Pit bull terriers

[Freckle]

Can anyone explain to me the attraction of owning a pit bull terrier? Why would you choose that breed over any other? Especially when there are children around and the breed has a reputation for unpredictable behaviour - and don't forget that the breed was developed to take on bulls, so it's not going to be a pussycat in any circumstances.

Another child has been killed by one, apparently owned by her grandmother - here . I don't like flagging up bad news on here, but I'm struggling to understand the mentality of people who choose to own such dogs.

Plus by my sisters own admission they knew the dog showed signs of aggression but didnt deal with it.

I see, well i certainly agree that a lousy owner will make a lousy dog anytime!

I can't see his purpose in getting a Goldie as a Penis extension though ...i'm not sure how a Goldie would enhance an aggressive reputation??

Some people are plain idiots!!

I think a dog licence would help, also compulsory obedience classes - unfortunately its the enforcement of this which would be the problem ....

xx

Nothercule - i would agree, but the same can be said for EVERY dog and EVERY breed!

There is a great deal to be said for researching your breeder and indeed have them research you!

Puppy farms are ANOTHER factor which greatly increases the amount of aggressive dogs and there is no question that they should be banned ...and until they are (if ever this happens) they should be avoided at ALL costs!

Unfortunatly, although most responsible owners wouldn't dream of going to a puppy farm to get their new addition, others would! ...and therin lies the problem!

xx

Blue.. not suggesting he was looking to enhance an image or to go for the penis extension, but by god he was thick.

As an aside, all this makes me wonder how people view me when I walk my dog.

Ah i see - sorry i misunderstood.

When you likened the guy to someone who would be normally be seen with a pitbull i automatically assumed that it would be someone wanting to impress people with how aggressive he and his dog is ...

A sweeping generalisation i know ...

I personally just don't see the attraction in owning a dog that is bred not only to kill, but to fight till its own death.

Sorry again

xx

i grew up in Surrey winestein! Not a particularly key area for bull terriers but whenever we did see one something bad seem to happen. And i lived in East London with my old boyfriend, and yes, there were a lot of those types of dog around, with skin head f*ck wit owners.

We have a Great Dane. He had a lot of socialisation and we did training with an ex-police dog handler. Small dogs love him (or just yap). Very big dogs love him. But he is frequently set upon by 2 flatcoat retrievers (diff. owners & neither castrated), a suspiciously large Staffie (now deceased as he half ate a Weimaraner) and a pack of 3 miserable Golden Rets&Lab (that also knock my DCs over). He has also been attacked on single occasions by a German Shepherd (lots of blood), pack of 3 Border collies (also lots of blood, some of which was mine as they also leapt at my DCs) and yet another Golden Retriever. Most owners are either oblivious (he's playful) or blame my dog - because if it's big it must be nasty.

I'm assuming his size makes some dogs fearful? - which is ashame as he pads over to them all waggy-tailed. Fortunately, he never uses his teeth in these incidents, he does show teeth, but he defends himself by pinning the other dog down with his dinner-plate sized paws and waits for me to break it up. The only dog he couldn't keep down was the 'Staffie' (but I do think it was a pit bull cross).

So there's my own window on breeds. I say crap owner = crap dog. But every dog can have it's day, just hope it's not a terrier because they don't like to stop.

The idea of bringing in more legislation is just knee-jerk. There are already rules and regulations in place to keep people safe, pavements clean, dogs healthy etc and they are not policed. They should be. Lobby your MP and local councillors. (please!)

And it's widely accepted that the dog owners who really need monitoring would not buy a licence. It is the reason the old dog licence was scrapped.

Puppy farms are a disgrace. Anyone who buys a dog from one should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

i myself am a dog lover was brought up with them & was bought my 1st for 5th bday. my mother had always had dogs infact my grandmother had crufts winners. so even though so will think 5yrs is irisponcible to have a dog i had well experianced adults on hand.

anyway just making the point that love dogs before i start.

my expereances with dogs are:

friends rotty would hide behind there yorkie when other dogs where aggressive the yorkie would bite your ankles if you went in gate where as rotty would let you do anything with him. both where not castrated.

friends collie was attacted in front of my dd by 2 staffie? pit bulls? i was holding him on lead & dogs ran over & started attacking him he didnt fight back the stupid owner then came over & in attempt to get dogs of him hit him over head with metal lead. must say on this occassion i seriously lost it & went mad myself not violence but vocally it terified my dd she had nightmares for weeks. friends dog went to vet & is now fine.

dont get me wrong friends have staffies & they are so loving

but dd's dad who has never owned a dog before has got one its now 9mnth only but as he as no experiance with dogs in worried that from his ignorance of this breed then there could arrise problems in the future. i know staffies are wonderful dogs in experianced hands but dd's dad thinks its funny when his other kids put there arms in the dogs mouth & wave it about. this man is a manager not a "scally/towny,etc".

so my problem is do i stop my dd going to her dads just in case or do i let her go & take the risk???? what do you think????

No the reason the dog licence was scrapped, was because it was costing more to administer it, than it was bringing in revenue.

They did think about raising the price. I can't quite remember all the details, but the number £9 rings a bell for me, I think that's how much it cost at the time. There was a suggestion that they should raise it to about £100 to make it worth collecting and to emphasise the commitment angle, but there was an outcry as everyone said, what about all those poor old biddies who need their little dogs as company (it was at the time when the Tories were introducing the poll tax on the basis that poor old biddies who lived in six bedroomed houses were discriminated against by the rates - poor old biddies were much in evidence then, from what I remember.)

