I am writing this to give you the answers to the real pit bull problem and to dispel some of your more fallacious arguments. I am a pit bull advocate. I have in the past owned an American Bulldog/pit bull mix and am expecting in January to acquire an APBT puppy from a breeder that is reputable and I have done my homework on, checked references, and personally know someone who has gotten 3 dogs from this kennel and are the furthest things from “frankenmaulers” on the planet. And before you call me a “nutter” or “white trash” or whatever you want to call me, please know that I am a middle class, suburban married female and I have obtained an undergraduate degree and will be completing my second degree within the next few weeks in health care.
What we have today is not a pit bull problem. Its a dog problem. All dogs in general, and because of this powerful breeds are becoming a casualty. The first problem is breeders who have no business breeding dogs, putting two dogs together just because they are of the opposite sex, or the “right” color/size/etc. Many of these so called “backyard breeders” don't have the first clue about temperament and aren't evaluating the temperaments of their breeding stock or the puppies they produce. Hence we get into trouble with injuries and even deaths, which of course are always tragic. I would argue that most dogs who bite and do serious damage do so not because of their breed, but because of their temperament. All dogs, like people inherit their temperament to a certain degree. Please see the following article from a German Shepherd site about drives and temperament (which are common to ALL members of the species Canis familiaris regardless of breed, a concept so many of you hopelessly fail to understand-ALL dogs are born with the drives mentioned in this article. They are essential for survival):
This is an excellent article for anyone wanting to learn more about why dogs do the things they do. In the article, the author discusses “weak nerves” which to put it a little more succinctly than the article does is basically a dog that has a tendency to be skittish, shy, or have a low tolerance for excessive stimuli. This is where your fear biters come into play, and unfortunately this has become a big problem with our breed: the over breeding, and breeding by people who have absolutely no business doing it. Its also become a problem with many other large, powerful breeds like GSD's, Rottweilers, and their ilk. If I would have to venture a guess, most of the tragic injuries are resultant from dogs with genetically weak nerves that came from parents who should never have been bred in the first place. Which is why as an advocate of the breed, and an advocate of dogs in general, I feel there should be strict regulations in place about who gets to breed ANY breed of dog, and those people should be required to become experts in evaluating temperaments and drive in adults as well as puppies, and of course do all the required health testing. Its also become a problem in shelters and rescues who are not doing a very good job of temperament testings these dogs, not that a shelter is a great environment for doing temperament testing anyway. All of you anti-APBT people love to decry ATTS but it is probably one of the best tools we have to evaluate the likelihood that a dog will fatally maul a person. Yes, ATTS IS based on Shutzhund, and yes, a dog that passes the ATTS test would be considered a confident, strong nerved (I would not use the word assertive here, the test does not measure rank drive) dog. That is EXACTLY what you want in one of the strong breeds. A dog that is not going to be rattled by ANYTHING. A dog that has strong nerves is not going to fear bite, period.
The second problem is a people problem, although many of the people I am going to talk about DO have good intentions. I don't know when we stopped treating dogs like dogs in this country and started treating them like people. The fact is that they AREN'T people and what you or I might find soothing or comforting can be threatening to a dog. Such behaviors as hugging a dog, getting in your dog's face, sweet talking a dog when he is unsure all contribute further to making a dog unstable. You want a fear biter? Take a shy puppy who is unsure of something, pet him and say “Shhh, shhhh its ok baby” To a dog, that display of affection is a reward so what you are basically telling him is “Good boy for being afraid.” You are setting that dog up for failure for the rest of his life. If you want to engage in this kind of stuff, have a human baby, don't get a dog. We need to treat dogs like dogs. Dogs are pack animals and they have to know their place in the pecking order or they become anxious and unstable. If you are a thugged out ghetto gangsta with low self confidence getting a pit bull because its going to make you look “tough” you are setting that dog up to become anxious and unstable. Your dog should respect you and be under your control 100% of the time. Too often you see people adopting a pit bull from a shelter because “Awww poor little baby was abused, lets take him home and love on him” That dog may like you, but he sure doesn't respect you. If however, you take him home, teach him to respect the rules of your home, teach him that he looks to you for all of his needs (including protection) chances are you are not going to have a problem. If you cannot do these things, and you cannot commit the sufficient time to provide exercise to the animal, you do not need to own a pit bull. Get one of those little ankle biters instead. Another disturbing trend I have seen with dogs is highly aggressive toy breeds who are allowed to continue with this behavior because its “cute”. Its not. Its aggression and should not be tolerated. My brother was bitten by a snack sized dog and nearly lost his entire index finger due to the bite and subsequent infection. His crime? Reaching over to hand his friend a drink who had this dog in his lap. I was similarly terrorized and bitten repeatedly in the legs by a neighbors cocker spaniels when I was a very young girl, causing a lifelong fear of dogs, until I met my first pit bull, a friend's dog called Remy.
