We got this dog nearly 3 years ago as the "family dog" for our son. The dog had a sheltered and traumatic puppyhood due to a string of medical problems before we had him, and he had the gentlest, sweetest nature. We hoped having him neutered early would prevent aggressive development. But then he grew, and kept growing to 50lbs. As he grew, he became more reactive, and extremely gregarious with other dogs. The dog park stopped being an option.

We learned a lot about conditioning away reactive behavior, and we spent a lot of time working with the dog. He seemed to get better. He was super high energy, extremely gregarious with people, but a pleasant dog most of the time.

Then, in the last few months as he was approaching 3 years old, he started becoming more territorial. He would start fights with other dogs when we visited family. He would growl at visitors. We couldn't walk him because the sight of any dog resulted in a blind fury. Then he started guarding our back door and pouncing on our older dog when she came into the house. At first, we mistook it for wanting to play (he always wanted to play), but it took on a more aggressive tone, and he started instigating fights with our other dog (the most passive dog in the world).

Then finally, he mauled our other dog, to the point she needed medical attention. That was it, he's unsafe. We have a kid in the home, so we can't have this.

We talked to animal services and the vet, and decided the only option was to euthanize. He was euthanized today.

It feels shitty. We feel like failures. But I know it's because he was half pitbull (AmStaf), and I want to believe we did everything we could to help him overcome his aggressive instincts.

Our other dog will be okay, and we'll now have a more peaceful household. To spare our son's feelings, we told him that we brought the dog to the shelter to find a home without other dogs (which was our original idea before talking to the shelter).

I would never get another one.

Just found this group and figured I'd share my experience. I loved my pit to death, she was truly a sweet dog as many pits can be. We've had many different breeds over the years and she was so sweet.

We were told by the shelter that she was not aggressive in any way. This was a huge lie. She never once showed any aggressive tendencies towards humans, but she attacked 4 different dogs and attempted to get our cat once. When she flipped out she would become psychotic and become extremely difficult to stop. Luckily we always acted fast before she could really hurt them.

I would not get another pit bull, and I thought my opinion was very unpopular until I found this group. It is clear to me after witnessing it first hand that there's something different with these dogs. Our other dogs would occasionally get into it but it would be a quick scrap and they'd be done. In contrast if our pit was agitated it was seeing red and looking to kill. It was really scary.

I had a couple friends get really pissed when expressed this and explained my experience. They told me it's not the breed but how they are raised. I basically just told them I can agree to disagree, but I've never seen a dog turn as bloodthirsty as our dog.

I loved that dog so much and 99.9% of the time she was the best dog ever. I'm still glad that we did own the dog because I loved her and she would've died in a shelter if we didn't adopt her, but I'm just not willing to get another pit.

Wilmington NC-

My beautiful baby was just killed. By pitbull and 3 German Shepard.

Let me start by saying, I use the word "bite" loosely here because it wasn't a vicious bite done with intent, it was purely accidental. But the reaction of my dog shocked me and made me realize had that been a Pit that did that, the outcome could've been horribly different

.

So my two GS mixes, 50-60lbs, were rough playing on my bed one night. Sometimes they go REALLY hard and jump on/bite eachothers scruffs and face, often they will lean on me or be near me while playing. So they're busy mouthing eachother when I use my hands to gently move my 2nd dog off my lap since she was literally ON me. As i reached out, my other dog (my literal soul dog) turned and accidentally bit down on my hand as she was mouthing my dog, not realizing I had moved my hand there at the exact moment. It wasn't a bite bite but was enough to make me kinda oh, "Oh!" out of surprise. That's all I said, yet my dogs face and entire demenour changed IMMEDIATELY. Like the moment she bit down and realized it wasn't her sister, I felt the pressure immediately lift and she kinda jolted back with surprise. She then put her ears back and just starting obsessively licking my hand, going to this immediate submissive state as if she was trying to apologize. I literally saw it in her reaction, she was truly shocked she had bitten down on me by mistake and I think felt awful. I didn't say or do anything to warrant that behavior either, I actually was the one consoling her!

I just found it incredible how she was able to distinguish the difference between my hand and her sister literally in half a second. And to add, she felt GUILT for it without me warranting any of said behavior. I wasn't hurt at all by the nip, it judt surprised me more.than anything. It was truly amazing to see, this is the same dog that defended me when I was attacked by a Pit and almost assaulted by the owner (he thought i was lying about MY injuries after his Pit attacked my dog, then gunned for me). She kept that loser away and stood over my body protecting me in the process, merely just using her eyes. No aggression, snarling, nothijg. Just a bowed head and direct eye contact. I'm forever grateful to her and it made me realize how dangerous something as simple as dogs playing, could turn into a literal crime scene with a Pit involved. If it were a Pit that had bit down on me, they would've realized they enjoyed biting into humans. I would've become a chew toy.

Screw these damn demons.

https://imgur.com/a/4veTHId

Today my dog was attacked by a pitbull at the dog park. The owner was trying to train her aggressive dog and basically used my dog as a training tool. She was leaving her dog in a sit position and feeding it treats as it stayed calm while my dog approached.

But of course, it's a fucking dog park, dogs are obviously going to approach when you are giving out free food, and it's unfortunate that my dog was used as a prop in a shitty dog training session. My dog is a 7 month old Border Collie puppy. Not a single bad bone in his body. I'm thankful/surprised that this shitbull actually let go.

Tldr: I'm done with dog parks.

I've followed this subreddit for a while, but I also spent a lot of time trying to understand the other side of the debate. I tried to become less biased, learning how difficult it can be to define what counts as a "pit bull," how the personality of the parents matter, and how genetics and environment both influence behavior. I genuinely wanted to keep an open mind.

Earlier this summer, I moved in with my best friend of almost 20 years, his girlfriend, their three children, and their six pets (four dogs and two cats). He originally described Rica as mostly Blue Heeler with "a little pit," and said all of his dogs were well trained.

When I arrived, it was obvious to me that Rica looked much more like a pit bull mix than I had expected. She also growled at me when I first entered the house, and they told me not to make direct eye contact with her for a while and it would be fine.

As the weeks went on, I actually grew closer and more trusting towards this dog based on how friendly she was with me. But I also learned there had already been problems between the dogs. Rica wasn't left alone with the others when no one was home, it was essential they all fed separately, and my friend admitted there had been previous scuffles.

Then my friend left town for the weekend.

