The Prowler
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I saw this exchange in the Shout Box:
We all know these two are pretty dense. But their stupidity regarding pitbulls is dangerous.
Anyone ever thinking that a pitbull would be a good pet needs to understand their breeding history. I posted about this years ago.
Read it if you want to know The Facts.
We all know these two are pretty dense. But their stupidity regarding pitbulls is dangerous.
Anyone ever thinking that a pitbull would be a good pet needs to understand their breeding history. I posted about this years ago.
Read it if you want to know The Facts.
So I have read this entire thread and some people have made decent points.
To understand pit bulls, you need to understand how breeding works. When dogs are originally bred, dogs that demonstrate a certain trait are selected, bred, and their offspring that show that same trait are then bred (the ones that do not show the trait, or that show any undesirable trait, are culled). It basically promotes certain traits and accelerates evolution.
Pit bulls were originally bred for these traits: Strength, aggression towards animals, a willingness to kill other animals, bite strength, high pain tolerance, fearlessness, speed, agility, and no aggression towards humans.
They were bred to fight and kill other dogs, and other animals from as small as rats to as large as bears and bulls.
But if they showed aggression towards humans, they were culled. They were designed to be killing machines, so breeders knew that if the dogs showed any aggression towards humans, they would be too dangerous.
Because of the lack of aggression towards humans that was bred into them, pit bulls made good family pets.
Over time, as blood sports were outlawed, the breeding of pit bulls become more focused on form (appearance) than function, so the culling of human-aggressive dogs was not as common. That was a bit of a mistake.
But then some serious mistakes were made. I would say it started in the 1980's, but I am not exactly sure. But I know what happened. Some people started to use pit bulls as guard dogs. And train pit bulls as guard dogs. So they started to selectively breed pit bulls that showed a natural tendency to be aggressive towards humans. So now they were accelerating the evolution of a breed into thinking it is not only acceptable, but good to attack humans.
Without knowing the specific blood lines of a pit bull, you really do not know if you have a dog that might tend to be aggressive towards humans.
Neutering - a good idea for any dog as it will prevent a lot of behaviour problems including aggression; spaying female dogs can avoid behaviour problems too, particularly in unaltered male dogs when they get a whiff of the pheromones.
Reading behaviour - not as easy at it sounds; most people who think they are good at it are not
Can pits "snap"? - I think a lot of dogs can get into the "red zone" - pure fight mode - but fighting breeds tend to do it quicker; it is true to say that it probably did not happen without some kind of warning, but often the time between warning and action is only seconds
I cannot stress enough that the mistake with pit bulls is that the trait of being aggressive to humans was bred into them.
Owners of a pit bull who want them to be a guard dog do not know what they are talking about. This is what a responsible person would want in a pit bull: Someone comes to the door, they bark. If someone breaks into the house, they bark but do not attack. That is a watch dog, not a guard dog or an attack dog.
If you want a guard dog, get a Doberman or a German Shepherd or a Malinois...or some other good guard dog breed. This is the thing: If you get a guard dog, there is a chance that it will, at some point, bite a person. The difference with a pit bull and say, a German Shepherd, is that a pit bull bites with approximately 5 times the force of a German Shepherd. A pit bull can do way more serious damage. Also, pit bulls tend to bite and hold on. That "holding on" can tear apart muscle, ligaments, tendons, blood vessels, etc.. They can break bones.
This is getting a little long.
If people want to hear my thoughts on specific points, I would love to share them. I have never owned pit bull, but I have worked with many as an employee and a volunteer at the local SPCA. I have owned a bull terrier who shares some of the fighting past with pit bulls, and also has incredible bite strength - that is her as a pup in my profile pic. Hands up if you walked and worked with an unknown dog at your local SPCA this week.
