Risks in adopting a Pitti

[Don Plumley]

We have had three pibbles, all rescues. Two now. My positive support for the breed is unwavering despite what others have written here. My Staffy/Bully mix is afraid of cats.

The reason they inspire such strong emotion is because of their affection, loyalty, goofiness - they are just bundles of love. The Michael Vick dogs - all rehabilitated successfully. Dogs that have endured unspeakable horror become family dogs of inspiration and hope.

Yes, there are bad dogs, and most are correlated with SOB's for owners. I would not hesitate to get one from a reputable rescue organization. Some can be challenging with other dogs, so they take an owner that understands this and manages them appropriately - no different from Rottweilers, Dobermans, GSD's, or other breeds. No, they are not for everyone. But if you open you home and heart to one you will be repaid in immeasurable ways.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by speeder

It's ALL in the breeding. You can adjust behavior somewhat w socializing and training but if the genetics are fked up, forget it.

Denis is, of course, discussing mankind's long history of carefully planned, directed breeding of domestic animals to bring out specific characteristics that we may deem desirable in them. Anything from faster race horses to cows with greater milk production. With dogs, we have bred faster racing dogs, more adept retrievers, guard dogs for both our livestock and ourselves, and on and on. Animals painstakingly bred for specific purposes, over many, many generations.

Originally Posted by Alan A

Wonder if you feel the same about people?

In sharp contrast to our ongoing efforts with our domestic animals, I'm unaware of anyone having purpose bred humans for any specific characteristics. No one is breeding faster sprinters, bigger football players, more intelligent scientists, or anything at all like that. Unless I've somehow missed all of that.

Originally Posted by Alan A

Sounds like you and James Watson would get on famously. I otoh tend a bit more towards Joseph Graves in this case and think Nurture > Nature

Amazing. So, in your world, one who argues that breeding plays a role in canine behavior must also be a racist. I quite honestly would not have made that connection. That's simply brilliant.

By the way, if you really want to go down the path of trotting out James Watson in a discussion about dog breeding, you may want to review what is widely acknowledged as one of the definitive studies on human intelligence. If you are really lucky, maybe you can find something these guys have published concerning canine intelligence and behavior. At least that way it might be relevant to this discussion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

[RSBob]

Yes there are plenty of lovable Pits out there and conversely. My question is that with all the dog breeds available, why would you even take a chance on onewhich might end in tradegy and financial ruin? What would Mr. Spock of the old Star Trek say?

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Alan A

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/14/father-dna-says-he-still-believes-link-between-race-intelligence-his-lab-just-stripped-him-his-titles/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5a50d85f10c7

What does the double helix have to do with his other theories?
Tesla believed in aliens and talking pigeons. Do we all have to give up A/C electricity radio microwaves etc now?

There is a mix of every kind of dog within every dog.
We humans can brings out the differences of personalities and they can be wonderful.
But it would ignorant to ignore the other potentials will always still exist just below the normal 'threshold' range of trained accepted behavior.
Put the animal in different circumstances and a different brain program runs.
It's the same for all species.

With humans it's also impossible to ignore the basics: Sex, age, and race can all be reliably predicted from skeletal form and skulls alone. Scientifically. Even before the BFH of genetics. Tay-Sachs, Sickle Cell, and other external factors affect different people differently. Not passing judgement here. There are advantages and disadvantages to every 'race' on the planet but please don't attempt to call a Chihuahua a Great Dane and try to force that perspective on others.

[unclebilly]

Lots of stupid in this thread. Loads of advise from those who have never owned a pitty or pitty mix and base their opinions off of media hype. The funny thing is that many of those opposed to pit bulls ownership are OK with assault rifles and black guns in general.

On another bent, in many ways this thread reminds me of this thread... http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/938264-anyone-know-much-about-metallurgy.html Every PPOT metallurgy expert chimed in with nonsense not really understanding that it wasn’t a metallurgy related failure because they never understood the operation of the part that failed...

My last dog was a pitty cross. She was also a husky cross and looked like she had some rotti too. This was the most affectionate, best behaved, most likeable dog I have ever known. She never destroyed anything (apart from her own toys), was wonderful with children (the Lick Bull term above applied to Coco). She never bit anybody. She was well socialized and was at the off leash park 1-2 times every week when we lived in town. When we moved out to our farm, she was always off leash. Sadly at 14 years old, we had to put her down and this was one of the worst days of my life. I miss that dog every day.