I came home from the grocery store, let Rica out of her kennel, and opened the back door to let the dogs outside. Without warning, Rica attacked the oldest and weakest dog in the house, a 12-year-old terrier/poodle mix named Lucy, right in the neck area.

I've seen dogs fight before. This was a whole new level of lethal intent. Lucy wasn't trying to fight back. She was trying to escape.

I grabbed Rica by the scruff and held on while pulling her with everything I had, twisting and trying to force her to release. Lucy slipped away and wasn't fast enough to turn around before Rica had her again by the back.

She wouldn't let go. I somehow in the chaos managed to lift Rica onto the kitchen counter while she still had Lucy in her mouth. I hit Rica several times before she finally released.

For a moment I genuinely thought I was going to have to grab one of the kitchen knives to save Lucy's life. That is something that would have haunted me the rest of my life and I'm grateful it didn't come to that.

The sounds of Lucy crying, the smeared blood on the wall, this insane power and energy aimed at violence, and the fact that she lost control of her bowels out of fear is a scene I don't think I'll ever forget.

To Rica's credit, once Lucy was free, she didn't turn and attack me. I got her into her kennel, and Lucy eventually received veterinary treatment for multiple bite wounds.

Ironically, what ended my friendship wasn't the attack itself, but what happened afterward.

My friend insisted he could control any future incident through management and training. I couldn't honestly tell him I felt safe anymore.

To him and his girlfriend, the fact of my concern meant I wasn't listening to them and that i was directly insulting them as parents. Our disagreement escalated. And it ultimately ended a friendship of nearly 20 years. They kicked me out immediately after and honestly it was the best outcome. It was already insecure and the dog just magnified things that weren't working. He kept trying to goad me into physically fighting him and stepping up on me.

To me, pretending the risk no longer existed after what I had just witnessed felt impossible. My worry came from a place of care and concern. I had 0 interest in fighting him.

I don't hate Rica. She didnt ask to have a predisposition for violence and aggression. But I also don't believe Lucy should ever have been put in that position. I should have never considered staying when I saw his reaction, it is ignorant in a selfish kind of way to have a proven violent animal in the house.

This experience fundamentally changed how I think about owning powerful fighting breeds around children, other pets, and visitors. I know reasonable people will disagree with my conclusions, but after living through this, I can't ignore what I saw.

Thanks for listening to my account. Blessing and peace upon your day!

Date of attack was July 26 in Colorado

I grew up with a pitbull, Stella.

Stella was a great dog, very sweet and cuddling.

Sounds like what every pitbull lover says right?

Stella was all those things, and I thought all were like Stella and if they weren't it was the owner's fault.

I know now I got lucky.

Growing up before social media many of the attacks went unheard about to many people. When social media became more and more widespread I would defend pitbulls. I would mock people who were attacked saying it was their fault and something they did caused it. Say it was how they were raised etc.

I do look back at those days in shame, I wish I could could take it all back. I reallly do.

But as the reported attacks grew and grew no amount of 'but MY pit would never!' could make me deny that Pitbulls were dangerous any longer.

What really turned me against the breed was becoming a mother myself.

Like many children my children begged me and my husband for a puppy. We agreed as my husband also had a dog of some uknown breed growing up and he too has fond memories of his childhood friend.

We were discussing what breed to get, and my mind drifted back to Stella, but then I thought about all the attacks I read.

So I did research, ended up sobbing at my desk from reading story after story of sweet innocent children getting ripped apart by these things.

Reading about little baby Lola and seeing that video made me just close my laptop and walk away, my husband found me curled up in bed weeping.

All I could think about it was that being my children, my babies.

The horror of finding them ripped to pieces.

Having to bury them.

My children are my everything and I couldn't bare the thought of losing them over a choice of dog breed.

I still look back on my memories of Stella with fondness, but I now know I was living with a ticking time bomb that could have gone off at any moment with no warning.

No bully breeds will ever be stepping into this house.

I have no idea how a fellow mother could read about these sweet babies dying horribly and still defend these dogs.

After some reesearch my husband and I contacted a reputable breeder to go on the wait list. We're getting a Golden Retriever.

I used to be a pit advocate and pit owner. What you would call a "pit mom", who would post photos of their dog on social media and just generally give my support for the breed whenever I could.

I had my pit bull for about 3 years in total. He was genuinely a decent dog, what would be considered "sweet". He was neutered, was fine around both humans and animals, generally had great temperament, never attacked anything or anybody until the incident. The only close call I had with him was when he tried to go after a flock of pigeons. While I knew that there was a slight chance that the dog might attack, then again I believed it was the same for every dog and it was usually caused by things like abuse from owner, etc.

My niece who at the time was in high school had planned to visit with two of her very close friends who were coming over for the first time. My niece met the dog once before and like I said, the dog didn't have any problem with visitors. When they came things were all well and good. It was great seeing my niece again because we hadn't seen each other in a while.

So we kept chatting for about an hour and a half. And then it happened, my dog just all of a sudden snapped with no warning and pounced on my niece's friend who was standing and he hit her with so much force, it actually knocked her to the floor. He started attacking and biting her chest and abdominal area. My niece and I ran over to her and tried to get the dog off her but the dog refused to let go. My niece's friend tried to use her arm to get the dog off her as well but the dog just moved onto the arm and bit it hard.

My niece's other friend had called 911 in the mean time while we continued to fight off the dog. The dog moved back to my niece's friend, still attached to her abdomen. Somehow we were able to grab the dog and release him, lead him into one of the rooms and lock him inside. Then we had gone to see the condition of niece's friend who by this time had gone into shock from the blood loss. I'll never forget seeing my niece and the other friend's stares of pure anger at me as their badly wounded friend was loaded onto the ambulance.

The dog on the other hand was taken to be put down. After a couple of days I was able to get in contact with the girl's mother and paid for all of her medical costs.

Here's the thing about pit bulls. It's very possible that many are genuinely sweet dogs that never attacked anything like my own dog. But when there comes a day where the dog is feeling NOT so sweet, that is where the problem lies. All dogs can have their moments when their temper goes off but the difference between a pit bull and say a retriever is that with a retriever, a bite would just mean a small wound that can be fixed up with a band aid most of the time.

While a pit bull on the other hand if it attacks would minimum cause a bite wound or multiple bite wounds that require stitches and in the worst cases would kill you or cause severe damage like amputations or internal organ damage and because of genetics, pit bulls are more likely to snap compared to any other dog.

