Dog Community

Do I dare ask this question/Pit attacks my neighbor

Posted : 9/10/2007 8:15:29 AM

Okay....
I try to stay the heck away from the topic of Pitbulls. I just read the postings so I can learn from everyone's opinions and experiences. Since a horrible 4 incidents have happened on my street I would like to know what your thoughts are and that is why it brings me to posting.

When the Michael Vick postings came out and everyone was saying things like " unleash the Pits on him and see how he likes it" And then some of you acted like that was such a foolish statement that Pits don't just attack people for no reason. Well Im hear to tell you they do.

Please explain to me why the dog down our street has gotten out of his 6 foot Privacy fence and first attacked a neighbors dog badly a month ago.... Then he got out again and went after a man and got his hand and landed this neighbor in the ER with 20 stitches and lots of punture wounds. The dog was held for 10 days and given back to the owner which never should have happened. WE live outside city limits so our laws aren't as strict. But I feel that is going to change now.... We are all band together to get things changed for our safety around here.
This past Wed my neighbor had just finished her 4 mile walk with her friend and was heading home and they saw this privacy fencing moving and a dog behind it barking viciously at them. She had not heard of the man next door getting attacked 2 months pryor or Im sure she would have run like heck to get home when she saw this dog going crazy behind the fence she lives 3 houses down. The Pit got out and took her to the ground... the two ladies fought like mad and thank heavens a neighbor driving by with his window down heard the screams and he did a U turn in the middle of a street and yard and drove up and got the women in the car and yes she ended up in the ER.

The dog is being held 10 days yet again. She has a lawyer as the other guy did as well but this kid never showed up to court...

No need to get into all those details other than this Pit was not provoked in anyway to react in this manor and he is clearly a dangerous dog that did attack a human. I so wish It would have been Michael Vick walking by...........

So for all those pit experts they say this breed will not just go and attack a human can you explain this dogs behavior to me so I can understand this......

thanks

mudpuppy

Posted : 9/10/2007 8:40:32 AM

pit bulls used to be very selectively bred for no-human-aggression. They no longer are. They are often purchased nowadays by people who want a "mean" dog, and these people train the dogs to be "mean".

Xerxes

Posted : 9/10/2007 8:51:57 AM

Several factors are at play here.

Pit bulls, like mudpuppy said, were selectively bred for human non-aggression. The ones that were human aggressive were culled.

This particular dog has attacked before and nothing was done about it. After the first attack, the dog should have been culled. The owner is obviously has no idea how to manage the dog.

As to the why of the actual attack; The PB has a high prey drive. If the dog's needs are not being met, with respect to exercise and exercising the drives of the dog, the dog will grow frustrated. To put it plainly, the dog attacked because the owner did not take proper responsibility for the dog and all aspects of it's care.

Tankstar

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:19:15 AM

Do you know the neighboors that own the dog? Like how do they treat it? is it walked? Or just kept outside int he back yard day in and day out?

Many reasons can triger its actions. It may seem like no one did anything wrong. Such as walking by, which very well is not sombodies fault. But if this dog lives its life int he back yard, it is guarding its property. If it is not socialized like any dog breed, it can and obviously will turn on any strangers that come by. If this dog is bored aka int he back yard never walked and played with, it will do what it can to do somthing dffernt, aka attack, escape. Is it beat? What reason did these people get this dog, Like mudpuppy said lots of people now just get a pitbull thinking they will be a good watch dog.

maizysmom

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:28:56 AM

denise m

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:49:14 AM

ORIGINAL: terrierlover

The Pit got out and took her to the ground...

The fact that this dog has managed to escape the yard at least twice is soley the fault of the owner. After the first attack the owner should have ensured his dog was 100% confinded. As to the treatment, training and exercise that would only be speculation on our part, although it would stand to reason that perhaps a dog with these tendancies would be difficult to adequately exercise and/or socialize. It could be that this particular dog was just badly bred and therfore did not meet the breed standard of non-human aggression. Sad story!

chelsea_b

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:51:55 AM

As a matter of fact,if you look at the breeds section of Dog.com and point to pit bull,it specifecly states that is has powerful jaws and is an aggressive breed. It does not say this of the dal, as someone stated. They may be startled or protective, but not aggressive.They also are very sensitive and do not forget, as I'm sure one whack and they would stop if attacking someone--this is not the case with a pitbull. Our dal totally cowers if yelled at, let alone being given a tap on the rear !

