General Question

jenlk1207's avatar

How do you feel about pitbulls?

Asked by jenlk1207 (440points) March 21st, 2008 from iPhone

do you think a well trained and treated pitbull would make a good pet? Or is it in their breed to be fighters?

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27 Answers

Randy's avatar

They can make good pets. Dogs are like people, they each have an individual personality. With a pit bull, your taking a higher risk of it attacking, but you take that risk with any dog. I’ve know people who have had pits that were the biggest babies young ever seen. On the other hand, I’ve seen some that wouldnt hesitate to eat off a persons face.

Spargett's avatar

Well, I’ve never heard of a golden retriever mauling people to death. I understand that golden retriever’s aren’t raised in a certain way. But I know people who have had pitbulls which were raised completely normally with nothing but love, only to exhibit dangerous behavior by attacking people or other animals unprovoked.

They really just seem like a mental unstable breed, that can possibly be normal. And I feel for breed that people use them for such horrible things, such as dog fighting and ego inflation.

All in all. Generally sweet dogs, but I wouldn’t trust them with a kid or pet.

P.S. I’m trying to find the video, but I saw one where a local pitbull breeder invited a local news crew over to show people how loving an gentle they are by showing the dog at play with the breeders daughter. Everything is fine, until for no reason at all… the dog attacked the little girl. The whole news crew jumped in a beat the dog off of the little girl, which attacked again, this time getting the girl’s throat. After they beat it of her a second time, they all retreating into the house. Where the camera then filmed the dog proceeding to murder it’s own entire litter of new pups.

Something ain’t right with those dogs.

SCO's avatar

pit bulls are just like any other dogs. It just all depends how it was trained. Yes they might have dog fighting genetics but they will never even know they are capable of it if they were never expose or force to do so.

jrpowell's avatar

We had a pitbull puppy when I was growing up. It ripped apart a few kittens. Nobody ever beat it or did anything bad to it. Yeah, we came home and found kitten parts a over the lawn.

My father tied it to a fence-post and shot the dog.

I would never trust another pitbull.

SCO's avatar

Most puppies do rip things apart because they are teething but some breeds are worst than others like I have stated before it depends how you train them . It takes time and discipline. Even we had to shit in our pants before we were old enough to learn how to go to the bathroom. I’m surprise your alive cuz I would have thought your dad tight u up and shot you because you kept taking a shit in your pants

Spargett's avatar

@SCO

You were way off point there.

Ripping apart pillows or shoes = Acceptable
Killing all of the other pets = Unacceptable

SCO's avatar

Sorry I misread the kitten part. However that still don’t give an excuse to shoot the puppy. Its a domino effect

Spargett's avatar

No one is talking about shooting puppies just because they’re pitbulls. You’re trying to inject false vilanism into anyone who is a critic of the breed. I don’t play games like that.

annaott22's avatar

I could care less about pit bulls I was bitten by a “well treated” and “loved” pit. I was just walking by paying no mind to the dog and the next thing I know I’m prying the jaws of a pitbull off my arm. I think its the dogs instinct to hunt and fight.

annaott22's avatar

@SCO Its an animals instinct to hunt for food. All animals will hunt and fight no matter what environent they grow up in! I don’t trust any animal I’ve learned that from being a vet tech.

sinscriven's avatar

Most of the pets i’ve had in my life were pitbulls, and they have been nothing but amazingly sweet and gentle dogs. This may be because we coddled them, but they’ve actually grown up to be pretty poor guard dogs as they are overly friendly to anyone. And they’ve never harmed another animal either.

Only one of my dogs has actually attacked anything, and that was when my chow chow killed a cat.

Fallstand's avatar

My g/f moved in with a girl from work who had two pitbulls.. The two of us share a small dog (a puggle.. beegle/pug mix) He was there for one day before the one attacked him. If I wasn’t out back with them he’d definitely would’ve gotten killed. I had to pick up this huge pitbull in the middle of attacking my dog. That was a pretty scary situation.. So I just don’t trust them.

iSteve's avatar

I think breeding has a lot to do with it. I know several pit bulls who are just marshmallows! Including a rescue that was saved by a woman after it had been thrown from a pickup and left by the side of the road for dead. She can’t walk well but is an incredibly happy little angel who could quite possibly lick people to death!!!

scamp's avatar

Pit Bulls can be great pets, but because of there is no way to know when one will become aggresive, I don’t think it’s wise to have one in a house with small children.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.ci.pitbull23oct23,0,7163330.story

syz's avatar

In my work in the veterinary field, I have never been bitten by a pit. Problem/biting breeds in descending order – cocker spaniels, dalmations, rotties, chows, shar peis, poodles, chihuahuas, dachschunds.

One problem is that pits are seen as a “macho” breed and so are taught to be aggressive and to fight.

The other problem is that because of their physiology, when they do bite, it’s seriously bad news – they have an astonishing amount of bite power and they’re also extremely stubborn and don’t let go once they’ve latched on.

We had a client last week with two pits with a history of dominance issues. The owner actually shot one of her own pets three times with a 9mm in an effort to end the fight. Dominance issues like this happen within households all of the time – the severity of the damage that is done is what causes the problem. Oh, and the truly disgusting thing about that case? Even though the owner knew there were dominance issues, she didn’t neuter either on of the males. I don’t blame the dogs – I blame the owner.

SCO's avatar

@ spargett
yeah you have made some good point and I can’t make my point clearly. Bottom line is that pits can be good pets but dpending how they are breed. U need evaluate the the dam/ bitch that they are from.
I’m just tired of people discriminate these dogs all the time without further knowledge than just what other people’s experiences of them. Its like saying every person that wear glasses are intelligent just because I know someone who does wear is very intelligent

TheHaight's avatar

they are wonderful dogs, about a couple years ago I found an abandoned pit bull puppy in my backyard and gave it a home. She was amazing! So sweet, charasmatic, playful. Last summer she got hit by a car, lived a very short life… But a good one. I always think about her. Lucy was her name.