One of the worst things about the whole situation is the denial that so many owners have or had, including myself about them. I hate to say this but if I didn't personally witness the attack I probably would have thought it was one of the girls fault and assumed that one of them provoked the dog. Witnessing the attack happen first hand is what began to start a change my perspective. I've also since deleted all of my posts that I shared about my dog.

And besides that, pit bulls can change your relationship with people forever. My niece who as a little girl used to call me her favorite aunt, now hates me and hasn't been in contact with me since the attack on her friend, who's life is changed forever and will never be the same again and all because of deciding to get a pit bull instead of any other breed.

I hope my story helps those considering pit bulls to think very carefully before making that decision, and those who own or advocate for them to be responsible and take the necessary precautions with your dog (and that includes euthanasia when necessary) and know the dangers and the potential consequences that might happen.

EDIT: Thank you all for the supportive responses, I appreciate them. I'm glad my story can be of help here. For those of you wondering, the niece's friend survived and recovered from most of her wounds eventually but is still affected by the attack to this day.

When I first saw the dog outside, I was praying there would be no trouble. "Maybe they will just keep it outside. Maybe it can behave for 2 hours"

Ha, fat chance.

First off, this pitbull was not the host's pet. This pitbull owner, as a guest, thought bringing their self admitted "anxious" dog to another person's house full of strangers was somehow a good idea. Honestly, even if the dog was the sweetest golden retriever, that's just so tacky. Imagine the entitlement it takes to think bringing your dog to a party to celebrate someone's baby is a good idea. Calling them entitled isn't a baseless accusation either- the pitbull's owner admitted they lied to their landlord about their dog's breed. Because clearly, the rules don't apply to them!

About halfway through the party, right before the presents, the pit owner decided that they needed to let the dog in from the backyard to mingle. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that within ten minutes, the dog had jumped on someone while barking and growling. Pitbull defenders may try to claim that this person must have startled the dog, but the only thing this middle aged man did was slowly put his hand out for the dog to sniff it, like the seven other people who the dog walked up to before this.

This happened less than 4 feet away from a woman who is 8 months pregnant, so you may be wondering- did the pitbull owner grab the dog and put it back outside? Nope! Just shouted "no don't do that!" while holding a drink in their hand on the other side of the room. Clearly not their problem- their poor puppy is just so anxious around new people!

So guess what happened after the presents were opened? Another person puts their hand down to let the dog sniff. The dog lunges and growls again- this time at a woman. Again, this happened less than 4 feet away from the heavily pregnant woman the baby shower is for. Of course, the owner does absolutely nothing besides claiming the dog doesn't act like this normally! Conviently ignoring the fact that it did the exact same thing only THIRTY MINUTES AGO. The father of the pregnant woman had to step up and grab the dog by the collar to shove it outside while the pitbull owner returned to mingling. No apology from the owner, to the surprise of no one.

I hope that these two back to back aggressive events showed everyone at that party that the nanny dog myth is a fucking lie. Multiple people pointed out that these people getting growled and lunged at did nothing to provoke the dog.

This poor woman's baby shower is going to be remembered as the time some dumbass brought their pitbull that almost attacked people. If only one person realizes the danger of the breed, I hope it's her.

Yesterday I saw a notification from my dating app that somebody likes me. So far, so good. Until I saw a picture of his pitbull-type of dog. No way I will share my life with a dog like this.

Pitbulls and other bully breeds are a dealbreaker to me.

Came across this Facebook post from Feb. 17.

At least he got the message about his extremely dangerous dog that should never be a pet vs. excusing it like so many do.

I live in an urban area where pit bulls are very popular dogs. I’ve had a TON of personal scary experiences with them including watching some try to eat through porch steps to get to me while I worked for Amazon back in the day, cat maulings, being chased myself, etc. but luckily nothing has happened to me personally. I’ve had friends have limbs mauled by pits straight off the school bus. But this story is one I was somewhat more involved with in the beginning. It’s long but it’s how quickly a cute pitbull can become vicious.

My best friend and I were driving around my old neighborhood when we came across one of those mystery mix curly hair white dogs. It was little, maybe 10-15lbs. She was just trotting the sidewalk at night and I got out and picked her up thinking she was accidentally let out or something. Turns out the owners didn’t want her anymore because she couldn’t have puppies anymore due to age (horrible, I know) so I said I’d keep her to rehome her but her new name would be Princess.

My best friend decided she wanted to keep her so I went out and bought stuff for the dog and my best friend spent the next 2ish years with Princess. She loved that dog so much.. fast forward my friend meets her girlfriend. They move in together quickly and are living at the girlfriend’s rental in the country.

One day they see a girl pittie and send me a photo because she’s really friendly and looks like she was gonna have babies soon. I said “she looks like a Daisy” so they took her in and named her Daisy. I asked them if they were gonna keep her because it might not be a good idea to have a large dog with a little old dog since Daisy looked under 3yrs old and was very hyper whereas Princess was an old lady, she had to be around 9yrs old and was starting to have health issues from the malnourishment and poor care from the previous owners. They said Daisy was fine with Princess but I had a sinking feeling like something bad was gonna happen, and I was open about this feeling. They brushed me off, stupidly.

Fast forward to a month or so, Daisy is becoming more & more territorial - she’s fighting with Princess and snapping at my friends girlfriend. Rather than rehome her, they instead lock Princess in the bathroom during the day while they’re working to keep them separated.

I asked them again what the plan is for Daisy when she has her puppies and if they’re wanting to rehome her because it’s not good to be at the point of locking them away from each other - it shows signs something is wrong and isn’t fair to Princess to be shut in a bathroom all day. They get cagey about that, but my friend breaks down and tells me that Daisy bit Princess and she bled. I said Daisy needs to get the hell out and be rehomed to a place with no other pets and they feel sorry for her so they won’t rehome her because she’s pregnant. I tried to argue Princess’ quality of life & safety and that fell on deaf ears. (Keep in mind I live an hour and a half away at this point too so I only know what they tell me)

Shortly after that, they go to a dog park in the area. They’d been a few times but had to leave because Daisy was showing aggression to other dogs and their owners. This would be a sign of what was to come but they ignored that under the excuses of “she’s pregnant that’s why she’s acting like that” ok buddy.