Our current dog is also a mutt. This is a cross between a Carolina dog and a Standard Poodle. This is hands down the stupidest mutt in the world. We have done obedience with her and she walks on a leash just fine, she does great with the kids mailing her. The bad traits with this dog are:

1. Still chases cows and calves. Every F—ing day.
2. Goes full retard when the school bus comes. Has to be tied up or she will scratch the crap out of the door and drywall if she is inside. The neighbors for 2 miles around know the bus is here by the barking.
3. Barks at cars 1 mile away on the road.
4. Sniffs crotchs - this drives me bonkers.
5. Bit an amazon courier at Christmas.
6. Chases one of our cats.
7. Has started digging through the garbage when we are not home.
8. Has no conscious. Our pitty cross knew when she did someth8ng bad and was ashamed and wouldn’t do it again. This idiot on the other hand seems untrainable in this regard.

All this being said, she is big and would protect us. She runs out and barks when someone pulls into our yard. She is loving and our kids and my wife love her. She keeps the coyotes out of the yard.

She is no Coco. Our pitty cross was a far better dog in every way. I wanted to get another but my wife chose this big dumb lummox. We walk her twice a day. Each walk is at least a mile (easy to do when you have 160 acres like we do).

The people who have replied who have actual experience with Pitbull dogs (have actually owned them) have all said yes. These are the people whose advise I would follow. They are great dogs. No shelter will adopt out a vicious dog. One of the tests is to take away the dogs food when it is eating and see how it responds. Your risk is very low on one of these dogs.

[LesPaulFan]

Daniel Tosh said something about pit bulls. Its like having a roided up MMA fighter sitting on the couch with you. They look really scary to me

[Chocaholic]

Pitty’s, Pibbles, seem to be names created by people who defend. Pit Bull seems to be used by those who suggest caution.

Just trying to save reading time. No other point, really.

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by vonsmog

It will turn on you for no reason, and are a time bomb waiting to go off. You can't own a lion, and you shouldn't be allowed to own a pitt bull as well. At least that is my option, your mileage can be different. But then I was attacked by two of them, so I might be prejudiced. What is the saying "only drug dealers and white trash own Pitt bulls"

Can you tell I don't care for them, get yourself a golden retriever, you will never be happier.

with ya on this. just don't understand the need to argue genetics. if you want to bring a dog that has generations of attack and kill in its genetics into your home don't be surprised when many folks fail to believe you have somehow unlocked the key to making it safe.

not sure if it's arrogance or foolishness that causes some folks to think they can buck a trend established in genetics.

and it's not just pit bulls that have a bad rap. chessies do as well. my daughter was nipped on the lip by a buddies chessie when she got too close to his face at a party. half dozen adults within two feet of her when it happened and all of a sudden there is blood running down her face and she's terrified. Happy household, 4 people, a lab to play with and plenty of socialization. But he's a chessie and it's not a real surprise when a chessie acts out like that.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by LesPaulFan

Daniel Tosh said something about pit bulls. Its like having a roided up MMA fighter sitting on the couch with you. They look really scary to me

Dogs are very clued in to how you perceive them and their behavior reflects your attitude. Most people are clueless about this, they view a dog's behavior as a function of the dog's personality, They seldom realize that the dog is really reacting to them.

One of my rescue dogs is probably an American Staffordshire terrier. No papers, just a mutt rescued off of the street, but his picture could be the poster for that breed. He's a little overweight, but he'd be a big boy regardless and probably scales around 90 pounds. He's the alpha dog in the house and is about 10.

I've had a few people visit recently. The first were my sister and her husband. They've been dog owners for their entire lives and they own two rescue dogs, both pit bull mixes. They've known my dog for years but neither of them is anywhere close to comfortable with him. They think he's scary looking, because of his size. My sister will grudgingly pet him a little bit but she's happiest with him a ways from her. Her husband won't touch him and he didn't even sit down this last time he came over. My dog reacted to this by thoroughly checking them out. He never showed any signs of aggression, his demeanor was relaxed, he demonstrated that he'd have liked some attention but there was an uncomfortable dynamic coming from the visitors, so I took control of him and gave them the distance from him that they wanted.

The other visitors were a couple that came over to look at a motocross bike I had for sale. Both were dog friendly and, while the husband spent most of his time looking at the bike, the wife spent all of her time interacting with the dog. She let him do his initial inspection then they became fast friends. Almost immediately he was on his back on the floor, getting his belly rubbed. Before they left, he was sitting on her feet while we were all out in the garage looking at the bike. She'd never had a pit bull, the closest was an English bulldog, but she couldn't get enough of him. He loved every minute of it.

When people and dogs interact, it's the people that are in control of the outcome. Be mindful of this when you are around dogs.

