Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Damn Pittbulls

We adopted a rescue pit about 4 years ago that looked very similar to yours. I was skeptical at first but he has been a great dog. He is actually one of the least aggressive dogs I have been around. Without a doubt, there are issues with some of them but most are good, trustworthy dogs.

mine was the same, till he wasn't.

We have a pitbull mix i got as an 8-week-old pup.

I never let him outside of the fenced back yard unless i was there. For the 1st 9 months or so, he would run out to "meet" other dogs walking by and I would immediately intervene (sprinting to engage). He didn't want to "fight", just do the normal butt-smelling stuff.

Understandably, the passersby did not know that hence my instant running out to secure him and apologizing profusely (then instilling hefty negative reinforcement).

However, after nine-ten months of getting his head literally hammered (not literally by a hammer...just my hand), he learned unconditionally I was the alpha. We also were lavish in loving on him - he thinks he's a lap dog..... at 85lbs, he's a bit much!

I had consulted a police K9 trainer i personally know about socializing and training strong-willed dogs. As I had participated in some of their "training events" (I was a bad-guy wearing a padded suit!) multiple times I had seen my friend use some seemingly too-rough discipline on his 105lb Belgian Shepherd (a sharp crack on the head via his 6 D-cell MagLite). He assured me then the dog was OK and some needed a little more "convincing" than others. He just seemed strange, but he had been a K9 trainer for over 20 years and was well-regarded in police K9 circles (he was a well-known trainer in the state i lived at the time).

He encouraged me to have my young children involved in the leash training i had learned from him as well. It was simply making the dog sit if he pulled the leash at all. With the added pronged pinch collar to assert the dog's low position on the authority "totem-pole" our dog learned very quickly who was who in the "pack" pecking order.

It has all worked very well and our "dangerous" pitbull is very well adjusted (we semi-frequently have 25-35 people at our house for my wife's work functions). He is very social and loves being petted (and fed!).

When i am working outside on our never-ending landscaping projects/updates, he will just lay on the and driveway in the sun. If another dog walks by on the sidewalk, he remains sitting and doesn't even stand up.

But all this positive behavior came after a year of (seemingly harsh) head-cracking negative reinforcement of unapproved behaviors.

He is a superb watch dog though. Our neighbors (we share a fence with) have came up the stairs to our front door (when we weren't home) and reported he was nothing but 85lbs of popping teeth and growling/barking.

It took nearly two years for our dog to accept our friends who come to take care of our chickens (and have known him since our adoption) when we weren't home. Now, they board him at their house (they have 3 very small kids) and he protects their house and kids the same as at ours and recognizes them as Alpha's as well.

It all takes a lot of time investment, but is well worth it.

Incidentally, my wife is his "favorite" and he is usually not more than a few steps from her. However, he often shadows me (like now as he lays at the other end of the couch). In fact, if i lay on the floor he will be instantly come over to me and try to lick me to death.

He knows he is loved, but had to learn the "hard" way.

all thats true and i did all that with mine, but one day he decided he wanted to be top dog and i had to kill him with my bare hands. i know most will make good dogs with the right people, but if you have a male get him cut... i should of with petey.

Beautiful loyal dog. Disregard the haters. We have a pit in the family. Great big old baby.

I saw your pics and that just plain sucks. I'm sorry you (and really, so many others) had such a horrible experience. Like you, i keep no illusions of what can possibly happen and having grown up in farm country, would not hesitate to kill him (love him as i do - i would cut his fugking head off without a second thought).



Yep, best advice ever. We got him cut as soon as we could - I can't remember the timing of that though, but he was snipped!

Ours is a couch potato extraordinaire!!! He is generally just a big 'ol baby. Except for squirrels and bunnies that is! Well, and any chickens that escape their run...

Ours is a male, is cut, and might be a mix. We got him from a family with kids, other dogs, and a cat. He is well socialized, has never shown any aggression to animals/people, and is a happy go lucky part of the family. He will back down from little yapper dogs and is really gentle with children. Our vet has even remarked how mild mannered he is. However, he is a stocky 70lbs and I know full well what he could be physically capable of. I always watch him around new people, new situations, kids, and he does not run loose. Any incident would not be taken lightly. I would not ignore a sign that his wires might be crossed. It's not worth the risk. Overall, he is a really good dog but I would be really skeptical of getting one that I had no background info on.

I don't understand people that have pitbulls or pit "mixes"

Even the guys in this thread that have them say they are babies but...


