Pit Bulls: Yay or Nay?

[tobi!]

I've taken animal health classes for five years and we've always had this strange question.

Recently, the teacher put up a picture of a Pomeranian and a Pit bull and asked us which one was capable of killing a child. She snorted both.

I've learned a lot about Pit bulls:

1. Pit bulls are actually from the "TERRIER" family. "Pit bull" actually isn't a breed at all.
2. Many pit bulls you see are rarely pure bred and rarely look like actual pit bulls (Seriously! Google it up!)
3. The one thing all my teachers have told me is every dog, whether it Papillon, Boxer, or Yorkshire, needs to be trained.
4. Many attacks are usually brought on by the human.
-Do not make eye contact or have "staring contests". It's a sign of dominance or challenge.
-Do not stick your face into an unfamiliar dog's face. You'd be surprised how many people do this...
-Do not stick limbs into the dogs face. Even if you are offering a hand, do not put it right up to the face.
-Watch body language. Body language is everything.

I do like the precious breed very much.
If a pit bull snarled at me, I'd be upset.
If a golden retriever snarled at me, I'd be upset.
Just because a breed has a good or bad reputation doesn't mean every dog is going to be like that.

We had a pit bull named "Honey" and she was beautiful and sweet. We had a pit bull named "Bunny" and she was very dangerous.

I think it depends all on training and what the situation is that would bring an attack.

 

[Eagles_shadow]

Pit Bulls are cool. Not my favorite breed but I still like them.

 

[nard]

Yay totally. People just assume they're vicious because of stereotypes, but pitbulls are adorable and I'd love to cuddle one.

 

[RayOfHope]

Totally agreed. The worst I've ever gotten from a pit bull was an excited lick.

 

[tobi!]

Well, this is rather one sided.
Upsetting that they are still banned in many areas in Europe.

 

[EmmaFrost]

I don't like dogs at all, so

 

[NewLeaf13]

I would, but there are a couple of Pit Bull maulings each year where I live, and it makes me afraid that if I got one, it would try to kill me. Sorry to the Pit Bull Lovers.

 

[spCrossing]

Pit Bulls are adorable.

 

[M O L K O]

My dad adopted a pitbull just recently, I'll upload a pic in a second. This lil thing is a sweet heart and ugh, shes scared of the cats in my dads neighbor hood so I mean .

edit: ugh the pic musta got swiped when I reset my phone, I'm going over there saturday so I'll snap a pic then, shes the sweetest thing. I honestly don't get why pits are labeled bad. I have a story about a pitbull that saved me when I was a kid. In short I walked to my elementary school and there was this big mutt that lived at the end of my road and he would escape sometimes. (one time he bit me) anyway I was walking home and this pit follows me. I was terrified at first but all the dog did was lick my hands so I was like ...umok. so anyway when i get to my road the mutt is out of his cage but the pit barks and growls at him and I was able to walk past (I had a panic attack no lie I hate that dog so much) anyway about two weeks later i swear i saw that dog at a gas station next to a homeless man.

 

[Naiad]

Gotta love pit bulls <3
I love dogs in general tbh

 

[LambdaDelta]

dogs are cool, so...

 

[Mango]

nay, shut up you all, i live in a city and i volunteer at a shelter and the only attacks are pitbull attacks. pit is not a real bread. its a mutt. %90 of pitbuls are bad and tbh you cant prove me wrong until you show me a pitbul thats not a baby that doesnt bite, nip, or is aggressive.

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and my dog was killed by a pitbull. our pitbull. and atttacked many times that week before she dies and i just. do not say im wrong. okay? ill back myself up.

 

[tobi!]

nay, shut up you all, i live in a city and i volunteer at a shelter and the only attacks are pitbull attacks. pit is not a real bread. its a mutt. %90 of pitbuls are bad and tbh you cant prove me wrong until you show me a pitbul thats not a baby that doesnt bite, nip, or is aggressive.

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and my dog was killed by a pitbull. our pitbull. and atttacked many times that week before she dies and i just. do not say im wrong. okay? ill back myself up.

Okay.

I just wanted to ask if the pitbull was mistreated? Did you have it as a puppy or was it a rescue? I'm not saying all rescue dogs aren't worthy of trust but I have had my rescue for awhile and I still don't trust him.
I work at an animal clinic and we've had dogs come in that have bit and not all of them were put bulls.

And I have had nice pit bulls (purebred American Terrier and mutts)
I wish you could meet Honey who is a very nice purebred American Terrier.

 

[Mango]

it was a rescue that we had since a puppy.

and with any other dog you cant trust them, sure, but they have every dog in them, so like, yeah, its really dangerous

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and i do know not all pitts are evil, but they are more dangerous then any other dog.

 

[tobi!]

it was a rescue that we had since a puppy.

and with any other dog you cant trust them, sure, but they have every dog in them, so like, yeah, its really dangerous

My favorite teacher/veterinarian once told me "Treat every animal for how it could act, not how it looks presently" meaning use caution even if a dog seems like it won't bite immediately and that body language can be hard to read.