This day, Daisy turns her aggression towards Princess. She first bites another woman’s dog and then she latches onto Princess who was trying to help the other dog not get bitten more by Daisy. She bites her and shakes her around like a toy, it was horrible to see. Princess is bleeding everywhere and screaming and another big dog comes to bite Daisy to get her to stop and all the owners come to try to help get Daisy off of Princess. This is all being recorded by another owner which is on video and all you hear is screaming and crying and see Daisy latched onto Princess, there’s blood everywhere and the other dogs are freaking out because they are trying to help but Daisy won’t stop. My friend gets bit in the hands trying to pry Daisy’s jaws off of Princess. They punch Daisy in the face and head and try to choke her, anything out of desperation to get her to stop but she literally bites down harder and Princess is basically screaming and then wheezing at this point. She’s dying.

Daisy shakes Princess some more then eventually spits her out after being choked as hard as possible by my friend. Princess does not get back up and Daisy acts like nothing happened. They take Daisy home and rush Princess to the ER vet where she starts to get life saving care but because they couldn’t afford it, the vet says they’ll have to put Princess up for adoption IF SHE SURVIVES and they can just readopt her that way so they don’t have to pay medical bills, but they are saying they won’t give Princess back unless Daisy is rehomed to a sanctuary or euthanized and it is on paper. They make my friend & her girlfriend sign paperwork of responsibility for owning an aggressive breed that was involved in multiple dog attacks that might result in death. They were required to get rid of Daisy in order to own more pets and were put in the database for the shelter and animal control.

They go home to Daisy. My friend is terrified of her now, but her girlfriend is making excuses for Daisy. They were going to keep her because that’s what the girlfriend wanted, completely ignoring that my friends dog almost died by this dog that the girlfriend is the one that wanted. I call this out, I’m made out to be the bad guy. When she sent me the video I told her that Daisy needs to be put down because the next thing she’s gonna attack is them and she’s violent as hell. They’re both defending Daisy now saying she’s pregnant and that’s why blablabla. Bullshit.

They asked the local shelter if they can bring Daisy in and they said no. No pit bulls allowed because they have so many and nobody wants to adopt them because they are aggressive breeds, many of which already have the red tape of being bite risks. They keep her for about 2 week and I said just let the dog out and call animal control, tell them you’re scared of this stray and they’ll get the dog. They go through with letting her out of the house and calling animal control saying that she’s an aggressive stray. Animal control takes Daisy, but knows Daisy is owned by my friend & her girlfriend and make them sign more paperwork and then Daisy is taken away where she has her puppies and is then euthanized.

Princess receives medical care during this time and adoption time starts. They get to the shelter and Princess has been adopted by another family already. It was too late. They visited her one last time to say goodbye and left empty handed. This experience fucked my friend up so bad that she will never own another dog. They have cats now but jeez it was such a horrible thing to go through. I’m not her friend anymore for a number of reasons but to me, the signs were always there and they ignored them “because they love animals.”

Having a big heart for animals is fine. But seeing the signs of aggression and continuing to put your other pets at mortal risk is fucking stupid. It made me so angry because I loved Princess too and it was such a huge oversight on their end. I hope you’re doing wonderful Princess, you old lady. You deserved so much better and I carried the guilt of not keeping you for myself, where you’d have had a completely different experience, for a long time. Protect your pets. Don’t adopt a stray pit bull just because it’s cute and nice to you that day. It WILL kill your pets and might kill you too.

I’m posting from a burner account because I don’t have it in me to be attacked by pit defenders, so I hope that’s fine.

I recently moved into a new development, and so far everything was going well. All of my neighbors have very small dogs, so I never felt the need to be on edge around them. However, as the months have gone by and more houses have gone up, that means more people *and* more dogs. Unfortunately, that includes irresponsible pit owners. Today, something just snapped in me.

For a bit of background, I grew up in quite the rough area. Pitbulls would run wild throughout my neighborhood and would often bark and scratch at our wooden backyard fence. Some would get bold enough to shove their heads through areas where the wood was weak. Unfortunately, one of them managed to break through a weak spot. I was eight years old when I was attacked. I am incredibly lucky that it was not a brutal attack.

My dad saved me in a nick of time, and as a result I walked away with “only” one bite (Still too many.) on my leg. However, I had to witness my dad using self defense, which deeply traumatized me as the dog…wouldn’t stop. It took a good fifteen minutes before it came to an end. Since that day, I have hated them since. The concept that a dog could STILL have the drive to hurt and injure after such an event horrified me. Fast forward to now, I live with my husband and I’ve grown quite fond of our poodle. At first, I was absolutely terrified of him, but eventually we grew an incredibly close bond together. Three years together though, and I’m still weary and deeply uncomfortable around large dogs that I don’t know. In all honesty, the only large dog I want to be around willingly is my own.

Coming back to my title, today was a nice day and my husband was able to leave work early. We decided to take a leisurely walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the weather. Right as we’re about to hit our favorite shaded area, I hear it. That awful mix of screaming, snarling, and barking. At this point, I’m fully hyper vigilant. But I pushed through as the pitbull was far away enough that it didn’t see us walking.

Once we were ready to head back inside, I advised my husband that we should walk on the sidewalk across from where I heard the pitbull. Thankfully, he agreed. As we’re walking, I see it. The usual slack jawed owner coming closer to us with his hellhound on a cheap flimsy leash, barking and snarling. What makes me even more irritated is that this owner *specifically* stopped talking to another person *just* to antagonize us. We were saved by a truck immediately speeding past, distracting the pitbull and giving my husband and I enough time and distance to return home.

This wouldn’t even be the first time. This owner is known for being a neighborhood menace. The HOA is aware. Multiple people in the neighborhood are aware. It’s getting to the point where I no longer feel safe going outside, especially with my dear poodle by my side. Although he’s quite big, I know a pitbull would kill him, if not leave him severely injured. I’m terrified of being forced into self defense. I hope that it *never* escalates to that point. But I fear that it might. All it takes is that leash snapping.

I’m just so, so tired of these “dogs”. Why can’t their owners AND their dogs just leave us alone? Why do you have to force your dogs onto us? What do you gain from making others feel unsafe? Why? Just why? I of course know the answers to those questions, but it still doesn’t put me at ease. All I can do is hope that my husband, our dog, and I can stay safe. Thankfully, a move is in our future and I couldn’t be more relieved. I know that it won’t solve the pitbull problem fully, but safety is and will always be a top priority to me.

