I can’t speak for every dog and every dog owner, though many anti-pit bull people will tell you they can and that they’re all just waiting to bite the face off a child.
What I can say is that, of the pit bulls and pit bull mixes I know, they’re lovable softies with their owners, and I know one (our neighbors) that I can say with confidence could not/would not hurt anyone or anything else, as even when another dog attacked him he would not fight back. This dog is in a house with multiple small children, numerous cats, chickens, a turkey, and over multiple years being their neighbor I’ve never heard of him being hostile towards any of them, he’s always been a Very Good Boy.
What I believe it comes down to is that pit bulls are big, strong dogs, with strong jaws, and some people are neglectful owners who fail to socialize them and train them properly. A poorly trained and poorly socialized Yorkie will bite you all the same, it’s just you can punt one like a football. People who are not prepared to train their dogs to behave appropriately – which is a part of caring for them, just as important as grooming or feeding them if not even more important – should not own dogs, full stop, irrespective of breed.
It is, however, much easier for other people to blame the dog, have the dog put down (and let me say, if they did something bad enough to earn an early departure across the rainbow bridge, rightly so), and then promptly forget about the owner who didn’t bother to train them. The owner who will, then, almost certainly, get another dog to neglect.
Pitbulls also have strong tendecy for aggression towards other dogs, because of the background of the breed. Not all of them have dog aggression, especially the mixed, but many do. As an instinct, it is often way too difficult to all but experts, to train them not to act on it, and many people can barely do basic training, much less realize, what sort of precautions they need to take, to prevent incidents.
This also means keeping them in places, with a lot of other dogs around - so almost every situation people live in these days - creates a big chance of them attacking other dogs. And when dogs fight, it is very common for humans to get injured, while they try to stop it, because the dogs are in a very agitated state. Since pitties are a strong breed with strong jaws, getting bit by one means usually a really bad time, even if it just an accident… which then leads to blaming the dog for their owner’s stupidity, as noted above.
Also, as a personal anecdote: I have seen multiple pittie-type of dogs in dog parks, that are fine at first, but then after running and playing for a while, start to get agitated, which then triggers aggressive behavior towards the other dogs. The common theme with the incidents I have seen, is the owners not understanding their dog’s bodylanguage, and not realizing when they are starting to get agitated, and should have stopped and left.
I am autistic person, grown up with dogs, so often I can read dog bodylanguage better than human one. I have taken my dog, and left from dog parks, when I have noticed the agitation rising in that type of dogs, because I do not trust the owners. These days it is honestly just safer to not go in there, if there is a pittie-types, even if they seem to be fine.
I sadly find it is also pointless to try to point this behaviour out to the owners, as they get offended for implying their dog is aggressive, even though that is not the point. And then they get couple bad incidents, and quietly stop visiting dog parks.
Do not take a dog from a breed, that has high tendency towards dog aggression, if you want a high chance to have a dog, you can take to dog parks.
the problem with them is, as with police… and the whole point of the ACAB movement… we cant possibly know what state any given [strange] pit bull is in, and so we kinda have to assume the worst for our own safety… until proven otherwise.
often, that takes 30 seconds meeting the dog and the owner in the park, but i will never not assume a defensive stance with certain breeds and owners.
weirdly, unmanaged/mismanaged german shephards are a big problem in my area to the point my dog now just hates all of them.
There’s also people who just want a strong, violent dog for various reasons and pit bulls fit that bill pretty well. They’re large, strong, persistent, and the person is a shit tier person who will likely beat the animal.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with that, but that’s a problem with the owner and not the breed. If the breed were outlawed, all it would do is get a lot of dogs who don’t deserve to be put down, put down; and those kinds of assholes would just get a doberman, a rottweiler, or any other number of large, strong breeds they can mistreat and neglect into being a menace to society. The fact of the matter is that shitty people are the root cause of the problem, and we don’t hold the owner accountable enough when a dog bites.
