Not true.
Just plain BS.

 

I hate cocker spaniels.

If you don't understand pack mentality, you have no business owning a dog over 20 pounds.

 

I'm not a big cocker fan either, they're ruthless dogs much of the time.

To every breed there are a few exeptions (not every single GM or Ford is a POS), but the bull breeds tend to naturally be more vicious.

The only dog that I would ever own over 20lb would be a Golden or a Lab. Dogs that tend to be more family friendly. Not saying they all are, but pretty much most of them are.

 

Bulls demand a strong hand. You have to do special things with them for them to understand fully where their place in the home is. Because of their nature, size, and strength, you have to clearly demonstate at an early age that they are on the bottom of the totem poll in the house. Clearly, and frequently demonstrate.

When I say do special things, I really mean it, and it's little things, but crucially important. For instance, you don't just drop their food in their bowl for them. You put the food in the bowl, and then when they try to go for it, you keep them away from it. It's your food, and you will let him have it when you are good and ready. If you aren't the type to do this, then you clearly have no business owning a dog of this stature.

I know it looks cute and funny when you try to take a dog's bone from him/her and they growl and get all funny looking, but this is what's called food aggressive, and if you own a dog like a pit or rott, this behavior has to be curtailed at an early age. I garuantte you that this thread's originator can go up to his personal adult pits, and grab a bone from them and they wouldn't even blink. I don't know the guy, and that's a bold statement, but it's clear from the way he has talked about them that he has made it clear who the alpha in his house is. Food aggressive dogs are the ones that will nip at a child or adult when they make sudden movements or pull on tails and the like.

BTW, when I say I hate spaniels, I mean I really hate them. Dumb as the day is long, pee at the slightest level of excitement, and inbred like 14th century royal. Total waste of space, and 95% should be euthenized to protect the breed.

 

These strong assumptions are just as logical as the one's that we are making about the bull breads.

Check this out:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/dogbreeds.pdf (if link doesn't work, you may also access it through the "Dog Attack" article on Wikipedia.org)

From 1979-1998 dog fatalities:

Pit Bull: 98 (purebred) 20 (crossbred) 118 (total)
Rottweiler: 60 (pb) 7 (cb) 67 (t)
German Shepherd: 24 (pb) 17 (cb) 41 (t)
Husky-type: 15 (pb) 6 (cb) 21 (t)
Malamute: 13 (pb) 3 (cb) 16 (t)

The Pit and Rott make up
over half of fatalities related to dog cases!

Again, I'm not saying that all Bull breads are terrible pets, all I'm saying is that they tend to naturally be dangerous dogs.

It's also pretty amazing considering that 19 cities and/or countries have banned the breed and that another 10 have a banning proposed. Yes, I understand that many of these are places where they are bred to attack and kill (like Queens NY). But I can promise that not all Pit Bulls are bred for that in the United Kingdom, and they have taken the liberty to ban them in public since 1991.

Many homeowner's insurance policies will not insure homes with Pit Bull-type breeds (such as AllState), as quoted by Wikipedia.org.

 

Buy a Yorkshire Terrier.... have no problems, and you dont have to worry about who has pit bulls so long as they keep their dogs to their own peoples.

If you have a pit bull and they act good, great, but dont cry when you come home to a dead child. Kinda like support street racing, but dont come crying to me when your buddy loses his life doing it.

Everyone has freedom, thats why we live here. So long as people accept the choices they make and the consequences that become of them, who are we to tell someone otherwise.

 

Uhm, ok. Well let's get into some nitty gritty of things here.

First insurance companies are widely known for doing whatever they can do to take your money, but not pay out. Therefore, all it takes is a few anamolies for them to pull out. Texas and Florida are both going through that right now. In Texas, Allstate pulled out because of a few cases of mold. In Florida, it's because of hurricanes. And State Farm just a lost a landmark case over their handling of Katrina victims.

Second, 118 deaths/year? wow, I mean really, wow. Did you know that in 2003 there were 5991 deaths due to walking? Yup, 5991 pedestrian deaths. And peek that, there's a few more entertaining stats. 597 deaths due to tripping, slipping, and stumbling! And it also refutes your claim of 118 pit deaths by claiming only 32 deaths due to dog bites.

It's important to put all stats in perspective for a frame of reference.

I know I know, if you don't own a pit, and if nobody owned a pit, then there wouldn't be any! Wrong, you can't destroy all of them, and then ones you don't destroy would become wild.

 

oh snap! I just saw the dates on your stats!! !!! 6 deaths per year!!! omg!! that's hilarious. What a menace!!


And by the way, stand behind the spaniel comments. Ask any breeder/owner. You can't untrain stupid/inbred. It's impossible. And 95% of all spaniels are too dumb to live due to massive inbreeding in the 60's/70's due to a dramatic surge in popularity.

 

Think of it in this perspective. For every death there are probably 5-10 people (70% of victims are children in the article) who were seriously injured, maybe more. A lady in our parts department has a five-year-old son who fortunately was not one of only "six" a year that is found in that statistic. However, his uncle's Pit, who played with the boy all the time, was sitting outside next to him on the patio. The boy looked over at the dog, and the dog bit his face. He was rushed to the ER and survived but now he has severe scarring on the left side of his face. He refers to it as his "ugly side" and it breaks my heart everytime I hear that.

Now again, I want to say again that not every single Pit or Rott is going to be vicious, but I do know that the breed tends to be vicious. I was never around a Pit groing up, niether was my wife (nor will my future children).

You can say that I don't know how great the breed can be because I have never been around them, and I say to you, there are several other breeds that are much more people friendly that I would love to be around, and have been around.

