Pit Pits.

The BBQ Pit
1

I hate to trot out this old chestnut again, but it’s timely. . .

Fuck pit bulls. Fuck 'em around the neck with a fucking electric choke chain.

Sunday my wife was walking our two dogs, when a pit came out of the woods, and pinned my border collie to the ground by the neck. The pit bull BIT THROUGH his steel choke chain and kept him pinned while my wife kicked him in the side as hard as she could while my border collie wailed in pain and fear. The owner came running and was able to get his dog off my dog, which prompted my dog to then bite that dog in the face.

Fortunately, my dog was (mostly) all right.

However, that’s the second time that pit has attacked him. And, that pit attacked an acquaintance’s dog and caused $400 in vet bills by almost ripping his ear off. Those are the ones I know of.

Yeah, I’ve heard it all before. . .it’s the owner, not the dog right? Well, let me tell you. . .we’ve had our dogs for about 8 years now. We’ve walked them in public twice a day every day for those 8 years. That’s about 5000 walks. The ONLY dog they’ve ever had problems with was pits. Funny, too, since we’ve run into about 1000x more Labradors, Retreivers, Shepherds, Huskies, Akitas, Dobermans, and Rottweilers and none of them has attacked my dog.

Must just be the owners right. . .all these people who grew up in the same area, live in the same area, come from a similar background as owners of other dogs, but somehow they all just decide to raise the pit to be a rotten son of a bitch. All these same people who might own a ball-chasing lab, just decided, “eh, I’m going to raise this next dog to be a dog-attacking rotten son of a bitch.”

I’m telling you, there is something inside of some pits and when it snaps they go fucking evil.

And that makes a difference when they can bite through steel.

By all indications, this guy is a normal guy. He was out playing with his dog in the woods when our dogs came strolling by on the trail. He doesn’t look like a guy who has trained his dog to kill. He’s certainly not proud of him, and he punished hsi dog for it. He’s apologetic. He says “I don’t know what got into him.”

What got into him, is his fucking nature. That’s what got into him.

Fucking pits are a fucking scourge. People who buy them are fucking idiots or evil or at best – AT BEST – delusional or ignorant.

Oh, I know some good ones but that sure seems like the luck of the draw – completely uncorrelated with how they’re raised. And even the good ones aren’t charming enough to make up for the rest.

They’re rotten, aggressive, strong dogs. We can have 20 dogs running free at the dog park having a good time. You know what happens when a pit shows up? People hook up their dogs and leave. Why? Because every knows what can happen. Everyone who owns a dog has seen them snap.

I’ll grant that they attract the wrong kind of owner, and that gets convoluted with the breed. I’ve even been an apologist here before for Pits, but this was the last fucking straw. Scares me to death to think what would have happened if that dog turned on my wife.

2

Punished, hell. If this guy was more responsible, he’d have the damn thing put down. You and your acquaintance should report this to the authorities. That particular dog is a public menace.

3

Yeah, I know.

Here’s the issue: our dog park has survived very nicely for a long time on “live and let live”. No one’s dog is licensed. We don’t leash 'em.

We have the occasional scrap from time to time, but there’s a lot of desire to just “stay under the radar.” Animal Control has been around before, but the less attention, the better.

We still haven’t ruled out calling AC, and if we hear about one more incident, I’m sure we will.

4

I hope the next incident isn’t that dog “snapping” on a child.

5

What do you think are the chances this dog will be involved in another incident? If that guy lets his dog off his leash again, I’d put those chances real near 100%. You should not wait for the next incident, or wait until someone gets seriously injured. The most leniency you should show is to tell the guy you won’t press charges as long as his dog never roams the park free again.

Live and let live is great as long as one party isn’t viciously attacked by the other.

6

NEXT TIME??? by your OP, this same fucking dog has attacked your dog twice, and another once, causing on that occasion $400 in vet bills.

and you want to wait for number fucking four?

the other dogs owner isn’t the only problem here, IMHO.
you note a dangerous animal on three seperate occasions and all you’re willing to do is pit the dog breed and talk about “next time”?
you’re continuing to allow an animal you know is dangerous to be out and about.

7

I guess it does sound pretty dumb.

My wife completely lectured the guy, and according to her he was very apologetic and said, “I know, I gotta keep him on a leash from now on.”

