Pitbulls - Little update

Ok so here is the topic I would like to discuss. Whether or not you feel that pitbulls are deadly dogs or its all in how you raise them?

Let me start by telling you my story. I always felt that it was all in how you raised a dog. That if you raised them right than they would be nice and behave and all that. But latley I have become more untrusting of dogs like pitbulls, rottweilers and even Doberman Pinchsers.

In this topic I would like to discuss pitbulls though since they have the worst reputation. Today the way I have been feeling latley was confirmed and I no longer like pitbulls at all. Here is the story of what happened to my Siberian Husky....

I was walking my dog home from the neighbors house and all of a sudden she yelled "Rachel get Skye!" (Skye is my husky) I thought she was off her leash, I looked back and see a pitbull and ran with my dog, I fell running to my other neighbors house (busted up my knees, hand and elbow and have had 2 previous knee surgies on each knee) and that stupid pit hit my dog so hard he knocked her leash off her choke collar, she ran from him and he pinned her up against the house. I got up as fast as I could and just kept yelling "no no no" not knowing what to do but try to help my dog, I tried to grab her and by that time my neighbor (he seen me fall so he came out) then saw the dog and grabbed it, it slipped through his hands and went back to my dog and grabbed her back leg. I tried to put myself between them, my neighbor got him again and I banged on the door and his wife opened it and I tossed Skye in and slammed the door.

I heard my poor dog crying from outside and then the owner of the pit came up.I was so PISSED. I said "is this your dog?" he said yeah, I said "If my dog is hurt YOU ARE PAYING THE VET BILL" I went inside to check on her and she was still crying. I calmed her down and tried checking her out, found a cut on her back leg and he said "is she ok?" He said he would follow me to the vet when I took her.

This is Sunday and no clinic is open but we found a really nice vet that gives out his cell phone number so I called him and he told me to bring her right in. The owner of the pit followed and I told the vet what happened he looked at her leg and thought he could stitch her up while she was awake until my husband found another cut on the other side of the same leg. It was a pretty good size hole but wasn't bleeding until the vet felt a bump and moved the skin and it gushed blood. He said he had to put her under to stitch her up. When he opened it up more to get in there to stitch he found a gapping hole where the canine tooth ripped the muscle on her back leg open. So he stitched her all up and said how lucky she was. If he got her leg any lower he would have severed the blood vessels and that a pit can break a bone in 2 seconds. My poor dog is now in pain and cries when she tries to walk. The pharmacy is closed and I have to wait until tomorrow to get her the pain meds. I am so pissed and thinking of making a report on base.

Now here is where some of you may get pissed. I was told that I have the say in whether this dog gets put down or not.

I would feel bad being responsible for someone else losing their pet, but I almost lost mine today because of this animal and what if he attacked a kid? Kids play in the park across the street from my house (military community housing) or what if a kid got in the middle of that dog fight thinking they were playing, one tried when this was going on, tried to come over and help me. I can't take that risk of next time this dog getting a child. This is the second time this dog has attacked another dog in the neighborhood for no reason.

I was told we aren't even allowed to bring pitbulls over to Italy. So what should I do?

mm.. i definitely think that its how the dog is raised!! But in this situation obviously that pitbull wasnt raised correctly. Its up to you whether or not you have the dog put to sleep but I can definitely see where your coming from about the little kids and other peoples animals!! If I were in your position I would probably choose to have that dog put to sleep because obviously it cant be around anyother animals which im sure there are many other people around there with dogs!

I personaly believe it's how dogs are raised, I have a pitbull and she absolutely loves other dogs even dogs she doesn't know. We have a friend who has a lab and he would pull her around by the skin on her neck and she'd just lay there. We also ahve a jack russel who has tried to attack the pit twice. Once she just held the jack down without even bitting down the other time she grabbed ahold of her leg. Neither time did she try to hurt the jack russell, and the jack russell will boss her around all the time. Today the jack was eating out of our pits food bowl and she sat back and watched her. My pit also loves cats (which they say 40 percent of pits hate cats and are aggressive towards small animals). I do believe it does have part to do with the dogs temperment too.

They also say do NOT ever teach a pit to be a watch dog because some aggression comes there, now do you know if this guy raised this dog right? Also I do believe that if any dog showed aggression towards anything they should be disciplined. I'd honestly trust me pit around my children before I'd ever trust my jack russell around them.

Quoting Kacey Denae:“ mm.. i definitely think that its how the dog is raised!! But in this situation obviously that pitbull ... [snip!] ... to sleep because obviously it cant be around anyother animals which im sure there are many other people around there with dogs!”

Yeah but in this case from what I hear, this dog is well behaved with the family, has little kids in their home that lay all over it. So I think they raised it pretty good and that is why now I believe that they are just unpridictable animals and I have no use for them.

