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Not at all. I can't lock a gun in a safe and leave it there knowing it can do no harm. The animal, no matter how well trained has ingrained genetic factors that will show in certain behaviors. My Blue Heeler, with no direction from me, 'herds' everything from kids to chipmunks. It's what she is, it's what she does. The gun can do nothing without me.
Well continue to believe that about pit bulls who are raised properly. There's countless of pit bulls who were raised properly that would literally and figuratively **** all over that hypothesis.
I'm just trying to understand the psychology behind wanting a pitbull so bad. Why not any other type of dog? Pitbulls only make up 6% of the dog population and yet they are responsible for over 50% of dog attacks and over 60% of dog related deaths. Studies have also shown that hospital bills are a lot higher when a pitbull is involved in the attack due to the severity of the injuries.
I know, other dogs bite, too. But statistically, you are more likely to get maimed or killed by a pitbull than all the other dog breeds combined.
I know a quite a few people that insist on having pitbulls. Got 2 next door. Why? Why don't these people want any other type of dog? Why only pitbull?
When you look online at the animal shelters section for "Adoptable Dogs", the majority are pitbull/pitbull mix; so obviously people who thought it was the "in" thing to have a pitbull discovered they aren't so great after all.
Sadly, when a breed becomes popular inbreeding begins in earnest and inbreeding adversely alters a dog's temperament. Happened with Collies, Cocker Spaniels, Poodles, Irish Setters, etc.
It seems that anyone, white or black, who wants to look tough gets a pit because of their rep. Then the people who just get one for a pet, pay for that.
I prefer German Shepard's. In the 70s Shepard's received the reputation that Pits get today. It was for the most part undeserved. What would have us all do destroy the breed? People like what they like. If now that said they want a pit to abuse and make mean or fight them that is a whole different bag of snakes.
lol - a myth? per whom...the anti pit crowd at dog-bite.org? Pits are not pets on facebook?
Take a child...raise him or her to be a mean *******....and you know what they'll be when they grow up? A mean *******. Same with not interacting with them daily - they will grow into adults and have mental health issues. Domesticated animals aren't much different in those regards.
Take a golden retriever and beat him and train him to be a mean sonofabitch and what you'll get is a scared golden looking for affection. Take a pit bull and do the same and you get a mean sonofabitch who is potentially lethal.
Its the owners not the dog (look at 90% of the people who own pit bulls now - what do they have in common?)
There are always exceptions, but generally what I've observed and figured out is that it's a power thing. If you don't have much social or economic control of your life, you make up for it with a ferrous and/or dangerous dog.
If you have done well and are more or less in social and economic control of your life, you're much more likely to have a good natured Labrador or some little dust mop or other smaller dog.
Just do your own observation over the next few months or year as you go about your business and you can decide for yourself.
Funny and totally true story. I'm walking in a not so desirable part of town a few weeks ago. There is this late 20's guy with a pit-bull type dog walking beside him on a leash. He stops and I pass him by without a second thought. I get about 20 feet past him and he starts hollering a the top of his lungs for me to stop staring at him or else he's going to have his dog "rip my face off". At that point I just keep going and turned a corner as soon as I could. Obviously he was a nut case trying to show me how powerful he was with his big mean looking dog to compensate for his lack of working grey matter. Predictable that he had a pit-bull isn't it.
I've met plenty of very sweet Pit Bulls, in fact, all the Staffordshire Terriers I have met are silly sweet, just the nicest and happiest dogs ever, (a bit of a sub-breed there). But there are so many idiots owning dogs, and for long enough to have had an effect on breeding in temperament. Enough so that with powerful dogs with natural prey proclivities there are plenty of animals that anyone with anything other than having the time, energy and proper training techniques for socializing and fostering a confident and happy animal, bad consequences are inevitable.
Most people don't have the proper knowledge and time to train a goofy Golden Retriever for Christ's Sakes, how are they going to handle a Pit Bull, Rottweiler or Mastiff. That's not even counting the ghetto, otherwise emasculated "boys" who by the 1000s have gone out of their way to ruin a breed just to desperately try to portray themselves as macho and powerful. Those animals are all out there, typically breeding, with selective undesirable temperaments going forth into succeeding generations, and those animals find their way into all the shelters around the country.
I love a happy, sweet, smart dog of just about any breed (actually there are plenty of breeds that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole as far as ownership just because of knowledge of typical personality/temperment characteristics and selective "show" breeding that now results in fragile, illness prone animals, but these are all otherwise very loved and popular breeds and I would just be insulting fans of them.) But as far as Pit Bulls and their reputation. As much as I generally like them, have had not personal issues or negative experiences with them other than more than a few insane animals trying to attack me and my dog from their barren, dirt covered pen tied to a heavy metal chain, I would never choose to get one. Owning a dog is such a huge responsibility, all the liability and perceived risk that comes with owning a Pit Bull makes getting housing and insurance potentially very difficult. No dog is worth that.
You might be lucky and own a house in a state that doesn't have any breed restrictions and have an insurance company that doesn't penalize but what if you ever have to move or change insurance if you already own a Pit Bull. Life is full of complications why choose to erect more barriers in your life. And I couldn't really live with myself with a dog that attacked and killed another pet, or even worse injure a child or other person.
Even all my attention, love, positive training and socializing might not be enough for a puppy from an (unknown) bad lineage that may rear its angry presence at any time.
Whatever, pitbulls are inherently dangerous dogs compared to most other breeds and it is a myth that it is only how they are raised or bred that makes them so.
Baloney. I wonder how many people who say this even know what a "well bred" pittie is called. Hint: It's not pitbull.
Take a golden retriever and beat him and train him to be a mean sonofabitch and what you'll get is a scared golden looking for affection. Take a pit bull and do the same and you get a mean sonofabitch who is potentially lethal.
As someone who spent several years working in kennels and fostering dogs, you have no idea what you are talking about. We fostered a golden retriever who had been abused, and he was quite possibly the meanest dog I've ever met. If you so much as looked at him wrong, he would lunge for you. It took more than 3 months of serious training to calm him down, and he still was a borderline basket case. When he finally did get rehomed, it was stipulated that there be no children in the home and that the new owners would have to continue with training classes for him. IMO, he should have never been rehomed at all, but the decision wasn't up to me.
I've fostered everything from yorkies to rhodesian ridgebacks, and that golden was the only one of them that I never actually trusted. Also the only dog that I seriously thought should have been euthanized for behavior issues.
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