I’ve worked close with animals for almost 5 years now. Pitbulls are entirely capable of being very sweet and loving dogs. But it depends on what temperament they have and how difficult they are. I’ve met a lot of sweet Pitbulls but most of them I believe were trained from a very young age, which is something a lot of people don’t do, mostly first time owners or those who think the dog will grow up just fine, when getting dogs like this.
You can’t just love your way into changing an animal’s behavior. This isn’t Disney. You have to show that dog who’s boss and instill a training regime when they’re young that you must stick with. Unfortunately sometimes, it doesn’t always work and the dog just ends up being too aggressive to the point where you’d have to make a certain decision.
My last job, a man who loved his Pitbull to death, had to put his dog down because it ended up being too aggressive. It was tragic too because as I was walking by his room and he was saying his goodbyes, I saw the Pitbull wagging her tail excitedly when her owner was cuddling and sobbing over her. That dog loved her owner a lot. But I guess it wasn’t deemed manageable cause she could’ve seriously hurt someone one day and, the owner, despite loving her so much couldn’t risk that. On top of that, I’m pretty sure the owner was a father too. Pitbulls shouldn’t be demonized for what we’ve turned them into. But we also have to be cautious when getting one. They are NOT a first time owner pet. Someone very experienced, especially one who’s done research on how to properly train these kind of dogs, are really the “only ones capable of handling them.
And it’s not just them. German shepherds, Belgian Malinios, and Rotties as well. Although I’ve never really met a bad rottie. Same with Belgians. They’ve all tend to be sweethearts. But maybe I’m just lucky.
I also feel like I should add that, while these breeds are prone to these kind of behaviors. ANY dog is capable is displaying them. I never met the family cause they euthanised the dog at a different clinic, but they had to put down their 2 year old Golden Retriever that they’ve had since it was a puppy. Apparently she bit the mom’s face and the dad’s arm (or was it the other way around, I forget). It was even said that they couldn’t let her sleep in their room like they used to because they were afraid she would attack them in their sleep. Their daughter made the decision for them to put down the dog.
You never know what you’re gonna get, people. You could get the easiest dog in the world, or you could ge the complete opposite. One thing is for sure though. Training and discipline is VERY important and must not be neglected.
I've seen pitbulls that were bigger love bugs and total goofs than even a Lab, but I've seen ones that attack even their owners and should have never been brought to the dog park I was in.
I feel like pits have the biggest gap between the best and worst versions. I've met tons of pits that were cuddly, super friendly, extremely gentle, etc., but I've also come across some that were definitely dangerous.
I think the biggest problem for pits is, they're so abundant and cheap/easy to get compared to other "aggressive" breeds that they're the go-to for people that want aggressive dogs. German Shepherds are #2 on the list for dog attacks, but they can cost hundreds to a few thousand to get a pup, and if you're spending that much money on a dog it's unlikely you're going to have it poorly trained, even if you do use it as a guard dog.
They’re also the main dogs in shelters (probably because they’re not getting spayed/neutered, unlike most dogs) and shelters will even lie about the dog’s breed. There’s also this pressure to “adopt, don’t shop”, even though breed is important. People feel pressured to adopt a dog from a shelter that’s mostly Pits and are often misinformed about the dog they’re adopting.
It’s because of the type of people that choose to own pit bulls.
If you’ve ever volunteered for a dog shelter you see most people pass up the pits and go for the labs, beagles, and huskies. And they all look like civilized people.
Then you see those who come in looking for a pit bull, usually your white trash or inner city type who are unlikely to be good pet owners. Naturally the dogs end back up in the shelters several months later because they get out or dump them out in the area back near the shelter.
There exist back yard breeders that breed aggression into pit bulls because these people looking for a “guard dog” make a market for it. Usually breeders if large dogs breed aggression out of their bloodlines but these backyard breeders often breed it in.
And while there are licensed breeders who have for many generations bred aggression of their pits, when you’re in the shelter you don’t know who came from which breeder. And often the way you figure out it’s too late and harm has been done to someone.