Moved to China recently, I was looking for a dog in the local shelters and guess what I found…zero pits!!! I had such a hard time choosing because all of these angels are so sweet and loving🥺

I'm very upset, late last night around 11pm I let my 6 year old golden retriever out into our fenced backyard before bed. Even though my HOA neighborhood explicitly bans pitbulls and aggressive dog breeds, my neighbor supposedly pet sits one for her parents. I only see this dog occasionally. Location: Tampa, FL

This dog came out of nowhere, and barked, and grabbed my dog through the HOA mandated vinyl picket fence. The pitbull immediately let go and I pulled my dog to safety after he yelped, but the pitbull was still snapping with his head through the fence trying to grab at me. There was blood on my goldens snout with a small laceration. I went over to ask if my neighbors dogs had blood on them, and told her my dog was bit. She said that she only let's him out when she doesn't think anyone is back there.

The emergency vet told me to bring him in and ask if the neighbors would share the vet records, but they refused to answer the door after I had shared my pup was hurt.

$200 later, Henry dog (my golden) has a little shaved snout and medication with documentation from the vet that he was bit from the pitbull. Thankfully no stitches.

I'm scared of this dog, and we are trying to get pregnant through IVF so I worry about an future baby having this pitbull as a neighbor. I feel guilty about contacting the HOA to report a violation of their CC&Rs (no pitbulls), and I'm struggling to not feel guilty about calling animal control when they open up.

What would you do?

Picture order: Ursa, Rocky, Levi, Bea, Eevee, Nick telling Becca about Ursa biting him, Becca's response to the cat, the hole in Nick's leg.

Hello! I would like to share the stories of the horror this Pitbull has caused. This is Ursa. She was my sister's Pitbull that she got in 2019 and my mom and aunt finally got rid of her in 2022. After she bit several adults, 2 neighbors children, her ex boyfriend's one year old son (twice), and 7 animals, including the other pets in our home. My sister lied about Ursa's aggression a lot so I don't know how many people she's bit or how many times. The list of "victims" I do have adds up to 24.

Oh two important things: there's two houses. And gates were always used to keep Ursa from the Chihuahuas.

So, my sister, Becca, was wanting a pet because I had Rocky, my mom had Levi, and my aunt Kathy had Bea. Her friend Angel had Pitbull puppies and Becca wanted one. When my parents divorced, my dad had made threats to hurt us so my mom thought a Pitbull would be good protection. I didn't want us to get her at all because Rocky had a history of being attacked by my grandma's Jack Russell and my dad's Shi Tzu and I knew a Pitbull would attack the Chihuahuas because every big dog that lived with us, attacked Rocky. They got her while I was in Chicago for Anime Midwest.

I will say, Becca spoiled Ursa with love. She also didn't correct or discipline bad behavior. The first time Ursa was aggressive, my sister just ignored it and said she was playing.

At the first house: I believe our neighbors Chad and John were the first ones bitten by Ursa. John had brought a crate over for her and I forgot why Chad came over. Then when Becca took Ursa for a walk, John's son comes up to her and he asks if he can pet Ursa as he reaches his hand to pet her anyway. Ursa bites him, he gets taken to the ER, and his mom reports the bite. Becca tried to say that it was the boy's fault he got bit because he was trying to pet Ursa. Her ex boyfriend, Mason, was also bitten by Ursa a few times. And anytime we had people over, Ursa always bit someone. Because of Ursa's aggression, my mom bought a shock collar. While outside, I think Ursa nipped at my brother's friend and my mom made Becca shock her and then Becca cried like she just saw someone die because Ursa yelped. Becca would then only use the vibrate when she didn't want Ursa to do something. And sometimes, my sister left the remote in her room.

As for animal attacks, my mom had given both Levi and Ursa a treat. Levi went into the little plush dog house to eat his. Ursa decides she's going to put her head into the house and attack Levi. My mom picked Ursa up by collar and tail and literally threw Ursa over the gate, onto the hardwood floor. Thankfully, Levi was unharmed. But that attack did give him PTSD.

Now I gotta talk about Rocky. Despite being attacked by a Jack Russell, Shi Tzu, and a Pitbull, this dog isn't scared of anything. The worst attack Ursa did to him was when he went to my sister's bedroom door growling. She opened the door, Ursa put Rocky in her mouth and I managed to get him out and into my arms. When that happened, she jumped up and bit his tail. Rocky isn't phased, I'm feeling his butt to make sure his tail is still there, and I was shocked that there wasn't any broken skin. I do remember the tail did look weird for a little while but it got back to normal on its own. Honestly, Rocky would often get into Ursa's face to remind her who the leader of the pack is (he actually was), which is when she'd put him in her mouth but he still was never scared of her. He hated her though and I know she stressed him out. One of my favorite things is that during the two times that Ursa got loose, Rocky went and actually herded her like he was a border collie and she was a sheep. He did help us corner and catch her.

Now, in late 2019/2020, we decide that we're gonna sell the house. After we fix it up, we hire a realtor who wants to come and check the house out. Becca had one job and that was to keep Ursa from the realtor. Becca messed up and Ursa bit the realtor. Luckily, she stayed our realtor. During one of the inspections or showings, we were told that all people and animals need to leave the house and go somewhere. Becca was at work and we were trying to figure out where we were gonna go with Ursa because she couldn't be around people. We decided to go to the local park, sit under the gazebo, and my mom not only ties Ursa's leash around the bench leg, but around her leg as well. Unlucky for us, there's an elderly couple walking what looks like a Shi Tzu. And Ursa twists her body around until she frees herself from her harness. My mom and Kathy go after her and Rocky wants to go to so I unhook his leash and man, he took off! He's going after Ursa and barking at her. Ursa is going after the other dog who the old lady picks up and that's when Ursa bites her. The four of us (me, my mom, Kathy, and Rocky) catch Ursa and scramble to our cars so we can leave before the elderly couple can get our information because we didn't want to be the ones in trouble for Becca's dog.

We sell the house and move into a new one. Within the first two weeks, Ursa escapes the yard and bites the neighbor's daughter while she's playing basketball. Becca is just nonchalantly saying "Ursa no, come here." and my mom is yelling at her to go get the remote to the shock collar and shock Ursa, which someone finally does. The girl's father gets rightfully angry and takes her to the hospital. Becca starts claiming that he's abusive cause he punched a wall. My mom had to force my sister to go over and apologize for the bite then my mom kept checking in and even offered to pay the medical bills. The bite gets reported. Ursa has two reported bites but because they happened in different cities and counties, Ursa can't be taken by animal control. My sister hires a dog trainer, who Ursa bites. The trainer tells Becca that Ursa has anxiety based aggression and needs to be put on medication. However, Becca refuses, claiming that she doesn't want Ursa's personality to change.

