My sisters best friends 1 year old son was mauled on Thanksgiving by a pitbull. I am not a huge dog lover, but I have always thought that pitbulls were misunderstood, beautiful creatures. Now I am so torn. My dad has a pit that I gave him, and she is wonderful... Do you think all pitbulls are potentially dangerous?
2007-11-26 05:20:07 · 29 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Dogs
I agree that it's all about training. I don't know this dog, but from what I've heard the dog was so good to the boy before this incident. I have been around many pitbulls and have never seen one snap.
2007-11-26 05:30:59 · update #1
All of your answers are awesome! Thanks for the help! I live in Houston where alot of pits are fought and it makes me sick. I am used to defending their honor, but I've never had something like this hit so close to home. I hope you all had a great thanksgiving!
2007-11-26 05:45:09 · update #2
NO,
infact a well bred well trained bull terrier of ANY kind should LOVE people.
infact any Human agression is a SERIOUS fault in the breed, remeber these dogs were bred as BAIT and PIT dogs, these dogs would fight visiously, however even in fighting dogs the handler and spectators HAD to be able to safely climb into the ring and pull apart 2 dogs enraged and highly "active" without being bitten. they were NEVER bred to be human agressive and "back in the day" human agressive dogs were killed imediatly.
it isnt untill reacently that idiots have adopted these bully breed as their own and started stupid breeding programs to make human agressive dogs., those peopel are BAD breeders, it is no fault of the dog but the idiots who have decided to take an extreemly loyal breed and breed agression into it...
a visious "pitbull" is simply a badly bred badly raised one...
unfortunatly dog bites from ANY breed are 50% the fault of the dogs breeder and 50% the fault of the dogs owner most of the time...
bad genetics and lack of training account for most dog bites...
and more people are bitten by lab and lab mixes than by "pitbulls"
however MOST bully breeds are prone to dog agression so its best that they are the only odg or owned only be very experienced multidog people who can manage multiple dogs properly.
and as a side note ALL dogs are potentially dangerous!
2007-11-26 05:28:38 · answer #1 · answered by Gems 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Here's the problem with Pitbulls:
As a breed, they are no more likely to be vicious than any other dog. However, think of the type of people that tend to gravitate toward owning and breeding Pitbulls. The kind of people that are breeding Pitbulls are not always the kind of folks you would want breeding them. They are not always concerned with passing on a good, stable temperament, they are mostly just concerned with 'looking tough'!
The other problem is the owners. How many people really research the breed before getting one? How many people that have one really know dogs and know how to properly train and raise a bully breed? Not many.
So see, the problem is not the breed but the fact that so many are not well bred leading them to be nothing like what a Pitbull should be like, then there are ones that are owned by people that know nothing about how to properly handle the breed.
I am the first to admit that people need to be cautious with unknown dogs, any dog, for that reason. You never know how well they were bred or how well they have been handled, but as a whole, the breed is not damaged, ruined, vicious or bad. There are wonderful Pitbulls that are excellent expamples of the breed and the key is to judge each individual dog rather than the whole breed on one bad example. It's just like people. There are bad people of every race and culture, but you don't judge a whole people by one bad one.
2007-11-26 05:40:51 · answer #2 · answered by Shanna 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
No I do not. My foster APBT was placed into a home with a two year old girl and is soooo gentle with her. She has never tried to hurt anything, human or animal. She protects that child like it was her own baby. It's a matter of their breeding AND their raising. If they come from dogs with good temperments AND were raised properly, they'll probably be fine. Honestly, they're one of the more people oriented breeds (although APBT are known to be animal aggressive) which is surprisingly thanks to the idiots who bred them for fighting because they wanted dogs they knew they could handle even during a fight. There's always a bad one out there though, whether due to breeding or training or just something wrong with it, and I am really sorry that little boy was hurt by one. Don't let one bad experience color your opinion about an entire breed though. People kill each other all the time. Do you now think all humans are bad? It really is the same thing. Get all the facts and judge the individual, not the entire breed/species/race.
2007-11-26 05:37:37 · answer #3 · answered by Erica Lynn 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Not all American Pit Bull Terriers are vicious, but some are. The same goes for about every other dog out there. You can't mold your opinion based on one single event. My mother was mauled right in front of me by a Doberman when I was a child -- does that mean that all Doberman's are vicious? Of course not. And I hold no bad feelings for the entire Doberman breed and neither does my mother.
