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

I take my two dogs to the dog park all the time. One is a pit mix, the other a blue heeler mix. Both of them remained on the leash until we trusted them completely to 1) come when called, 2) behave around other dogs, 3) behave around other people.

I have seen many dogs at the park, and you can always tell the owners that don't put in enough effort to train their dogs or the owners who use pain to teach. They are the people who are chasing their dogs all around the 500 acre park, screaming at the dog. Or the owner that goes to the park like 10 terriers off leash. Or the owners who are too involved in their own selves to notice that their dog is actually aggressively hording a stick, and think it is funny that the dog is doing so.

99% of the time the fault falls upon the owners of the dogs. People go and adopt a dog without looking at their life styles, the training needed for the dog, and ability to offer it the devotion it needs (and this is directed towards all dogs, take for example someone adopting a herding dog and trying to keep it as an apartment dog, and then wondering why they come home to a destroyed couch). And, sadly, the pit breeds have developed a horrible stereotype due to dog fighting. I would wonder, if dog fighting had never come about if the pit breeds would still have the same reputation that they have today. Honestly, I doubt it.

I used to be one of those people who were weary of pit breeds, until I found my Buster. Like any dog, he can get carried away and my husband and I are often times getting onto him at the park for getting rough. Not because we mind, but because we don't want someone taking his rough housing and twisting it into aggressiveness.

When my parents got married, they got a Siberian Husky who was regularly mistaken for a wolf. He was five years old by the time I was born. (I'm the oldest of two.) My parents were worried about how the dog would react to a tiny loud thing getting all the attention that had been his. According to my mom, the dog considered us "his puppies." He was very calm and gentle. The only time he became at all threatening was when a salesman walked into my parents' house uninvited. My mom had been trying to get the guy to go away, and instead he pushed his way in. Mom says the dog stood up on his hind legs, put his paw on the guy's shoulder, and looked him straight in the eye; she says she was as surprised as the salesman.

My vet, on the other hand, was terrified of my dog because he had been bitten by four huskies and didn't trust the breed. Now, how my dog reacted in the vet's office, I don't know, BUT in the seven years we had together, he growled at me once, and showed his teeth to me once (I think I was pulling on his tail...I was really young, and whatever upset him, I know it was my fault), and my parents corrected him both times. My parents never worried about leaving him alone with us.

However, I'm afraid of Shar-pei/Beagle mixes, and even more so of Shar-pei/Beagle/Daschund mixes. My neighbor's daschund died, and she bought a bigger dog to replace it: a shar-pei/beagle mix. This dog spent her first two years taking running jumps to pounce on everyone who walked through the door, and she's heavy. She's also a nipple-biter. No, you didn't misread that; in addition to jumping all over me, she used to try to latch on to the two parts of my anatomy that stood out to her. She also has the beagle bark.

Anyway, in spite of being attached to this dog, my neighbors decided that they missed dearly their deceased daschund's personality (he was, indeed, a gentleman), and decided they needed a second dog. They found an absolutely adorable little guy who looked like a Hershey's milk chocolate bar. I love that dog at least as much as I love my own. My neighbor spent her dog-fixing money on getting her son another expensive game console for no legitimate reason; he wasn't doing especially well in school, it wasn't his birthday, she just wanted to feel loved. Long story short, her male daschund and her very agressive shar/beagle mix had six beautiful mutant babies. They're not even as high as my knee, but these dogs are so nasty that I wouldn't like to be in the same yard. Heck, I'd be happier if I weren't in the same neighborhood; they can be heard at least two blocks in every direction, and my neighbor lets them out at 5:30 in the morning for half an hour at a time. I once passed through a town with a pack of feral dogs, and THEY were nicer than these dogs are. LONG STORY SHORT...if I had a baby, I would leave it with a bull mastiff before I'd leave it with any of my neighbor's spawn of Satan.