She even told him, “I’ve seen you walking him on the leash and you can’t control him then, either.”

I think maybe we’ll call today. It does look a whole lot clearer in writing.

8

I get a little testy about people constantly condemning pits, but I can certainly understand why. Realistically, they are much stronger and MUCH different then the average dog. The problem is that people who simply don’t know how to take care of them properly and don’t understand the training they need get them, don’t train them, and then this happens. The same argument could be made for Rotts, Dobermans, even Great Danes, etc. It’s just that Pits are cheap and mutts and are therefore a whole lot more common.

That said, this IS the owner’s problem. If your dog goes around attacking people and other animals, either your animal is totally nuts or you fucked up somewhere along the line. If you know your animal has a history of this, you DON’T TAKE YOUR FUCKING DOG TO A LEASHLESS PARK or around other fucking animals/ people. And that’s at the very least, as I would say more than two attacks would justify putting the dog down for its own sake.

As far as you are concerned, you have no room to bitch if you don’t call animal control. You should have called animal control the first time, this time, and everyone else who has had a problem should. Why would you wait for one more incident? You know what the dog is capable of and who knows who or what will be its next target. That dog is a danger and you know it, calling AC is your responsiblity (if nothing else, to keep the dog park and the dog himself safe).

That said, I know plenty of people that know what it takes to raise a pit properly. Their dogs are sweet, gentle, stupid little bastards whose only fault is being really, really strong. I have no problem being around these dogs, snuggling them, and rubbing my face against theirs because I know that they were trained properly. More often then not, pits get abused (so do many dogs, sadly) and the problem when they lash out is that they are so much stronger than the average dog. The damage they can do is INSANE, which is why they need owners that know what the fuck they are doing. The mentioned in the OP CLEARLY is not an owner who knows what he is doing.

Do him a favor. Do the dog a favor. Do yourself a favor. Call AC RIGHT NOW.

9

Fair enough. feel free to ignore all the “fuckings” in my prior post. :wink:

10

It isn’t the breed- it is the owners. Now, it is sad that something like 90% of pit-bull owners now-a-days are cheap thugs who mistreat their Pit Bulls and teach them to either be attack or fighting dogs.

As far as breeds go- run into a Malamute sometimes and have your dog not “roll over”. Malamutes- in general- will stop fighting as soon as the other dog indicates submisivness, but otherwise, it’s nasty.

I saw a fight between a Pit Bull and a Malmute once- the PB got a good hold on some hair and loose neck skin. The malamute proceeded to tear the Pb apart. The “fun” part is that before the fight it looked as if the PB owner was egging his dog on :rolleyes: . Afterwards- the wailing and threats… :eek:

11

Sorry, dude, but that is total bullshit, even the second sentence. ESPECIALLY the second sentence.

It’s simply not true. I know people with pits and other dogs. If it’s just the owner then why is the one dog sweet, and the other dog capable of completely fucking snapping.

I don’t know about you Dr, but there are few of you here that have seen as many dogs as I have. I have seriously taken my dog to a dog park over 5000 times in the last 8 years. Every time I go, I see between 2 and 25 dogs. I see Rotts. I see Akitas. I see Dobies. I see Shepherds. I see Chows. I see Danes.

There is nothing out there comparable to Pits. Nothing. And all of those owners are from the same background.

People seem to think its some fallacy that a dog breed has a particular characteristic, and you can just train it out of them. Dr, you ever tried to get a Basset Hound to stop following a scent? You ever tried to get a Border Collie to stop herding?

Same fucking thing with a pit bull. Except what it does is attack. It’s what they’re made to do.

12

I agree with the OP. There is something wrong with the dogs. Its pretty much common knowledge by now. And anyone who wants to own one, by definition, is an asshole. I won’t have anything to do with someone who owns one.

13

You contradict yourself here “why is the one dog sweet, and the other dog capable of completely fucking snapping?”- because that’s the way they have been trained. Some pit bulls are very sweet- others are killing machines. Now, it is much easier to train a PB to be a killing machine than many other breeds- and when a PB does attack, they are very dangerous. (Some of the toy breeds can be very nasty and illtempered and much more prone to attack than even PB’s- but they aren’t very dangerous.)