I've been raised with APBTs and AmStaffs my entire life and so have both of my parents. I've had APBTs from great breeders and APBTs adopted from shelters and they have all been the most wonderful, loyal dogs I've ever met -- and even if I have the unfortunate luck to get attacked one day by an APBT my opinion will not change. I've already experienced the love and loyalty that these dogs give.
2007-11-26 05:30:07 · answer #4 · answered by Daisy 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Pit bulls were actually raised to be extremely people-friendly. They were raised to fight other dogs but to let people touch and handle them when they are hurt. The only bad things about pit bulls is that they have a single mind set. That means that when they want something they will stop at nothing to get it. Whether it be a toy or a person. That is why you never hear of a pit bull biting someone only attacking. I have a hundred pound 9 year old pitbull that has been around my son since he has been born. It is true that it is all in the way you breed and raise them.
2007-11-26 05:30:54 · answer #5 · answered by dixyrebel80 2 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Sigh. The infamous Pit question.
No.
It has alot to do with training, experience, attention...so on and so forth.
They are, however, known as a bully breed.
ADD: Personally I think the Pit is classified as a 'medium breed" and if you have any experience with dogs you should be fine as too owning them and training them. To be honest, I have had more difficulty with my Peke then I had with my Rottie mix. Size in this case does not matter. ;)
ADD 2: I was always told to watch out for the Yorkies...my professors (who are Vets and Vet techs) said that alot of the dogs that were being put down were Yorkies for mauling children. Now, I am obviously not saying all Yorkies are going to kill your kids...but there is a chance for any dog, anywhere and anytime.
Another thing. Who was supervising this child with the dog? Do not blame the breed for the humans mistake.
Do what you will with this information.
2007-11-26 05:26:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I work with a humane society and have sort of a balanced view. I don't think they are all vicious and I don't think all of them are safe or can be rehabilitated.
There are some very evil people out there that are selectively breeding pit bulls for aggression (intentionally picking dogs based on their aggressiveness for breeding) and then adding fuel to the fire by training the resulting offspring to be aggressive. These dogs are nightmare dogs intentionally created for dogfighting and the people that do this ought to be in jail.
Not all pit bulls are in this category and I've met through our shelter some very sweet ones. We wouldn't accept them for adoption candidates if they didn't pass our temperament tests and had a non-aggressive history and we wouldn't keep them in our shelter for adoption if they began to exhibit serious aggression.
It's not a breed for everyone - they are strong-willed dogs like most terriers and can be a training challenge. But like any dog, they are a product of their breeding and handling - and that means the people that bred them and own them.
2007-11-26 05:30:05 · answer #7 · answered by ? 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I do NOT think it is the breed. We have had several and they are normally sweethearts unless someone has trained them to be mean which can happen with any breed. Why was a one year old around the dog? Did anyone supervise? Did the dog get hit or ears pulled? There has to be more to the story and it sounds like one of those times when the dog is going to pay the price for irresponsible owners!
2007-11-26 05:27:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Some breeds have genetic pre-dispositions to different jobs. The pit was trained to fight and take down large animals and so they have the strength and breeding to be bad.
How they act is dictated by the love and training their owners give them. Most owners do not give pits the training they need. And you have to be able to look at them and see what their tail and ears are doing. If the tail is up and the ears forward, the dog can attack. Watch their body language. If you see aggressive body language before they even make a growl, you can stop the attention fixation, by distracting them with a shove or a noise.
2007-11-26 05:42:00 · answer #9 · answered by Lyn B 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I LOVE my pit bull. They are phenomonal dogs. I have had several breeds of dogs, but this breed takes the cake when it comes to companionship and loyalty.
Unfortunatly they are very strong breeds, and alot of people think of it as a sport to fight these dogs, and to exploit their determintation and strength.
People want to breed inexpensive aggresive dogs, which sadly leads to alot of "inbred" dogs, which prove to have a much worse temprement than a well bred dog. The media reports all of these viscious pit bull attacks, but they fail to mention the conditions the dogs were raised in, abuse they suffered, or poor breeding habits of the owners.
Any dog has the capability to be aggresive, not every dog has the strength of a pit bull and that's what scares most people. My dogs are no more likely to hurt someone than any other dog at the dog park.
2007-11-26 07:27:40 · answer #10 · answered by Noressa S 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