Actually, there is a major problem with labs as far as temperament goes. Many, MANY labs are totally necrotic because they are being bred by idiots and raised by people who don't know any better. One town near us had a citizen push for a pit bull ban. The town's response? They told the guy that they would not because pit bites were not really an issue--the biggest biter in the area were labs. My friend used to work at a pet supply store and she has been attacked twice (one lunged at her face and one chased her onto a register). I have read several sources that advises buyers to be *very* careful when when getting a puppy because BYB good lab temperaments are not a "given" anymore. On my lab board there was a woman with an adult lab that had always been fine with other dogs. A couple of weeks after getting a new puppy (that he was also fine with) the dog suddenly attacked the pup so viciously that it nearly bled to death right in front of the owner. On one of our walking routes we pass a pit bull (our town has lots of pits) and a lab--different houses, both ties up. Guess which one lunges at the tie out like he is going to eat passing dogs alive--just as a hint, it ain't the pit. Part of the reason that we got Jack from a good breeder was because of this issue.
I don't say this to be down on labs (obviously since I have one). I love the breed and it sickens me to see that things like temperament, which is the breeds strong suit, are being ignored.
In our area GSDs are also very over bred. I was bitten by one as a child and got 21 stitches. I have been chased by two on separate occasions. I had one nearly eat Sally (the pit mix, BTW) on a hike, I had one (a seeing eye dog in training no less) go after Jack when he was a pup, my friend has one GSD so dog aggressive that it has actively tried to kill two dogs--one was an adult boxer, the GSD latched on had to be beaten in to face repeatedly to make him let go, the other was a 10 week old puppy he tried to drag into his kennel and tear apart. I local man had to shoot a loose GSD to stop him from killing his lab. The nicest GSD dog I knew still had an iffy temperament, and would attack if people were roughhousing.
So, should I therefore conclude that GSD are a "horrible" breed? Me thinks not. Actually, I'm not sure why a dog lover would declare every member of any breed "horrible." There are a number of breeds that I do not care of and do not see why anyone would own them, yet I don't think of any of them as "horrible." Heck, I don't even think of the various dogs that may have caused harm to me or my dogs that way.
Are there issues with pit bulls. YES. However, most of the issues that I see (and I live in a town with a LOT of pit bulls and live in a county that has had issues with fighting) are not with the dogs themselves, but are truly with the owners. This is not a breed for people who are not into training, exercising, socializing, and generally spending a great deal of time with there dogs. However, the vast majority of those that own pits have no *idea* what they are doing when it comes to dogs and have little to no interest in learning. I'm sure many pit owners don't see bites coming. Signs of aggression can be easy to miss when you pay very little attention to your dog and/or don't know very much about dogs in the first place and/or don't care about or mistake signs of aggression for normal behaviors/behaviors you want/behaviors that are no big deal. I'm not saying that this is every case, but I'd bet the farm that it is the majority.
In our area, and I don't think we are alone in this, pit bulls have become to poor white/black/hispanic folks what the labrador is to the yuppy . If you want a large dog, you get a pit--it's just what you do. You can generally get pit pups anywhere--online, out of the back of a truck, at the flea market, out of the paper for $100 and sometimes less--you can often get a pup for free. You may or may not walk it on a logger chain, keep it tied out on a logger chain, walk it around on collars huge enough to safely walk a horse in order to impress/threaten your neighbors, feed it gun powder, etc. You keep it intact because that somehow makes you more "manly" and in many cases generally encourage the dog to be aggressive. You further endear him and yourself to the entire neighborhood by tying him up close enough to the side walk to freak out passersby and/or let him run the neighborhood free. You then most likely breed it--if it has the plumbing why not breed it,
right? You can make all kinds of money on "rare" blues, whites, red
noses, and brindles with very little white (this is Sally's color and I
have gotten a couple of breeding propositions). If you are really hardcore evil then you even fight/attempt to fight the dog. After a while the dog gets picked up by AC to many times, or is too much work, or the price of it's Kibbles 'n Bits get in the way of you 2 pack a day habit, or you want another color or dog, or the dog is not aggressive enough, or your landlord gets fed up and won't renew your lease, and you dump the dog at the shelter, or out in the country.
Ultimately, the pit bull haters generally get their wish because these dogs usually do die--they get hit by a car, shot, hung, poisoned, put down in shelters, etc. One in 400 pit bulls gets a good home. They are America's throw away dogs. And, interestingly enough, like their poor white/black/Hispanic owners, the majority of mainstream America doesn't care what happens to them as long as they are not in their community.
This is not an issue that is going to be solved with banning, hand wringing, excusing dangerous temperament or sitting around talking about how horrible the breed is. It is only going to be changed with a shift of attitudes, a transition from ghetto/trailer/hillbilly trash dog to breed that can be a great family dog, but needs special handling (just like MANY other breeds I could list). AC needs to crack down on dangerous dogs (of all breeds), law enforcement needs to start treating dog fighting as the hideous cancer to the community that it is, and populations need to be brought under control. Pits need to start to be seen less as demons and more as the mere dogs that they are.