Okay, first of all, don't base your opinions on dog.com's breed section. That's just ridiculous. Some person, with their own baises and prejudices, wrote that. You can't take it like it's gospel.

Second, the locking jaw thing is a total myth. If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...

Third, not ALL pit bulls are aggressive. Lots are dog-aggressive, but that is part of their breed. Compared to the total number of pits, very few are human-aggressive. If you don't believe this, why don't you come on over and meet Jaz? All he wants to do is play. He's never hurt a fly (only stuffed snakes [

]). Not even an inkling of dog-aggression at 7 1/2 years of age in this Baltimore drug-house bred boy.

Laurelin_429

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:56:22 AM

ORIGINAL: chelsea_b

Oh my, what a smile!

Sorry, continue on....

g33

Posted : 9/10/2007 9:58:17 AM

My dog was attacked, unprovoked, by a pit bull. We were just walking down the street past the house, and the dog had been left loose. Turns out it was a bitch who had recently whelped a litter. The guy that owns her came out and got her off my dog, then proceeded to beat her in his back yard with a two-by-four. As though that would somehow "make it all okay". This guy breeds dogs and supplies people who fight them, so is he breeding for proper temperament? Of course not. I reported it to the police, but they said I couldn't be anonymous if I wanted to press charges. I had just moved into this neighborhood and was afraid that the owner would dump antifreeze over my fence or something so I stayed quiet. Regardless, the cops were still aware of this guy and had been, before our attack happened.

Two years later a guy was jogging by the same house with his dog and another pit (or maybe the same bitch) went after his dog, and the guy almost lost his arm trying to save his dog. I think both he and the dog survived, and the owner "hid" the dog with someone else so he wouldn't have to have the dog killed. Eventually the village came down on this guy and banned any kind of kennels in our neighborhood (which was great because there was a golden-retriever puppy mill right across the street from the pit bulls).

Anyway my point is that there are fools out there who don't care if they have dog-or-human-agressive pit bulls, and they don't take adequate caution to contain such deadly weapons. It isn't a reflection on the breed as a whole, but unfortunately there is a cultural bias toward choosing these breeds for evildoings and it results in a vicious cycle of breed prejudice.

chewbecca

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:35:12 AM

ORIGINAL: maizysmom

I've brought this up before in another thread when Bob kept getting called down for his opinion--same thing happened to me,. they just start calling down the person or their dogs. Bottom line, no matter how well trained and who the owner is--you never know when a dog will snap..and the truth of the matter is--pit bulls have tremendous strength and powerful jaws that lock on to its subject. As a matter of fact,if you look at the breeds section of Dog.com and point to pit bull,it specifecly states that is has powerful jaws and is an aggressive breed. It does not say this of the dal, as someone stated. They may be startled or protective, but not aggressive.They also are very sensitive and do not forget, as I'm sure one whack and they would stop if attacking someone--this is not the case with a pitbull. Our dal totally cowers if yelled at, let alone being given a tap on the rear !

This is the only time I will reply in this thread.

You have NO clue what you're talking about, honestly. Have you studied and researched the American Pit Bull Terrier??? Or...do you simply think the things the news tells you and what Bob tells you is what a true APBT is?

A well bred American Pit Bull Terrier should NEVER show signs of human aggression. NEVER. One that is bred to breed standard, that is. As for these hippos being produced, and the short and wides? I don't know what "breed standard" they're following, but those aren't APBTs.

And let it be KNOWN that NO DOG ON THIS PLANET HAS A LOCKING JAW.
What, you think that pit bulls are SUCH a special dog and complete separate species that they are priviledged with locking jaws? Did someone, SOMEWHERE along the line in the creation of the APBT decide, "Hm...I think I'm going to try to breed this dog here with an alligator..."
They're DOGS not alligators or crocodiles.
So, please, for the sake of spreading the TRUTH about these dogs, know now that no dog on this planet has a locking jaw.
Man, here I am thinking that myth was so yesterday and it's obviously STILL floating around in people's minds and in their stories.

