If you own an X-L Bully (or similar breed) why did you get it?

[Kinut]

I’m not trying to cause a pile on, I’m genuinely curious to hear from owners on here.

I would guess the vast majority of owners on Mumsnet consider themselves responsible owners and their dog to be no threat. I often see it said that the dog is harmless/more likely to lick you to death/soft/great with the kids etc. but why did you opt for that breed?

You obviously wanted a family pet, and obviously care about the safety of yourself and loved ones, and you didn’t want a guard dog or to intimidate the public.

So why opt for a bully type and not another large dog with less surrounding controversy and innate risk? As I say, I don’t want a raft of insults towards owners, Im just curious as to why otherwise normal and responsible owners opt for these breeds?

I have to respectfully disagree with you there. I think anyone who owns one of these dogs must be stupid.

I was just about to say I describe my own dog in exactly the same way and then recognised your username

How is Pod doing?!

It really opened my eyes today to see how aggressive some bully dogs are. I am not sure what type of bully I encountered but it was honestly awful.

I was walking my dog, who is quite timid and 2 blokes were walking my way with a bully type dog, looked fairly young and straight away said, don't worry he's friendly.

Well I would hate to see it in its not friendly state, it went straight for my dog, snarling, bearing its teeth and nearly got hold of him, it took them both to hold it back. Onlookers were aghast and asked if we were okay, my dog was petrified.

Why they opted for that breed, I have no clue, they could barely control it, I am just glad that there was 2 of them to deal with the situation.

It depends by what you mean by 'similar' to an XL bully.

Family and friends have had boxers and Staffordshire bull terriers. They are lovely, docile and very loyal. They are also good burglar deterants.

I have previously owned a bull mastiff so quite a large powerful bully breed.
The most amazing dog I’ve ever owned! Impeccable manners, amazing with our family and I was devastated to lose her at age 7 .

I would not ever trust any of these new fashioned bullies, and it’s sad, because bullies are amazing dogs and companions when trained and treated well.

He's good! The thread is still going would you believe https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5248472-they-love-a-bit-of-him-podlife?page=28&reply=142876250

My friend swears they are more affectionate, more loving, bowl her over when she comes home. I don't know. For me that would not suit... for her it does.

I have a dog that is of quite an aloof breed. Very loyal and helps the children overtly when they are upset (leans against them, licks their tears) but in general doesn't sit on us, doesn't knock us over to greet us- we didn't have to train it out of her, it just was never her. Attached to me as the main dispenser of food and walks and follows me around but stays with her back to me watching everything else. If I have to go away overnight she sulks and won't look at me for a good two or three days when I come back.

She is me in dog form essentially and she suits me a lot more than a big bouncing uncontrolled slobbery dog would lol.

It was, but whatever the views, a Rottweiler is not an XL Bully. It was fashionable for people who wanted a scary dog, but Rottweilers are not mentally unhinged and bred solely to attack.

Of the last 80 fatal dog attacks in the UK, six have been Rottweilers. One of those was a bite that turned into sepsis, one was an owner who had a stroke and collapsed and there is confusion in the story as to whether the dog attacked after this or not, one was a dog which hadn’t been walked in five months, and one was a case of Rottweilers being kept as guard dogs and encouraged to attack.

It is very different to have a breed which has been bred to attack and turn on and maul people with alarming regularity.

There were two, tragic, fatal attacks by Rottweilers in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000. As opposed to 54 fatal bull attacks in the last 20 years (26 of them in the past four years and three months). The idea that XL Bullies and similar are simply getting the bad press that Rottweilers once did is not true.

This situation almost exactly happened to me last week. I was walking my old, toothless pug and a guy with a terrier was walking towards us. He said 'This is Sally*, she is really friendly', as soon as the word friendly had left his mouth Sally slipped her collar and dove at my old pug teeth first. Fortunately he managed to grab her at the last second before she mauled my old man but it was a really close one. The bloke scuttled off clearly mortified that Sally was not in fact really friendly.

The whole thing was almost comical tbh with how quick she slipped her collar after he proclaimed her to be friendly, my pug and I just stared at each other thinking wtf after he had left.

*Name changed to protect the accused.

And yet there are hundreds of breeds out there who have never killed anyone, whether from sepsis or because of how they were kept...

XL bullies may be more dangerous but that doesn't mean Rottweilers aren't dangerous. And I say that as someone who loves Rotties - I wouldn't have them around children though because of the potential for them to inflict huge amounts of damage if it goes wrong.

Since records began, the dogs who’ve fatally attacked are:

2 Malamutes

1 Bernese Mountain Dog

8 Rottweilers

1 Husky

2 Cane Corso

8 German Shepherd

1 Spaniel

2 Lakeland Terrier

1 unclassified terrier

3 Jack Russell

1 Neapolitan Mastiff

1 Weimaraner

1 Doberman

2 St. Bernard

1 Great Dane

1 Fox Terrier

3 mastiff

61 bullies, 26 of them since 2020.

It is blatantly not just that the trend of bad press has changed.

it makes me feel invincible

I think @AubernFable has admitted what most of us know - that the vast majority of XL owners want to intimidate others.

She just puts it in a very female-socialised form of words.

Thank you, that’s really interesting.

Sure, I wouldn’t have one either. But they’re a different ball game to XL Bullies.

Oh, I agree, I just understand why the PP was talking about how Rottweilers used to be vilified in the press in the past.

Might be worth mentioning that the spaniel fatality (and possibly some of the others listed) was due to a playful nip causing sepsis. The spaniel did not attack and maul anyone to death. It’s completely different from the fatalities caused by XL Bullies.

Yeah, I mentioned that in a previous post. It’s the same as the terrier that’s mentioned, the Weimaraner and one of the Rottweiler cases. The Doberman was trying to treat a man ha in an epileptic fit as it would a puppy by trying to pick him up by the neck.

Thank you. I remember the spaniel case but not the others. Bless the Doberman. You know what mumsnet is like for misconceptions and I didn’t want us to end up with a murderous spaniels thread.

I’ve thought a few times over the years that Jack Russells would be lethal if they were large given their appearances on the list, but I guess they’re doing what they’re bred to do.

I honestly think if Jack Russells were the size of Labradors, they'd be on the banned dogs list, lol.

My partner has a rescue cane corso.. he is a big softie...he is so sweet to the 2 elderly cats that live with him...he has had the dog a year...he goes to doggy day care and they love him...they say he gets on with all the other dogs...displays no aggression etc.

AubernFable · Yesterday 16:14
I love bull breeds. I don’t own one because they’re clingy, not because people think they’re dangerous. I think all that is just small minded scaremongering.

WTF? Scaremongering? You can clearly read so do you just choose to deliberately ignore the myriad negative news stories?

Whats to love about the scary, ugly fuckers?

Everyone who owns a massive bully/mastiff type breed says they're a big softy.

Until they're not.