ive noticed as a owner of a staff cross english american pitt and also a american bulldog that people say they are nasty breeds when they are nice.if brought up the rite way they are loving and loyal to family and kids and wouldnt hurt a fly unless the family was under threat from someone. then its any type of dog that would protect the family.a dog will only acted the way the owner wants as all the dog wants to do is please their owner. if a person brings a pitt up nasty then it will be nasty if its brought up nice the dog is nice.i myself would never have lets say a jack russel in the house with my child as i couldnt trust it. does this mean that these dogs are dangerous? i dont want bitching in the answers all id like is for people to think a little about the question at hand.

it's exactly how you mentioned, the dog will behave according to how the dog has been brought up! i hate it when i ehar on the news that a dog has harmed another person, and i myself would love to own a staff, people shouldnt lable the breed as bad when clearly it's the person who brought it up in that way, their fault. I want a staff, they're so cute and all the ones i've come across are so friendly and always wagging their tails!!

part of it is how the dog is raised, part of it is what the dog was bred for histroically. As with most things, it is a combination of nature and nurture.

the only thing i'm going to be bitching about is how you chose to spell the word pit. just one t, my friend.

Because they are. Pit bulls especially. They are banned in our Province of Ontario and we want it that way.

A lot of people who are bullies buy certain types of dogs and train them to be bullies. Think, when was the last time you saw a welfare recieving 300 pound guy walking a french poodle. Aint gonna happen. He wants a rotweiller or a pit bull. So when you describe a breed as bad, you are really describing the typical owner of that breed.

I'm not reading your entire question/explanation because it's too long but I'll answer your initial question. People say things like that because of the origination or original reason for the breeding of certain dogs. Example: "Most sources trace the Pit Bull back to England... a mixture of a Bulldog and Mastiffs...It is absolutely certain that the breed comes from both bull baiting and fighting dogs and this has a great deal to do with the tendency to label them as aggressive dogs. They were simply bred this way from the beginning."































www.dog-names-and-more.com

Over the years, it has been noticed that certain breeds of dog are more likely get nasty than other types. You know that from what you have written. Also, a terrier will give a lttle nip, but another breed (pitbull), would rip your face off. No, you can't always tell when this will happen, but which one would you rather a child be near when it goes wrong?

In my experience all dogs have the potential to be great family pets. I have volunteered in all kinds of animal shelters and have seen the sweetest pits and the meanest poms! My point is that if you raise the dog to be kind and obedient that is what they will be, a loyal family member.

I''ll say pit bull are bad. they have lots of fatal biting incidents on their record all over the world.

hello,I know and have heard that Pitt bulls are harmful. But, me too have realized that not all are harmful. I am an owner of a golden retriever and he barks at people, dogs, and sometimes cats. He is known as the 2nd scariest dog on my street. But, I tell them he is so loving, playful, and pretty. That does not mean the dogs are dangerous but, in some cases yes. So, I agree with you. Please come and answer my questions.your friend,Bugsmcafee

People who believe this are uninformed and uneducated. They base their opinions upon rumors, false news reports, false breed classification, urban legends, emotional pooey, etc...You will probably receive a lot of negative answers from many of those very people.... you know... the types who will see a report on the 5pm news about a dog who bit some brat who stuck his hand in the fence... The dog will be a boxer, but the news morons will call it a pit bull, and the idiot public will believe it (even though there's NO SURE WAY TO DETERMINE WHAT BREED A DOG IS, and what's more is that ''pit bull'' isn't even a breed), and they'll all shout "KILL THE PIT BULLS!"I hate stupidity.

Blame tv news reporters police etc. for instance the pit bull is really the only dog you hear about attacking anyone you hear of other dogs saving lives and putting out fires,but you dont hear about they(pit bulls) are great hunters, herders compititions, etc. look how big and powerfull the rott is,they have a great rep and can do as much damage as any dog.Dont hate the playa hate the game.

You cannot make a blanket statement about ANY breed, good or bad. You also must remember the breeds tendencies- for instance, pits often can be very dog aggressive, but not EVERY pit is. It IS a large part of how you raise them, but even a well raised dog will not ignore it's natural tendencies- a German shepherd can be raised to not be generally aggressive, but will still rise to the challenge if it perceives it's owner to be in danger (real or not). Also, some breeds have been inbred/over-bred into the ground, causing unbalanced behavior not normally found in the breed (we will never have a Dalmatian in the house with small kids- too many issues with over breeding after the Disney movies have put a lot of ill tempered Dals out there).I always liked pits, figured it was how you raised them. we adopted a pit mix from a rescue 2! states away a few years ago- we liked that the group had the dogs TT'd by 2 sep. trainers and were thorough in their check on us. We did everything 'by the book'- on the 2nd day, right in front of us, that damn dog attacked our 5 yo for NO reason we have ever figured out. He was OK, after 3 layers of stitches to his arm (I had to kick that monster off him to get her to release). Long story short- we will NEVER own a pitt or pitt mix again. Just an opinion based on personal experience. Do I hate all pitt bulls? No- but we use extreme caution around them now. the media can overplay things and make people hysterical about every dog of a breed, but the warnings should not be ignored in total. Some breeds, larger ones especially, can be very aggressive, and you hear about them more often than the chi's or the min pins simply because they do more damage. A pair of presas can kill adult (and has, that incident in CA a few years ago). A pair of chi's- no.

When people misuse a breed they breed for generally undesirable attributes, the reason your types of bulldog, generally called a pit bull by people who don't know any better, are deemed a bad breed is because they are consistently bred for aggression and size, then trained for even more displays of aggression. Selective breeding for a poor temperament is rampant among street breeders and the usual temperament of a properly bred Staffordshire is totally different from the behavior of a street mix. It isn't always upbringing when a negative trait is constantly bred in and back to, you can breed instability into an animal and that's whats happened. One other point, the jaws on these bulldogs are far stronger than on the rest of the breeds so they do more damage in a shorter period of time than say a collie.Don't romaticize the danger to a family if there are very young children around, even the best dog is still an animal and can be provoked by the hitting and eye poking a baby on the floor can do. Always keep an eye on kids and dogs, even if its just to save the dog from harm.

The breed of dog most likely to bite someone is a Yorkshire Terrier, however they do very little damage and so dont make the news, big powerful dogs, statistically attack far fewer people but the damage they inflict is significant so it is widely publicised, all the dog breeds exist solely because Man has bred them to act or work in a particular manner. Most dog attacks are due to irresponsible ownership and poor training. If a dog is correctly disciplined and never left alone with children (remember a child could easily hurt a dog without meaning too, provoking the dog to defend itself) then that dog is very unlikely to ever harm a person. I have experience of a wide variety of dogs and i find these so called dangerous dogs to be among the most loyal and obedient, smaller dogs, which due to their small size usually arent disciplined so well, are the ones who you always see and hear barking and chasing people, however they arent seen as a threat. I'm sure we've all heard it before but there are no bad dogs, only bad owners!

I agree with the responses that the owner bears responsibility for the behavior of the dog. However, some breeds do have personality traits that can desirable for some people and not for others. I used to have a pitbull, he was a big sweetheart, kissed the mailman every time he dropped off the mail. At the same time, he was incredibly aggressive with other dogs and i think this was an inherent trait of his family line or possibly of his breed. Now i have a border collie who doesn't have the aggressive tendencies of the pitbull but has some odd (and sometimes annoying) behaviors that are typical of his breed as well. Every breed has its quirks and is better suited for the environment for which its breed was intended, but how it is raised is also a very very strong factor.

its only how the owner treats it

the same reason some people say different races are bad. a bad experience, or pure ignorance.