Hateful pitbull myths proven wrong.

[Khoranth]

Never did I say it was hard, just that they are a powerful breed and they require firmer training. I guess it really depends on the person doing the training and whether they think it's hard(er).

Ok, I meant this along the lines of me and my family being just regular people, who are not "advanced" dog trainers, but we do always get rescue/shelter dogs, we dont buy dogs. We just know how to do simple stuff to train: treats, tennis balls ect. This is anecdotal of course, but Pitbulls have been the easiest to train. They are honestly a simple dog, nothing complex or hard. Again anecdotal, the hardest time we ever had was with a dachshund from a bad home.

And i am being serious about some some other big dogs; look up what is required to train a doberman, it is a phenomenal amount of work.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone else notice the mmochampion advertisement in this thread? It was a muscle supplement for Pitbulls....

https://vitaminsforpitbulls.com/?gcl...FYyhOgodWGkAKg

That is funny, but makes me sad at the same time.

[mmokri]

I doubt that average Joe can overwrite breed design.

[Deleted]

All dogs are killers....

[mmokri]

Strangely enough, they can. I know many, many pitbull owners who's dogs are the most lovable darlings you could ever encounter. None of the owners are professional trainers and two of them bought pitbulls as their first dogs. I've yet to see any of these dogs act aggressively, save one. She was a new mother and growled at strangers who got too close to her puppies... Not all that uncommon in any breed.

Yeah I agree. Poor wording. More likely average Joe is going to have relatively more troubles.

[Mormolyce]

Even the most aggressive dogs only have a bite rate in the single digit percents, so of course there will always be lots of owners passionately denying the breed is dangerous.

[TirielWoW]

Obedience training, which frequently also involves teaching dogs how to walk properly is a really subjective matter, and based on who gives the information your likely to run across nearly every dog breed. With that said I can't think of to many times I have seen retrievers on the list of difficult to train, most the lists I've read mainly involve hunting terriers, and herding dogs (heelers/shepherds) as consistently stubborn breeds.
Don't mistake stubborn as dumb though, Border Collies are widely recognized as one of the smarter breeds out there, and widely recognized as a pain in the butt.

The one I had was incredibly willful. She mellowed out once she was a few years old, but it was very hard to hold her attention. All of the other dogs I've had - which have either been German Shepherds (or GSD mixes), Rott mixes, or the half-Rott, half-Pit I have now - have been much, MUCH easier to deal with. They're calmer, really intent on paying attention, and will do anything to please. My Rott/Pit also loves people, loves children, and tries to lick the Pizza man to death when he shows up with Pizza (and literally cries when he can't meet the UPS man).

- - - Updated - - -

Really? I have a Golden and animal handlers always tell me the exact opposite. Like, without my prompting.

Just some examples I've heard literally in the last month:

--My vet who only gets shelter dogs: "I love Goldens, they get along so well with the other dogs when they're here".
--A professional dog walker I met on the street: "I love Goldens, they're easy mode since they just love everyone".
--The dog groomer I called up yesterday: "Oh you have a Golden? They're my favorite, so easy to handle while I'm giving them a trim".

The people at my vet's office love Pits. They say they are the sweetest dogs, so calm and friendly.
The dog groomer who handles my dog has had him sleep at her house (we boarded her with him), in the bed with her son. Those two are inseparable. My dog goes over there for play dates with their Great Dane. She says she loves Pit Bulls.

I don't know of anyone here who is a professional dog walker. lol. I think people would be like, "Why the hell would I pay for that?" But, I don't live in a large city.

I'm not saying that people should discriminate one way or another regarding a dog before they actually observe its behavior, just giving you my experiences. Also most dog breed sites state that Labs/Goldens are two of the easiest dog breeds to train, not really sure how pit bulls compare but my Golden was house-trained as a puppy in the space of a week, and knew numerous commands by 12 weeks.

All of my dogs but the golden I had many years back were this smart and this quick. I noticed immediately when I started to train my German Shepherd, Ajax, that his focus was solely on me, whereas my Golden had been very hard to keep the attention of (everything distracted her). So really, what we have here is a set of anecdotes.

Goldens and Labs are a sport/hunting breed who are naturally very mouthy so if you're associating with play-biting with aggression I wouldn't necessarily say they correlate, much like a pit bull's propensity for rough play doesn't necessarily indicate that the dog is aggressive.

I know that mouthy does not equal aggression. I, however, have always taught my dogs to NEVER put their mouths on me or anyone else. It's too dangerous - regardless of breed - if something goes wrong.

