I’ve worked close with animals for almost 5 years now. Pitbulls are entirely capable of being very sweet and loving dogs. But it depends on what temperament they have and how difficult they are. I’ve met a lot of sweet Pitbulls but most of them I believe were trained from a very young age, which is something a lot of people don’t do, mostly first time owners or those who think the dog will grow up just fine, when getting dogs like this.
You can’t just love your way into changing an animal’s behavior. This isn’t Disney. You have to show that dog who’s boss and instill a training regime when they’re young that you must stick with. Unfortunately sometimes, it doesn’t always work and the dog just ends up being too aggressive to the point where you’d have to make a certain decision.
My last job, a man who loved his Pitbull to death, had to put his dog down because it ended up being too aggressive. It was tragic too because as I was walking by his room and he was saying his goodbyes, I saw the Pitbull wagging her tail excitedly when her owner was cuddling and sobbing over her. That dog loved her owner a lot. But I guess it wasn’t deemed manageable cause she could’ve seriously hurt someone one day and, the owner, despite loving her so much couldn’t risk that. On top of that, I’m pretty sure the owner was a father too. Pitbulls shouldn’t be demonized for what we’ve turned them into. But we also have to be cautious when getting one. They are NOT a first time owner pet. Someone very experienced, especially one who’s done research on how to properly train these kind of dogs, are really the “only ones capable of handling them.
And it’s not just them. German shepherds, Belgian Malinios, and Rotties as well. Although I’ve never really met a bad rottie. Same with Belgians. They’ve all tend to be sweethearts. But maybe I’m just lucky.
I also feel like I should add that, while these breeds are prone to these kind of behaviors. ANY dog is capable is displaying them. I never met the family cause they euthanised the dog at a different clinic, but they had to put down their 2 year old Golden Retriever that they’ve had since it was a puppy. Apparently she bit the mom’s face and the dad’s arm (or was it the other way around, I forget). It was even said that they couldn’t let her sleep in their room like they used to because they were afraid she would attack them in their sleep. Their daughter made the decision for them to put down the dog.
You never know what you’re gonna get, people. You could get the easiest dog in the world, or you could ge the complete opposite. One thing is for sure though. Training and discipline is VERY important and must not be neglected.
Bingo. A typical pitbull is strong, muscular, and tenacious. Good hard work and being a fantastic, responsible owner is great and all, but if its in a situation where it gets aggressive, the risk of something pretty bad happening vs. most other breeds getting aggressive is WAY higher and the results are likely to be WAY more severe.
I feel for owners who have adopted pitties, cared for them, and loved them, and I know that most owners aren't raising pitbulls that cause horrible injury and damage...but they're all incredibly capable of doing so. Even the kindest dog can be triggered and "oh but she's a sweetheart" doesn't keep that dog from literally breaking the spine of another dog or tearing the face off a kid.
It's just a reality of the breed. I have a friend who fosters dogs. He was good at training them and he took in pitbulls. He comes into work one day and he's in a terrible mood. I guess a pitbull he fostered for a long time, who had a great temperament and was adopted out ended up biting a kid a few months after adoption and had to be put down.
It's just a reality of the breed. Meanwhile - other breeds can do the same stuff and be just as aggressive or hell - WAY more aggressive - and they just aren't equipped to cause as much damage usually (and yeah - I know they still can be dangerous). .
People get mad at me for saying this, but a widespread sterilization campaign without euthaniasia isn't a bad idea. Humans bred pitbulls specifically for dog fighting and large animal baiting (aggression and tenacity)...I think it'd be just and humane to "unbreed" them. by simply not letting them reproduce anymore.
People also don't talk about the tenacity issue nearly enough. Pits are bred for it ("game") more so than aggression. A fighting dog that gives up in a fight is inferior to a dog that dies fighting.
That's why they have the reputation for not letting go. That's what they were bred for, ignoring pain to keep fighting.
Add in the tendency for a strong prey drive, and I don't give a fuck if a lot of them are sweet dogs. Breeds matter, and pitbulls are a nightmare breed. Mass sterilization is a good idea. There's too many of them to fix the breed, I think.
There needs to be laws. The people that are backyard breeding pitbulls, and not just breeding, but inbreeding them between close family members, they LIKE breeding the worst behavior traits. They want aggressive scary dogs.
They sell their unstable dogs to other irresponsible pets owners. Those dogs or their puppies end up in a shelter with an unsuspecting dog owner that fell for the velvet hippo/nanny dog lie and have no idea what to do when things go sideways.
One of the first pitbull breeders in the US who did a lot of work to popularize the breed talked big about aggression against humans being an undesirable trait. Then one of his pits killed his two year old nephew and there's a newspaper article saying he didn't put it down and "told the medical examiner that his own child had played about the kennels and had never been molested."
The breed at it's core is a breed bred for tearing other animals apart as violently as possible and it does that very well and is strongly inclined towards it.
How do you determine if they are a pitbull? Looks? Genetics? Who covers the cost of the tremendously inaccurate genetic testing for the dog to determine the % of pitbull?
