A dog you can trust or a dog that will kill?

No breed is a bad breed when trained correctly.

This.

I have three dogs, a German Shepard/Husky mix, a Yorkie, and a miniature chihuahua. I also have three kids, they are 7, 13, and 16. We have had at least two dogs in our home since my kids were babies and never had a single issue with any of them. We even had a pitbull that belonged to a friend for a while. It is all about the training and knowing the temperment of the individual dog. Don't put your animal in a situation where you know they may not react well.

First of all, the dog pictures are adorable! I've had dogs all my life, I usually find that the smaller breeds are more apt to bite, they have to protect themselves because of their size, also it depends on the age, sometimes they tend to get crankier when they get older because their bodies ache ect.. You shouldn't trust any dog completely..they do have animal instincts.

We have three dogs, the largest is a lab.. she is so sweet and honestly I couldn't see her ever hurting anyone even if someone broke into our house she'd probably lick them...smh.... Then we have our pitbull/doberman and he's sweet as pie as well, though he is protective....then we have the demon.

The demon is the same age as my pit, but a quarter of the size, she is a pomeagle mix and she bites and she bites hard and she doesn't even give a single **** about it. That thing is the scariest of all my dogs, and she's the size of my shoe.

Just saying. XD

I grew up around big dogs, sheperds, rotts, pits, mastiffs, ect and they all were big kind dogs. Why? cause my family trained them and only showed loved and kindness. It really how you raise a dog. So dont blame the pet, but blame the owner

I love when you hear about dogs killing children but you hear nothing more about the circumstances of the situation or the manner in which the animals/children were raised. It criminalizes the animal when in fact it may have been extenuating circumstances the general public knew nothing about.

But like others have said before, it comes down to training. There are some dogs that shouldn't be around kids. Not breeds-dogs. It comes down to evaluating a dog's tolerance on a dog by dog basis. That being said, knowing the physiology of some breeds is important.

For instance, Male pits brain chemistry changes as they age from a juvenile to an adult. This physiological change can cause behavior changes which, if not addressed, can lead to negative outcomes.

I have taken care of and helped to train almost every type of breed out there. There extremely few "bad" dogs. Those considered "bad" are usually a product of bad training, abuse, neglect, or reinforced negative behaviors. The conclusion, there are more bad owners than bad dogs.

I have a Mastiff named Hula. She protects my children.

I knew Hula had been trained well and that her protective instincts were strong when, after my son was born, I came home from work and walked to his room to take a look at him. Hula was lying at the foot of the bassinet and her head came up and she growled at me softly when I appeared in the doorway. I backed away and we later worked out that kink, but I became aware that she knew her role.

Another time, a couple years later, when my in-laws were baby/dog sitting for us at their house, a man who used to work for my brother-in-law (but who had been fired for coming to work on drugs) hopped the fence and grabbed a power tool from a shed on the property. Hula had been sunning herself and letting the kids crawl all over her. When she heard the racket from the shed, she jumped up to investigate...

...dude almost made it over the fence before Hula caught him....

...she made that dude feel...unwelcome...

...he finally made it over the fence...

...Hula barked and raged at the fence for a while until the retreating guy disappeared...

...Hula stopped barking and went back to her sunny spot in the yard and lied down with the kids again...

...neighbor across the street who'd seen everything walked over to tell my in-laws (who had just come out because of the racket) what had happened...

...brother-in-law had to wash blood off his fence...

Rules:
1. Don't come in my yard where my kids are playing.
2. Ring the doorbell I installed at the gate and wait for someone.
3. Prepare to be f**ked up by 140lbs of dog if you break either of the first two rules.
* If you somehow manage to make it past Hula, prepare to see how well you dodge bullets.

Okay how about this: No breed is inherently dangerous. And no breed is inherently safe. But there are breeds that may require more and better training to be properly socialized than other breeds.

Not only that, but every dog has its own personality and there are individual dogs of every breed or mix of breeds that are inherently dangerous no matter how well they are socialized, possibly due to mental/physical defect. There are also individual dogs of breeds known for being either easy or difficult to socialize that are the opposite of what one would expect from that breed.

And there are breeds more likely to cause serious injury or death to a person solely due to the size of the breed and its bite power.

And finally, rounding up every member of a specific breed and slaughtering them is horrible and cruel and doesn't take into account individual dog personalities and training and it should never happen.

Okay, I'm going to stop posting in this thread now. I think I must be part bulldog. I just can't let go of this thread!

I have been bitten by 3 different dogs all cocker spaniels. Cockers spaniels hate me !!!! LOL don't know why.

That being said I believe breeds do what they have been bread to do. Beagles were bread to chase rabbits let a beagle go in the woods and it will chase some animal. Retrievers naturally want to fetch. Pitts and Rotties were trained to fight they are going to fight quicker than say a retriever.

They have a quicker temper and I don't trust them just like I don't trust a human with a short temper.

Except Rotties were originally herding dogs. That is something that I see it in mine quite often.

I own "vicious" dogs too. They are incredibly well-trained but I always try to remain aware of who is around them and what they are up to. A dog is only as vicious as its environment. And to whomever said Rotties were bred to kill. You're wrong. They're herding and work dogs. Please educate yourself before you spread "vicious" rumors like that.