Let’s say you go over someone’s house (say a coworker, or similar acquaintance you know, but don’t know everything about) for a dinner party and bring your small children.
They open the door, and you enter, and find they have a pitbull that is not locked up, or on a leash. The pitbull isn’t acting weird and is their family pet.
What do you do?
If it was me, with small children, then I would leave.
Ask if the dog is good with kids. If yes, no problem, with the normal caveat of keeping an eye on them.
If no, have them shut the dog up somewhere or leave. And mildly scold the owners for not telling us about the situation before you came over and taking steps to mitigate it ( since I assume you wouldn’t be bringing your kids with you unless they were specifically invited ).
If the answer is “I don’t know, but he is great with adults” either monitor the situation closely and warn kids not to pester the dog much ( which is training they should already have anyway ) or if they are too young for that to be practible, ask that the dog be shut up somewhere as above.
This goes for any dog and is nothing specific to pit bulls. Generally well-socialized pits are people-friendly and on the submissive side. But you should never make blanket assumptions about any strange dog of any breed. There are always individual exceptions.
I’ve worked with animals for over 10 years doing very unpleasant things to them, and pit bulls are the one breed that hasn’t tried to bite me. And not because I haven’t worked with many of them, either; one of my former practices had a huge percentage of pit patients because we were next to the projects and ghetto and a got most of the business from the local drug dealers and dog fighters. The thing you have to keep in mind is that your fighting breeds were bred to be aggressive toward other animals but docile toward humans, so they would perform in the ring but be safe to handle.
Now, if they had a chow running loose, I’d be leery as hell–those dogs are very, very prone to unfriendliness and aggression toward everyone except their immediate household.
A good owner of any dog should be aware of the small children you are bringing and put the dog in another room unless and until its been established that the dog and the small children get along after a gradual introduction and initial constant supervision.
The question leaves too many variables unaccounted for. The breed of the dog is almost completely irrelevant as to whether or not it will attack. If the dog is a well behaved family dog that is accustomed to meeting children, and if the children are well behaved dog lovers who don’t pull on ears or poke eyes or try to go on horseback rides,etc. then a pit bull is just as trustworthy as a shepherd or lab or other breed more commonly perceived as being child friendly.
That said, once the trigger gets pulled for whatever reason, and an attack is a given, a bull terrier may inflict significant injury to the child where the lab or collie would more likely bite once, let go, and run away yelping if the owner yelled at him or gave him a smack with a newspaper. A pit bull may be more likely to kill the child than most breeds of dogs if it’s a given that an attack is going to happen. But the breed doesn’t make it one bit more likely that an attack is going to happen.
With all that in mind and the lack of a more precise poll option my answer would be “ask the friend to put the dog outside or in the bedroom until we were all more confident that it was a child friendly dog and that my children were well instructed on how to be dog friendly.” As these should both be concerns of the dog owner as well as the parent.
If it were any dog I’d ask “Is he okay with kids?”
I do not consider pit bulls to be any more of a threat to people than any other dog of their size. A pit bull that was a family pet for a responsible family doesn’t pose any danger. The only pit bulls that I would be wary about would be the ones owned by people I wouldn’t associate with socially in the first place (drug dealers, dog fighters, trashy people who don’t know how to train and socialize a dog, etc.)
I hope that I would be responsible enough to keep an eye on my kid around dogs and not let the kid do anything that might provoke the dog.
I think it would be crazy to leave an infant alone with a pit bull, but it would also be crazy to leave such a small child alone with a golden retriever. I feel that the majority of pit bull attacks are caused by parents not watching their kid around the animal or people who are not responsible enough to socialize and train their dog properly.
Note: I don’t have kids.
The reason I ask is from reading a thread on another board in which people were debating whether pitbulls are dangerous or not. I’m not really interested in debating that, but rather am curious about public perception of the breed.
For me, I have heard too many horror stories of pitbull attacks. So, even if the acquaintance said the dog was good with children, I’d still leave, because my perception is they are dangerous, despite many people saying how loyal they are (which I think is part of the danger). That, and I think I could very easy wrestle away most dog breeds, while a pitbull seems like a dog with a lot more power than I could handle.
The public perception is due in part to bad press and sensationalism, people misstating what breed was involved in a reported attack, e.g. “it was a pit bull kind of dog” might really mean anything, and by the one actual mark against them in such questions, they are a very strong breed and after years of selective breeding they have a tendency to fight until the finish with no fear of injury.
In other words their bad rap is 99% undeserved. The rest comes from the fact that when they are abused, cornered, left on a short chain by taunting kids, etc. and they do attack, its an attack that is more likely to make the news and animal control statistics.