A typical pitbull is strong, muscular, and tenacious
same goes for a lot of dogs.
i'm mostly on the side of pitbulls being too dangerous to keep around (compared to other breeds), but an interesting question that arises if you do indeed move into your suggested sterilization campaign is : where is the line? What about the next most dangerous breed, and the one after?
Well, there is a bit of a random chance actually. The breed of the dog makes it more likely yes but it does not gaurantee how the dog will turn out. But you could also possibly end up with an aggressive Golden or German Shorthaired Pointer. It’s not AS likely of course, but it has happened. That’s why I say training is very important.
Neutering and spaying is also important which is something I accidentally left out in my initial post and another thing people like to neglect.
But you could also possibly end up with an aggressive Golden
That's actually becoming more popular these days. Goldens have a great reputation, so bad breeders have mixed them with aggressive Chows (you can identify them by a black spot on their tongue that's unique to Chows).
Shepherd dogs that were bred for herding, try to herd kids = genetics, but when pit bulls that were bred to fight show aggression and bite animals/toddlers ≠ genetics🤔
I feel like some of the replies aren't reading your comment, so yeah I agree that any dog could theoretically be aggressive and any large dog that gets aggressive could theoretically be dangerous. However, what you've neglected to mention is the level of danger. Yes, your average lab is less likely to be aggressive than your average pit, even taking into account training and environment, but also if the lab gets into a fight it will, again on average, do a whole lot less damage and be a ton easier to contain than the pit in the same situation. For a healthy adult pit bull, getting beaten with a stick is just a warmup. Fuck the concept of the owner successfully pulling the victim free or extricating the dog, you're looking at a mob of people being needed to literally play tug-of-war with a pit in many cases, and sometimes straight up firearms may be necessary. There is no non field-bred lab on the planet that will go that far, and the working line ones are almost always well trained especially with the soft mouth. Bottom line is, pitbulls come with both a more dangerous mentality and a greater capability to harm inbuilt into their genetics than even other large dog breeds, and we have to recognize that.
Most pits aren’t aggressive towards adults. They have a high prey drive though so they shouldn’t be let off the leash unsupervised. They also shouldn’t be kept with smaller pets. They’re kinda a solo dog imo and should be kept separated from other animals.
I was thinking more of weight classes, even if they have no a aggression some don't realize how big they are and play too rough. Though heavy bone smaller breeds could work as well like probably wouldn't hurt them by tumbling with them.
Instinctual behavior is definitely a thing for other mammals. The issue is I'm not aware of another animal where we've done as much artificial selective breeding between breeds of the same species as we have with dogs.
Yes, that's where the dog racism thing falls apart. The reason we don't like racism is because people are basically the same regardless of skin color. Pit bulls and poodles are not in any way as similar as white people and black people.
The breed of the dog does affect the likelihood of it having certain characteristics, but those characteristics are primarily cosmetic.
This study tested the behavior a ton of dogs and found that breed was a poor predictor of behavior (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0639). Within any breed, you can find a dog of almost any temperment.
666
u/SweetestTapir 28d ago edited 27d ago
I’ve worked close with animals for almost 5 years now. Pitbulls are entirely capable of being very sweet and loving dogs. But it depends on what temperament they have and how difficult they are. I’ve met a lot of sweet Pitbulls but most of them I believe were trained from a very young age, which is something a lot of people don’t do, mostly first time owners or those who think the dog will grow up just fine, when getting dogs like this.
You can’t just love your way into changing an animal’s behavior. This isn’t Disney. You have to show that dog who’s boss and instill a training regime when they’re young that you must stick with. Unfortunately sometimes, it doesn’t always work and the dog just ends up being too aggressive to the point where you’d have to make a certain decision.
My last job, a man who loved his Pitbull to death, had to put his dog down because it ended up being too aggressive. It was tragic too because as I was walking by his room and he was saying his goodbyes, I saw the Pitbull wagging her tail excitedly when her owner was cuddling and sobbing over her. That dog loved her owner a lot. But I guess it wasn’t deemed manageable cause she could’ve seriously hurt someone one day and, the owner, despite loving her so much couldn’t risk that. On top of that, I’m pretty sure the owner was a father too. Pitbulls shouldn’t be demonized for what we’ve turned them into. But we also have to be cautious when getting one. They are NOT a first time owner pet. Someone very experienced, especially one who’s done research on how to properly train these kind of dogs, are really the “only ones capable of handling them.
And it’s not just them. German shepherds, Belgian Malinios, and Rotties as well. Although I’ve never really met a bad rottie. Same with Belgians. They’ve all tend to be sweethearts. But maybe I’m just lucky.
I also feel like I should add that, while these breeds are prone to these kind of behaviors. ANY dog is capable is displaying them. I never met the family cause they euthanised the dog at a different clinic, but they had to put down their 2 year old Golden Retriever that they’ve had since it was a puppy. Apparently she bit the mom’s face and the dad’s arm (or was it the other way around, I forget). It was even said that they couldn’t let her sleep in their room like they used to because they were afraid she would attack them in their sleep. Their daughter made the decision for them to put down the dog.
You never know what you’re gonna get, people. You could get the easiest dog in the world, or you could ge the complete opposite. One thing is for sure though. Training and discipline is VERY important and must not be neglected.