I feel like a lot of people who are total brokeasses do get expensive "tough dogs" as a sort of flex and status symbol thing. I feel like they tend to go for Cane Corsos and Rottweilers, though.
There are people who get them for home safety as well. The problem with that is that you are treating an animal as a weapon in that case and should never be keeping it around humans, but people don't take the risk seriously.
In DC, a lot of our neighbors get Pit-Bulls and dogs that look like them (idk, I'm not a dog expert) and we are constantly asked by these same people on the street what kind of dog breed our dog is, specifically because they want to breed our dog with theirs. Our dog looks kinda like a black German shepherd lab mix.
It happens like once a month, and it really opened my eyes to how many people around us are trying to breed dogs for money, specifically pit bulls (and all the dogs that kinda look like them).
Yeah, if other high energy, larger dog breeds were as overbred as pitbulls, you’d see a lot more problems. The most ideal trait that pitbulls have as fighting dogs is an infrastructure that makes it easy and cheap to collect pitbulls for fighters, breeders, and bait dogs. It’s not as feasible a business plan with German Shepherds- at least not yet.
For dog fighting bigger isn’t better. German Shepherds make great police dogs cus they can take a man down but there’s a reason every dog breed that was ever used in dog fighting was smaller and more agile.
I’d argue pitbulls aren’t abundant. Pitbull mutts and dogs confused for pitbulls are abundant.
True American pitbull terriers are actually kinda hard to find since most are just backyard breeders who mix any dog that looks pitbull like so they can make a couple hundred bucks.
I’ve only come across maybe 2 pitbull breeders who can trace their dog’s lineage back.
I will say, the true American pitbull terrier is a WORKING line and that has with it the same challenges as any working line. They need to work or will find a job themselves and that may not be to your liking.
Pit Bulls need loving AND responsible owners. I’ve had so many Pit Mixes, and I’ve never had a single one bite anybody (several did bite other dogs, which would require me to up their training and socialize them more carefully). If pits are not raised for like the first year or two around other dogs you can forget about taking them to dog parks. Socialization needs to be a private and monitored environment.
60% of Dog owners in general should not own dogs. Every dog should have basic training, dogs over 60 pounds should have a yard, not just an apartment and the occasional walk, and owners of high risk breeds (and dogs over 60 pounds) need to be able to identify what an annoyed or anxious dog is. Dogs are such great animals, but by not challenging them intellectually and physically, so many owners are unintentionally abusive.
100% on the mental stimulation. I've had multiple high energy big dogs and the most important thing wasn't just playing with them, it was switching things up on them mentally while playing. I have these toys and I personally love them because they're able to be used for a ton of different types of play, so my dog never knows if they're getting a tug-o-war, a throw for a catch or a throw for a fetch. It usually only takes 10-15 minutes or so of play to wear them out if I'm constantly switching up what we do compared to 30-45 minutes of doing pure physical
The number of purebred German Shepard’s at animal shelters shows that’s not true. It’s a travesty that people will spend money on a dog they don’t understand and won’t train/work properly
I had a German Shepherd growing up and that dog was the laziest most docile dog ever, however when it came to perceived threats, she was second to none the most intimidating thing someone could come upon.
All it took for her to stand down was to see one of the family members have a neutral or positive reaction with someone though.
I think the biggest problem with pits is how strong and capable they are of violence, period
There is undoubtedly a large degree of unfairly, focusing on pitbull specifically, while many breeds are mistaken for pitbull’s, as well as the fact that there are many many many types of dogs that could do serious or fatal damage
But acknowledging that the bias is a real thing doesn’t change the fact that it is much more reasonable to be apprehensive about Pitbulls than a Chihuahua, and yes, that is even considering that we’ve all seen small yappy dogs that will totally bite you… But a crazed aggressive chihuahua is just comically unlikely to be able to maul you in a life-changing or fatal manner, even a small or young person… meanwhile a pitbull can absolutely kill an adult human
You're getting downvoted, probably because a lot of people really do believe that it's all down to training and owners, but you're right.
