My rottie (Moose) would let anyone come TO/INTO the house.

If you tried to leave without my making a show of seeing you out and saying good bye I would doubt you could get to the gate or your car.

 

Just came across this thread and haven't read through the 12 pages, but wanted to share my thoughts on this topic. If I have repeated some that has been said I am sorry.

I have owned more then one American Pit Bull terrier in my life time and I also have 2 kids that have been around the breed from when they were babies. Let me say that the media has on more then one occasion mislead the public on the breed of dog that has been the source of a dog bite/attack. They tend to lump breeds such as American Bulldogs, Mastiffs, English Bulldogs, Cane Corsos, mixed breds, and others under the term "Pit Bull". In fact the dog that bites humans the most are cocker spaniels. I'll give you that American Pit Bulls are much stronger and can cause more damage then a cocker, but when your talking about dog bites the cocker is the bred that attacks humans the most.

American Pit Bull Terriers were bred to fight other dogs/animals and to be human friendly by nature. If you look at the process of a dog fight ( I am not saying I agree with dog fighting, but it how the bred came to be) there were 2 dogs in the ring and 3 humans in there with them. Each dog had to be handled by strangers as they were washed before the fight by the opposite dog owner to make sure there was nothing on the dogs coats. Besides the owners being in the ring sometimes within inches of the dogs while they fought there was a ref in there as well. At times if a dog became fanged (it's own lip caught in it's own teeth) this ref would have to use a pencil or something to unfang it (loosen the dogs lip from being stuck in it's teeth). So these dogs had to be very human friendly. They are known to wag their tail and want to be petted by strangers then to be guard dogs. Don't get me wrong they can be made into guard dogs, but it isn't in their nature to be human aggressive.

They don't have locking jaws and in fact they have what is called a scissor bite. This is the same type of bite that dogs such as labs and other hunting dogs have. The way the teeth are position allow for them to get a better grip on things.

The best trait these dogs have is that they are very loyal to their master and will do anything to please their owner even if it means they have to die trying. This also makes them dangerous in the wrong hands.

If you were able to eliminate the entire bred, all that would happen would be for another bred to take it's place. Dogs such as rotties and Shepards and Mastiffs would be used by careless owners and criminals as guard and/or attack dogs.

I could go on and on, but these are just a few main points i wanted to write about. Remember their are always going to some bad bad apples in every bunch, no matter what your talking about.

 

Wow, read all 12 pages, where to start, hmm.

First off, congrats to those Non-Pit owners or people who dislike Pits, that have started coming around and understanding most the time it's not the dog/breed, it's the owner and environment the dog is in. As well, I'd like to applaud the Pit lovers for their understanding that while the dogs we've been around have been great, there are those individuals out there that can be very distructive.

I've never personally owned a Pit. The majority of my friends own a Pit or a Pit mix. While I agree they are territorial, much like many other breeds, I have never witnessed any of them in my life act overly aggressive or out of control.

Now I have owned a few that are on the "Banned" lists out there. I've owned one male English Bull Terrier and one female minature English Bull Terrier and I currently own an American Bulldog/Boxer mix. All were/are territorial when it came to our yard or house, in regards to allowing strangers in, but were/are never aggressive or attacking. Actually, they were/are more foolish than anything. And I'm sure if they wanted to hurt someone, they have the capability. But based on their upbringing, socialization and training, the aggressive nature isn't there.

I currently own a Shar-Pei, and while she barely breaks 50lbs, she is much more aggressive and territorial than any of the Pits, EBT's or ABD's I've owned or been around. She has the true Shar-Pei temperment.

Here are some pics of the pups.

MosDeph our American Bulldog/Boxer mix (pure 50/50). I have been asked in the past by many while walking him if he was a Pit, but he has very little to no resemblence to a Pit.



Our purebred 6yr old Shar-Pei named Shelbee



Our last EBT (Minature female) named Dozer: As you can tell, she was quite over-weight.



Don't have a digital copy of our old male EBT.

 

Just today I`m at my buddys house,which I go to with my dog at least 5 times a week, on 5 acres. The neighbor who is just moving in on adjacent 5 ac had his pit bull there and my jack russell went over and both sniffed then walked away and all was fine until 30 mins go by and here comes this pit flying down the lane at me,buddy and my dog. I scooped up Smoke and the pit kept lunging at us so I kicked that son of a bitch over and over and he would not stop. The owner came over and tackled his dog then led him away. When I go back visiting I WILL be wearing my sidearm to protect me and mine. Bye Bye. Was not on his land so there is no issue of territory.

 

Sorry to hear that, those owners/dogs don't do the breed justice, and can't be used to generalize. Being a pit advocate/owner though, I would of done the same thing to any dog.

A few years ago, me and my wife were keeping our horses at a family friends house on some land. The daughter of the lady who owned the property (mother in law's former best friend) had moved back home with her new born and "baby daddy" who had brought two pits that were fine one moment, and aggressive the next, just like what you witnessed. We were going to get our horses for the final time to take them to our new home and were told the dogs were put up. Well, they had dug out of the pen and were loose. They were chasing my horse as I was trying to catch him, then would turn and growl at me and then back to my horse. I wasn't having that crap, and I DID have my sidearm. The final straw was when they trapped me in my own trailer, growling and barking. I pulled my sidearm out and my wife told me to stop. I said no, had it aimed right at the most aggressive one's head. I hesitated, as I had time to think it through what I was about to do. Well, I decided to use escalation of force instead. Fired into the ground next to them and they ran off and hid, and left us alone.

The reason I didn't shoot them, was because it would of caused a lot of trouble between the family, the new "baby daddy" and the mother, and my mother and law and her best friend (the new "grandma").

Looking back, I made a HUGE mistake and should of shot them both. Later on after we left, the attacked and killed another dog, who was owned by the daughter that had just moved back home. Sweetest dog if I ever saw one...

Not all are like that though.


From left to right, Jack Russel/Pit mix, Mini Aussie, APBT
<a href="http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/DE123005/Dogs/?action=view&amp;current=photo11.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/DE123005/Dogs/photo11.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here's our mean pit bull about to eat our Mini Aussie. Notice he's wagging his tail, but that's just to draw him in.
<a href="http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/DE123005/Dogs/?action=view&amp;current=photo12.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii288/DE123005/Dogs/photo12.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

Years ago back at our ranch my wife decided to get a rott for protection as she didnt think our heelers were up to the task. They were and she made a dumb mistake,period, anyway this rott was big and gentle (?) enough but for some reason the rott kept on messing with my quarter horse who in turn would kick the daylights of the pooch. Arabian would run away but not my big boy. Nevertheless the dog was brought back the next day and my wife never said a thing.

 

Heelers are very protective from what I've seen. Good dogs though, I like them.

Yeah, our dogs have chased our horses, or....they used to. We just let them get kicked enough times for them to learn the hard way. They never bit at them, but would chase them and bark. There was one time I surely thought our pit mix (black and white) was dead. My wife quarter horse is much like yours, and very smart. He won't run away. When the dogs chase him, he lets them get just close enough, and times his kicks. Very rarely does he miss. She got up, walked a few steps, stumbled and fell back down. She then got right back up, and started running around with the other dogs like nothing happened....shes a tough SOB.