Why does anyone want a dog that’s bred to* fight and kill* other dogs?
A Basset Hound is bred to follow scents. If a racoon passes through your yard it will want to follow that scent to Tijuana. I’m sure it can be dissuaded with training, but the instinct will always be there.
A Collie is bred to herd livestock. A pet collie will attempt to herd children and other pets. Again, I’m sure it can be trained out of this, but that is the dog’s natural impulse.
So why do so many people want a pet that wants to fight and kill other dogs?
I don’t want the APBT because it will fight other dogs. I have to have a dog that will get along with other dogs.
I like all the other features about it. (Size, grooming, great with kids, friendly…not a ankle biter and not a behemoth with an empty stomach.) It is the latent aggression in it right now that is the biggest turn off.
I strongly suspect there is a huge drug & black market desire to have these dogs and people with a Napolean Complex who are compensating. Most, if not all, pitbulls are rescued from the inner city around here. So what does that tell you?
In the future, I can see the breed nearly dying out before the fighting instinct is breed out of them entirely and turns them into what bull dogs are today.
It won’t be in my life time, which is too bad, but maybe in two or three generations.
The opne full-blooded pit I’ve known was an older female, sweet with adults and children, but deadly with cats and aggressive toward other dogs. She had definitely chased down and killed several cats, although I only witnessed one such occurrance. Her owner assured me that it had happened before. Personally I don’t think they are worth the risk.
On the other hand, I knew a pit bull mix that was positively the sweetest dog I’ve ever met, including my dog who is pretty damn sweet.
At the dog park in Plano that Goliath and I used to frequent, there were a couple of pit bulls who were regulars. They were both young and being well trained and well socialized and I never was concerned about them. However, one day the grey one got on Goliaths nerves for some reason. The dog wasn’t doing anything agressive as far as I could see, but he was pissing Goliath off. My sweet dog bared his teeth and was growling something fierce to the point that I was afraid to get near him. The pitbull was sitting quietly with his tail wagging the whole time and he seemed upset when I actually pulled Goalie out of there.
I have had more problems with Huskies than any other breed. They seem to have a very strong fixation on dominance/submission issues with other dogs.
Becaue many people lack the compassion that prevents most of us from torturing animals for fun and profit. That’s putting it ver mildly as this is not the pit.
FWIW my folks have a rescued female pit bull. She was owned by a neighbor and neglected so they didn’t object when my mom asked if she could keep her. Uglier than homemade sin but the nicest and most affectionate dog I have seen.
Thanks for the stories, everyone. I’m still looking at other dogs, although I did like Zelda a lot. Since a lot of people seemed to like her, including the adoption counselor who chimed in “I love Zelda” while I was talking with her colleague, I’m hoping she’ll find a good home soon, particularly since it’s not a no-kill shelter. I’d hate for a good dog to get put down because of what some asshole former owner might have done to her.
I have a lab/pit bull mix, a former street urchin. Joplin is now 9 years old, fat and sassy. As a pup, he had some dominance issues with my other Lab mix, but she stood her ground and he learned to respect her (and not mess with the pack alpha). He dislikes other dogs, but is not aggressive toward them unless they approach him first. Otherwise, he is a smart, charming, and friendly dog. He loves children, but I had to train him to sit to get petted or he would knock them over. He even kisses his vet.
Like any dog, love, socialization, and positive expectations go a long way to soften the edges. They are like children in that they live up (or down) to your expectations.
I have had three absolutely terrifying encounters with pit bulls:
First, while jogging with one of my labradors, a pit jumped his fence and grabbed him by the throat. The pit had to be clubbed over the head repeatedly with a chair by a brave shop owner until he let go. Nine stitches for my lab, barely missed the jugular.
Second, my older lab has been attacked twice by pit bulls. The first was similar to his brother’s experience, resulted in torn toenails for him and a broken finger for me while I fought off the pit. The third attack was by two pit bulls an asshole owner let run loose in the park. 65 stitches, lots of money, and lots of terror. If my friend who was with me hadn’t stabbed (non-lethally) one of the pits with his pocket knife my lab would have been torn from limb to limb.
One of my labs doesn’t like other dogs, but his response is limited to frantic barking and posturing. Pits, on the other hand, especially if there’s more than one, often go in for the kill.
While I agree that the bottom line can be the person doing or not doing the training and not the dog, my anecdotal experience is that pit bulls have a propensity for dog-on-dog violence. My vet also recently put down a pit that had always been gentle until the day she killed a baby horse :eek: While all dogs have the potential for violence (they’re animals, after all,) why take the extra risk? Get a lab, a border collie, an Aussie, a beagle, etc. I am absolutely crazy about dogs and my heart breaks at how so many pit bulls are maltreated, but I would never, ever have one.
I have a pit bull. He looks exactly like the dog on this page.
