Poll: What do you think of the breed pitbulls?

[Rawne1980]

I had a Pitbull as a youth.

He was called Tucker.

Had that dog for years and, besides being built like a small house .... made of muscle, it was soft as fluff.

Little bugger never attacked anyone, bit anyone or growled at anyone in a menacing manner.

He did want to be every sods friend though.

The problem with our lovely UK and the reporting of these "vilent" dogs is the people that seem to own the dogs we read about are absolute fuckwits.

Give the morons a rabbit and it will turn into an ankle biting terror with floppy ears.

Most of those twats can barely look after themselves or spell their own name and they wonder why the years of mistreating their animal has turned it like that.

Long story short, it's not usually the dogs fault it's the wankers that own them.

And this is probably the one subject that does get my back up.

Sick of seeing a dog being put down for being violent and then seeing it's owner, the skinhead tattoo'd tosspot that can barely speak while dribbling down themselves.

Gee, I wonder why that dog bit someone when it has such a loving owner that pulls it down the street with a choke chain and kicks it every few steps .... that's sure to make a caring animal.

During the course of my friends rise from youngster to adult (although he has yet to mature despite being 38) he has had 8 Rottweilers. He also has 4 kids that have grown up with said dogs and never, not once, has one of those alleged "dangerous" animals turned on the kids or anyone else.

One of them was that soft when the house got burgled he ran up to the burgler to have his tummy tickled as caught on CCTV. "Ok, you can have the TV but pet me first".

 

[JeffBergGold]

When I think of a pitbull it is just another dog to me. I don't attribute any traits to it. I had no idea people did. Seems a bit weird to me.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Remember, to a blind guy, a dog is a dog, trained well to help him through his day and to be his friend/companion, he knows not which breed it is, only that it is his best friend.

Mate of mine was in a bad car accident and was temporarily blinded... I told him not to worry, if he didn't get his sight back I'd have an Irish Setter trained to be his guide dog. He threw a bedpan at me (well, in my general direction).

 

[Denamic]

My sister has an American staffordshire.
He's anything but violent. He's a clumsy dumbass, annoying and stubborn as fuck, but kind and playful. He isn't even slightly aggressive.

I wouldn't let kids play with him though. While he's a nice dog, he's unusually big for an Amstaff, and like I said, really clumsy. He also enjoys wrestling and tug-of-war, both of which being unsuitable for kids to play with a dog that weighs more than them. While wouldn't hurt someone on purpose, he can easily do so by accident.

These kinds of dogs has an unfair reputation.

 

[CyanideWolf]

I have a half staffy, half pitbull and a 4 year old sister and they are best of friends. Hell, my sister even tells the dog off when she tries to go through our bin. They're lovely dogs and i'd trust a staff or pitbull with my sister more than i'd trust one of those small yappy things any day.

 

[loc978]

Damn good guard dogs, and territorial as hell. I've known several pits in my life, and I've found them to be much less inclined to random violence than say, a chihuahua. Less than rottweilers as well, and I've owned one or two of those myself. The difference being that a tiny yappy dog being a violent dickbag is apparently cute in its harmless impotence, whereas an abused pit bull or rottweiler can rip a kid's head off in an instant.
One more for "love the dog, hate the owner".

 

[Hunter65416]

I think with proper care they can be as good and well behaved as any other dogs but by proper care I mean proper care if your not going to train it, take it out, get it well socialized, get it desexed etc then its likley going to have a much greater tendency to become violent and exhibit other bad behavior than another breed of dog might be. With proper care they can be as good as any other dog.

 

[Dr. Mongo]

I think they were bred for violence, but that doesn't necessarily mean they ARE violent. Are they more likely to lash out than most other breeds, probably yes.

This.

The problem with pitbulls is that they are originally bred to fight.

Don't get me wrong - they are not vicious from birth, there is no such thing. But they have a certain potential to "snap" - even if the owner treats the dog right.
Very few do, but these are the pitbulls that give the race such a bad reputation.

The pitbull per se is a great dog: Strong willed, intelligent, family-loving and, like all terriers, playful and clownish.
But everybody who considers getting such a dog for oneself should remember that the pitbull was bred with the purpose to fight. It is in it's genes and no matter how good you treat it, it will always be.

 

[saintdane05]

I have only met one pitbull, but he was the sweetest, most lovable dog I have ever met.

 

[Bestival]

A dog's violence is trained, not born.
Pitbulls weren't bred for aggression or violence, they were bred to be able to fight bulls. For that they were bred in such a way that they have great endurance and tenacity, and the trademark short flat snout so they could actually bite onto the bull and hang on while being flung around.
Being bred for that though doesn't mean a pet pitbull will automatically charge a bull if you happen to pass one. They still had to be trained.

