Deleted because it was unnecessarily sarcastic. I’m sorry.
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Im an animal control officer, and I live in a city where there are a ton of pitty type dogs. We have a lot of rescues that cross borders and rescue pitties from ‘kill’ shelters, bring them here, don’t know the history of the dogs, but want to be a good soul and SAVE these dogs. I despise this practice, but sadly it keeps me employed.
There is a direct correlation in my experience between the socioeconomic areas where these dogs find their furever homes. I don’t need a study to tell me. I see it every day. In the poorer areas, we are always picking up unaltered pitties, mastiff crosses etc. Not so much in the more affluent areas of the city. I’ve pulled many of these dogs on a control pole from drug houses to allow the cops to execute their search warrants safely.
I have met many lovely pitty types. I will admit that. But that said, I would NEVER own one. I could never ever fully trust one. I’ve seen many, many life altering injuries caused by them. When they turn, they turn hard. i’ve seen victims with their faces shredded, missing fingers, people in hospital for weeks after being randomly attacked without provocation by these dogs, small children with disfiguring injuries. Its horrifying. I have no use for the dogs and never will.
We have an aisle at our animal centre that is essentially death row for dogs. They are there awaiting trial basically. It shocks me how many of the owners still want their ‘lovely wonderful’ pooch to come home after it’s maimed one of their kid’s friends, or themselves. The aisle is FULL of pitties. FULL. Virtually nothing else.
I’m also not a big fan of chihuahuas and a couple other breeds. They can be bitey as well. But when they are jerks and decide to have a nibble on someone the victim usually needs a tetanus shot and a bandage rather than 8 hours of surgery that often comes after an attack by one of the bully/pitty/mastif breeds.
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I love my chosen breed, but would never say they’re the dog for everyone. Or, as I put it, nobody thinks everyone should have a Border Collie. Yet, we’re given the message that a bully breed mix is the perfect dog and folks are horrible for not wanting to adopt the ones flooding the shelters. As a veterinarian, I see so many families who have adopted dogs which are just not a good match for them. So many behavioral issues. So many prescriptions for separation anxiety. I currently have three dogs off the top of my head adopted within the past year who have major issues. 2 bully breed mixes and 1 catahoula mix. One is dangerous to humans, two are dangerous to other dogs in the house. One rescue basically bullied the owners in to keeping the dog by telling them it would be just left to rot in a run for the rest of it’s life. Another refused to take the dog back and place in an only dog foster home. That owner is trying to place the dog herself–we’re at over 1 k for the vet bills for the damage this dog has done to the others in the home. Third family has shelled out megabucks for board and train.
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If I were to get another dog it would be a Standard Poodle. I’ve never owned one but I have always been in awe of watching those that are well trained and properly socialized. Their high intelligence and attentiveness is quite obvious and their willingness to please abundant.
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This is exactly what I was thinking even as a Pit Mix owner. Really these types of rescues do no favors to anyone by pushing unsuitable breeds on unprepared people. It’s the doggy version of what we called Flicka Syndrome in the barn I grew up in. The “but my love will turn them around and make this rank POS a wonderful kids pony” thought process we have all seen in the horse world. The people that need a bulldog get a heeler mix that will spin itself crazy with inactivity. The idea that any breed or mix is for everyone is BS and a myth brought on by the “it’s how they’re raised/trained” push. Reality is genetics play a big part in dogs… and if you don’t have genetic background then you need strong behavioral evaluations for unknown background adults. Sadly many rescues don’t seem to believe or accept the idea that some dogs just might not fit into most situations. And people aren’t bad guys for nixing certain breeds off their search list. Believe it or not, said Pit mix was not on my search list… but she checked off a lot of the rest of the list and I will admit to some Flicka Syndrome there in the pound when I fell head over heels. But I don’t particularly like German Shepherds or Malinois types, and I’ve had a bad BAD experience with a Border Collie so they aren’t my thing either. And that’s ok. I just wish more rescues focused on placing the Right dog in the Right loving home. Could you imagine if Tinder matches got shamed into forever matches after that one date?
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Someone on my GSD dog forum recommended this short documentary on Dick Russell, a dog trainer from Louisiana who
had trained over 30,000 dogs many of which would have been re-homed due to behavior problems. He’s now deceased
but his training methods still continue.
His theory involved more and early dog and people socialization and teaching Basic Obedience. Sounds simple.
I haven’t watched the documentary about him but have read about his methods. And some shelters have even implemented his training in the quest to get shelter dogs better trained and therefore into more suitable homes.
I used to volunteer at a local Humane Society where I would go and work w/ dogs on Basic Obedience in order to manner them and hopefully make them more adoptable.
