Rick is obviously quite emotionally incensed by this discussion. Well,
that's fine. It doesn't follow from one's being emotionally involved
that one's mistaken, although clearly one should be careful. He claims
that pit bulls, as a group, aren't more dangerous or aggressive than
other dogs.

Notice that this is a different question than whether or not other
breeds of dogs can be trained to be aggressive. Of course they can.
Other breeds can also have individuals that are naturally aggressive,
either towards other dogs or whatever.

That fact is that statistical studies have been run that correlate
aggression and damage inflicted by various dog breeds. I don't have
them at hand, and I don't remember where the pit bull ranked.
Nonetheless, the studies clearly proved that some breeds are more
dangerous than others, and the fact that one might know a number of
examples of non-aggressive dogs of a more aggressive prone breed does
nothing to undermine the statistics. If I remember correctly, german
shepherds were the breed most likely to bite a person. Someone will no
doubt respond, "But I've known tons of g. shepherds and they've all been
goofy little pudd'n pops! They wouldn't bite anyone!" That doesn't
change the statistics, or the fact that breeds vary in there general
aggressiveness.

The fact is that dog breeds very quite considerably in their behavior. I
would not take a full grown intact male Great Pyrenees to a dog park,
and it doesn't matter how well socialized the dog was. These dogs,
which are great dogs by the way, were bred to see other large animals as
a threat to the flocks of sheep that the great pyrs guarded. As such,
they tend to be very aggressive towards other dogs, and they will not
back down, as they were bred and trained to defend their flocks with
their lives. This tendency towards aggression is recognized in the breed
standard, and a person ignores this genetic predisposition at their
peril, or, more correctly, at the peril of other people's dogs.

Let's stay with Pyrs. All of the major Pyr sites, books and breeders
will tell you not to walk your Pyr off-leash. Why? Because they were
bred to be independent and to roam with their flock of sheep. This
required patrolling a very large territory. As a result, when given the
chance, they often take off. There are are even stories of obedience
champions who get loose, and despite their very good training they
nonetheless take off. How many people do you think have lost a dog
because they thought that _their_ dog wouldn't do that, and hadn't taken
off the prior times when they were let loose? Training, even very
conscientious training, does not guarantee the extinction of a genetic
behavioral predisposition.

Let's get back to the American Pit Bull Terrier. They were bred to hurt
and kill other dogs. While it's true that their jaws don't "lock",
consider this from the American Pit Bull Terrier Faq:

"Those of you who frequent dog shows for the APBT will no doubt
eventually be witness to dogs getting loose and starting a fight. So,
what happens when they are serious? Well, each dog will bite the other,
take hold and start to shake its head punishingly. It is so serious that
in most cases nothing you do will cause the dog/bitch to give up that
precious hold! Nothing! Choking, shocking, etc...It just doesn't matter!"

This is different behavior than a large number of other dogs. These dogs
were bred to be killers, just like other dogs were bred to be
retrievers, herders, working dogs, or companion animals. Each of these
classes has dogs with unique behavioral instincts. Why then would the
pit bull be any different? There's no reason to think so. Does this
mean that they aren't good dogs? No! But it does mean that special care
need to be taken with them, just as it does with a number of other
breeds of dogs, such as mastiffs, rottweilers...

So you're upset by people being wary of pit bulls? Get over it! My dog,
a Leonberger, was bred to be a companion dog, which is the reason that
the breed was created. Nonetheless, he's a very big dog, roughly the
size of a great dane. He's goofy and lives for playing with people and
other dogs. Nonetheless, he often scares people. Take the UPS guy. He
won't come into are yard. Now I could get all ****ed off about how
Murphy is being ignorantly maligned, but then I realize that he's a very
big dog who could be very dangerous if he wanted to be, and I recall all
of the idiot's I've met who've had dogs. Example, I once pulled a husky
off of another dog. Luckily, there was only a little blood. The owner of
the husky said, "I don't know why, but every time I come to the dog park
Klondike picks out one other dog to attack."... A person should be
wary of an unknown large dog, especially one that might have aggressive
predispositions, and that certainly applies to pit bulls.

By the way, the angrier pit bull fanciers get,the more dismissive they
become of the worries of others, and the more they brush off the dangers
of the breede, the more likely it will be that ownership of the dogs
will be restricted.

-Peter De Smidt