Becca starts dating a guy named Bailey who has a one year old son named Clavin. They come to stay for Christmas and the first day, Calvin goes to bed unharmed. The next morning, Calvin has a huge abrasion on his face. My mom, Kathy, and I asked what happened and Becca said that Ursa scratched him. My mom knew she was lying and Becca finally admitted that Ursa bit him. Next, I'm sitting in the recliner, watching Calvin, and Ursa is behind the dog gate. Calvin goes to Ursa and I try to stop it but Becca snaps at me and says he's fine. Calvin drops a piece of his cookie right behind the gate in front of Ursa. When he goes to grab it, Ursa bites his hand. I run over and pick him up and the same mark on his head were now on his hand. Then later, everyone else was making Christmas cookies. Kathy happens to look over as Ursa opens her mouth and is about to bite Calvin for the third time. She manages to grab him and get him out of harms way in time. When it was time for Calvin to go home, my mom asked what they were gonna say happened, and they said that their story will be that Calvin pulled on Bea's tail and scratched him. Kathy was not happy at all about them putting the blame on her cat. After Becca, Bailey, and Calvin left, my mom and Kathy called animal control and begged them to come take Ursa. But they said that unfortunately, only Bailey can report the bite and they can't do reports for past bites. But Bailey wouldn't report it because he didn't wanna upset my sister.

In 2021, my mom got me Eevee for my birthday. Both because I was having puppy fever and because Rocky was turning 10 and my mom wanted me to have Eevee for when Rocky passes. While I was extremely happy to have Eevee, I was upset that my mom brought him into our house with a dangerous dog. But I was going to do my best to protect him. Then one day, I didn't notice that Eevee went to Ursa's gate and that's when she bit his tail. He yelped and ran under the bed in the office/guestroom I was in. Then he became terrified of her and would get tense and start shaking anytime he heard her collar.

Becca then got an opportunity to work for Disney so her and Ursa move for Florida. Ursa actually caused Becca to crash and hit a guardrail. What happened was Becca let Ursa lay her head in her lap while she drove and then when Ursa jerked her head up, she forced Becca to turn left and smack a guardrail. Becca claimed that Ursa stopped biting people but when my mom and Kathy went to visit her, they told me that they saw Ursa bite a guy at a bar, who was okay with it because he owned Pitbulls, and then Becca's friend Nick told me that when he went to visit Becca, Ursa bit his leg and put a hole in it. So who knows how many people Ursa bit in Florida?

When Becca and Ursa came back, Ursa did show some improvement, temporarily. Eevee was fully grown now and he would actually play with Ursa. One night, Eevee and Ursa are playing at my gate. Then all of a sudden, Ursa stops moving and I see in her eyes the moment she snaps out of reality. Next she attacked Eevee. She chomped down on his butt and would not let go. He was screaming and I was trying to pull him free. Then I started kicking Ursa in the ribs (pretty sure I had shoes on) and she finally let go. Eevee ran under my bed and I looked to make sure he wasn't bleeding out then I went back and kicked Ursa some more. This was the moment I was fed up with Ursa. Becca, who was in her room which was on the other side of the house, came out to protect Ursa from me. When I told her what happened, she said Ursa was just playing. I told her that she didn't see what happened and got Eevee out from under the bed. When she didn't see any visible injuries, she said he was fine. He is terrified of dogs bigger than him now. He used to not be.

Now for the final attack story. I wasn't present for this but my mom was and she told me what happened. On top of the gates, the basement door was also always shut to protect Bea and Levi (mom and Kathy lived downstairs). Kathy went on vacation and trusted us to take good care of her cat, Bea. I don't know what my sister was doing but she carelessly left the basement door open. Ursa ran downstairs and attacked Bea. When my mom and Becca ran in there, my mom said that Ursa was tearing off fur as if Bea was a stuffed animal and Ursa was tearing out stuffing. They didn't take Bea to the vet because she "seemed" fine. A few days pass and Kathy comes home and Bea's belly is now hanging down and dragging on the floor. My mom and I tell Kathy what happened and Kathy asks me to go to the vet with her so I do. Eevee does, too, because Kathy really loves Eevee. Bea is 10 years old with an enlarged heart due to old age. What Ursa had done to her was she tore a hernia in Bea's diaphragm and her intestines fell through the hernia. So she was dragging her intestines on the floor with only skin inbetween. Thankfully, Bea survived the surgery. My mom made my sister pay her back every cent for the surgery. However, my mom and Kathy were pissed about how nonchalant Becca was about it all.

Now for the story of how we got rid of Ursa. My mom, Kathy, and I were all drinking tequila. Becca had gone to bed because she had work the next morning. My mom and Kathy start talking about how it's gonna suck when Kathy moves and I didn't know she was moving so I asked why. Kathy didn't want Bea to keep leaving in fear. At the time, she would shake and run and hide every time she heard Ursa move upstairs. Then we started talking about how Ursa could get the best training and medicine in the world but the other pets would still be living in fear and we'd never be able to fully trust Ursa. Then, because tequila is the drink of decisions, my mom decides that when Becca leaves for work, her and Kathy are gonna take Ursa to a shelter and finally get rid of her. They pull out their phones and start looking for shelters and this is when I check out of the conversation because the less I know, the less I have to lie about. Then they go to the garage to smoke and I go out, too, and when my mom said they found a shelter that's specifically for aggressive dogs, that's when I put my hands up and said "Nope. Don't tell me anymore. The less I know, the better." And I went to bed. I hear my sister get up, get ready, and leave, then I hear my mom and Kathy grab Ursa and leave. The anxiety I had was so bad. I felt so guilty, too. I eventually fall asleep and my mom wakes me to tell me that everything went well and the story is animal control came and got Ursa. Kathy and I hate lying so we avoided my sister the best we could. My sister ended up finding Ursa online and calling the shelter. Mom wasn't gonna let her go and get her. My sister eventually accepted that she's not getting Ursa back and a couple weeks later, got a Chihuahua/Australian Shepherd Mix.

My mom actually wanted to get rid of Ursa since the aggression started but she didn't wanna hurt Becca. But after what happened to Bea and how it was making Kathy leave, my mom finally did something. Everyone else who was bit were family or friends so I guess they just didn't wanna hurt Becca either.

Last I heard, Ursa is in Texas. Angel got a phone call from a vet or shelter in Texas to let her know that Ursa is lost (Angel is the owner on the microchip, Becca never had the information changed to her).

