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Um, I call them a dirty little secret because virtually all “bully” people have remained conspicuously silent on the existence of specialized objects designed to pry open their dogs’ mouths in event of an attack/fight, even as they loudly scream for public acceptance of their pets and for everyone else to go save one from a shelter. Presumably, this silence is because the very existence of such a tool calls into question their claims that “pibbles” are just like labs.
Your DA comparison is bizarre. A Lab’s ball obsession, a collie’s herding, even a terrier’s hunting instinct - none of these can even begin to compare to an instinct to slaughter your own species. DA was a horribly cruel, misguided trait to select for. There is no useful application for it; it doesn’t make any sense unless you are a dog fighter. The sooner it’s bred down or completely out of bulldogs, the better for everyone.
I have too much experience in having my dogs attacked by them. DA isn’t a breed trait in the modern world; it’s a death sentence. On a good day, that means the aggressor is euthanized. On most days, it means some good dog is torn apart by a genetically doomed animal.[/QUOTE]
Lots of purebred dogs have what one would consider “undesirable traits” for use as family pets. So much human aggression still exists in certain breeds- growing up, my neighbor’s GSD (retired police dog) scaled their 8 foot privacy fence THREE TIMES and bit children playing basketball in their own backyard court. THREE TIMES this dog viciously attacked children for absolutely no reason, and because the owner was a relatively high ranking police official, the dog was never destroyed. It lived for many years regularly escaping its enclosure and scaring the living crap out of everyone that had to tolerate its existence. I think some people threw a block party the day that dog died.
I have a APBT mix, and you know what the worst, most stressful part of owning her is? No, it’s not her terrible dog aggression (which she’s never, not once displayed), or her unpredictable nature around other animals. It’s EVERYONE ELSE that we encounter on walks or in daily life. You have NO IDEA how stressful it is to be on a walk and see some clueless idiot walking their dog on a 25’ flexi leash yelling “OH DON’T WORRY, KUJO IS FRIENDLY!! HE JUST WANTS TO SAY HI!” while the thing is straining at the end of the lead, snarling and choking itself trying to get to me and my well-behaved, automatically-sits-and-stays-in-those-situations dog. You’d be shocked how many people think it’s just fine to let their dogs freely approach mine in a questionable fashion because THEY THINK THEIR DOG IS NICE. Nevermind the fact that their dog is obviously acting aggressively or that they cannot possibly have any control of it from the other end of that pitiful flexi lead…
The worst part is, I KNOW that if my dog ever acted the way any of these dogs act, she would be deemed “vicious, out of control, unstable, a menace, etc.”. Responsible bully owners need to work ten times harder at obedience, control, and training than any other dog owners because in the event of a fight, the bully ALWAYS gets blamed. And so many people LOVE to read about it. A friend’s leashed bully recently grabbed and shook a LOOSE, AGGRESSIVE chihuahua (there are several eyewitnesses on record at this point) on a public sidewalk in my hometown and the chihuahua’s owner is taking her to court to sue for vet bills and “emotional damages”. Sadly, despite the fact that the plaintiff was clearly breaking leash/containment laws and putting her own dog in danger, the case is quickly becoming about how “vicious” the pit bull is. And she will probably recover money in court.
There are irresponsible owners of every breed. The OP, despite having owned “bullies” in the past, clearly has A LOT to learn (and honestly, leaves a lot to be desired in a bully owner). But a lot of this is turning into “Them vs. Us”. Just because a bunch of people on the street have no common sense when it comes to interacting with strange dogs, or because someone feels their dog is not a threat to the public because it’s small, or because certain people have extremely jaded views of their leash aggressive dogs does NOT mean that responsible owners of bully breeds should have to suffer.