This documentary is free for amazon Prime members or is $11.99 to purchase.
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I spend the winter in Wellington Florida every year, and the pit bull attacks in the dog park are weekly. Usually they happen on the weekends, people coming from west palm and other places with their pit bulls to the Large dog section of the Wellington Dog Park.
Police are often called but some of the pit owners just grab their dogs and try to leave before the police get there.
One of my Aussies was attacked several years ago there, and for the life of me, since I watched it unfold, cannot tell you what provoked that pit to go after my dog who had a tennis ball in his mouth and was bringing it back to me. The pit ran headlong into my dog’s ribs, knocking him to the ground, and then grabbing his neck. My Aussie is 60 pounds, double coated, and was screaming like I have never heard him scream.
The pit owner managed to pull his dog off, by literally picking the dog up, but the dog was so strong he got away and ran to attack another dog.
My dog had bruised ribs and two wounds in his neck that had to be sutured. Since then, we stay in the medium dog section of the dog park, that while considerably smaller than the huge large dog park, it is considerably safer.
But this past season a woman with a young pit came into the medium dog park with her dog and kids, and the pit bit a woman’s hand who was trying to pick up her spaniel. The cops were called, the woman with the pit literally ran from the dog park, several people took photos of her car and license as she sped out. The woman whose hand was bit was rushed to the ER. She came back to the dog park about 2 weeks later her hand still bandaged and she was understandably traumatized.
It’s hard for me to look at a pit and not feel anxious.
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^^^^ This is probably why some dog parks do not allow any balls or toys in with the dogs. Apparently balls/toys can cause
more aggressive, out of control behavior and different doggy emotions take over.
My adult son who takes my dog to dog parks and has been taking his own 2 for many years now takes it upon himself to just nicely tell aggressive, non-social dog owners that their dog doesn’t belong in a dog park. Maybe one on one their dog would be OK, but some dogs are totally out of control with so many others going wild playing. Every dog park seems to have it’s own personality based on the dogs and owners who frequent it.
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I know someone who adopted a pitty mix. she emailed me the dog’s resume. His shelter mom had nothing but glowing remarks for this dog. However when my friend got home, with the dog, she let him run loose in her fenced in back yard and stood there watching him. He would run up, bit her and keep running. she took him to a boot camp dog trainer. this trainer said this dog is difficult, no on the bed, etc had to be tough to keep this dog.
Next thing I know, she has completely blown off his recommendations. ???
then she gets a 2nd pit bll, eventuall this female goes after her 2 horses in the backyard. Hubby got kicked by one of the horses and suffered a broken jaw. According to her, it was not the dogs fault. ???
the male died and she just had the female. I visited her and she gave me something. I jumped up to hug her and both she and her DH started yelling. the dog was up on my back. I was lucky I did not get bitten. ACK!!! scary
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I find it weird that it is ok to not like certain breeds such as shepherds, chows, yorkies, labs, etc and those breed fanciers do not get all bent out of shape. But if you dont like Pit Bull types, you are somehow a narrow-minded, illogical, stereotyping person…
I suspect that breed-specific rescues are better at vetting the appropriate owner for their dogs. Take-all shelters may or may not do temperment testing on dogs, but I agree that they probably only vet potential owners for ability to afford a dog, take it to vet, and maybe kids/no kids - basic stuff.
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I don’t really have a dog in this fight. Haven’t had a dog since my dear sweet good old boy (English Setter or mix) passed years ago. Now my house is home to 10 cats and that’s plenty of fur for me.
As an interested observer only, I think what gets pit type enthusiasts bent out of shape isn’t that some people dislike the breed, so much as that those who don’t like the ‘breed’ frequently are actively campaigning to outlaw, ban, or eradicate ‘bully’ type breed(s) altogether.
I have had bad experiences with multiple chows and don’t trust them as far as I can throw one. That means that I won’t own one and wouldn’t want one around my cats or horses. My dislike/distrust ends there. I’m not trying to get chows banned from my neighborhood, town, or state.
For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that Chows are beginner dogs and I don’t believe that bully breeds are either. I’d support stronger laws to hold all dog owners more responsible for their animals but would not support a ban on any particular breed - even the ones that make me nervous.
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That’s a good point, @MyKindaFlower but you might feel differently if there were Chows in every 4th house on your block alarm barking and fence or chain charging you if you walk by, chows running loose in your neighborhood, and/or monthly reports of chows or chow mixes suspected in dog bite fatalities on the news. A lot of people would start to feel differently about chows.
edited to add: I don’t know that I am actually for breed banning but I know I am 100% in favor of charging dog owners with at least manslaughter if their dog kills a person. It rarely happens and I don’t understand that.
