By “bad breeds,” I mean breeds with with bad reputations. Y’all can decide for your ownselves what breeds those are, of course. Anyway, please share tales from your own life or from the lives of persons you know personally about dogs that would have been thought violent, vicious, or untrustworthy by many simply because of its breed, but which were in fact sweeties.
If you have a story about a genuinely vicious dog of whatever breed, please take it to another thread.
True stories only, please. If I wanted fictional examples, I’d have started this thread in Cafe Society.
I have a mutt, Dammit Sally, who apparently is a mix of all the bad breeds except perhaps bully types. I would guess she is a chow/shepard mix with a few other bitey breeds tossed in for good measure.
I raised her from puphood so know she was not mistreated. But by the time she was 2, she was so aggressive that I could barely handle her, and Iwas afraid to go away overnight for fear she would attack any dog-sitter.
I took her to PetSmart for training. The trainer set her up in a class (alone) for “special needs” dogs. After 4 weeks we started gradually going out into the store to meet “strangers” who were trained to sit her and give her a treat and a little head rub.
Once she made the connection of strangers to food, magic happened. She eventually finished the class with other dogs (she’s still not entirely reliable around other pets, but if she has a job–walking, for instance–she ignores them) and took a 2nd class where she was clearly WAY quicker on the uptake than any of the others.
She’s a very smart dog, just quite headstrong and wiley and very protective of her territory. She is now friendly to strangers, but I just recently realized that she has issues with someone coming into HER backyard. Just met Sally? You are best buds while in the house. Step out into the yard with her and she comes after you like a werewolf. Run back into the house and she will run right after you, tail wagging, to let you know she just chased a bad guy out of the yard. Another little project to work on with her.
My son has a scary-looking pit bull who is one of the best-behaved dogs I’ve ever seen.
I’ve had dobermans and german shepherds for over 20 years. All lovely dogs. I remember talking to my vet about dobermans as he was removing stitches from my dobie’s eyelid without any sedation. the dog just stood there for him and let him do it. The vet said in the early 70’s, when he was in vet school, if a doberman came into the clinics, all the students would move over to the other side of the exam room, terrified. “But you know,” he said, “I haven’t seen a bad doberman in the last 20 years. They’ve all been great, kind dogs.”
I had a german shepherd named Mike. Mike loved people, but he was an escape artist - he could unlock the windows, open them up and get out of the house while I was at work. One day my neighbor stopped me and told me that she’d been loading her kids into the family minivan. She got the kids buckled in and got in and started to back out of her driveway. She looked in the rearview mirror and there was Mike, sitting straight up in the back seat with the little kids. She had to stop and make him get out, because he wanted to go for a ride, too.
Same dog was in the car on one of those rare Tennessee Spring days when it’s not too hot, not too cold, and a dog can ride in the car and stay during errands. I was in Home Depot when I heard an announcement over the speakers. “Will the owner of a large German shepherd please come to the front of the store.” And seconds later, there was Mike trotting down the plumbing aisle looking for me. People said he crawled out of the half-closed window and they could see him weaving in front of the electric eye at the door until the door opened. Then he set off to see what fun I was having without him. Silly dog.
Many years ago, my flight instructor owned the world’s largest, and sweetest, Doberman. Scared the hell out of everyone who saw him, but he used to lay down in the back of the airplane while I was learning to fly. That breed brings back a lot of good memories for me.
My friend fostered a pit bull. She was a nice dog, though had some separation anxiety. She was very friendly. Unfortunately, I only got to meet her once, but she was nice, and not vicious at all.
All the dogs I can tell you about have the same basic story. They’re all pit bulls or pit bull mixes. They were all abandoned in some way before I got to know them. I am the coordinator for a program that works with pit bull type dogs at the city animal shelter. We are a program sponsored by Chako Pit Bull Rescue and Advocacy. We are called Pit Bull University. This year we’ve helped nearly 25 dogs. Most have gone to forever homes, a few into foster care, awaiting their forever homes.
One had a higher calling…
Let me tell you about Jada. Jada came to the shelter as a stray. She was in good health and an all around happy dog. We’re not sure how such a beautiful dog ended up stray, but in this day and age we see a lot of families unable to keep their dogs due to housing arrangements or being able to feed them. She wasn’t microchipped or spayed. The shelter did those things for her, and we started working with her. We taught her not to jump up for attention and how to take treats gently. We taught her to walk nicely on the leash, to sit, stay and lie down. Despite these new skills and her beauty, she remained unadopted for months. She never showed a sign of agression toward a human or another dog.