[Crowbob]

I went boondocking with my cousin on his property. His daughter’s BF brought his two Pitts. They were well-behaved, a bit on the active side and loved being out in nature. So basically normal family dogs.

I had my eye on them every second.

Went grocery shopping with my grandson and a Pitt was sitting comfortably in a parked pickup with all the usual markings of a Pitt owner and the window almost all the way open.

That dog stared us down as we walked by so I picked up my grandson and loaded him up. I was relieved when I drove away.

Now, anybody tells me Pitts are no different than any other breed I tell them. Yes they are. They scare me to death AND THE DOG KNOWS IT.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by javadog

When people and dogs interact, it's the people that are in control of the outcome. Be mindful of this when you are around dogs.

Obviously you are a very responsible pit owner and are alert to your dog's behavior and the behavior of people around them. Most aren't and assume that owning a pit (or a rot or a mastif or a German Shepard, etc.) is just like owning a beagle. And this majority of irresponsible owners is the problem. I can poorly interact with a beagle and the worst that might happen is a minor nip or bite. If I interact poorly with a pit or similar, I'm likely going to the hospital with very serious injuries.

Random attacks in the news just from the last week or 2:

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

Obviously you are a very responsible pit owner and are alert to your dog's behavior and the behavior of people around them. Most aren't and assume that owning a pit (or a rot or a mastif or a German Shepard, etc.) is just like owning a beagle. And this majority of irresponsible owners is the problem. I can poorly interact with a beagle and the worst that might happen is a minor nip or bite. If I interact poorly with a pit or similar, I'm likely going to the hospital with very serious injuries.

Random attacks in the news just from the last week or 2:

Seems pretty analogous to this...



If my dog that bit the amazon delivery guy was a pitbull breed, it would have made the national news. As it was, we never heard from bylaw or anybody...

[berettafan]

I'd say it's analogous to giving an AR15 to a teenager who wears a trenchcoat and black eyeliner to school every day. or giving a stick of butter to Paula Deen.

in both cases we shouldn't be surprised when certain things happen.

[trader220]

Thanks again to everyone for all of the responses.

I don't see where guns have anything to do with dogs.

Can we keep it on topic?

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Alan A

Sounds like you and James Watson would get on famously. I otoh tend a bit more towards Joseph Graves in this case and think Nurture > Nature.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/14/father-dna-says-he-still-believes-link-between-race-intelligence-his-lab-just-stripped-him-his-titles/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5a50d85f10c7

Troll.

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by trader220

Thanks again to everyone for all of the responses.

I don't see where guns have anything to do with dogs.

Can we keep it on topic?

I guess the point is that certain dog breeds make the news when they bite somebody, so that breed gets a bad name. This is similar to how if there is an incident involving an AR15, the newsreel lights up with assault weapon ban rhetoric, whereas if someone gets shot with a 22 or hunting rifle, you never hear about it. It happens but it isn't newsworthy.

[Les Paul]

Well, pitbull’s literally are taking over the world I see them in Europe I see them in Australia and about any crossbred in the states now seems to have pitbull in it. Some of them are very sweet. Others still have a tendency to want to kill. Not only other animals but other occasionally a human incident. I am all for crossbreds but if they could stay away from something that looks like a pitbull it would probably be the best advice.

I just asked my Uncle who was a small animal vet for 45 years. That is what he said.

[unclebilly]

Best dog ever with my son when he was young...



Dumb as a post and bit the Amazon guy...

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by trader220

Thanks again to everyone for all of the responses.

I don't see where guns have anything to do with dogs.

Can we keep it on topic?

Do not allow the two chi-devils to ever be alone with a PBJ ....I know sammiches

PBJezebel

I've loved 17 of 'em since they were weeks old... Get the lab puppy... never look back.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by trader220

Thanks again to everyone for all of the responses.

I don't see where guns have anything to do with dogs.

Can we keep it on topic?

I think the point here is that some things (large dogs, guns, 600hp cars, any Mustang) need a little more care in ownership than others and many people don't give them the extra care that is necessary and, when bad things happen, the incidents make the news quickly, as our media is prone to sensationalizing certain news.

"Pit bull eats baby"
"Assault rifle shoots school kids"
"Mustang runs over 30 people leaving Cars and Coffee event!"

Back to your specific needs, if you wish to have a dog tag along with you semi-supervised wherever you go, and you wish to be able to bring it over to the GF's house and get along with the 2 Mexican ankle killers, you're probably better off with a pretty low-key dog. A large dog, or a dog with the energy level of a pit bull, is probably not a good choice. They can be quite safe to own but they require more of the owner in the way of supervision and control.