Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the reason why Pit Bulls attack?

Fighting pit bulls were originally bred to only attack other dogs. They were very easy to handle during a fight (who wants to get into the middle of two dogs like that) and would settle as soon as their handler put a hand on them. Breeders would want to breed for easy handling dogs to protect themselves.

Once they became popular, indiscriminate breeding didn’t take the care to make sure they bred out the human aggression. Now, it’s a mess.

Popularity has destroyed many good dog breeds. I’ve never like pit bulls but I understand the breeding part. Now, I would rather put a bullet in one that trust it.

Looking at the picture from the posted article of the Tennessee family, they appear to be "the All American" family. Attractive, neat, etc. Makes me wonder what in the hell they were thinking when they acquired two Pit bull dogs? What did they think the Pit bulls added to their lives? Had they never heard what Pit bulls do to people, especially children, when they "flip" and attack?

I don't know but it is certainly a question.

L.W.

Raised identically, A Pitbull is no more likely to wrongly attack a human being than a Lab. The difference is in the effects of such attacks when they do occur. Being long bred for the capacity for massive damage while in attack mode, when they do attack, the results are typically grim, and they are extremely reluctant to quit. Their owners cannot allow them, therefore, to roam about unsupervised. The rare mean one is a very dangerous animal, since they have little to no fear of humans. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are more prone to friendliness towards people than the vast majority of popular breeds.

My guess?
Rescues.

30 years ago the snobby owner was certain to mention (Full Blooded, Prue Bred, Has Pappers...) when their dog came up.

Today? "He is a rescue".

Most rescues if seen have been maladjustec, f''cked in the head POS.
Even in our bassackward hillbilly area most of the rescue dog pictures
I see are at least part Pit. (Imported?)

Pit tendencies +
very poor treatment as a young dog +
whatever you would call the pound/6 different "owners" thing =
a F'ing disaster waiting to happen.

It's the fault of the victims.

Pits attack souly for the fun of it. Not out of fear. If you've ever seen a video of an attack, the tails are up and wagging.
It also seems that most of the problems occur when there are two or more of them working together.

Attacking and biting are a sport born out of boredom. Why does a wolf pack kill more animals than they can eat, it is called killing for the sport. Man is not the only animal to kill for sport.

The breed is a disaster

Two types of owners

Insecure males with daddy isssues
Or females with daddy issues who want to fix them

Pit bulls are bred to fight other dogs or animals.

Lab are bred to find and retrieve fowl and be obedient to the hunter at all times.

They are not the same as each has deep genetic traits to drive their behavior.

If you need a dog to fight pigs don't get a lab.

If you need a dog to retrieve ducks in icy water don't get a Pit.

I would bet the dog in the OP did show agression but all the clues were missed.

The beta male pit owner referred to his pits as lions so there’s a clue. Leaving small children with aggressive lions.

I hope this moron is charged with the deaths of his children

Any dog that goes into a rage will not stop until killed or it kills the thing it's mad at.

My wife brought home a 4 yr old female pit bull that had been in a New Mexico puppy mill. Took me two years to teach her not to chase deer and elk…. Not to catch and kill every small animal on the rancho… and teach her that not every dog wandering into our place needed instant rough treatment….. once she almost killed a neighbor’s dog that made the mistake of nipping her during a “sniff up.”

But, this dog began to learn what I wanted and didn’t want…..when the dog figured that out, it became perfectly obedient. I’ve had dogs all my life and never had one that was so obedient and seemingly wanted to so “please the master” all the time.

The dog could also quickly figure out who was a friend and who was a stranger that needed watching. I was twice approached by other people with halfway aggressive dogs and she would circle behind me and stand between my legs. She would quiver with excitement and was just waiting for the okey dokey to “get em.”

Best companion dog I ever had….. but I would never own another one. What folks have been saying about “the switch” seems right on the mark to me. This dog…. “Harriet” …. did show that characteristic. When she was switched “on” …in “ready mode”….she would wait for my “trigger”….. If given, there was instant hell to pay and she was there to collect. It was like she would lose her mind for a bit. If triggered, I could not verbally call her off…. I had to grab her and get her to “remember me” so-to-speak.


They can be enjoyable dogs and I understand why folks like them….. but that “trigger” characteristic is real and potentially very dangerous.

I never allow them around the grandchildren….. never.

I’ll go with Jeff’s opinion as well - only adding that ‘possibly’ small children walk funny and make noises these dogs associate with a threat.

Or, a kid or person who walks weird, in this breed of dogs mind, must be culled immediately.

🦫

I don't like Pits. Too many maul children and their owners. I know other breeds do it occasionally. For some reason pits make the news for doing it more than all other breeds combined.

The heeler mutt in my avatar was the best dog I’ve ever owned, trustworthy and sweet-natured and obedient to a fault.

One day I heard her growling and barking out back, I went out and the neighbors 8yo grandson was laughing, running up and down rattling a stick along the chain link fence, my dog was going beserk. I do believe she would have bitten that kid.

The point being dogs are dogs, they ain’t people and they operate on dog rules, which doesn’t include a human sense of right and wrong.

Naah, the guy weren’t the beta in that house. His dogs were 8 years old, his oldest child was just two, those dogs could have been there before he met his wife.

Clearly his wife weren’t the alpha to the dogs either, they turned on her and chewed the schzit out of her too.

The guy trusted those pits so much he bragged about them on Facebook.

What a tragedy 😕

Had a rescue dog that looked black lab/Rottweiler mix. Got it as a pup and it got along with my other dog and cat, never a problem. We had a baby about the same time and it grew up with our little boy. About 4 years into it, I noticed that if my little boy went near the dog while it was eating it would growl at him. I corrected him a couple times and thought that was the end of it. Once day my son wandered by and he nipped at him. I took the dog for a walk in the woods and that is where he is til this day.

This.

OP, these pitbulls attacked for one reason and one reason only. They attacked because they were not dead.