I personally don't care for the breed, don't like the looks. But they have an impressive pedigree for sure.

 

[DRes82]

Pit Bulls get a bad rap, definitely. In my experience, they are one of the most even tempered and nicest of all breeds.

That said, they can be *really* rough when they play. It takes a lot of training to make them a little gentler than their nature compels them to be. They are probably not the best choice for a family with smaller children, due to the simple fact that children are usually mushy and a playful pit bull puppy's teeth are razor sharp.

Again, great breed. Very loving and energetic. Violent or aggressive pits are few and far between. Very thick, dense dog...will play rough and with their teeth, possibly cause accidental injury to young children or small pets.

 

[Xan Krieger]

This whole problem with breed specific legislation is that it's basically like if we said since black people are statistically more prone to kill people then we should kill all black people for being black (or at the very least ban them from the state). What about that dog in Belfast who was killed just for being a pitbull? This is disgusting and needs to be stopped, pit bulls should be treated equally.

 

[TehCookie]

I work at a vets office and pitbulls are a nice breed. It's surprising how much a dogs temperament is in their genes. Unless you raise it to specifically be mean a pitbull is nice.

Oh the other hand watch out for german shepards and huskies, if they're not raised right they're going to be mean. Rather than kill pitbulls I'd make it illegal to train aggressive breeds to attack. Almost all the bites at the vets office are from german shepards, and the worst ones are usually police dogs.

 

[Something Amyss]

Love the "no true scotsman"theme this thread has.

 

[Yopaz]

I think they can be really nice (staffies), I walk them quite often at my local dog shelter. I find they tend to be friendlier than some other small breeds.

The ones that attack people just had shitty owners.

Pretty much this. Pitbulls have a bad reputation because they have been used for fighting dogs for a long time. However the breed alone isn't enough to condemn all of them. Because they have a reputation for being aggressive people who want to train their dogs to attack tend to choose pitbulls. They raise them poorly and then of course they end up being aggressive.

They are illegal over here because of their reputation so I haven't encountered a whole lot of them, but those I have met have been really nice. I guess they might be a little difficult to breed, but any dog who's got a good owner who knows how to properly raise a dog will be nice. However when a pitbull does attack then everyone who doesn't know any better get their idea confirmed and it doesn't matter if this is only one in ten or one in a million. One attacked and that is enough.

 

[BishopofAges]

Mate of mine was in a bad car accident and was temporarily blinded... I told him not to worry, if he didn't get his sight back I'd have an Irish Setter trained to be his guide dog. He threw a bedpan at me (well, in my general direction).

When I think of the blind who get service animals, I think of both the born-blind and accident-made, but I guess if you knew what it was like before blindness you really could have an issue.

I'm just saying that when you walk down the street and see a pit bull some people get afraid even if it's not bothering anyone, or on a leash. A blind guy would just notice the sounds, although there was a blind dude who could figure and map dog breeds for the sound of their bark.

p.s. I hope that bedpan wasn't 'in use'

 

[Yopaz]

I think they can be really nice (staffies), I walk them quite often at my local dog shelter. I find they tend to be friendlier than some other small breeds.

The ones that attack people just had shitty owners.

Pretty much this. Pitbulls have a bad reputation because they have been used for fighting dogs for a long time. However the breed alone isn't enough to condemn all of them. Because they have a reputation for being aggressive people who want to train their dogs to attack tend to choose pitbulls. They raise them poorly and then of course they end up being aggressive.

They are illegal over here because of their reputation so I haven't encountered a whole lot of them, but those I have met have been really nice. I guess they might be a little difficult to breed, but any dog who's got a good owner who knows how to properly raise a dog will be nice. However when a pitbull does attack then everyone who doesn't know any better get their idea confirmed and it doesn't matter if this is only one in ten or one in a million. One attacked and that is enough.

Yup, that was true for me too.

The first time I saw a staffie in the shelter is was attacking another dog, it had to be sprayed with the hose multiple times to let go of the other dog. It was on a harness but it fought and wriggled so much it broke out of it and lunged for the other dog.

It was months before I was comfortable around them and now I like them. That one encounter coloured my opinion of them for ages. It turns out that the dog in question was really nice, it was just it's first day at the shelter (or one of the first days), it mellowed out hugely as time went by. I was there the day it got homed and it looked really sad and was reluctant to leave.

That's really sad, but I am glad to hear things got better. Thanks for sharing this with me, I hope the dog is still doing well.