not sure if anyone's touched on this yet, but, any animal is capable of being viscious if places in the wrong hands!! i've known cats that i would rather be ran over by a peterbuilt than try to pet. sure the pit bull has that "savage" stigma glued to it, quite often it follows true, quite often it don't. we were warned upon getting our rottweiler-german shepard X that it could be a really bad combination. yep, you might get hurt by that animal, if she stood in your foot. all i'm saying is that its all in the raising. are you going to be a murderer because your great grandfather was??

 

My girlfriend's dad has a Rottweiler-german shepard mix that he used as a K-9 in Elgin, TX. VERY smart dog, and sweet as all heck
She's retired now. She is the sweetest dog, smart, affectionate, loves to play, but you put her in a patrol car and she changes like that. She was very good at separating work from home .

 

yup, hard to find an animal that will lick you that much!!!!

 

Haha yeah as soon as I walk over to her she rolls over for me to scratch her belly.

God though, what a mean bark she has.

 

Glad to hear you're being a responsible dog owner. However, I have to say something about dog attacks.

This has nothing to do with Pit Bulls, but with the young kids antagonizing the dog. We have two dogs, both about 13 pounds. We also have two nieces, a 3 year old, and a 1 1/2 year old. Now, the one that gives our dogs the most problems is the 3 year old. She'll chase our dogs, grab them by the tail, grab their hair, hit them with Barbie dolls, ultimately thinking she's playing with the dog. Now, my dogs are pretty tolerant, but I know when they are getting fed up. The mother is a little late on the draw, so my dogs suffer because of it. I end up having to put them in the back yard so they don't snap. But if the mother was a little more proactive there wouldn't be a problem.

Another case in our little family, but with a different dog, happened the day before my wife and I got married. My wife's aunt and cousin came over from Hawaii, staying with my in-laws. They got some kind of Lab/cross rescue. Still have it. Anyway, the kid is "playing" with the dog. Then, from what I'm told, (I wasn't there) there was a loud ARR ARR ARR followed by a WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. The kid must have been about 6 or 7, and should have known better than to take food from a dog that isn't yours. So he gets a tetanus, a couple stitches, then off he goes.

What I'm saying is the dogs aren't fully to blame in these stated cases. Dog training is important, yeah. But kids have to be taught how to behave properly around a dog as well.

 

Pit Bulls can be some of the nicest, and friendliest dogs. It all depends on how they are raised. Pits get a bad name because most of the illegal dog fighters train and use them to be vicious killers.

My friends have a pure bred Pit, and he (named Hemi) is the sweetest dog that I know of.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...C/DSC00678.jpg

 

You're right bigrig, MOST dogs no matter what the breed can attack anyone. What is seen as no big deal by us humans can be seen completely differently in the dog world.

Thats a good looking Pit, glad to hear he is a good dog . How old is he?

Here is a picture of Boss and Dakota. How they both laid down without playing I will never know, so we snapped a picture

 

It is NOT all in how they are raised. Yes, that is a very important part. It is not ALL of it. People believing things like that get little kids, other people and especially other dogs mauled.

Dogs brains are prewired, I have seen this so much NO ONE can convince me it isn't true. I have seen it over and over from breed to breed. You can't turn a Lab into a herding dog in one or several generations, you can't tern off the drive of a Border collie to chase things. Likewise, Pits have been breed for many generations to be aggressive. Like it or not, want to believe it or not; it is true. You can't turn that off in one or a couple of generations either. Once a dog reaches maturity, switches get flipped in their brain that no amount of training can 100% overcome. Believe it.

Pits are prewired more for animal aggression, not human. It is amazing how often it comes out on people though. Don't try to fool yourself that the aggression isn't built in. It may never show, it might not show "until it does". It is there though.

 

are you saying i need to insure my 150lb bullmastiff, an absolutely gorgeous brindle by the way. he is an awesome dog and very well trained. we have been attacked by dogs while out walking together. i usually eye up the dog coming at us then command jackson accordingly. anything lab sized and smaller he gets a command to sit, he reacts immediately and appropriately. then i usually run off the attacking dog, i dont want jackson to hurt someones pet because of some stupid error, on there part. we were attacked by a large mix once and my dog wasted no time putting him down and held him, until the owner came over. should have heard the tirade we took for that, i told the jerk next time i would let jackson kill him then. then a scottie came up and shocked us both, surely he wouldn't want trouble. well after getting bit in the hind leg twice, jackson picked his torso up in his mouth and started violently shaking the scottie. i yelled to drop him and he was immediately dropped, stupid thing came back for more i ended up having to kick him to go away. as for people he has a real good sense of himself, and his size. he takes all the abuse from small children., and most adults realize the folly in messing with him and just treat him like the great dog he is. as for your pits, i dont like them but i also recognize that there are lots of factors in a good and bad dog, and will not judge a friends dog prematurely. so friend good luck with your pits, you do at least seem to be a responsible owner. Dan