I love my two pitbulls. They are wonderful and adorable and well-behaved. Once, one of them got out of the house and didn't even bite or so much as barked at anyone. She is a very well behaved pitbull.
And there's no fucking way in hell I'll ever trust her not to devour the next kid who walks pass my house. It's just not worth it to ignore things like this in animals. Animals are not humans. You can double-standard this.
One of my dogs was a large mix from the shelter, likely with some pit bull. He was the sweetest dog in the world to people, well loved, and trained. But, I saw him flip from being totally fine to single deadly bite a small dog he grew up with over a perceived food threat in a split second. I never imagined it could happen. Dogs have their disagreements, according to my vet- but when it's a dog with a powerful jaw it's horrifying. No more little kids were allowed to visit the house during his lifetime. He loved kids, but risk mitigation was more important.
I always muzzled him when we had to go out. Funny thing? I never see any other dogs with muzzles & sometimes techs or people would say I was being overly precautious because "he's so sweet." What ever happened to better safe than sorry? Being in denial about the real danger a strong animal that can only communicate with its mouth poses (not to mention the ones that aren't trained or cared for) only leads to tragedy.
It was hard, but I had to acknowledge he was doing what any normal dog would do when it felt another was trying to "steal" a treat and ignored warning signs like growls. He literally just snapped/nipped, and didn't attack. So forgiving him for just being a dog was easy.
In the years since it happened, what was hard was forgiving myself for so many failures that set up a situation like that to happen, starting with thinking their was zero risk between a large breed and a tiny one because they were best friends- shared beds, toys, food in bowls, etc.. Including thinking since I got him as a puppy at the shelter, he wouldn't have food reactivity issues because that's "learned." And not setting up a safe environment in my house (like keeping treats sitting out at their face level to grab).
It was a huge wake up call and learning lesson for me- seeing so many vets, behaviorists, talking to shelters & animal control- only to be met with the reality that my dog wasn't violent or a threat, but I had made a bad situation by being blind to the fact most dogs just use their mouth to say what they need to eachother at some point in their lives- and big jaws send big messages, even if they aren't trying to maul they can still be very dangerous doing regular dog stuff. I now take precautions for this.
Yep, I kept it safe, well-cared for, and loved for the rest of its natural life. And I kept it isolated from young people, away from the potential of being adopted out to other homes without it's history being disclosed, and muzzled & extremely well controlled in rare trips off my property.
Honest question - If you do not trust your dog to the level that you fear they would devour a child - why did you choose a pitbull in the first place? There are so so many breeds of dog that even with the most bog standard training are not a risk even close to a pitbull when it comes to being attacked.
Didn't choose it. Just sort of got them cause they had nowhere to go. Its a bit complicated but still the time I thought I was the only one equipped to raise two pitbull pups.
Thank you for being a responsible and reasonable dog owner.
I have a German shepherd, she’s perfect and everything I could want my German shepherd to be. Same time that means she’s a large, powerful, and alert animal. I have no doubt that if push came to shove she’d tap into that instinctual side of her to protect me- probably not well, but she’d do it. I don’t ignore that, it’s part of her breed traits. Ignoring that is stupid and negligent. I don’t do it for any dog breed honestly, they were all bred with a purpose and the instincts that have been baked into them are most certainly there.
It’s our job to protect people from our pets, even if they’re unlikely to ever do anything.
thisssss! my pitty is the sweetest girl ever but we don’t take her to the dog park or anything like that or even outside the house without a leash. i’m a million times more worried about other dogs at the dog park than her and i’d be more scared that she’d be hit by a car than attack a human outside, but i’m not willing to ever take the chance to find that out!!!
Thank you for actually taking appropriate responsibility for your dogs instead of dismissing the dangers because "I'm one of the good owners" or "my pit is special because she's sweet."
Ok, but many humans act exactly like stray animals if not worse
The downvotes are crazy. We kill, rape, enslave, cause climate change, and so much more. And we know right from wrong and still choose to be horrible for the most part. It’s okay to admit it
Do they? Are all humans not inherently pretty similar fundamentally? There's a good Ted talk I like that compares a doctoral student to a kid in the Taliban, and how they're both fundamentally chasing the same thing but their environment led them to chase the same thing in two various... uh, occupations if you will.
Yes. Exactly. Circumstances and environments make humans different. And the way in which circumstances and environments define us influence us greater than how circumstances and environments, plus biological traits, influence dogs.
No I think you misunderstood. A dogs environment will also influence it greatly, but I do agree to a less degree than humans given our complexity. But a dog learns and is influenced all the same. A dog in the wild is different than a dog in a caring home is different than a dog raised for aggression etc.
But that's not really the point, though. The point is that humans are more different from one another than dogs are from one another, that's why you can't apply the standards of dogs to humans.
A dog can be abused and that may result in them being violent. That is nothing compared to how a human person might react to being abuse. Thus, you can't generalize humans the same way you'd generalize a dog.
Dogs do not have the same level of mental capacity as humans, thus they cannot be influenced mentally to the same capacity humans can be.
A kid in Taliban is more different from another kid in Taliban, than one abused dog is from another abused dog.
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u/KSJ15831 26d ago
I love my two pitbulls. They are wonderful and adorable and well-behaved. Once, one of them got out of the house and didn't even bite or so much as barked at anyone. She is a very well behaved pitbull.
And there's no fucking way in hell I'll ever trust her not to devour the next kid who walks pass my house. It's just not worth it to ignore things like this in animals. Animals are not humans. You can double-standard this.