Yes. PB were bred to attack- but they don’t have to be a “killer dog”. They can be “sweet”. I’ll agree it is easier to train a PB to be an attack dog as compared to (say) a collie, and I agree when PBs attack, they are a dangerous breed due to their bite. But it’s mostly the asshole at the other end of the leash!

14

One word…
Taser.

15

Here is the problem with Pits, as I see it: If a crummy owner gets his hands on a lab, chances are it’s not going to rip your throat out.

Pits are volatile dogs. They are rife with bad breeding, and temperamental problems as are Chihuahuas. However, a bad Chihuahuas can’t kill you. In fact, it is my experience that small dogs have the worst owners, and are often the most vicious, but, once again, they can’t kill.

So what you have in Pits is a combination of a dog with a propensity toward behavioral problems, and a propensity to have bad owners. The only reason I believe they have a propensity toward bad owners, is that most dogs have a propensity toward bad owners, and generally people knowledgeable about dogs, won’t own Pits. It’s a vicious cycle.

I agree with Trunk, in that I have taken my dogs (Border Collie and Karelian Bear Dog) on walks literally every day for the last five years, and I have been attacked by a dog once, and, of course it was a Pit. I have gone to the off leash park literally hundreds of times, and been attacked twice, both times by Pits. I think in addition to the above Pit owner will not recognize how dangerous their animals are. Denial: it’s not just a river in Egypt.

16

I used to work in McKinney, TX (a northern suburb from Dallas) and I was told that you had to get a little form to fill out and register a Pit Bull if they were going to live in town with you.

I have seen a completely sweet and innocent pit bull go ape shit at some weird noise or some other stimulus that just didn’t seem to fit with what another dog would.

I used to have two chows, and they are tough little dudes, but they were ALWAYS stable. I feel personally that Pit Bull dogs on average aren’t as stable as other more aggressive breeds.

I would look up the McKinney pit bull licensing thing but network connection up here at work is bogging down.

17

No, I don’t. Same owner. Same training. Different results.

Why? Because some pit bulls are naturally violent. No owner is training one of his dogs to be obedient and sweet, while simultaneously training the other to be violent and uncontrollable. Some pits are just rotten to the core.

I do know my share of nice pits. I bet I know more than almost anyone here, unless they actually breed/own them. But, they’re just not worth the risk of their potential menace. Why have one if they’re risky? Isn’t there some other dog that satisfies the same needs?

18

When I was seven, I visited my uncle in Arizona. He had a beagle and a golden retriever. One day I went out to play with them. The Golden was perfectly friendly. The beagle leapt up on me, bit my wrist, forehead, and hands, bit through my lip; and I ran to the house, screaming, and blood poured off me.

Same owner. One dog sweet; the other dog capable of completely fucking snapping.

Dogs have different personalities, different makeups. THat’s partly due to genetics, and partly due to nurture. This is not surprising, nor should it be controversial.

Pit bulls are a weird case. For many decades they were bred as fighting dogs, and often they were inbred, psychotic sibling with psychotic sibling, until a specific psychosis (a desire to fight other dogs to the death, divorced from any desire to attack adult humans) predominated. I’ve seen a litter of pit bull puppies at the shelter start fighting each other bloody. Dogs don’t do that. It was appalling.

But not all pit bulls have got that psychosis as a dominant expression. For decades, people have bred them as companion animals, and the psychosis is not a desired trait in companion animals. There are many, many, many pit bulls who live their lives as sweet, friendly companions, never biting a person or dog.

Yeah, there are more psychos among pit bulls than there are among beagles. I still believe it’s best to judge each dog on its own traits, rather than pass breed-specific legislation.

Daniel

19

My area has a complete ban on pit bulls, apparently. I can’t say I’m disappointed; I’ve known a lovely sweet companion pit, who I’d trust completely off leash (as long as I wasn’t coming onto her property uninvited), but the majority of them simply don’t have the necessary training, or are deliberately trained to be vicious. The legislation is at least aimed at protecting the majority of the general public. There are a lot of other wonderful companion animals that just don’t have the temperament problems of pits.

20

I completely agree.
Anyone ever train a retriever to not chase things?
‘’ ‘’ ‘’ a german shepherd to not be protective?
ditto on the collie.