Still she remained unadopted. There are just so many dogs in shelters these day and so many of them a “bad” breeds (or chihuahuas, tons of those, too). Toward the end of September we launched a “Fall in love with pit bulls” campaign and Jada was the posterdog. A group called Alpha K9 noticed her. They contacted the shelter about taking some of the dogs to train to be service dogs for veterans with PTSD. They saw Jada, evaluated her and decided to take her into their program.
Jada is now four weeks into her training to become a service dog. Though abandoned once herself, Jada will live the rest of her life making sure her soldier knows he or she is loved and safe.
I have a friend who has a purebred American Pit Bull Terrier. This dog loves people so much, and was well-trained by his owner. The owner and I were sitting on his couch, and his dog jumped up and sat between us. Then he kept alternately looking over at his master and scooching closer to me on the couch, waiting to be told to knock it off, until he got close enough and tried to lick me in the face.
This Pitty also seemed to believe it was rude to overtly wake people up for no reason, no matter how much he wanted to say hi. My husband and I had slept over at this friend’s house, on the fold-out couch, and my husband said he gradually became half-awake and vaguely aware of a presence. Right in front of his face, which was on the edge of the bed. Then aware of some breathing going on right in front of him. He opened his eyes to the sight of the dog looking thrilled that he’d finally woken up (eyes widened, ears up), which was quickly followed by the dog licking my husband’s face joyfully.
My friend said his dog was great at barking to alert that someone was there, but said that his dog would probably show any burglar with a steak the location of any valuables.
I was waiting, on foot, at a red light. Next to me was a typical tough guy with some sort of pit bull mix, decked out to look tough with a spikey collar. She was making eyes at me behind her owner’s back, so I did the quietest kissy sound ever, which everyone knows is the international sign for puppy play time. Within a second she was all over me, and rolling on her back with me giving her belly rubs and puppy talk and she just generally acting like a silly pup.
Typical tough guy was mortified at the behaviour of his supposedly tough dog, and didn’t know where to look. Ha! I felt for her though, it seemed like she was being pushed into a role that wasn’t her. I hope he gave her belly rubs and snuggly-time at home, when nobody was looking.
Oh, and there was the woman at the drug store who’d left her gorgeous female pit bull, complete with big pink bow on her collar, tied up outside while she went in to get something. (NB: this is a decent neighborhood where that’s pretty common to do, and where plenty of kids wander by on their way home from school.) She came out to find two guys cooing over the dog (which was when I was walking by), and was talking about what an awesome, friendly pup she is, with doggie wagging happily the whole time and soaking up the petting.
Our previous dog was a pit bull mix. She was about 40-45 lb, and I could pick her up while she was latched onto a rope-toy. She was super fast. She definitely had the speed and power and look to be bad, but she was the smartest, most loving, and loyal dog I could have imagined. She was gentle with both of my kids when they were babies – if they annoyed her, she simply got up and walked away. My kids thought her name was “Good Girl!”. She did not care for other dogs and preferred people, especially our immediate family. Once in a while she would come out of the house while we were unloading groceries and her absence would go un-noticed for a little while, when someone would say “where’s the dog?”. Evidently, she got locked out in all the commotion, and we would usually find her sitting quietly on our front porch. Good Girl!
Our current dog is a mix with some pit-bull (the brick head), and a few other medium-sized breeds. He is about 60 lb and has a thunderous bark. He is the laziest animal I have ever met. He loves to be cuddled and touched by people. He likes walks (or, at least the idea of them), only not too far, and forget running with him – he will end up like an anchor. He is built like a linebacker – good for short bursts of energy, not for long runs. He’ll play fetch a couple times but then something distracts him and he stops. At 4 he is still getting into some things the other dog had stopped by this point. He likes all people, and loves other dogs. He is an all-around nice guy, and when he gets locked-out by accident, he also ends up chilling on the front porch. Good Boy!
I had a sharpei that was on the visious side, the vet recomended I put him down. I always thought he hated my cat. One day the cat had his face smashed by something or someone and the dog spent all night licking and comforting the cat never leaving his side.
I grew up with German Shepherds, which I guess some people think of as bad dogs, since insurance companies won’t sell insurance to homes with shepherds…we always had them on the farm as watchdogs. All were good, loving dogs, intelligent, easy to train, loyal. One even rescued me from an enraged bull, in a way that required him to develop a strategy that implied thinking. A great dog.