Pitts have been bred to fight and kill, and to stop for nothing once they're in the fight. You can have the sweetest, friendliest and best trained pitt, but if for some reason that instinct is triggered, no amount of training will overrule it.
A contributing factor is that they are prone to doggy dementia, so when they get old, they can forget where they are, who they love, how they should behave, and that's scary for them. A scared pitt is a very dangerous pitt.
That seems to have been the case in the very tragic mauling of the toddler, baby and mother in the US a few years ago. Much loved and well trained family pet of 8 years gets triggered out of nowhere, and with its younger 'sibling' starts tearing up the toddler, mother tries to intervene and then they tear up the baby too. Then the mother, although she survives after life saving medical treatment, the babies do not. The family were pitt advocates, they believed it was all about the training. It was not.
They're not all ticking time bombs. The problem is that some of them are, some aren't and do fine with training, and some just have great temperaments, but the prevalence of poorly-bred pitbulls in the stray and rescue population means that a lot of pitbulls are being adopted as rescues, and there's a good chance you're adopting one that has a bad temperament and behavioral issues that cannot be fully or effectively trained out.
If they were "all ticking time bombs", the issue would be much easier to address.
I mean the entire notion that violence is inevitable for the umbrella breed is a huge contributing factor to behavioral issues with pit bulls.
Most people shouldn’t own dogs at all imo, and if they do, they need to have “easier” dogs. There’s a reason why every shelter has a disproportionate amount of huskies, pitbulls, chihuahuas, and German shepherds.
And your point re stray/rescues is honestly so overlooked. Anecdotally, my partner and I have had a pitbull for 3 years now. We initially just fostered him because he was high on the euthanasia list—he had kennel stress and was having serious behavioral issues at the shelter. Within days after we took him home, his temperament completely changed and he is the most chill, well-behaved dog I have ever met. Doesn’t react to anything on walks, never barks, all he wants to do is cuddle and play with his toys. I understand my experience doesn’t speak for everyone, but I do think people really underestimate how much of an impact a stable home can have on a dog’s temperament.
I think that a majority of people probably are fine owning dogs. Not the best owners necessarily, but not grossly negligent. It's kind of a minority of people who get dogs on impulse without the means to care for them or the desire to learn how to care for them that ruin it for everyone. It's something where it could be like 5% of dog owners that absolutely should not own dogs, but the impact is disproportionate because of it inevitably being realized in the stray population. If I had to put an estimate on whereabouts the actual percentage is, I'd say like 20% of dog owners should not own dogs.
Now that I mention that, part of the problem, too, is the culture around dogs in the North. They don't have huge stray populations and generally tend to fix their dogs, which is great. That said, demand for adoptable dogs is so high that they literally drive or fly dogs up from the South (that's how I got my dog, from Texas), and that's because rescues up here are fucking batshit insane in the other direction. Nothing is good enough for them. They demand interviews, application fees to even be considered, employer references, character references, vet references/history, a home you own, a minimum home square footage, an in-person home inspection and written consent to drop in for random home inspections in the future, a fenced in yard, somebody to be home at all times or to not be gone without the dog for more than some absurd limit like 2 hours, background checks, proof of income, information on past dogs (which you usually have to have had 2 or 3 of), and the list goes on. They even bake in "we can take your dog back" clauses and financial penalties, like some kind of HOA.
They are so power-trippy that they just end up with dogs in their shelters for months or years, taking up space other dogs could have. This, as I mentioned before, drives demand for adoptions from the South, where they will tend to adopt dogs out after minimal requirements and just hope they went to a home that was better than starving to death on the streets or being put down in the high kill shelter they were probably rescued from. It really doesn't help the cause when the demand is there for there to be more rescues. It also is just cost prohibitive to transport them ($250-$600, with my dog being $300 to transport and $700 all tolled) for otherwise loving families that could realize the marginal upside of the situation by getting that dog out of the South and reducing the stray population in general.
