“Pit-Bulls” had aggression bred into them against other dogs. They were specifically bred not to be aggressive towards people. That being said any dog can be aggressive if it is abused or mis treated. Also most people have no real idea what a pit bull even looks like.
In any case just close this mess Rhio. These always devolve into pro pit v anti pit and 90% of the people speaking dont have any idea of what they are talking about. Bottom line if you are worried for you and your family report the animal to animal control. Say it is being abused or say it attacked you or whatever. Just get a professional out there to check it out and make a decision on the dog. If they don’t do anything best thing is to check around the fence line for weaknesses and try to reinforce them. If you see the dog and you feel it is being threatening do not run under any circumstance as that will just entice it to chase you.
Edit: When you hear of a dog turning on its owner it is almost always NOT out of the blue. The owner may have not seen signs or realized what was going on and “thinks” it was shocking but chances are its not. While it is possible its rare.
If it’s bothering you, just talk to your neighbor about it. Like Mihai said, this sounds like typical dog behavior that is being protective of its territory. Some dogs do it more aggressively than others. Sometimes my only male dog does it too when the gardeners/maintenance for the health club behind my house get right next to the fence, albeit not to the point that you described. Even if he’s being protective of his territory, he loves people, even strangers, and is practically a puppy when it comes to dealing with people. He’s just trying to scare someone off of his territory, but none of my dogs would actually attack anyone if they randomly jumped into our backyard.
Anyways, I digressed a little. The dog may be disturbing/annoying to you, but I think the best thing here is to try to talk to your neighbors about it.
Pit bulls are aggressive by nature along with Rottweilers.
Most states have a 1 free bite rule per dog, before they get discipline. However many states are taking away the 1 bite rule for Pit Bulls, Rottweilers and German Shepherd because the courts are deeming them “aggressive by nature.”
Pitts Rotties and Sheperds are not aggressive by nature. They are territorial. People don’t understand or respect personal space so when a dog responds to a threat to their space they get bent out of shape.
Edit: Courts are the perfect example of people who don’t know shit about dogs.
This thread comes up every year I swear. I’ve had a pit when she was a puppy. Put her around a lot of people and even other dogs when she was growing up. Never had any problems unless you were a threat to me or my fam. I know pits can be dangerous but they can be raised right.
Many animals are territorial. Problem is, Pitts and Rotties are unpredictable in which areas they deem their own. This is why they randomly attack people far more than any breed of dog. And, yes, they are quite aggressive by nature. Regardless of how they were raised, there are always innate features to an animal that you will never overturn.
If you socialize a dog early and often with other dogs and people, give them enough exercise everyday, and provide discipline and order most of the time it will turn out just fine.
I live in Atlanta and anyone who lives here will tell you that there are a lot of pit bulls around. I have nothing against the breed. Having a stronger breed like the pit bull requires more work from an owner than having a beagle. Unfortunately, about half of the pit bulls that I see are missing something from the owner. If they aren’t socialized they will snap at other dogs. It could be out of aggression or most likely because they are nervous or scared. Even if you socialize a dog, if you don’t give it some way to burn off all their energy, its going to become destructive. If a dog does act out, most owners that I’ve seen don’t even correct it. If your dog was just in a fight you don’t pull it away and start petting it. WTF. That’s like saying “Hey it’s cool you bit that dog. I’m going to praise you”.
That being said, its not just pit bulls. Some of the nastiest dogs I’ve seen were not traditionally aggressive breeds. The worst one I’ve seen was a Boxer. Pit are just so strong that any slip up from them is going to be worse than other breeds.
I’m not saying I’m an expert on dogs. I have a lab/pitt mix. I also go to the city’s largest park every day so I get to see a lot of other dogs and how they interact.
Any dog can do this. It’s not natural aggression it’s natural territorial behavior. It’s amazing how many people just reach out and quickly to lay a hand on a dog and then are surprised when they snap. Dogs have a personal space limit to and most people don’t respect it tand it;s what leads to a lot of these “random attacks”. I’m not saying random flip outs don’t happen but they don’t happen nearly as often as the news would like you to think. good deal of these “Random attacks” come from people invading the space of a dog they don’t know, a kid reaching where he he shouldn’t be, or neglectful training and attention from the owner and it’s an incident that’s been waiting to happen for a really long time. These dogs are more protective and thus more likely to attack and demand a higher level of attention from their owners then something like a Lab but even labs are territorial when it comes to their space. I had my friends chocolate lab Boomer snap at me on Friday night when I reached into the back seat of his truck while his dog was there. I should have known better it’s the dogs back seat, it was obviously his back seat and I fucked up.
I have owned a pit bull since 2000 and have never had him attack someone but I could command him to, just never will. Basically, he is pissed when he sees someone, until I tell them its all good, then he is a happy friendly dog.
pitbulls are “aggressive in nature” when compared to a mouse maybe, but compared to other dogs, not that much. chihuahuas, shtizus (sp?) and most other small breeds are infinitely more skiddish and likely to bite you than pits or rotts, all other things being equal.
Oh god, that’s one thing where I can say “Fuck Atlanta”. Ever since DMX put some dogs up in his videos in the 90’s, stupid ass mother fuckers here who can’t even afford a dog end up getting a pit, ends up not taking care of it, and the dog fucking snaps and hurts somebody. I’m so sick of those stupid ass mother fuckers. I had a run in with one the other day. Two of his dogs were loose in the neighborhood for no reason. There’s kids around, and it doesn’t help that people already think pits are dangerous, so people freak out, animal control gets called and shit gets all fucked up. They shouldn’t have been outside without somebody around in the first fucking place.
It’s like I said in my earlier post, you just have to raise it right. Dogs can be aggressive in nature and everyone knows that. But If you take the time to raise it right then you won’t have many problems with your dog. Actually I’ve been attacked more by smaller dogs than bigger ones. In reality, some people just shouldn’t own dogs in general. I’ve seen a good amount of people neglect their dogs and they’ve turned out bad. Hell, I had an old friend who had a husky/wolf mix and that dog was tame as fuck because he took the time to raise it properly. Yea it could of attacked at any moment, but every time I came over that dog never barked at me or tried to attack me. It even let me pet it without his owners permission.
The media has just mind fucked yall so much that you believe anything that you hear. A pit has attacked so and so. Another pit has attacked yo momma. Stop believing everything the tv tells you and educate yourselves. I’m actually going to get another pit real soon because it’s one of my favorite dogs. But I’ll only get one when I have the time to properly raise and spend time with it like it needs.
The problem is that it would be impossible for everyone to raise their dogs “right.” What if someone were to told you “well if you raise your kids right there wouldn’t be any bad people in this world.” May be true or may not, either way we are not finding out any time soon. Just because you like to take your time and learn how to correctly train your dog doesn’t mean Joe Schomoe will too. Quite frankly he doesn’t have to either.
Actually now I can see why the court did decide Pits are aggressive by nature, because they weren’t created for us to raise.
I’m going to assume they said the whole “if you raise it right” argument doesn’t apply because Pits weren’t put on this earth for us to raise.