I'm not naive to the breeds history. I know that a certain amount of dog aggression can be inherent. Pit bulls are not for dog parks. Only the most ignorant continue this trend, and they have no business owning a pit bull. However, if you treat your dog LIKE A DOG and not as a human child, your dog will look to you enough on a walk that you can teach him to focus on you and to ignore other dogs. Its a good practice to begin teaching on walks with young pups. Not to say that socialization is not important, it is, but you never know how dog tolerant your dog will be. An adequately exercised dog with an owner he understands is the “boss” can easily ignore other dogs on a walk and never become a problem. If you are not willing to do this, you should not own a pit bull. If you are not willing to supervise your dog in your fenced yard, you have no business owning a pit bull, and if you are not willing to supervise your CHILDREN with a dog, you have no business owning a dog PERIOD. I have seen many, many pictures of idiot parents letting their huge dogs lick up their baby, or put their sleeping baby in their sleeping dogs paws..................that really, really scares me. A dog should know that an infant or small child belongs to YOU and he is not to mess with it. Then as the child becomes older should take part in the training routine so dog knows child is higher in rank than he. But lets not mince words. Any other breed of dog can be dog aggressive. My in laws yellow lab is terribly dog aggressive, yet they are in total denial about it. He is 95 lbs and very strong, and could do some serious damage given the right opportunity.
You also relish in talking about “unprovoked” attacks. Very, very few dog attacks are actually unprovoked and just because a dog did not growl or nip or raise his hackles first does not mean that he did not give a warning. As human beings, 70% of our communication is non verbal. That's more like 90% for dogs. Much of their non verbal communication is very subtle, but if you know what you are looking for, you will be able to see signs that a dog is uncomfortable in a situation. Please do some research on calming signals in dogs. That would be a good place to start. If you don't want to learn about dog body language, you have no business owning a dog, period. A dog behaviorist I have had the pleasure of working with told me some very wise words once. “All dogs WILL bite, given the proper motivation.” Those very, very few “unprovoked” attacks likely come from dogs that are ill, old and senile (yes, dogs do go senile) or have a neurologic issue similar to bipolar disorder or psychosis in people. I had this situation happen to me. Our AB/APBT mix bit me last April after I startled him awake. At the time, he was riddled with lymphoma, we just didn't know it yet. Four months later, it was so bad that his chest was filling with fluid. We had him put to sleep, and it was the worst day of my life.
Finally, you enjoy fallaciously claiming that BSL and racism or discrimination are far afield from each other. On your Pit Bull Chatter blog, you made some comparison to the Remington 700 misfiring with the number of pit bull attacks. Well to use your same logic the US DOJ found that blacks were seven times more likely than whites to commit homicide. These statistics were collected between 1980 and 2010. See the article from DOJ http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/htus8008pr.cfm. By this same logic, should we then assume that all African Americans are killers and preemptively put them behind bars? By your own argument, comparing a pit bull to a gun, your OWN argument logically shows that BSL IS discrimination along the same lines as racism.
I don't know what happened to you to hate these dogs so much. I personally have never met a vicious one. Yes, I was bit by a very sick dog, but that didn't stop me from consulting a veterinarian and a behaviorist and doing what I needed to do for my dog. I have never met a pit bull that fits the description of “frankenmauler” you so love to bandy about. What I have seen are dogs with heart and courage. Dogs that no matter what you ask them to do, they excel at. Most sanctioned dogs sports were not created with pit bulls in mind, but they excel at all of them: weight pulling, agility, flyball, dock diving, I've even seen a few with herding titles. They are exceptional working dogs, having assisted law enforcement in seizing an untold amount of drugs, helping gain control of the dangerous feral hog population in the south, and serving as good listeners for children that are unconfident in reading aloud. What we have in this country is a dog problem and a human problem, not a pit bull problem. If we cannot have adequate, reasonable discourse on this topic, the problem will never be solved.