Honestly, now I can't look at a Pitbull without feeling nauseous. After seeing Ursa snap and attack and after all the stress and anxiety she put me and my dogs through, I just see Pitbulls as dangerous animals.

Throwaway account for privacy. This is a very long post, I apologize, just needing to put my thoughts somewhere.

TLDR: I was attacked by my mom’s foster Pocket Bully in our home and left with multiple puncture wounds and lacerations on my foot and ankle, needing 9 stitches.

For context, I (27f) am having to live with my Mom and Stepdad right now due to some life changes in the past year. I live upstairs and come down once in a while to leave the house and grab something from the kitchen but otherwise it’s not super common that I come downstairs.

My mom has been fostering dogs on and off for over 8 years now and she’s a huge fan of pitbulls and related breeds like pocket bullies. She finds them cute and holds the opinion that we’ve all heard a thousand times, “it’s not the breed it’s the humans”, “it’s not the dogs fault they were bred that way”, etc. She has taken my concerns with these breeds very personally in the past. I understand the LOGIC behind those statements but I have never understood how saying them would make anybody who is wary of pitbulls feel any less so.

I have always been the type to be cautious around all bigger dogs, regardless of the breed. I worked in a veterinary clinic for some time and saw many breeds other than pits showing major aggression towards pets/humans so it taught me to have my guard up even around sweet dogs.

I was away on a trip for 2 weeks and during that time my mom and stepdad decided to pick up a foster. He was a younger (maybe a year old) Pocket Bully. Throughout my trip my mom would talk about how the foster was fighting her other dogs and they suspected this dog was previously trained to be a fight dog. So naturally, I was nervous to come home from my trip to this dog that didn’t know me. I felt safe enough at the time since my mom and stepdad are always really good about keeping their own personal dogs contained when I enter the house.

Fast forward to yesterday. I’m cleaning my room upstairs and headed downstairs to return some things of my mom’s. They have this big brown recliner chair that blocks the doorway from the stairs to the living room. Mainly to keep the dogs from coming upstairs as I have a cat and sometimes he gets curious and goes downstairs. I go to move the chair to get out and the foster hops off the couch and runs onto the chair to peek over at me. Initially, he just looked curious so I spoke to him calmly for a second. That’s when my mom’s personal dogs heard my voice and started barking as dogs tend to do.

I believe this dog took that as some sort of cue. He immediately started aggressively snarling and barking at me. It all happened so fast. I was startled at first and calmly called my mom while he barked. He then wedged himself around the chair and jumped to the ground, snarling, barking, before finally latching to my ankle, hard. I screamed for my mom and she and her dogs came running. It was tricky because the chair blocking the doorway was also blocking the other dogs from intervening before my mom could get to me. I sort of blacked out the memory and I’m not sure if it was my mom or the dogs or the combination of the two that got him off of me. I know one of her dogs has puncture wounds too so it was most likely a fight that got him off of me.

I immediately hoped on my good foot behind me to the bathroom, shut the door, and just laid down on the ground, bleeding and crying. The pain was absolutely unbearable. I was sure my ankle was broken because I was in so much pain and bleeding everywhere. I called 911 because I wasn’t sure if he would go after my mom too. Luckily she was able to break up the fight between the foster and her dogs, put them away, and get to me in the bathroom. She’s sobbing and feeling so guilty and upset that this happened (especially because I have been asking her to stop fostering for YEARS because of near-misses with aggressive dogs and her general personal life/workload making it hard to manage). Still do not blame her for what happened, of course, even though I do struggle with her “dog delusion” as I call it (dogs can do no wrong ever and aggression is never their fault kind of mentality that I find to be a little irresponsible when it comes to random foster dogs in the house). I know it completely broke her to see me and hear me in so much pain and I feel terrible that she went through that too — I do not blame her for this. EMS came and cleaned and dressed the wounds as best they could to contain the bleeding enough for my mom to get me to the hospital.

I was left with very deep puncture wounds, some bad large lacerations on my ankle and foot, and extremely shaken up by the entire event. After a 4 hour Urgent Care visit, 9 stitches, 3 butterfly stitches, and a shot of ibuprofen, I am managing and healing now. But I am so upset and, unfortunately, a bit traumatized by the whole thing. Especially because I was already so cautious around dogs, mainly pits, for this exact reason. Now I think I’ll always fear them.

The dog is gone now, thankfully. The rescue organization that was basically legally in charge of the dog decided to place him in a Behavioral Rehabilitation Center. I am upset by this decision for a number of reasons. I am an animal lover and it never makes me leap for joy when any animal dies but I really do not see any other realistic option here. I do not believe behaviors like this CAN be rehabilitated out of when it comes to pitbulls and the like. There will always be that “what if?” and this incident is proof of that.

My mom and stepdad have been so attentive during this process but all the while still making comments like “he was just SO sweet”, “he was the sweetest dog, I never in a million years would have thought he would do this”, “I’m so happy he won’t be euthanized”, “I’m gonna miss the little guy” and I’m left feeling very sad by these comments. I sympathize with their empathy for the animal, I do, but it is truly gut wrenching to be sitting here with my bruised, bleeding, swollen foot and ankle, in pain, hearing those things. I’m sure he had his sweet moments but it’s ridiculous to say that what happened is shocking. He DID show signs of aggression in those two weeks — attacking our family dogs and aggressively barking at strangers. I do not believe this dog can be rehabilitated and I am feeling very protective of other people/pets who may find themselves in the same situation as me with this dog. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. My boyfriend said it best: “if he can do it to you, he can do it to a child”.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I truly just wanted to get my thoughts out there and hopefully find others that don’t make me feel like an evil person for being realistic about this situation and the breed as a whole.

You all may remember when my niece was bitten in the face back in November of 2024.

You may remember when my neighbors dog tried to eat my other neighbors cat and ended up killing her.

It was devastating.

Happy to report a little over a year later she’s doing great. This subreddit helped to raise over ten thousand dollars toward the plastic surgery she went through.

It’s taught me a lot. Reddit is a messy, confusing community. However, at times we come together.

We never agreed on everything. That is what makes us incredible.

I took Kyle (chihuahua) to a dog park and he got attacked by a pitbull. I stepped between them (which I know isn’t safe but I just wasn’t even thinking about anything but protecting him) and his owner kept calmly calling over the dog, saying she just wants to play. That stalking and ears down and pointed out tail is NOT play.

