Where Hawkeye and I part ways, is I wouldn't recommend a Pit, Boxer, Mastiff, Chow, Dobe, Rott, Lab, Chessie, Great Dane, or any other large breed at all to most people. As a landlord, and a guy that knows several other people with rentals, and other pet owners, I really have come to the conclusion that most people who already have dogs, shouldn't even own a dog at all -- and if they do they should start with a Pug, or a Toy Poodle, a Cocker, or something small enough that if it gets nippy, well somebody just gets nipped.
Nope. That's my view as well, as I've said in many of the threads of this sort over the years. I've personally seen what happens when incompetents buy a puppy of a breed they are ill equipped to raise right or handle. A good friend of mine was so impressed with my Doberman, and how perfectly under control he was (on or off leash), and how friendly and reliable he was, that before even discussing it with me, he went out and bought a puppy Doberman for his family. By the time that dog was six months old, it was snarling at him and his family, and ruling the house. When it bit him for trying to gain control, he had it put down. That was tragic, and I never suggest a serious breed as someone's first dog. Almost always turns out badly.
You must of just misunderstood my stance once when I suggested that a pit was a poor choice for most people, or something like that, then.
Too many people buy stuff they don't want, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like!
Peopel should be aware that regardless of the breed, a dogs personality is not a constant either, and often changes with age and ill health.
My Border is quite elderly now, and is mostly blind and deaf. Before the onset of these problems, he loved kids and the attention they gave him, but now they are just "too much" for him, and you can tell he doesn't like to be pestered and does his best to remove himself from the situation.
Its easy to see how if he couldn't get away from an unsupervised child, how he might end up snapping at them; and while he's old he still has a full set of teeth and could cause a lot of damage to a toddler.
Sadly a lot of people never consider what might happen in a sitution, and whether a child ends up being biten or leaves a gate open and the dog gets out and gets run over, the root cause is usually the owners lack of responsibility..
Peopel should be aware that regardless of the breed, a dogs personality is not a constant either, and often changes with age and ill health.
My Border is quite elderly now, and is mostly blind and deaf. Before the onset of these problems, he loved kids and the attention they gave him, but now they are just "too much" for him, and you can tell he doesn't like to be pestered and does his best to remove himself from the situation.
Its easy to see how if he couldn't get away from an unsupervised child, how he might end up snapping at them; and while he's old he still has a full set of teeth and could cause a lot of damage to a toddler.
Sadly a lot of people never consider what might happen in a sitution, and whether a child ends up being biten or leaves a gate open and the dog gets out and gets run over, the root cause is usually the owners lack of responsibility..
Here's my nephew, his wife, and their two very friendly Pitbulls. He learned to love the breed by his constant contact with mine since he was a toddler.
I've not only had experience with my own Pitbulls, but with countless others raised by normal folks, and have literally never seen a mean or unpredictable one in that context.
Here he is as a kid with one of my Pitbulls. She was an older dog in this shot, so he had been quite close with her since he was a very small kid.
Another pic of a sweet and often misunderstood pet. I'm sure Roy Horn was quite the advocate for his tigers right up to the day when he got mauled!!
Biden's most truthful quote ever came during his first press conference, 03/25/21. Drum roll please...... "I don't know, to be clear." and THAT is one promise he's kept!!!
I don't know why I opened this thread...it just pisses me off. The pics you guys are putting up with the kids and pits...just to show how nice the dogs are, are only fooling yourselves.
The 4 that my sisters family have owned are all dead now. any that comes on my property will join them.
Can you find any videos of kids being killed by a pug or weenie dog?
Thats kinda a stupid argument.
Try finding news reports about kids being mauled/killed by dogs like Rottie's or GSD and they will be out there.
*Any* of the large and many of the medium/smaller breeds, have the potential to seriously damage or kill a child, depending on the circumstances and it does happen.
A few years back in was Dob's and Rottie's that were filling the headlines over, then GSD's, these days its the various pit breeds such as Staffs, and "pitbulls"...Ironically Pitbulls are banned over here, but it doesn't spot people breeding an approximation of them though..The reality is that the dogs are more accurately boxer x staffs x Heinz 57, but they are still labled "pitbulls"...
Exactly, Dave. Nice examples of what I said earlier, i.e., not a single case of a bite by a Pitbull escapes nationwide wall to wall coverage. Also, where were all these Pitbull attacks before regular folks ever heard of the breed, say before 1975?
The Pitbull is the number one most populous breed of dog in the United States today, and not by a little. By a lot. Switch that situation with, say, Boxers, and put them in the same exact environments as Pitbulls are currently to be found, and the stats would be indistinguishable.
Can you find any videos of kids being killed by a pug or weenie dog?
Thats kinda a stupid argument.
Try finding news reports about kids being mauled/killed by dogs like Rottie's or GSD and they will be out there.
*Any* of the large and many of the medium/smaller breeds, have the potential to seriously damage or kill a child, depending on the circumstances and it does happen.
A few years back in was Dob's and Rottie's that were filling the headlines over, then GSD's, these days its the various pit breeds such as Staffs, and "pitbulls"...Ironically Pitbulls are banned over here, but it doesn't spot people breeding an approximation of them though..The reality is that the dogs are more accurately boxer x staffs x Heinz 57, but they are still labled "pitbulls"...
Regards,
Peter
Very good points, especially the last one. In compiling stats, all other breeds are only counted if they are clearly a pure bred. For Pitbulls, not only are pure dogs counted in those bite stats, but also all dogs with any admixture of Pitbull, or even those that look like they might have some admixture of Pitbull (often it's a Boxer mix). That's a huge funnel with which to gather damaging stats for the breed with which to sell news stories about the latest devil dog.
I own and have owned Boxers, I don't believe they carry the same potential for attacking humans as the Pit breed does.
Boxers are a playful breed of dog that tolerates other animals relatively well.
JM.
I'll have to challenge that. I love Boxers too, by the way, but my Pitbull has literally never started a fight in his entire life (nor did my previous Pitbull), but he has been attacked several times by Boxers, and for no reason. He was just playing fetch with me at the park. One time one of those Boxers bit my hand when I tried to pry his jaws off of my dog's face. I had two bloody holes to prove it. I got the owners number and made sure to get confirmation that his Boxer was up on his rabies shots.
![[Linked Image]](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr288/Bwnci/welsh-flag-large-anim.gif)
![[Linked Image]](http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/TheRealHawkeye/TrevorandJillianII.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w188/TheRealHawkeye/TrevorWithPatches.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://www.joanrivers.com/UserFiles/siegfried-harriet-roy.jpg)