I equate pitbull ownership to a wiring problem in my attic...Yeah that frayed wire "might not cause a fire"

You forgot to show them your tits! lol

I have posted this before but will again. One problem with pitts is their inherent 'look' Tight skin on the head does not lend itself to much expression, so when they "flip" drives from Prey got defensive ( where true aggression kicks in" ) it is hard, if not impossible to read the warning signs of impending aggression.
A shepherd in comparison is easy to read and you can see it coming 30 seconds ahead of time. Pitts just flip, and stay hard in the new mode ( aggression)

I'll just say again but with less words than before to the OP. Really nice looking boy you got. I'm sure he means more than the world to you.

About 2 years ago my daughter wanted a Chihuahua and bought a shelter dog with her own $. I thought it would be good to add another dog slightly larger for our Pit-Mix to have a slightly better equipped play mate so we adopted another shelter type dog (lab-mix) at the same time. My mistake there.

The other dogs would eat our Pit's food, take his favorite bones, whatever. He was non-aggressive. In fact, the Chihuahua would jump on his back and attempt to do the "dominance" thing (the humping "wild-thing" move) - it was hilarious!!! Our pit would just look at the CHihuahua with a "WTF are you doing" kinda look.

However, he did growl once and that pretty much ended the others from raiding his food bowl. He was the Alpha dog, but never asserted it physically - other than rough play with the Lab mix. He was gentle with the Chihuahua - though it looked like he was gonna tear it's head off - he never once got aggressive with it.

Unfortunately, the Lab-mix ripped the Chihuahua's throat one night after we returned from a day of skiing (as my daughter watched her dog getting shook like a rag-doll - she still cries about it).

I hated that barky little bastid Chihuahua, but as it was bleeding out while i held it my rage against the other dog was rising Tsunami style. My wife made me re-holster my P220 as i held that poor little Chihuahua (she didn't want the kids to see me kill the Lab).

We rushed the Chihuahua to an Emergency Vet, but were just too late. It died on the table. We then took my wife to the ER to get her hand stitched up (she tried to take the Chihuahua out of the Lab-mixes mouth and got bit).

The next day i took the Lab-mix to the Humane Shelter to be destroyed (they agreed to do the deed and not re-adopt out). My wife didn't want me to kill it as the kids loved the Lab-mix too...

But our Pit was (is) calm as a cucumber - steady as a rock.

Until it's not...

I've seen the times when he may have - hair on his back standing up, head and tail down growling. But, he didn't leave my side.

He's four years - gonna be five soon. I know my dog. Others may not have invested the time, whatever, i can't attest to their experiences, but i know mine.

I take him to dog parks where he runs w/other dogs freely. Never a problem. Usually it's the GSD's and Rotties that are problematic. My Pit plays hard with them as they try to bite him, roll him - whatever. It doesn't work... He could easily throat them - his jaws and teeth are scary, but he really is just playful - sometimes quite rough, but playful.

Until it's not...


Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm just saying that pit owners are playing with fire...

Cool dog. The pure Pitbulls I've had have been the most friendly and easy going dogs I've owned. It's all in how your raise them.

Meh - GFY!

J/K - no worries. I remain ever vigilant. Thanks for the concern.

If our Pit even remotely did anything that communicated non-compliance or reluctance to obey orders (which are precursors to aggression) I am watching and he gets a thump on the head. He knows to look for it. He knows when he's on shaky ground.

I wonder if that could be one of the problems with owners of strong-willed dogs. The dogs are always looking to move up the chain-of-command.

One lapse and they think they're movin' on up! It takes a willingness to invest the time to *always* not accept less than 100% immediate obedience. It can be taxing at times (like kids/teenagers really....)

I'm generally a fun-loving sorta guy - until things are such that that it is no longer appropriate. My dog knows it too.

Got it. And that is sensible reply. But would you trust that dog if it got loose and was running around the neighborhood with other dogs and little kids? Can you say for sure that it won't freak out like a lot of pits do?

You can see it in their eyes.

My neighbor has pits (in kennels, in their living room)

They drove way out to western SD to get a bull terrier/pit mix off a reservation that was tied to a tree and left for dead.

I stopped over at their place to borrow a tool and they brought him out and said how nice he was. I was stroking him between the eyes during our conversation and he was wagging his tail.

I looked down at him and his eyes went from brownish to pure black. I told the neighbor "Get him away. He's going to bite" The neighbor said "haha no he won't, he's nice"

I pulled my hand as quickly as he went for it and only ended up with scraped fingers. Little blood.

My point is, no matter how much you think these dogs are good, you never know when there will be a fire in the attic.