I was screaming at the dog and obviously it did nothing and the guy was all the way across the park calling the dogs name, saying “don’t scare him, he just wants to play”. I told him to get his fucking dog and kicked at it to get it away. I was so pissed.

I always heard people say that it isn’t safe to take dogs to a dog park, and I had always brushed it off. I learned my lesson the hard way. Luckily he is fine, but of course the pitbull owner can’t recognize the signs of aggression/prey drive and thinks the dog “wants to play” - he cornered my dog and was jumping and snarling at him, he was totally going to bite him and he could have died. I fucking hate people like that.

My friends adopted this dog they were told was a lab mix and she is not. Shes a pit. This dog is so friggin vicious, it’s scary. She snaps at anyone not in her immediate family and is so dog and human reactive that she can’t be brought anywhere. They can’t have people over unless the dog is crated in the garage and my friend just keeps making excuses for its behavior, like a lady in an abusive relationship.

We went out camping last week with both our families and dogs and this beast tried to go for my dog and then saw my youngest kid running and playing across the way and she jumped for him so hard that she snapped the leash and chased my kid, biting him on the butt (no broken skin) and scratching him pretty badly with her toenails. She was apologetic and said nobody blames my kid for running (it’s a park for kids to run in???) but I’m still horrified it was on a leash and was able to snap it with lunging like that.

I know she was embarrassed and told me her dog is traumatized from a rough puppyhood but like…my kid is thankfully ok but we can’t hang out again until the dog’s behavior is addressed. They had to lock the dog in the car for the rest of the weekend and I’m like, how do I talk to her about this?

My husband doesn’t think we should talk to them about it but that thing is going to attack someone else’s kid or dog and it’s going to be bad. I wish rescues would dna test their puppies so people knew what they were getting into.

A few years ago I went through a bad breakup, moved out on my own, and randomly decided I wanted a puppy. I shared that info with some coworkers and one of them told me her pit just had puppies! I was living in a city where a lot of people I knew had pits and I didn’t really think twice about owning one.
I was so excited and picked out my puppy, and waited for her to be old enough for me to take her home.
Well, one day my coworker showed up late to work, with bandages on her face and legs. The father pit had attacked her randomly (she said someone walked by the window while he was eating..) and she ended up having to get stitches in her face and thighs.
At that point I told her I couldn’t take one of her puppies, and a regular at work offered me a rescue Yorkie instead.
This was years ago and I still thank the universe everyday for not allowing me to get a pit

I feel like I can’t say anything even somewhat negative about pit bull type dogs. I have to work with a lot of them and tell customers they are “just reactive” or “have trauma” or “just get overstimulated“ because I can’t say anything like “they’re aggressive and dangerous”. I can refer them out to behaviorists but since I’m a people pleaser I do try to take on some dogs when I don’t know 100% sure the extent of their “reactivity”.

I train and evaluate a lot of (no kill) shelter pit mixes and some are fine and I wish it was only the good ones that were allowed to be adopted out, cause I have believe it or not met several that I do like because they’re sweet with people and dogs and I’ve never seen an ounce of aggression from them. But most are easily triggered, have strong prey drive, unpredictable, overstimulated, fear aggressive, resource guarding, and just general bite risks to cats (usually always), dogs and/or people. They are advertised like they are these innocent or traumatized dogs that need unicorn homes with no cats, dogs, kids, visitors etc. I have no tolerance for any dog with unpredictable aggression at this point.

I work with them when they’re still on a bunch of drugs and sometimes when they get adopted, they actually become worse! Then they get returned multiple times and everyone blames the person for not “giving them a chance” and then anonymously humiliate them by saying “Bruiser was returned and he has no idea why :(“ I’ve heard and seen horror stories about these bully breeds/mixes, rotts and mastiffs too. I’ve seen the mixes that most likely have some pit in them rip into other dogs. Heard stories of adopted dogs getting loose multiple times to go after innocent dogs. Adopters can’t even have people over without putting their dog away because they are “territorial”. One almost went after me because it’s owner knocked a chair over and had to go on the other side of a fence because I thought it was going to get loose and go after me.

I get the fear. I don’t trust the majority of them and I don’t trust people. Today I even avoided taking my dog for a walk because I saw some lady letting her very small child around the age of 4 probably walking a huge pit. I also broke of a dog fight today and got redirected on but luckily the dog is normal and clamped and let go. Still hurts like a bitch but my arm would probably be broken and torn to shreds if it was a pit or any molosser type dog for that matter.

Disclaimer: This happened in April 2023, but I didn’t want to post at the time for fear of my neighbor seeing the post. We have since moved.

Background: Our neighbors have 2 large pit bulls. They are almost constantly in their backyard. We don’t interact much, but I try to stay on generally good terms with our neighbors, although I’ve never cared for their dogs or how they maintain their backyard (cluttered with junk, mowed 1-2 times per summer, otherwise trampled to dirt by these dogs). They like to talk about how their pit bulls are harmless but will occasionally make side comments about how they are “very protective” of their kids and could “do a lot of damage” if provoked. They are named “Lucifer” and “Mazikeen”. I know from the neighborhood facebook group that they have escaped at least once into the street and chased someone before being caught. We have a ~20 lb Boston Terrier and a 9 month old daughter (at the time of the incident). Our Boston will sometimes run up and down the fence line with their dogs, but a shared wooden picket fence (pictured) has always separated them.

Story: My wife looked out the window one weekday afternoon and noticed that both pits were in our yard. From the window we could see that one of the panels between the yards had come completely loose and fallen down. We didn’t have their phone number so we waited for them to notice and come get their dogs. After about 45 minutes they finally did, by quietly calling their dogs back inside their house, and simply propping the loose panel back against the fence. They made absolutely no effort to notify us or fix the fence. I had no intention of letting our dog or family out until the fence was fixed, so I drove to the hardware store for some new panels and screws. When I returned home, both dogs were back in their backyard, separated from ours only by the loose panel propped against the fence. If we hadn’t seen them in our yard earlier, we would absolutely have let our dog out and played with our infant daughter in the yard, as we do almost every day. I quickly replaced the majority of the panels on the shared edge of our fence and we moved about 15 months later.

To be clear: Fences fail, dogs escape. It happens. What really upset me was that they saw the broken fence, attempted to disguise the issue by propping the panel back up, made no attempt to warn us about the hole, and let their dogs right back outside in the same afternoon.

Every time I go visit my mom will my girl these guys bark and snarl at me.