I can’t speak for every dog and every dog owner, though many anti-pit bull people will tell you they can and that they’re all just waiting to bite the face off a child.
What I can say is that, of the pit bulls and pit bull mixes I know, they’re lovable softies with their owners, and I know one (our neighbors) that I can say with confidence could not/would not hurt anyone or anything else, as even when another dog attacked him he would not fight back. This dog is in a house with multiple small children, numerous cats, chickens, a turkey, and over multiple years being their neighbor I’ve never heard of him being hostile towards any of them, he’s always been a Very Good Boy.
What I believe it comes down to is that pit bulls are big, strong dogs, with strong jaws, and some people are neglectful owners who fail to socialize them and train them properly. A poorly trained and poorly socialized Yorkie will bite you all the same, it’s just you can punt one like a football. People who are not prepared to train their dogs to behave appropriately – which is a part of caring for them, just as important as grooming or feeding them if not even more important – should not own dogs, full stop, irrespective of breed.
It is, however, much easier for other people to blame the dog, have the dog put down (and let me say, if they did something bad enough to earn an early departure across the rainbow bridge, rightly so), and then promptly forget about the owner who didn’t bother to train them. The owner who will, then, almost certainly, get another dog to neglect.
Pitbulls also have strong tendecy for aggression towards other dogs, because of the background of the breed. Not all of them have dog aggression, especially the mixed, but many do. As an instinct, it is often way too difficult to all but experts, to train them not to act on it, and many people can barely do basic training, much less realize, what sort of precautions they need to take, to prevent incidents.
This also means keeping them in places, with a lot of other dogs around - so almost every situation people live in these days - creates a big chance of them attacking other dogs. And when dogs fight, it is very common for humans to get injured, while they try to stop it, because the dogs are in a very agitated state. Since pitties are a strong breed with strong jaws, getting bit by one means usually a really bad time, even if it just an accident… which then leads to blaming the dog for their owner’s stupidity, as noted above.
Also, as a personal anecdote: I have seen multiple pittie-type of dogs in dog parks, that are fine at first, but then after running and playing for a while, start to get agitated, which then triggers aggressive behavior towards the other dogs. The common theme with the incidents I have seen, is the owners not understanding their dog’s bodylanguage, and not realizing when they are starting to get agitated, and should have stopped and left.
I am autistic person, grown up with dogs, so often I can read dog bodylanguage better than human one. I have taken my dog, and left from dog parks, when I have noticed the agitation rising in that type of dogs, because I do not trust the owners. These days it is honestly just safer to not go in there, if there is a pittie-types, even if they seem to be fine.
I sadly find it is also pointless to try to point this behaviour out to the owners, as they get offended for implying their dog is aggressive, even though that is not the point. And then they get couple bad incidents, and quietly stop visiting dog parks.
Do not take a dog from a breed, that has high tendency towards dog aggression, if you want a high chance to have a dog, you can take to dog parks.
the problem with them is, as with police… and the whole point of the ACAB movement… we cant possibly know what state any given [strange] pit bull is in, and so we kinda have to assume the worst for our own safety… until proven otherwise.
often, that takes 30 seconds meeting the dog and the owner in the park, but i will never not assume a defensive stance with certain breeds and owners.
weirdly, unmanaged/mismanaged german shephards are a big problem in my area to the point my dog now just hates all of them.
There’s also people who just want a strong, violent dog for various reasons and pit bulls fit that bill pretty well. They’re large, strong, persistent, and the person is a shit tier person who will likely beat the animal.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with that, but that’s a problem with the owner and not the breed. If the breed were outlawed, all it would do is get a lot of dogs who don’t deserve to be put down, put down; and those kinds of assholes would just get a doberman, a rottweiler, or any other number of large, strong breeds they can mistreat and neglect into being a menace to society. The fact of the matter is that shitty people are the root cause of the problem, and we don’t hold the owner accountable enough when a dog bites.