Very interesting. I have a sharpei mix. He did not get a long well with one of my cats at all. Until one day the cat came in with an open wound on his hip. Dog spend the whole time evening licking the wound clean. Now they’re buds. Something about sharpeis?
Since I was a toddler, I’ve had this nasty habit of approaching just about any dog I see, just about anywhere, and playing with same.
I’ve only infrequently ever had a hostile reception, and never a really really bad experience. I’ve been snapped at or lightly nipped only a few times; never anything worse than that. Occasionally, an unfriendly dog will growl and snarl, but they always do so as a warning, without actually attacking.
I often hang out at dog parks just to play with the dogs there.
I measure the successfullness of a day according to how many dogs I meet. I had a 12-dog day once.
I’ve encountered many Pit Bulls this way, and occasionally dogs of other so-called “bad” breeds (Dobermans, Rottweilers, Mastiffs). Invariably, they have been among the most friendly and gregarious doggies of all.
I am a fan of a lot of the “bad breeds”, but I swore that I was never going to own a Shar-pei or a Chow…ask me how that went. My “Golden mix” rescue pup, June, is pretty clearly half Chow with terrible elbows and some nervousness issues, but she did not get the confident/creepy Chow aggression that I was afraid of (our behavior professor has some chilling stories of Chows who aren’t nervous-bitey, they simply do not give a fuck about normal social mores). She is not the model citizen I thought I would raise, but I am not the model owner I’m sure she was hoping for. She is in kind of a behavioral backslide right now, thanks to two elbow surgeries in the past 6 months that have prevented normal exercise and interrupted our old training/socialization routine. Before the elbow problems, though, I could take her places in public and she would walk politely by my side, lie under the table at outdoor restaurants, etc., which is my idea of the minimum for a well-trained dog - one who can politely integrate into everyday society without making a nuisance of themselves, like the old concept of children being seen and not heard. A funny combination of shy and people-obsessed, she’s suspicious of big, loud strangers, but goes all gooshy and wiggly for people she knows or new people in friendly environments. June is more reactive/sensitive than a typical retriever but super smart - I’ve had my hands full training her. Because she’s always thinking and always trying to figure out what’s going on around her, it’s easy to accidentally teach her the wrong thing or confuse her with inconsistent or conflicting messages, but I’ll take that over a deadhead, constantly distracted, or unengaged dog any day. Even with my lackluster training and lots of traveling and sickness over the last year, she knows more than 20 commands, although I’m not consistent enough with her to trust her completely off-leash yet in highly charged environments.
BTW, my fearful, used-to-growl-at-scary-children-from-behind-my-legs dog? CHASED a burglar DOWN THE STREET when she was staying at a friend’s house. He came in the front door and she wasn’t content to growl or hide and bark when he saw her and left - my friend had to go call her back when the guy was already partway down the block. I like to joke that June would have gotten the guy if she didn’t have a bum elbow.
When I was a kid, we went to visit an Army buddy of my father’s. Uncle Dave was a man who valued his privacy: lived in a very rural area, in the middle of lots of acres, and several times, actually bought adjacent land out from under developers who intended to build higher density housing developments. Dave had two guard dogs - a German shepherd and Mace, the biggest Rottweiler you’ve ever seen. Both dogs were trained to get rid of trespassers by any means necessary, so naturally, they were penned up when visitors were expected. When my mother realized that she hadn’t seen me and my brother for a few minutes, she panicked. LikeSeinegoid, I was always the kid who played with dogs, and I don’t recall ever having been afraid of one. Needless to say, we kids were found in the kennel, playing with the “vicious” puppy dogs. Uncle Dave still jokes about me ruining his guard dogs, but he also brags about how fearless my brother and I were. Ma probably needed a cardiologist when she found us!
Through the years, I’ve met lots of other examples of “bad” breeds that were great dogs: my cousin’s American bulldog is a big baby who adores kids and is terrorized by the cat, friends’ Rottweiler who thought she was a lapdog, and let the toddler do anything. My aunt and uncle had a big German shepherd who made lots of people nervous, but she wasn’t aggressive - she was just completely bonded with her people, and very protective of them.