I'm not saying that no APBT in the history of the breed's existence has EVER bitten a human or caused serious damage to a human. What I am going to say and have said in the past is, no more is a human in danger of being attacked and bitten by a pit bull than he/she would be of ANY other breed of dog. And even LESS likely.

dgriego

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:42:09 AM

ORIGINAL: chelsea_b

As a matter of fact,if you look at the breeds section of Dog.com and point to pit bull,it specifecly states that is has powerful jaws and is an aggressive breed. It does not say this of the dal, as someone stated. They may be startled or protective, but not aggressive.They also are very sensitive and do not forget, as I'm sure one whack and they would stop if attacking someone--this is not the case with a pitbull. Our dal totally cowers if yelled at, let alone being given a tap on the rear !

Okay, first of all, don't base your opinions on dog.com's breed section. That's just ridiculous. Some person, with their own baises and prejudices, wrote that. You can't take it like it's gospel.

Second, the locking jaw thing is a total myth. If you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you...

Third, not ALL pit bulls are aggressive. Lots are dog-aggressive, but that is part of their breed. Compared to the total number of pits, very few are human-aggressive. If you don't believe this, why don't you come on over and meet Jaz? All he wants to do is play. He's never hurt a fly (only stuffed snakes []). Not even an inkling of dog-aggression at 7 1/2 years of age in this Baltimore drug-house bred boy.

The locking jaw is a myth and the reason behind it is the tenacity of the breed to hold on, Dogo's do the same thing on pigs, they hit and latch on and then hold. Most hunters do not want a dog that will let go, as that is dangerous for the dog as well as the humans. It has nothing to do with any locking mechanism in their jaws; it is just sheer grit and determination.
So their jaws do not lock up (as in having a jaw designed to lock) but they will hold harder than many breeds, just like the Dogo, and the Bulldogs will.
I have personally witnessed a Pit Bull (ours when I was a child) being beaten and kicked and hit with a fist across the head and face in an attempt to get him to release a visitor#%92s Doberman that had jumped out of the car onto our property. He was not bred for fighting but was used for hunting. He had hunted with other dogs and had never offered to try and kill one. He made no sound at all when he went after the Doberman. One minute the Dobie#%92s feet hit the ground of the driveway and the next he was on the ground choking to death with a 60lb Pitbull attached to his neck. My father barely managed to get the Doberman free before it suffocated and only did so by beating our dog mostly unconscious.
The PitBull in question can be seen in many of our family photos from my childhood. Some I am sitting on him, one with me standing next to him as he eats with my hand on his back, one with me sleeping in bed with him, so he was very friendly, good with us kids but when he went into action he was something else entirely.
I love the breed, but I do not deny that when they decide to go after something they will do so with a vengeance. To me denying that this exists within the breed does the breed a disservice and even complicated the problem further by making people think that if they want a large scary dog (whatever their reasons) the PitBull is the best as all we hear is how warm and fuzzy and harmless they are. Socialization, training, and being ever vigilant are important with these and other breeds like them.

chewbecca

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:46:44 AM

OK, so I lied. I am going to reply again.

Yes, when they go after something, they go after something.

BUT, a truly well bred APBT should NOT EVER go after a human.

maizysmom

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:51:17 AM

chewbecca

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:54:49 AM

ORIGINAL: maizysmom

In reply to Chelsa-b-----Are you saying Dog.com info is ridiculous? If that is true, than what do I believe here? This is supposed to be an informative site. Are you saying they lie?Give me a break!

If they out flat come out and say that the American Pit Bull Terrier is an aggressive breed (without changing it to say that they "can be" or "can become once mature") without specifying the exact TYPE of aggression, then yes.
They would be lying, if that is the case.

When I think of a statement claiming that APBTs are aggressive dogs, I think of GENERAL aggression. Which means aggression towards...oh, anything that walks or is alive.
But that' is NOT the case with APBTs.
They simply are NOT just plain, in general aggressive.
They can become dog aggressive or animal aggressive, but they should NEVER be human aggressive.

So, there. I may not be Chelseab, but I answered your question.

Dog_ma

Posted : 9/10/2007 10:56:28 AM

Sadly, what we have out there are gazillions of pitbulls that are NOT APBT's. They are based on ABPT's, and they are stuck with the name "pitbulls," but they are out of standard, badly bred, and frequently cross-bred. Add to that poorly trained and often mistreated, and therein lies the problem.

These dogs are not what pitbulls should be. They are not what pitbulls have been. There is a reason human aggression was considered an immediate death sentence in APBT's of yore - as dgriego says, the dogs are powerful and determined.

I don't what, if anything, can be done to rescue this breed and eliminate the dangerous whackjob dogs that are causing the problems.