A guest speaker on five live yesterday summed it up for me - he said 'Pit Bulls are guide dogs for the stupid'. They also had a dog expert who specialises in Pit Bulls and even he said it doesn't matter how you train them, care for them, neuter them etc. they are agressive dogs and as such can turn at any time - the majority of owners (the thickos) do not appreciate this and generally ignore it anyway (probably can't read the warnings...). I agree with someone's elses post yesterday - the owner is also a drug dealer - now who could have predicted that eh?...

When the dog licence was scrapped it cost the grand sum of 37.5p! I know, because I always bought one.

The little old biddies argument doesn't really hold water because you could have concessionary rates for OAPs. I do believe the licence should be reintroduced, with stringent conditions attached, such as compulsory training, vaccinated, neutering (if not owned by an accredited breeder).

Of course, prats who own dogs to enhance their macho image are not going to comply, but as soon as their dog comes to the notice of the authorities (which it probably will at some point), it could be removed and put down or rehomed with a responsible owner - with the original owner being subject to a hefty fine.

LOL at 37.5p.
So perhaps £9 was the suggested increase? Or maybe I've just made that figure up!

I think the reason the Tories scrapped it, was not just because they couldn't be arsed to make it worthwhile adminstering, but because of their insane ideology of the time. I can imagine that their instinct was that the state shouldn't be involving itself in something as private and trivial as dog-ownership.

Freckle I agree with you - of course they could police it if they wanted to. They can police whatever they bloody well want. If they can police parking fines, they can police dog-licences.

I would happily pay £100 a year for a dog licence if it allowed dog enforcement officer posts to be created who effectively policed the breeding of illegal dogs, the lack of control of dogs in public places and the whole poo thing.

Blue... the attraction is a lovely, friendly funny dog that is brilliant with people. Owners can choose to work to remove, or at least not encourage the fighting instinct in the dog. Sadly, those that do encourage the fighting instinct ruin it for everyone else.

True - the existing laws should be enforced.

In the case that sparked off this thread, the terrier was a year old and had already been reported to the council twice. You would think that with the second reporting at the very least the dog and it's living conditions would have been inspected. If the council were aware it was a pit bull type dog then why was action not taken against the owner earlier? The dog was a clear danger to the community.

How many other reports of aggressive behavior by dogs, and even pit bulls have resulted in a warning letter to the owner and no other action?

It's typical isn't it. Nothing's done until there's a tradgedy.

I'm aghast at Norksbrides experiences with all those dogs attacking hers...

Norksbride - do you carry anything to repel dogs which attack?

HMC - only my big shouty voice! Between me taking control and my dog being very non-aggressive (so far) we've always managed. Even the Pit Bull/Staffie that attacked us I managed to restrain (clearly I am a madwoman). I did need the Border Collies pack owner to assist though as I was more concerned with my DCs. These attacks are over a 7 year period - although I may have forgotten some

I have a gun licence so I suppose I could take my gun across the forest in case of dog attacks ! - except that I would have my arse slung in jail. My gun licence is well policed on an annual basis, so yes licencing could be done, and I think responsible dog owners would pay £100. Bringing in more legislation for individual acts would be a waste of time and money.

Perhaps I've missed in in such a long thread, but other than general comments about the problem being the owners not the dogs, and someone saying that it's mainly young lads with no sense of responsibility who buy and fail to atke proper care of these dogs ....

.... isn't it mainly drug dealers and criminals who own these dogs? Aren't we skirting over a universal truth here? It's certainly true on the housing estates I know!

Someone posted that some of the small breeds can be more dangerous - what even a King charles Spaniel? I've heard they are one of the best breeds to have if you have young children??

Certainly drug dealers do own such dogs. But as "tools of the trade" they are kept from doing accidntal damage.
All the attacks that I can recall that did serious harm to kids had no drug angle at all.

Anyone know different ?

Thus drug dealers show a more responsible attitude than the average dog owner. Not an obvious thing to be true but that does seem overwhelmingly to be the case.

The problem is thus not black criminals (though expect to see a Dail Mail article to that effect soon), but middle class white people who adopt an attitude that "it won't happen because I'm middle class, how dare you say my dog is dangerous".
That's why you won't see any real change in the law, except ironically to harass druggies.
Dogs have something resembling a brain, and that makes them unpredictable.

DC... "the problem is thus not black criminals"? Did anyone say it was? (You seem to intimating that drug dealers are black somehow, but perhaps you will enlighten me?)

Considering your statement that "drug dealers show a more responsible attitude than your average dog owner" I can't quite decide whether that is just plain ridiculous or massive ignorance. Your way of thinking is often quite interesting, but this one appears to be....... I can only imagine drug fuelled?

I shook my head at that comment (drug dealers being responsible owners) too, weinstein.

An update from one of the newspapers today: Police have raided a suspected dog fighting ring close to the home of tragic pit bull victim Ellie Lawrenson. Officers seized eight young pit bull terrier types at two addresses - both with links to Ellie's family. Six were being secretly bred in a yard just four miles from where Ellie was killed, and the understanding is that the pit bull which mauled Ellie is from the same litter.

Also there is now a new 'happy slapping' craze in which young thuggish owners who own such dogs are stirring their dogs into a frenzy, getting the animal to attack someone, then filming the attack whilst rap music blares in the background.

Lord help us.

They will be the middle class people DC was referring to no doubt MummyPenguin

I'm sorry. I typed that ironically, clearly didn't make it to the screen. My fault.

Of course I don't mean that drug dealers are nice people, but the owners of dogs who attack children don't ever seem to be drug dealers.