And then, I have my K9 stories. Mojo was a GSD, went to work with daddy every day to detect narcotics and chase(and bite) bad guys. He loved bite work. J.O. is a Belgian mal, crazy intensity - I jokingly call him Ed, after the hyena in The Lion King, and he seriously has that very look in his eyes. Both dogs took/take off that persona after work, and both just adore/d children. J.O., in particular, loves coming home to see all of his girls - he’s Mama’s Boy here at home, herds the babies around the back yard.
Long ago I had some houseguests who were friends-of-friends, who came visiting from New York and I said they could stay with me. Since they were New Yorkers I didn’t picture them coming with a dog, but. They came with a dog.
At this time, I was afraid of dogs. Even little ones. I was pretty much afraid of any strange dog, although once I knew the dog (if it was a friend’s dog, say) I was okay about it. There were exceptions–one friend had a Sheltie that sensed my fear and really, really liked to scare the hell out of me, and succeeded.
So anyway here I was with these friends-of-friends who I’d said could stay, and they had this dog. Not only that, but the dog (Elvis was his name) was a Doberman, and kind of a big one at that, and very scary looking. Especially to someone afraid of dogs. And I had cats.
Elvis charmed the hell out of me by first winning over my cats. The FOFs said he was a little freaked out by all the space, like, it blew his mind. A little hyper. But he didn’t seem hyper at all.
After a few excursions to the mountains Elvis and I got along fine, and I credit him with getting me mostly over my fear of dogs. (Although I won’t be the one going up to pet a strange dog tied outside the supermarket.) Elvis was really quite mellow. I have no idea what he said to my cats but they got over his presence really fast. I was going to make him stay outside–I had a fenced yard. But I didn’t have to. He was such a gentleman.
My Jasmine is a Bull Arab - although the wiki article kind of sucks, it’s accurate that they are dogs purpose bred to hunt feral pigs. They are a mix of bull terrier or pit bull terrier, short haired pointer, and some other dogs.
She’s the one on the right waiting for a treat from my husband, with her brotherdog Yoshi here. And here she is by herself with her boy.
She’s a rescue. She was dropped at a pound at Christmas as a puppy. She was picked up by a small dog rescue. Because she’s not a small dog (about 22kgs, or 48lbs), I didn’t run across her until she was a year old. I saw her on line and just fell in love with that face. We love dogs with big smiles - bull breeds like pits, bull terriers and Staffies.
We already had Yoshi and they bonded almost instantly and have been almost inseparable ever since. Before we did stem cell therapy on Yoshi’s arthritis, we almost had to put him down. Jasmine looked after him, bringing his favourite ball and dropping it in front of him when he couldn’t get to it.
She has a spotty nose and is part pitbull, you cant’ hide that. But she’s just sweet. Just so sweet. I take her to the offleash park, and I turned around one day (I was picking up after Yoshi) to see a toddler with his finger almost all the way up her nose and Jamine looking pained and licking frantically at him trying to get him to stop.
She is just the best dog I’ve ever had. She loves my son - her boy - beyond all reason. When he’s ill she hangs out with him, and is pacing and worried looking until he gets better. I feel safe with her (and Yoshi) in the house when I’m alone - my son away and my husband overseas - they are better than any home alarm system.
I’m glad we found her. She was not doing very well with the small dogs, she’s a high energy breed (three walks a day for those guys, big hour long power walks). She was depressed and withdrawn they told me, but she took one look at Yoshi and another look at my son and her ears perked up and her yellow eyes lit up and she’s been happy and smiling ever since. She’s just a good girl.
All these stories are warming my heart, thanks for posting and thanks for starting the thread Skald. I thought you were a cat lover, why did you start the thread?
Isn’t it amazing the way you can just click, in that instant?
When we went to pick out my lab from the litter, she ambled over to us and informed us she was with us now. The others were all cute little puppies but she, she was with us. I can’t explain it any other way, we just knew. Driving home (without her, she was still too young to take) we had to change her name because we realised she wasn’t a Myf as we had thought, but a Jana.
Then when we finally went to pick her up she raced over. She was ready to come home. We noticed she had a little wound on her leg, and pointed it out. The owner was worried it might be leukaemia, and offered for us to pick out another pup. We looked at each for one second and declined. She was our family. If she was poorly she would be poorly with us, and that was the end of it.
She’s an old, grey lady now. She still knows without a doubt she’s with us. She likes picking me up at the airport, racing the others to be the first to find me in the crowd, then running crazy circles around us when we are all together, as it should be. Life is good with a dog.