In regards to breeding, of course there are a lot of bad breeders out there for any breed. I feel fortunate that I got my Golden from an AKC-registered kennel, on a 50 acre farm with 2 females who are bred once a year, hip and eye clearances, from champion hunting lines

Mine was a shelter dog.

[Celista]

Yeah sounds like you had a dog with issues >.< It happens with every breed, could have also been an abuse situation, some dogs recover and some dogs don't. We like the same breeds of dogs, I love German Shepherds/Rotties with a passion.

Pitts are very sweet but I've had hit-or-miss issues with them in regards to the way they play with my dog, who is naturally very submissive so luckily that tends to diffuse situations. I'm not biased against pit bulls--we were looking at a rescue pitt for our household a few months ago but she ended up being adopted out before could get her--but it's the only broad category of dog that has ever presented a problem at the various dog parks we go to (exception being: one male Belgian Tervuren who kept my dog pinned down for a good 3-5 minutes before letting her get up, that was pretty memorable considering how stubborn he was). Oregon has had some issues with illegal dogfighting so that could be the issue here, we had a big bust last year.

Only real time where there could have been a REALLY serious situation was with a female pitt/dalmatian mix who attacked my dog in the parking lot of a no-kill shelter that we were stopping by to look at dogs for adoption. Fur was literally flying >.< But in that situation I could tell the dog was stressed, she had been adopted out from that shelter initially and I think she could tell her owner was sad/stressed (apparently she was giving up the dog because she had to move). Felt really bad for that dog, it took them a long time to adopt her out.

[Laraven]

The point is, the more popular a breed becomes the more issues it ends up having.

Take the Dalmatian for instance. When the movie 101 Datamations first came out, every kid asked their parents for a cute spotted puppy. High demand for the puppies had every back yard breeder and puppy mill jumping on the band wagon to make a quick buck. These "breeders" could care less about the health or temperament of the dogs that were mass producing puppies for them. This Movie almost ending the Dalmatian breed. A lot of puppies were born blind and deaf. And the temperaments were (and still are) horrible!

The "pitt bull" is even worse off, because it's not a AKC recognized breed and there for can't be properly tracked through pedigrees to watch for issues like temperament and health.

[TirielWoW]

Yeah sounds like you had a dog with issues >.< It happens with every breed, could have also been an abuse situation, some dogs recover and some dogs don't. We like the same breeds of dogs, I love German Shepherds/Rotties with a passion.

Pitts are very sweet but I've had hit-or-miss issues with them in regards to the way they play with my dog, who is naturally very submissive so luckily that tends to diffuse situations. I'm not biased against pit bulls--we were looking at a rescue pitt for our household a few months ago but she ended up being adopted out before could get her--but it's the only broad category of dog that has ever presented a problem at the various dog parks we go to (exception being: one male Belgian Tervuren who kept my dog pinned down for a good 3-5 minutes before letting her get up, that was pretty memorable considering how stubborn he was). Oregon has had some issues with illegal dogfighting so that could be the issue here, we had a big bust last year.

Only real time where there could have been a REALLY serious situation was with a female pitt/dalmatian mix who attacked my dog in the parking lot of a no-kill shelter that we were stopping by to look at dogs for adoption. Fur was literally flying >.< But in that situation I could tell the dog was stressed, she had been adopted out from that shelter initially and I think she could tell her owner was sad/stressed (apparently she was giving up the dog because she had to move). Felt really bad for that dog, it took them a long time to adopt her out.

Dalmation + Pit? Ouch. Dalmations are high strung, high activity dogs, + a high-active Pit? D:

I think the issue, quite frankly, is that the dogs are too damn popular. There are too many people breeding them, and quite a few are deliberately breeding aggression in. Aggression isn't necessarily "genetic," but it's a fact that the temperament of the parents of a puppy is a good indication of what their puppies will be. I'm very certain that my golden was a victim of bad breeding, and I've had a German Shepherd who was way too high-strung for the breed standard. I know people who never spay or neuter their dogs, despite the fact that it's just plain BAD for females to continuously have puppies, and that intact males are far more aggressive than neutered dogs are.

- - - Updated - - -

The "pitt bull" is even worse off, because it's not a AKC recognized breed and there for can't be properly tracked through pedigrees to watch for issues like temperament and health.

Even when they can, you STILL run into breeders who do unscrupulous things like cross lines back into themselves too many times. Spring Spaniel Rage Syndrome apparently started in a single, very high-ranking show dog. But because his bloodlines were so coveted (because he was a grand champion, I think?), they kept crossing dogs with him - even though he had this really fucked up issue.