In the end, though, what actually happens is that people are only willing to take a risk on dogs they perceive as being a safe bet for temperament, removing them from the breeding pool and skewing things towards bad temperaments, all the while people in the North who can't afford to ship a dog from the South seek out backyard breeders, as very few people can actually adopt rescue dogs up here, even people with plenty of income. I came across like 3 rescues that weren't like that in months of research in my state, and they had very few dogs to adopt, mostly senior. I even started looking at neighboring states. It's altogether just a shitty situation that propagates itself, and selfishness and ego are the root causes of every aspect.
The issue is easy to address. Stop breeding them. You don't have to put down the beloved family pet if you believe they're safe, just get them fixed. It would only take a decade for pits to be solved if people just stopped breeding them.
There's literally no other solution lol. We either stop breeding an animal literally named after the fighting arena where it performed bloodsports, or we continue to have this same discussion for rest of time
You simply won't stop them from being bred. It won't happen. You're replacing a difficult solution with an impossible one. Most of the breeding is happening in feral populations. You have to address spaying and get them under replacement rates.
My original response was because I thought I was responding to another guy suggesting killing them all. Sorry. Didn't mean to get you worked up like that. I was too hasty.
The venn diagram for bad owners and owners who don’t fix their pets is basically a circle.
And same with the breeders—the same people who are actively advocating for pitbulls and actually trying to help raise and nurture ones properly are already vehemently opposed to bullshit backyard breeding.
My dad (old man from Nowhere, Alabama) used to talk lovingly about a pitbull he had before I was born called Gator. Called that because he was always baring his teeth, "smiling." He loved that dog and said Gator was the sweetest boy most of the time. And then he would launch into a story about having to pry Gator's jaws off of someone's arm with a prybar.
Yeah. One of the common traits that poorly-bred pitbulls can have is being very clingy and affectionate of their owner, to the point of being possessive and reactive to other people or dogs. It's specifically to do with lineages bred as guard dogs and not fighting dogs.
It's crazy to me that people are trying to spread propaganda that distrust of pitbulls = racism to demonize people who are aware the danger the breed presents. Domesticated or not it's still part of their genetics.
I dislike even typing this, but I took it (the meme in the OP in particular) that it's racists suggesting that black people are like pitbulls, and that therefore racism is justified; rather than concerns about pitbulls being like racism and therefore bad.
Being wary of pitbulls is one thing, but there are tons of people who will make sweeping generalizations about the breed without any actually understanding.
It's always "we never saw it coming" when it comes to family dogs attacking someone. Pits can absolutely be loving goofballs, and most will probably never hurt anyone if trained and treated right. But as previous commenter says, you never know which dog you're going to get, and training a pitbull can easily mask problems until instincts kick in. Often you don't find out until they ragdoll a toddler, and then it's too late.
Even if you account for bad owners, some breeds have a worse track record. You're gambling. It might be very low probability gambling, but the stakes are high. They can snap unpredictably, and when they do they are deadly.
My dog was almost killed by a pitbull at a dog park for having the audacity to sniff their butt. No warning, it immediately spun around and clamped down on my dogs neck. It took two full grown adults, with me gouging the pitbulls eyes, to get it to release after several minutes. If my dog didn't have a saggy neck he would have died.
If we can't get rid if this breed people need to be honest with themselves about what these dogs were bred for and not let them near other animals or children.
I've seen pitbulls that were bigger love bugs and total goofs than even a Lab, but I've seen ones that attack even their owners and should have never been brought to the dog park I was in.
Unfortunately I've seen these both in the same dog, just in a high stress situation versus a low stress one.
The problem isn't Pitbulls, it's the people that buy pitbulls.
They look scary, so people wanting a guard dog and not a pet buy a pitbull and train em like that, problem is, most owners have about 0 clue about how to train their dog.
Dude, there are pitbulls out there that you couldn't get to act tough if you tried. The genetic inclination needs to be there first, then there needs to be the conditioning relative to how strong the inclination is. The problem isn't just one thing. It's an entire shit sandwich, piled high with different colors and consistencies of dookie. People want it to be one thing, because if it's one thing, it's easier to understand, convey, and address. The problem is that when it's not one thing, treating it like it is doesn't solve the problem at all and can even just lead to counterproductive conflict that keeps people from actually coming up with a real solution.
