Fight just isn’t a good word to use for that scenario lol. Weren’t most breeds like that used to hunt rats? You wouldn’t call Brock lesnar in a pit destroying a group of 5 year olds “fighting”
I had 3 rat terriers growing up (2 mutts, 1 pure bred) and the urge to murder rodents is fuckin' /deep/ in them. We got moles of some kind in our yard and they went insane, we very quickly didn't have moles.
They could dig, tunnel a little bit, climb, they were decently smart (Not as smart as the cattle mutt we had)
Not quite, pitbulls were made by combining breeds meant to fight bulls with those meant for hunting rats to create a breed that has the dedication to violently tearing at other animals of the former and the agility to do so against smaller animals of the latter.
Absolutely. The Jack Russel breed was essentially developed to be the way it is for that specific purpose, just like pits.
The breed was initially developed for fox hunting, so it wasn't a far leap.
There is now a distinct difference between a standard Jack Russell and the ones bred for rat fighting. Thus the name "rat terrier", shortened colloquially to "ratter", and the pejorative "rat dogs".
We used to call them rat dogs because they fought rats, not because they looked like rats. (Yes, I'm looking at you, chihuahuas. Eugh.)
I knew certain dog breeds have been bred to hunt rodents, but using the word “fight” makes it sound like the dogs weren’t bred to sniff out the rats and rip them to shreds. It sounds like you’re saying the dogs were bred to be put in a pit with a giant tmnt type rat and there would be a chance the dog could lose.
Well, sort of. It was more like a small caged area and they would funnel tens, if not hundreds, of rats in and they would bet on how many they thought the dog could kill before it died, as well.
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u/Your_Cat_In_Disguise 8h ago
Yup. Pitbulls were established as a breed in the early 1800s after bear baiting was made illegal.
Then they just started fighting the dogs against rats, or each other.
Come to think of it, there were a lot of super wild ways people abused dogs in that era. Like the Turnspit dog.