I do tend to use more caution towards pit bulls differently from the pomeranian but I've had three dog bites all from jack russels...little chompers.

 

[oath2order]

nay, shut up you all, i live in a city and i volunteer at a shelter and the only attacks are pitbull attacks. pit is not a real bread. its a mutt. %90 of pitbuls are bad and tbh you cant prove me wrong until you show me a pitbul thats not a baby that doesnt bite, nip, or is aggressive.

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and my dog was killed by a pitbull. our pitbull. and atttacked many times that week before she dies and i just. do not say im wrong. okay? ill back myself up.

I have been waiting for someone to start hating on pitbulls. So then, let's start.

First off, what is a pitbull? Well, you're right, it's not a real breed. There is no breed called "pit bull". The correct terminology would be "American Pit Bull Terrier". So, now that we have that down, how do you know, the only attacks are pitbull attacks? Unless you have thoroughly investigated the dog doing the biting, and have properly done your research, then there is no way you know for sure it was an American Pit Bull Terrier bite. On a side note, what city do you live in? Curiosity strikes me.

Now, I want to ask you if you can properly identify an American Pit Bull Terrier. Observe these following images, and tell me which one is the pitbull.

I'll post more on this when you respond telling me which one is the American Pit Bull Terrier, and more specifically, how you came to the conclusion of that.

Do you want me to show you a dog that doesn't bite or nip? Well that's literally impossible. All dogs bite and nip. It's part of how they play.

Remember Michael Vick's dogs? Remember the dogfighting? Well, please read this article, and do some research on the Vick dogs and what happened to them. Were they put down because they couldn't be rehabilitated? No. They were successfully rehabilitated. You have one who became a cancer therapy dog, others adopted out. And you know full well if one of them bit someone after being adopted, we'd hear about it.

I want to hear you back yourself up.

 

[Jake]

bottom line basically is that dogs are still wild animals. even if they've been domesticated they still have a thing called instinct, and will attack if need be.

i dont see why people say one breed is better than the other, they're both just as dangerous as each other. Maybe a pitbull it more *dangerous* because it's got more physically harming features but yeah

 

[ShinyYoshi]

I love dogs, I have never met a pitbull that wasn't extremely happy and loving.

BUT over the summer, my boyfriend was going for a run in his neighborhood and a pitbull left it's yard to catch up to my boyfriend and bite him on the butt. He didn't even so much as look at the dog. This dog attacked for an unprovoked reason and severely hurt my boyfriend. He called to tell me about it and I was not surprised that he said it was a pitbull.

As much as I love the "breed", since it is pretty unofficial, I'm very cautious of them.

 

[Brackets]

I'm undecided on this, I guess. I'm aware there's lots of different breeds of pit bulls, and obviously there's differences between the dogs and their owners, and you can't group them all as the same. However, quite a big proportion of dog attacks are by pit bulls and it's hard to ignore that fact.

Also, I don't live in the most.. affluent area, and there are a lot of people with pit bulls around here. But it seems to be a status thing, rather than them just getting pit bulls because they like the breeds. Like, there are REALLY intimidating people around here who strut around with their pit bulls like they're a trophy, and I've heard about people training them to be violent.

So, yes I'm more cautious around pit bulls than other breeds, but that's mainly because I don't trust the owners to have trained them well.

 

[Astro0]

I had 2 dobermen as pets throughout my childhood. They were dogs who were hated in the 70s and 80s as they were perpetuated as merciless killing machines, and my parents where quite literally shunned by people for owning them, and letting them be around me and my sister from ages 1 day to ages 16. They were the sweetest, most loving and caring dogs I had known, and they didn't hurt a fly. My doberman, Reg, used to cry and protect baby birds who fell out of the nest until he caught out attention to put them back, he never hurt a fly, a dog, a child or an adult. They taught me not to judge a breed by the news or the media or the whispers of scared adults who have no reason to fear them (OBVIOUSLY excluding people who have been harmed or attacked by dogs, they have my deepest sympathies.)

My family friends had an Akita, traditionally a fighting dog. He was a big sook who loved cuddles and smooches and lots of love. They also had a pit/brazillian (?) terrier mix, another dog who people literally RAN from on the street when they were walking him. When his owner was sick he would give her lots of kisses and would spend hours by her side every day. He loved to play and was a big silly dog who just wanted to play. They were raised by extremely good trainers, and amazing people who kept them in line, and so they never showed an inkling of violence, anger or fear.

For me, its all about the trainer, I've seen dogs with great trainers be perfect, and I've seen neglected and beaten dogs lash out and attack. I first blame the trainer of the animal, before I even go near blaming the dog, let a alone a WHOLE breed of dog!

Once again, for those of you are scared of dogs, that is okay! That is reasonable, and dogs can be dangerous if in control of the wrong trainer, or in situations of fear. I understand, however I find there is absolutely no reason to shame, and sometimes kill a whole breed of dog.