I personally think ANY dog can be vicious, but especially pits because they are so inbred for the size and looks that it messes with something in their brain and it doesn't take anything to make them snap. Both of my uncles raise pits and I have seen how dangerous they can be, even towards my uncles. I would NEVER have a pit around my baby because they are so unpreidictable and it takes so little to make them snap. I had a pit once and she had to be put down because she was very vicious...She would be in the kitchen eatting and if you stood up and weren't even in the same room she would run towards you and try to attack you. I had that dog since she was a puppy and she was never abused or mistreated, so I know it had SOMETHING to do with her breeding...I would personally have the dog put down. I know it would make me feel bad because I absolutely love ALL dogs and I hate to see an animal have to be put down, but it would make me feel worse if a little kid got attacked and I could have done something to prevent it. Pits can EASILY kill a small child and I really would not take the risk of having one around.

I'm all for pit bulls and having them as pets as long as they are well-behaved and are friendly to just about everything. I say just about everything because I would want some kind of protection if my house were to get broken into or something along those lines. But in this case I would have the dog put down ONLY because what if it was a child? If it was my dog and I knew it attacked another dog before and it has the chance of attacking again I would consider putting it down. It may be a member of the family but do you really want to have something so violent in a family? Something that can turn on you and possibly kill you? Not me.

And I'm sorry to hear about your Husky! I hope she recovers just fine and won't have any long term effects! They are beautiful dogs!

I'm extreme PRO pitt's, rotties and all dogs for that matter .I have had them all. I believe it is 90% how you raise them and 10% genetics. Some dogs (like people) are naturally too aggressive. I have put down a dog for not caring who he bit or why. He was cgc, agility trained. The diff between 'bad' dogs and 'bad' people is...we can't just put down people   Breed banning is shit and unfair. So I always say be responsable , train your dog, love your dog, give it the best you can .

Quoting Chachel:“ Ok so here is the topic I would like to discuss. Whether or not you feel that pitbulls are deadly dogs ... [snip!] ... in the neighborhood for no reason. I was told we aren't even allowed to bring pitbulls over to Italy. So what should I do?”

I agree with Kacey. It does depend on the dog. We had rotweilers aslong as I can remember and they were the best dogs they were so protective of my btoher and I. I'll never forget my dad yelling at my brother one day and he grabbed him by his arm sending him upstairs and our dog jumped on my dad. So it really does depend. Pitbulls have a history of that sort of stuff.

This is always a touchy subject...but my opinion is that pit bulls don't make good pets. When I was a child my family had one and it attacked me. It wasn't raised to fight and was in fact rather well trained. One day, the switch flipped and I was in reconstructive surgery for hours while my nose was put back together. After all was said and done, the 56 stictches left next to no scars (thank goodness).
Anyway. they are strong dogs and have strong instincts. Personally, I don't trust them. Even when playing, they don't know their own strength.

Quoting Kacey Denae:“ mm.. i definitely think that its how the dog is raised!! But in this situation obviously that pitbull ... [snip!] ... to sleep because obviously it cant be around anyother animals which im sure there are many other people around there with dogs!”

I do agree with that and I think any dog that is like that should be put down. Obviously he had to know that dog was animal aggressive I doubt this was just some freak accident.

Quoting Chachel:“ Yeah but in this case from what I hear, this dog is well behaved with the family, has little kids in ... [snip!] ... they raised it pretty good and that is why now I believe that they are just unpridictable animals and I have no use for them.”

Ummmm there are people out there who behave the same way. Some breeds are just naturally aggressive. not every last dog of that breed is aggressive, so yea I DO have a use for them

Quoting Mommy2bnapril:“ I personally think ANY dog can be vicious, but especially pits because they are so inbred for the size ... [snip!] ... done something to prevent it. Pits can EASILY kill a small child and I really would not take the risk of having one around.”

You do realize pitts are known as the nanny dog/ nursery dog...b/c they used to watch over the nursery in the early 1900's.....

Quoting Chachel:“ Yeah but in this case from what I hear, this dog is well behaved with the family, has little kids in ... [snip!] ... they raised it pretty good and that is why now I believe that they are just unpridictable animals and I have no use for them.”

Doesn't mean that they didn't raise that dog to be a watch dog, there are tons of dogs that are friendly towards the family but are extremely overprotective towards other people or animals. A great example would be my jack russell I can't let her around other people at all.

Ooooh, this is tricky ... on one hand it may be absolutely fine with people but aggressive with other dogs. On the other hand, it may just decide to turn on kids now you know it is capable of attacking other dogs. I wouldn't want to see a child hurt by it. I've heard of plenty of perfectly normal dogs that have turned on families in the blink of an eye, usually due to some deep rooted abuse.

Is there a dog trainer on camp? Maybe they would be able to help. If not, this dog is definitely dangerous, regardless of the breed.

Easiest said this way:

Punish the Deed NOT the breed.

ALL animals can be bad pets if not properly raised and trained. Most dogs that are so called "pits" that attack people are in fact not pits at all. Most people dont even know what a true pit looks like.