You laugh at "only 118" deaths from Pit Bulls over the last twenty years. Funny right? Well I bet it wasn't very funny to the 82 sets of parents who put their children into the ground over the last twenty years. Think of all those parents who hate themselves for getting a Pit to protect their kids when it ended up killing (or even seriously wounding) them.

As stated by ih8civx, I will own dogs like a Yorkie, because even if they turn vicious for some odd reason, they aren't going to kill anyone, maybe only bite an ankle or two before it would have to be put down.

 

Think of it this way: What are the odds that someone will creep into your house, while you are asleep (happens tens of thousands of a time year accross the country), vs the odds of getting eaten by your pit, vs a tradgedy in the making with a gun in the home. That's my point. There are risks associated with everything in life, and I'll take my chances with a killer dog watching over my family that I am in complete control of vs being defenseless when some punk is rifling through my dresser at 3 o'clock in the morning.

BTW, nobody keeps stats on how many lives bulls, shepards, and rotts save by protecting their families. Either in a direct way by fending off assailants, or indirectly by potential assailants choosing to prey on a different family.

I'm not laughing at the deaths, I'm laughing at the stats you pulled to try and say that nobody should own one.

 

I never said noone should own one. All I'm saying is that I'll never own one. When I evaluate the risks and pros/cons of the type of dog that I get, I will most definately cross the Pit and the Rott off my list first (followed by a chow and a husky). I'll never put my family in that type of a situation. I love the fact that my dog will love anyone that steps into my house with all her heart. I love the fact that people will sometimes push her away not because they don't trust her, but because they don't want anymore kisses or want to play with her anymore. I am willing to risk someone breaking into my home, because to me that is a risk that I don't have to worry about everyday, whereas if I had a Pit, my heart would pound everytime it was next to my wife or (future) kids. Our evaluations of the situations are very different and that is perfectly fine!

 

Whoops, got you confused with someone on page one. My bad.

yup, that's why they make 31 flavors.

 

As far as the stats go, how many of those dogs were trained to be aggressive like that. it's all in training. i went to pick up my rott and while waiting for the seller to prep him, the owner brought his dad out. now this is a 3 yr old 150lb rott, looked like he had straight german lines (dark markings). the owner told me not to look the dog in the eyes, as he would take it as the challenge, well i wa so amazed at the size of this dog's head that i managed to sneak one peak, but that second time he caught me looking. he tried to jump on me, but i jumped back and his owner pulled him away. I was petting the dog the whole time, but because i looked him in the eye, is why he acted the way he did. the owner had complete control of him though, and it was bluntly obvious when he spoke to the dog. point is that the dog that bit the kid was probably trained to be aggressive and step up when a challenge was ensued. again i'm not trying to changing anyone's mind, just giving another perspective. i'm with scionofPCFL, i'll take a dog that's going to make it where the intruder can't stand to move, instead of a dog that will give him a limp (that is if the dog doesn't get stepped on).

 

I think alot of it is the breed. I cant think of many dogs that would take someone looking at it as a "challenge." Rotts and Pit Bulls are known for being agressive and I think that while most of it is the breed, I think alot of it is the owner. Look in the city at all the kids walking their pit's around. It makes them feel safe knowing they have a dog that may be good to them, but launch out at anyone else that walks in their house. While the breed itself may be good to some of you people, its humans that give them the bad name. If people wouldnt be training the dogs to be agressive there would be no problem. But people are so dead set on having the biggest meanest strongest dog on the street. I personally dont want to own one because of the nature of the beast. Simply put they are bigger then me. If the dog was having a bad day, I wouldnt want to be the result of it. I'd feel shady about having my fiance' or future kids around an animal that big. I think the biggest I could go would be a huskie, they're big dogs but not heavy. But since my girl is allergic to pet hair, Ill once again stick with my Yorkie

 

That's cool if that's what you think, I didn't say anything about how rotts rated against other dogs as far that goes. I don't know how the owner trained him like that, but it is more in the owner. The way the owner trains him is the way he's going to act. Now don't get me wrong, there are crazy dogs out there, as I believe dogs are like people--they have emotions too. Huskies are rumored to be bad tempered also. This I don't believe either as I had an Alaskan Malumute also cooler than a polar bear's toenails.

Personally I can't stand little dogs,but I'm glad there's people like you that can cause every animal deserves a loving home.

 

I love Malamutes. Also, another breed that is not for the faint of heart. They got a lot of wolf still in them, are escape artists (love to roam), tend to be cat killers, and are highly manipulative.

 

HAHA, none of those characteristics described mine, Ace. Ace was a cool a laid back. He like to roam around but never tried to escape. I loved walking him at the park, always asked if he was a wolf. LOL. But I see how the traits you listed could exsist, because they're mad smart and he didn't like any other animals, but he didn't bark alot.

 

Another dog I wouldn't own, but I'm not going to complain about its "cat problem" .

I kid I kid. Just had to throw it out there. I'll own a Rott before I own a cat. Not really, but I don't like cats!

 

Anything smaller than a beagle is a cat in my book. They're just in dog looking bodies wih dogs tendencies. LOL

 

Cmon, you can't say there's anything better in the world than a small dog that goes crazy everytime you come home. Everytime I come home, the first thing I do (after I kiss my wife) is lay on the ground so my pooch can "say hi". She gets so hyped up that she ends up nipping at my face as she kisses it (while her nub-of-a-tail goes nuts). It was the worst when she was a pup. I would have to cover my nose so she wouldn't accidentally bite it. There were a couple of times right after we got her when both my wife and I had little tiny cuts in our noses from the puppy teeth.

God I love dogs!