dogs were bred to fight and to be very good at it- killing instints are extremely strong and survival instincts are extremely aggressive. It can NOT be reversed easily. Dobermans were bred to counter this aspect starting back 10 yrs ago and they are now great dogs as only the dogs with great (submissive) traits were alowed to breed. But the Pit bull is too far breed to even allow a 10+ yrs breeding program to help - they are being slowly politically banned from any breeding as most informed info verifies this fact - a white shark can not help its evolved nature - the pitbull has been selectively evolved due to human selective breeding to that point - sad as it is- one can not get the white shark to change now- the Pitbull is now the great white shark in the dog world and there is not turning back. These dogs will sadly pay the cost of human shortsight when they were bred for pure greed and profit of Dog fighting. Sad end - but one has to in the end stop thinking of them as the lovable domestic dog breeds and see them as the selective breed they were made to become - the great white shark in dog fighting - no turning back.

Answer 10

First of all, no dog can be trusted to a 100%, not even extremely well trained dogs like dogs for the blind etc.

Pit bulls and relatives are bred from species that are aggressive, and aggressive specimen are also used to promote this. So a pitt bull is so to speak built to be aggressive. To say anything else would be a complete lie!