Pit Bulls

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html

I have two pit bulls. I do not deny that pit bulls can, have, and will, injure other people and dogs. However, I also believe that such happenings are completely under the control of the owner. Having a pit bull is different from having any other kind of dog. They need special attention, and a lot of constant disipline. My rule with my boys is lots of disipline and lots of love.
My dogs are not allowed to ever think that they are the boss. They are not allowed to disobey or ignore a command. My boys are worked in their obdience every day, indivdually, and all of my attention is given to the one I am working. I feel this is necessary if you are going to keep a pit bull as a pet. It takes a lot of extra time and effort, but it is crutial if one is to keep a well mannered pit bull that behaves and obeys.
I know that there are people who are afraid of them and have been hurt by them. But do you really know exactly how their owners treat them when there is no one around to see? How often do these people work their dogs? It is not the dogs fault, they act as they are allowed to by the people they live with.
As for the person who said they believe what they said in the media, allow me to share with you a happening in my group of pit bull supporters.
One of our members was bitten by a lab. He was walking past the yard, the dog jumped the fence and bit him. The owners delt with the issue with understand and politeness, the dog was taken to a vet and examined, the man's medical bills were paid.
We discussed it at our next meeting, he said he was going to call the media, he did and was compeltely ignored when he said a lab bit him. The next week he called the media again and this time changed the biting dog to a pit bull, by that evening he had 3 media vans in front of his house.
Pit bulls are not the only dogs that bite, they are the only dogs that make news when they do it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nebby3103

http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html

---

Quotes directly from that link:

Quote:

---

The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family's Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby's uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards. ("Baby Girl Killed by Family Dog," Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 9, 2000, Home Edition, Metro Section, Page B-5.)

---

Quote:

---

• Any dog, treated harshly or trained to attack, may bite a person. Any dog can be turned into a dangerous dog. The owner or handler most often is responsible for making a dog into something dangerous.

• An irresponsible owner or dog handler might create a situation that places another person in danger by a dog, without the dog itself being dangerous, as in the case of the Pomeranian that killed the infant (see above).

• Any individual dog may be a good, loving pet, even though its breed is considered to be potentially dangerous. A responsible owner can win the love and respect of a dog, no matter its breed. One cannot look at an individual dog, recognize its breed, and then state whether or not it is going to attack.

---

The statistics cited earlier are taken not from the CDC's medical report database, but from media reports. This is -not- a valid source of data, IMO. If the CDC can't get valid data out of the reports required by law to be submtited following every documented bite incident, then how can you get reasonable data from media articles? The media loves a good story, and nothing is better than another pitbull run amuck to get people buying and selling. Why on earth would you trust data from a source dedicated to selling sensationalism?

I've never owned a pit before but have been around many, I myself have a great way with dogs for some reason so I've never really had a problem. I have to agree with everyone going the route of people not taking care of these dogs properly. Whatever genetic disposition that may exist in a dog can be corrected instantly by an owner who has trained and established himself as dominant.

A well trained, well exercised dog is a stable dog. When people keep them locked in cages all day, and them let them loose to run around the yard as their only means of exercise does nothing to them mentally. Dogs need to be part of a pack, need to be walked everyday with the owner leading the show; not the dog pulling and leading the owner around like I usually see.

Many pit owners do not put in the time or effort to make these animals stable and healthy. They are energy powerhouses and need to do something with that energy, if not exercise with its owner, fight. Who's fault is that in the end?

I think everyone needs to realize that the great equalizer to this problem would be people. People need to care for these breeds properly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mina

I have two pit bulls. I do not deny that pit bulls can, have, and will, injure other people and dogs. However, I also believe that such happenings are completely under the control of the owner. Having a pit bull is different from having any other kind of dog. They need special attention, and a lot of constant disipline. My rule with my boys is lots of disipline and lots of love.
My dogs are not allowed to ever think that they are the boss. They are not allowed to disobey or ignore a command. My boys are worked in their obdience every day, indivdually, and all of my attention is given to the one I am working. I feel this is necessary if you are going to keep a pit bull as a pet. It takes a lot of extra time and effort, but it is crutial if one is to keep a well mannered pit bull that behaves and obeys.