He is an excellent companion animal who usually stays by my side, but I walk him on a leash because he loves children and will run at a full clip to any group of kids he sees if he’s not on a leash. That can be kind of intimidating, and I don’t want him to scare anyone.
Whenever we go to any public place, kids approach and ask if they can pet him. He’s always delighted.
He is also very well-socialized with other dogs; he loves to romp with dogs of all sizes (he’s particularly fond of tiny little toy breeds, though, which just cracks me up when they’re rolling around the back yard playing.)
He was a pound pup. We got him when he was 10 weeks old at the shelter; noticed him right away because he was already refusing to soil his pen. When we got him home, it took him about 15 minutes to housebreak him. Once he knew where the back door was, it was no problem.
Seriously, it’s not the dog or the breed, it’s the owner. Pits are easy to train and eager to please. Mine’s smart as hell - I don’t think there’s any limit to what I could teach him. He had the basic obedience commands down pat in two weeks and we’ve been teaching him tricks ever since. I’ve even taught him to recover my chickens when they escape from the henyard - he herds them back to me without harming them at all.
I do keep him away from cats, though. When he was fresh from the pound, he had an encounter with one of the cats that live out by the henhouse. He wasn’t agressive at all then; he saw the cat, approached it with tail wagging, and gave it a curious sniff. The cat misinterpreted the dog’s intentions, though, and gave him a swipe across the nose. Since then, the dog has been less well-disposed towards felines (though we’re still working on it.)
Were her ears and tail clipped? If the ears were cut very short, it could be an indication of how the previous owners intended her to be.
Also, will they allow you to take her home for a few days, on a trial basis?
I had a pit once, she was amazing with kids, and very loving. Smart too, her tail wasn’t clipped and when she was happy your calves sure got a beating. Also the really short hair doesn’t come out of clothes so easily.
My buddy the vet tries the Jedi mind trick every time somebody asks about his dog’s breed: “She’s a labrador retriever”. She is, in fact, an albino pit bull with something labradorish mixed in to give her a big waggy tail, a soft mouth, and infinite patience with babies, cats, and puppies.
But she still has the APB muscles, and instinct to grab and shake prey that she takes out on chew-toys and rope bits. We walk her with a choke-chain and a muzzle because she is so strong and wil chase squirrels. She’s never fought with another dog, only some unfortunate raccoons and a skunk.
If Zelda can pass a trip to the dog park without going into combat or chase mode, I’d say adopt her and give her a good life.
I can’t figure out how to get a persistent link, but you can take a look at Zelda by going to this page and selecting dog, female, year old or more, and medium. She should be on the second page.
My first close and personal encounter with a pit bull was totally by mistake. I adopted a sweet, shaggy mid-sized dog from a shelter. She doesn’t run away, ingores other dogs (unless she’s attacked and then she defends herself but quits as soon as the other dog leaves) and gets along with everyone. The following summer I had her body clipped and low and behold - she looks like a pit bull under all that fur. I think she’s a pitboodle - half pit, half poodle thing. Unless you see her clipped you’d never in a million years think pit bull.
Working with rescue dogs I’ve come into contact with lots of pits. All have been big, dumb, strong clowns. They were stuck behind the door when God handed out the brains, but they’ve all been sweet to people. One I dealt with was aggressive to little animals (cats, g.pigs).
Because of the pit bull stigma many are described as boxer crosses or mastiff crosses. As if…
FWIW - If the dog you have your eye on is a sweetie. Go for it.
If she has an off switch (IE: stopped chewing on the fence on command) that is a good sign.
I have a half pitt half lab mix. I got him at the shelter less then a year ago. He’s one of the greatest dogs. He’s silly, full of energy and REALLY ready to please. He thrives off doing good things. He’s not always the brightest bulb in the knife drawer, but he tries real hard.
Sometimes he goes into “pitt mode” - pitting his head down, crouching and stalking things. The amount of power in the little guy always amazes me. But he has an off switch as well and I can snap him out of it by just saying “joe”.
He’s very gentle with the cats and ignores the parrot. He loves kids and people but is very protective of the house and his “family” until he is properly introduced to the new “intruder”. After the introduction you’ll have to beware of his rather long tounge.
The one thing I would suggest if you plan on getting a pitt is have the shelter put a cat in the picture. See how Zelda reacts. Then see how the interaction with other dogs is. If she could care less about the cat and plays with the other dog, you’ve got yourself a winner.
I’m thinking of going back to the shelter and talking with them some more about her, to find out what sort of aggression testing they do and so on. Would they be likely to test her prey instincts with an actual cat? That seems risky for the poor cat.
Not if you do it right. You need a calm, self-confident cat. The dog stays on leash with a muzzle and is brought into the room with the cat. If the dog stares/drools/gets all stiff and hyper-alert/barks/lunges, it’s not cat safe.