Angelina's avatar

Let’s put it this way. Any dog can react unpredictably. A pit bull, a poodle, a cocker spaniel, even a maltese will bite you if they are spooked or provoked, no matter how sweet they normally are or how well they’ve been treated. But let’s be real here. Pit bulls are bred to have strong, wide jaws that lock onto their adversary. So they can do a lot more damage than most other breeds.

ghostrider1111's avatar

pits can be excellent pets,,, they were not originally bred for fighting,, this was a characteristic of the bull dog,, but at the same time they were bred to like people!! The reason was due to the fact that during fights they would need medics etc. to pull them apart to heal them. Secondly,, to set the record straight,, no dog (pit included has lock jaw) and there bite pressure is substaintially less then a rotti. Thirdly,, due to the fact that a pitbull is not breed to be agressive towards humans one will not see them as being used as guard dogs. This job is left for the rotti, dobbi and german shepard,, all of which i am personally far more scared off.

One should read up on the breed before making comments. All breeds have there bad and dangerous ones,, this just happens to be worse with any large size dogs.

You all should view the Mike Vickers pitbull story,,, this issue of his 31 or 32 fighting pitbulls and their end result was a super thumbs up for the breed.

John2907's avatar

YES THEY DO MAKE GREAT PETS, I AM A PITBULL BREEDER AND HAVE BEEN BREEDING THEM FOR 24 YEARS NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH ONE…I LOVE PITBULLS IN MY OPINION THEY ARE THE BEST DOGS…MY CHILDREN GREW UP WITH THEM AND THEY NEVER ATTACKED OR GAVE ANY WARNINGS WHEN THEY USE TO PLAY ROUGH WITH THE DOGS…IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE OWNER IF YOU TREAT A DOG BAD ALL OF HIS LIFE HE WILL BE A BAD DOG AND MOST LIKELY TURN ON YOU AND ATTACK YOU, BUT IF YOU TREAT THE DOG WITH LOVE AND AFFECTION AND TEACH THEM TO BE VERY SOCIAL THEN YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THEM ATTACKING ANYONE THE ONLY THING YOU’LL GET IN RETURN IS LOVE, HONESTY, RESPECT, AND LOYALISM OUT OF THE DOG.

-Jhon

syz's avatar

Stop shouting

allison2013's avatar

i think that pits are a very sweet and caring breed. i have been around many and they have showed nothing except love and affection. if a pit bull attacks you, you obveously did something to spook it. pits are just like any other dog, and will do anything to protect itself.

TootsieLOU's avatar

A dog is born with the instincts to feed from their mother, not to kill for food.Even in the wild, an animal abandoned by their mother, will starve to death. It is the mother that teaches it’s child to hunt and kill for food. Last time I checked, domestic dog mother does not teach it’s young to kill for food, it shows them where the food bowl is. Only a dogs owner can teach it to be violent. They are not born with it. It is not instinctual to them. They are not wild, they are domestic…there is a huge difference.

I mean it’s true. One of the main arguments is that Pit Bull’s are wired to be violent. Sorry kids, but they lost that attribute when they became domesticated, not to mention, even in the wild, it is taught. Wild animals are born with the instinct to feed from their mothers, no to hunt for food, they aren’t capable of it.

I mean really, go to a shelter and there are hundreds of dogs, from any breed from Yorkies to a Golden Retrievers that fester violent tendencies and fear towards humans. Why? Because they were abused. Do we blame them for their tendencies, never, in fact, we usually sympathize with them and nurture them trying to correct their experience with humans. But let’s blame the pit bull breed in it’s entirety, because that’s fair. Because that makes sense. Because why would be give them the consideration we give to every other breed.

Last time I check when abuse is abuse. And it’s never accepted. All these statistics say is that Pit Bull are one of the most highly abused breed in the country. Their owners took advantage of the breed, and raised them to be something that live from fear. If anything we should accept this breed with open arms. Teach them that not all humans are evil. Show them that there is something better than abuse, show them that people are to love, not to fear.

evil2's avatar

i own a pitbull and i must say i was somewhat resistant to getting the dog i have. I got maggie from the spca in edmonton, and i must say she is the best dog i have ever met. We took her to pitbull classses and the other pits seemed more high strung and less aware of what the rules for interacting with others, i am a big fan of cesar milan and his teaching have helped me create a very well balanced dog , that is great with kids , dogs , people and even my pet rabbit, not that i would leave the rabbit with the dog c’mon she’s a terrier which were bred to hunt rodents….

desiree333's avatar

Of course they would make a good pet if they are trained properly. Dogs become aggressive because they are trained to be so or out of frustration from lack of attention/love/exercise from their owners. There are no bad dogs, just bad owners.

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mpippin's avatar

I am madly in love with 2 pitbulls… namely my 8 yr old Rebel and my 6 yr old Diesel… I adopted Rebel from a local shelter when he was 10 months old and Diesel was bought from a “friend of a friend” at 5 weeks old. They are the most loving dogs I have ever owned and Ive owned ALOT of dogs in my life.. For instance, I was upset and crying just days ago and Rebel climbs into bed with me and lays his head in the bend of my neck as if to hug me… When I come home from work every morning, Diesel is there “smiling” at me, tail a’waggin… best dogs Ive ever loved! Experts will tell you, its all about how they are raised.. You can raise ANY dog to be mean & nasty… **Only dog Ive ever been bitten by was a pomeranian…

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