Dogs and neighbors.

[prichard]

Hopefully your not the type to get a bunch of dogs and fit them all with cages because they all become too overbearing in a group, my sister and brother in law does that, they have 4 dogs which mostly live in the cage as far as I can see, they mainly only get let out to go outside and eat.

No, that's disgusting. Our dogs are free, at least within the house and fence.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm very Blessed. My dog sleeps in my shop with his own door. No leash. No fence. No wandering. No problems.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

The real truth is that most pit bull owners don't own them because they are sweet pets and good with children.......they buy them as guard dogs knowing full well they are dangerous.
And the dogs are quite literally an extension of the character of their owner.

Not "most". Not by a long shot. What we call a "pit bull" was known as a "nanny dog" in 19th century England. They are great with children.


People who need to compensate for something have raised many to be vicious, so of course, those dogs are vicious. It's not intrinsic to the breed.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I'm very Blessed. My dog sleeps in my shop with his own door. No leash. No fence. No wandering. No problems.

There is no way in heck my dog would do that.

1. He chases cows so is not aloud to be back at the barn and has to stay up by the house, the wireless perimeter is about 3/4 an acre, I don't use it anymore because he never goes past his boundary.

2. He cries and barks obnoxiously if he can see me but can not be close to me, he is by every definition of a "Velcro Dog"

His job is to protect the house and garage which he does a really good job on the house lol.

I came very very close to getting a Great Pyrenees LGD to protect my chickens, the barn and cows but I did very extensive research and talked to a ton of people on forums that own LGD's and we came to the conclusion that for what I needed a Great Pyrenees would not work so I declined the offer for the dog, it was a 10 month old full blooded female I was offered but was a pet and not a worker.

I liked the idea of having a dog in the barn separate from the dog in the house, if I got it idk if the two would meet, didn't have plans for them to, totally separate territories, I was actually told not to because of the LGD became familiar with any other dogs in its territory it may not attack a neighboring dog that is on a mission to tear up chickens, at the time I didn't have cows. Also Pyrenees's roam too much since my lot wasn't fenced at the time.

If I had the offer today I would prob be willing to try it since my cow pasture has chainlink all around it and LGDs can bond with cows, they don't bond with chickens it's just a territorial thing, the chickens are part of its territory so it will protect them.

 

[Thall303]

Of course they are!

Proven time and again!

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Of course they are!

Proven time and again!

The only thing you have proven is it's the owners fault there aggressive, I don't care what breed it is, if you train it well, show it your the dominate one, it will be kind and loyal.

If you train it to be mean, that's just what it's going to be, mean and unpredictable.

Any dog in the same situation is capable of the exact same thing, most "Pit Bulls" are very protective of there territory and owners, broken mis trained dogs normally are unpredictable.

 

[Sigarms]

+1 While I don't like pits, most that I have encountered have been well trained and well mannered. Still scary as heck but well mannered. While not capable of inflicting as much damage, I have a lot more problems with small dogs being aggressive. To me, it looks like their owners think that since the dogs are small that they don't have to train out the aggression.

I've probably worked with hundreds of dogs.

My wife will admit one reason why she liked me right off the bat is her dog liked me a lot the first time we met (her dog).

The ONLY time I've EVER been bitten is by a small whatever you call them (can't spell their name right lol). As you mentioned, because they are so small, they can't do a lot of damage.

I used to think "pit's" were mean dogs. Then I had one for 7 years (she died of a heart attack apparently). One of the BEST dogs I ever had, and my wife will agree. That dog opened my eyes to my own ignorance. I didn't get her because I wanted protection, I got her because she was living under a trailer with pups.

To me, dogs are a lot like guns. In the wrong hands, they can be dangerous, added the people reporting the news generally have no clue what their reporting about.

People who buy guns only for defensive reasons are pretty much a lot like people who get dogs for defensive reasons...they have no clue what they are doing in most cases, and can cause the most harm due to their own ignorance.

Don't worry, if the insurance companies are going after dogs, sooner or later they will find a reason to be jacking your insurance up because you own guns.

 

[Sigarms]

I hear that a lot and I'm inclined to believe but my experience is different. Virtually every pit owner I have met has been a decent person. Even my neighbor with the aggressive is really a nice guy. Where he falls down is he doesn't really train any of his pack. Neither he nor his wife are aggressive. They are a very nice couple. They just don't see that their pit is aggressive. Of course, when you only have two people living within a 1/2 mile radius of you, you really don't see how the dogs are around people. I don't doubt that there are a lot of pit owners who have them to be aggressive; I'm just lucky or careful enough to not meet those people and I'm hesitant to "paint" decent people with motives they may or may not have.

When I tried to find a home for that one "pit" that ended up with us for 7 years, I was amazed at the people who we met at pet smart who wanted her for "protection". That was a automatic no go in my book for ANY dog.

The way I see it, my dogs job is to alert me to danger. After that, it's my job as their master to protect them.

 

[Thall303]

More sad......but true stories:

http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-fatalities-2016.php

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

More sad......but true stories:

216 U.S. Dog Bite Fatalities - Dog Bite Statistics - DogsBite.org

Yes they're very sad stories most being the result of neglect or someone being introduced into a dogs territory.

But you must not have read the article I posted earlier.

The Lies, **** Lies and Statistics Behind Dog Bites | The Huffington Post

The term "Pit Bull" is a very general term when a dog is unknown on the breed in most of those posts in your article. I bet 80% of those weren't actually "pit bulls"