---

That's all I've neen saying. The same can be said about any mammal that is predisposed to be aggressive or dangerous. People work with Lions, tigers and bears (oh my) all the time and say what amazing animals a well trained animal can be. But they, like pit bulls need extra special care and discipline, and even that doesn't guaranty that their natural instincts will never show. Ask Sigfried and Roy. I personally want a wolf/husky hybrid and maybe even a bobcat/bengal/house cat hybrid when I have a house in a rural area with a huge fenced in yard and a large outdoor cat enclosure. I will probably have a pit bull or two as well. I will give them a ton of attention, training and discipline to reduce their needs to rely on their aggressive instincts. I will assure people that mine are friendly and safe when or if they are. Does this mean that these are to be considered safe and friendly in general? If they never become fully tame or docile enough for me not to trust them around other people, does that mean I abuse or neglect them, or that I teach them to be mean? No, it means they are genetically predisposed to be aggressive hunters. Even if a million people owned these as pets, and all of them did a good job at training them, that doesn't change what they are. Just like the pitbull owners who do a good job raising theirs to be cuddly pets doesn't change the genetically instilled disposition of this aggressive, dominating breed of dog. And whether the statistics are acurate or not, I'm suprised that there are people on this site who deny this aggressive predisposition, when they know what pits were, and are, bred for, as well as the outcome of line breeding for specific traits in animals and humans.

P.S. I don't want to hear how my analogy isn't relavant. I think my retic one was better, but since snakes "aren't sophisticated mammals", this is the best I can do.

I don't understand... just about every post here admits that we understand the reason they were bred, but can you totally ignore that other breeds of dog can be just as dangerous? The lab story? The pomeranian example? You make it sound like every other breed of dog is just a little angel. Media loves sensation, and nothing is more sensational than villifying a dog that has a reputation of being mean and being bred to be a killer. I'm surprised after all the posts that you would even consider owning a wolf/husky hybrid, which is basically a wild animal. I don't want to get in a huge fight, I just really don't understand...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darkangel

I don't understand... just about every post here admits that we understand the reason they were bred, but can you totally ignore that other breeds of dog can be just as dangerous? The lab story? The pomeranian example? You make it sound like every other breed of dog is just a little angel. Media loves sensation, and nothing is more sensational than villifying a dog that has a reputation of being mean and being bred to be a killer. I'm surprised after all the posts that you would even consider owning a wolf/husky hybrid, which is basically a wild animal. I don't want to get in a huge fight, I just really don't understand...

---

I don't think every other breed is an angel. But even if those statistics are off by 50%, which would be a huge stretch of the imagination, that would still show that pits are way more aggressive and dangerous than any other breed, except maybe rotts. Here is my rott/mix puppy by the way.
http://inkednation.com/images/user_a...7102204636.jpg
One Pomeranian story compared to over a thousand Pit stories really proves your point. No, it proves my point. And why on Earth would you be suprised that I would want to own a wolf/husky hybrid? Did you see how they compare to Pits, which I said I would also own? I also said I know that they are not domesticated animals and I wouldn't own one unless I had a ton of fenced in land, and that I wouldn't let it around strangers until/if I was ever sure it was trained and nurtured well enough to greatly lower any risk of it being anything but sweet. If you just really don't understand, simply pull your head out of your sand and read my other posts, along with the data. I occasionally like to play devil's advocate for a challenging discussion, but this is like shooting fish mounted to a wall, then people telling me I'm playing soccer. I'm just baffled.

Wow. Really nice. Well I'm done here. Some people can't have a debate without just being plain nasty. You seem to being completely unwilling to even acknowledge that there's another side from your own.

I appologize if I came off nasty. I never meant to and I have agreed with a lot of things the pit bull defenders have said. I think way more so than any of you admit to the truths of what the other side have brought up. And again, I'm not anti-pit, I like them and will probably own one or two when I have the proper environment and time. I would just like to hear more of you admit that pit bulls are a much greater risk to safety than the average breed of dog. That's all.

People can come up with all the statistics they want. Doesn't change the fact that I own two pitbulls and they are the sweetest, most gentle dogs you will ever meet. Neither one has ever shown a hint of aggression towards a person or animal. Are they more capable of causing damage to a person than a beagle? Of course. I am a firm believer that the majority of overly aggressive pitbulls are a result of bad owners. There just happens to be a lot more bad people that own pitbulls and train them to be aggressive than alot of other breeds. If my town ever made the decision to enact a ban on pits, I would move.