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I had two chow mixes for a while - the first was marked like a GSD, saddle and all, with chow ears, black tongue and short legs. She fell in love w/ my older dog at the meet - greet shelter visit. I had no choice. Ignored cats, liked people, liked dogs ignored horses. Smart, obedient, awesome. When old dog died, I went to look at golden mix 7 month old. Turned out he was also part chow. But the face…couldn’t say no. Did have some socializing challenges with strangers but once we moved to Florida decent climate and took him out all the time, he got over the wariness, and loved to go in stores and get cookies, etc. Sadly lost him at 7 to IMHA.
Funny, I never liked chows. Said I’d never have one. Never say never. Said I’d never have another gray-white horse but my pic shows how useful that statement was…
The golden/chow mix [ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“small”,“data-attachmentid”:10547481}[/ATTACH]
This, pretty much. Even for someone with a thick skin, people repeatedly telling you the world would be better off without your dog gets wearing. The constant vitriol, IMO, makes pit people more apt to get defensive.
I have a pit mix; I’ve only had her for a few years, but had other terriers prior. She is the best dog I have had- excellent with the cats, great with the horses, great dog manners (helps that she grew up in a barn and is very well socialized), has her AKC Good Citizen. She is the only dog I’ve had that is/was capable of passing the AKC test; she is also the only one that warranted the effort to, proactively, vouch for her temperament, for the simple reason that people see her and immediately judge her as dangerous. It’s not something your average dog owner will do, and honestly is past the training capacity of most casual dog owners. This goes for all pet dog owners, not just pits.
I think the number of pits/pit mixes in shelters and their availability to irresponsible owners has a lot to do with these issues. Joe with the intact roaming dog with no manners wasn’t going to shell out $2k for a standard poodle, especially not when he can get his pit for free on Craigslist. There are plenty of dogs who would be prone to aggressive behavior if left untrained, unsocialized, intact, and left chained or to roam and scrap with others. However, I do believe it is disproportionately pits and pit mixes that find themselves in this situation. Breed restrictions worsen the issue, forcing more dogs into shelters and/or turned loose as people (especially low income people) cannot find housing that allows their pets.
FWIW, my family had an incredibly aggressive dog, who weighed 20lbs and resembled a teddy bear. I used to tell him he was darn lucky he was cute, because it probably saved his life. He was an older dog, came from a rescue, and unfortunately bit several people including family members and a couple of visitors who opened closed doors and encountered him accidentally. Every single one of them laughed it off and still called him “cute”. I have a feeling if it had been my pit, they would have felt very differently.
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I understand why pit owners are defensive. They love their dog.
I would hope pit owners would also understand why those of us who have seen the “dark side” of pit dogs, are wary of them.
The American Pet Products Association says that there are approximately 4.5 million pit bulls in the US. In a ranking of states, the labrador took top spot in 42 states, the Chihuahua was among the top 3 in 34 states, and pit was a top three breed in 28 states. The Yorkie and German Shepherd made the top five in 37 states.
So while banning the breed isn’t the answer, nor is ignoring the elephant in the room: what these dogs are bred to do.
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Here’s some interesting videos of a fairly new initiative called “Dogs Playing For Life” whereby a nationally well known trainer teaches shelters and humane societies how to integrate and socialize their dogs originally on the euthanization
list for anti-social behavior, both people and dog reactivity.
The dogs not only get supervised free play periods out of the kennels but also get Basic Obedience lessons w/ shelter
volunteers. The changes in the shelter dogs is phenomenal.
Watch a few of these and see for yourselves.
Sounds great, the problem is when that kind of work isn’t continued in the adoptive home.
I see it all the time in the Beagles group I’m in… people who are told the best way to make the little heathens better citizens, and the lack of follow through of the owners, who then bemoan the destructive, too smart for their own good, runaway they can’t manage, the unfathomable house trained dog they won’t accompany outside to insure elimination occurs outside, etc …
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Sounds great, the problem is when that kind of work isn’t continued in the adoptive home.
I see it all the time in the Beagles group I’m in… people who are told the best way to make the little heathens better citizens, and the lack of follow through of the owners, who then bemoan the destructive, too smart for their own good, runaway they can’t manage, the un- house trained dog they won’t accompany outside to insure elimination occurs outside, etc …
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Yes, I thought of the same thing- lack of continuous socializing. Would be interesting to track the history of the aggressive, killing dogs. Problem owners who probably had no time to train or keep their dogs happy. My guess only.
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Well sure. People laughed at your aggressive ankle-biter because it could not kill a person, not even really harm a person unless you stuck your hands right down in there…and you’d have to chose to do that. People don’t laugh at a pit that acts like that because that pit can cause serious damage that is no laughing matter.
Surely you understand that.
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