I’m not sure what I’d do, I think I’d eyeball the dog for awhile and keep my kids close.
We are allowed to bring our dogs to work and this morning a gal brought her Pit Bull. I felt like kind of a jerk but I tied my Springer to my chair while the Pit was around.
I don’t think Pit Bulls are inherently mean or bad but I worry that a mistake with a pit bull is a lot more damning than with other breeds.
If I went strictly by what’s bitten me, I’d say Blue Heelers are the most dangerous dogs on planet Earth.
Slight hijack: what good do you think it accomplished to tie your dog to your chair? In case of an attack* your dog is more vulnerable than if it wasn’t tied up.
Hijacking my own thread…
Being able to bring your dog to work must be the greatest thing ever! I swear, I’d look forward to work (and probably stay late) if dogs were around!
I’d love a dog (grew up with them), but my 2 hour daily commute kinda precludes it:mad:.
I think it would depend a lot on how my kids behaved, really. I don’t have any yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re hyper and have less than stellar impluse control too…kind of like lil bro and I as small children. In that case, I’d keep a close eye on them, to make sure they didn’t do anything to upset the dog. Any dog. One of our babysitters had a pitbull and he was sweet so I know that they’re not necessarily going to be worse around kids than any other dog.
While I definitely feel that many people are overly paranoid about pit bulls attacking humans, being cautious when pit bulls mix with other dogs makes sense. They were bred to fight other dogs, so many of them (though not all) do have a tendency to be aggressive towards other dogs. They are not the only breed like this, but it is a real tendency in the breed.
It’s important to remember that being aggressive to other dogs/cats/small critters does NOT mean an animal will be aggressive to humans though. My cockapoo is fairly aggressive towards birds, squirrels, etc. but would never harm a person. 
There is some good info on dog aggression in pit bulls on the BADRAP website:
http://www.badrap.org/rescue/owning.html
The Pit Bull was in the basement and I’m on the third floor. Kimber is tied to my chair most mornings anyway since the office is so active. I’m hoping that the Pit Bull’s owner didn’t notice and get insulted.
I agree that Pits aren’t any more likely to attack than other dogs just that the consequences might be more severe considering the breed is undershot and known to bite and not let go.
It is kickass to bring our dogs to work. We have my Springer, a Newfoundland/Pyrenees, and an old black Lab regularly. I’ve had two bears get into my dog kennel this summer so it makes me feel a lot better to bring Kimber to work.
Vote: stay and enjoy the whole evening.
I have a pit bull. I have fostered pit bulls. I used to be regularly involved with Chako Pit Bull Rescue. The only reason I’m not so involved now is time. I love these dogs. Educate yourself.
You would be amazed at how many “pit bull attacks” are actually done by dogs that are not pit bulls. Check out this quiz and see what you think is a pit bull and be surprised how wrong you are.
Among all dogs there is a potential for them to view eye-level children as more viable opponents than adult humans. While this still says nothing against pit bulls specifically, it does speak to the argument that some dogs may be dog aggressive but never human aggressive. They sometimes don’t respond to small children with the same rulebook they use for adults.
Small children are more likely to trigger a dog to attack than adults by doing the same things - making eye contact or pulling his ears in a affectionate tug, etc. A child might even bite the dog and, were an adult foolish enough to do so, the dog might just growl or snap one time and break free but could ferociously defend itself against a child. This is why the temperament of the child is as much of a factor as that of the dog in this scenario. But the breed (race?) of either one has very little to do with the dynamics.
I wouldn’t do anything differently than I’d do with any other breed of dog. If it’s the family pet, is OK around kids, and is well-behaved, no problemo. If it’s acting aggressive or whatever, we might politely excuse ourselves.
I would assume that most good dog owners would not invite over people with kids if they knew their dog wasn’t OK with kids. (Unless they had plans to keep the dog somewhere else in the house for the duration of the visit.)
Breed of the dog would not be a factor.
Ding ding, this. Although I wouldn’t necessarily trust an owner (unless I knew them well) to know if their dog was good with kids - many owners are not too good at reading their own dogs.
I would keep my eye on the kids and dog and interactions but wouldn’t worry as long as the dog was relaxed and the kids were being well-behaved around it. I’d do that with any dog of any breed or size, though.
I’ve owned Rottweilers for over 25 years and have fostered quite a few pit bull/bully mixes. In fact I have a pit bull mix foster right now, he’s a sweetie.
Chows are one breed of dog that I would watch closely. They don’t tend to signal tension or displeasure before snapping or acting out, in my experience. Generally most dogs signal very clearly if you know what you’re looking for…prey interest, tension or stress, etc.