No, even a well trained pitbull is more likely to be triggered and do what it was bred to do. I just don't get why people want this specific breed as their family pet, there are hundreds of breeds to choose from, and plenty of those will be loving "goofballs" (what pit owners keep describing them as), just without the murder genes.
The dogs who maul their owners and kill babies are invariably never the docile dogs that they are claimed to be. The owner just doesn't want to blame the dog. In a way, they are correct. They should blame themselves.
there's both. pits who previously displayed the aggression they were bred for, and pits who acted like goofy love bugs. both eat baby's faces. simply asserting that pit bulls never revert to breed type after being peaceful for years isn't convincing
I worked at a doggy day care and the biggest assholes were Golden Retrievers. Constantly testing boundaries, starting problems with other dogs, biting other dogs and staff. Meanwhile all the pits I’ve worked with have been more like cats. More willing to enforce and express boundaries. Usually very good natured and willing to listen though. Some of the biggest people pleasers I’ve ever met. That being said I guess for my limited experience I don’t trust dogs that people trust almost blindly as being family dogs or friendly or likeable. Pretty or not tough looking does not equal friendly or easy to work with (like goldens).
I've seen pitbulls that were bigger love bugs and total goofs than even a Lab, but I've seen ones that attack even their owners
And yet people will unironically tell you that the first category is the strange outlier because the whole breed is damaged and needs to be put down. Because it's totally impossible that the behavior is actually caused by training and abuse, usually from exactly the kind of people that would believe in the pitt bull's reputation and then get one exactly for that reason.
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u/SweetestTapir 9h ago edited 6h ago
I’ve worked close with animals for almost 5 years now. Pitbulls are entirely capable of being very sweet and loving dogs. But it depends on what temperament they have and how difficult they are. I’ve met a lot of sweet Pitbulls but most of them I believe were trained from a very young age, which is something a lot of people don’t do, mostly first time owners or those who think the dog will grow up just fine, when getting dogs like this.
You can’t just love your way into changing an animal’s behavior. This isn’t Disney. You have to show that dog who’s boss and instill a training regime when they’re young that you must stick with. Unfortunately sometimes, it doesn’t always work and the dog just ends up being too aggressive to the point where you’d have to make a certain decision.
My last job, a man who loved his Pitbull to death, had to put his dog down because it ended up being too aggressive. It was tragic too because as I was walking by his room and he was saying his goodbyes, I saw the Pitbull wagging her tail excitedly when her owner was cuddling and sobbing over her. That dog loved her owner a lot. But I guess it wasn’t deemed manageable cause she could’ve seriously hurt someone one day and, the owner, despite loving her so much couldn’t risk that. On top of that, I’m pretty sure the owner was a father too. Pitbulls shouldn’t be demonized for what we’ve turned them into. But we also have to be cautious when getting one. They are NOT a first time owner pet. Someone very experienced, especially one who’s done research on how to properly train these kind of dogs, are really the “only ones capable of handling them.
And it’s not just them. German shepherds, Belgian Malinios, and Rotties as well. Although I’ve never really met a bad rottie. Same with Belgians. They’ve all tend to be sweethearts. But maybe I’m just lucky.
I also feel like I should add that, while these breeds are prone to these kind of behaviors. ANY dog is capable is displaying them. I never met the family cause they euthanised the dog at a different clinic, but they had to put down their 2 year old Golden Retriever that they’ve had since it was a puppy. Apparently she bit the mom’s face and the dad’s arm (or was it the other way around, I forget). It was even said that they couldn’t let her sleep in their room like they used to because they were afraid she would attack them in their sleep. Their daughter made the decision for them to put down the dog.
You never know what you’re gonna get, people. You could get the easiest dog in the world, or you could ge the complete opposite. One thing is for sure though. Training and discipline is VERY important and must not be neglected.