I rescued an American Pit. She is the most docile dog I have ever seen. My three year old tries desperately to get her to play tug-of-war, but that dog is totally aware she could hurt my daughter. She only puts the end of the tug rope in her mouth and lets my daughter pull the other end. She never pulls back if my daughter has it, but if it's me that dog can pull so hard she brings me to the floor. She also lets our cat chew on her ears and attack her tail with this "oh it's you again" look on her face.

But as sweet as my dog is, my sister has told me if she ever has children, I'm no longer allowed to bring my dog to her house. Even though she owns a friggin' little shihtsu that has bit me and nipped at my daughter on more than one occasion.

eta- I spelled "shihtsu" wrong on purpose because the edit ****su.

ANY dog is unpredictable. The problem is that we humanize them, but they are still dogs. it's just in their nature. It is up to the owners to prevent any incidents.

There's a meme going around now that says

"In the 70's, it was the doberman pinscher
In the 80s' it was German Shepherds
In the 90s, it was Rottweilers
Now it is the Pit Bull
When are the OWNERS going to be held accountable"

And it's absolutely true. A few days ago a 2 year old girl was killed by the family's 7 pit bulls (they had 9 dogs total, but the other two were different breeds) when she wandered outside. There were FIVE adults in the house and not ONE of them were watching her. (I believe it was reported the 12 year old was supposed to be doing it.) At least in this case, they will be held responsible, but this was absolutely preventable. And 7 dogs and a little girl died due to lazy irresponsible a-holes.

Thank you for this post I agree 100% similar to what I was saying

Blame the deed not the breed ANY dog can be nasty but the owners create the monsters. I own an English bull terrier daft as toast but I would never trust her 100% and you never should with ANY dog it is after all and animal descended from wolves . My brother in law is a doctor and he said that the most recorded dog attacks in the NHS are from collies and Labrador's but you won't see that in the papers.

It's always the same they vilify a breed when it suits them ii's been Rotties, dobermans, GSD, akita's you name it but never a poodle of shihtsu all of which can be killers if not trained.

I will always blame the owners It took us 12 months of rigorous vetting before we could take on our dog EDUCATION is what's needed not destroying a breed!

Education is needed! I have been bitten by jack russels, one attacked our docile old lab and tore his ear open and another time grabbed him by the neck, Tyson was walking to the car and about to jump in the boot when this rat came running across the estate and jumped into the boot as Tyson did and damaged his neck, what made it worse is that this dog was not dealt with and the owners did not offer to pay for the vet bill!

No breed is a bad breed when trained correctly.

This.

And the evidence for this statement is where? Oh yeah there is none its just internet rhetoric.

I've encountered a great many more small dogs with attitude problems than larger dogs, regardless of breed. You need to keep in mind the demographic that certain breeds attract; young dumbasses trying to impress their friends with no real sense of responsibility or any idea how to train a dog? Usually seen with a pit/pit cross or a Staffordshire Bull Terrier here in the UK. If they had a freaking chihuahua, it'd still be as badly behaved as their EVIL MENACE pitbull.

My dog is a Husky cross, and was terrible for nipping when she was a puppy. Eventually I gave up trying to teach her it was bad in the 'human' way with a stern no and a pointed finger, and bit her back. She has never nipped, mouthed or even curled a lip at anyone since and is the softest dog I've ever known with dogs and humans. You need to train your dogs properly; they are still animals at the end of the day.

I've encountered a great many more small dogs with attitude problems than larger dogs, regardless of breed. You need to keep in mind the demographic that certain breeds attract; young dumbasses trying to impress their friends with no real sense of responsibility or any idea how to train a dog? Usually seen with a pit/pit cross or a Staffordshire Bull Terrier here in the UK. If they had a freaking chihuahua, it'd still be as badly behaved as their EVIL MENACE pitbull.

My dog is a Husky cross, and was terrible for nipping when she was a puppy. Eventually I gave up trying to teach her it was bad in the 'human' way with a stern no and a pointed finger, and bit her back. She has never nipped, mouthed or even curled a lip at anyone since and is the softest dog I've ever known with dogs and humans. You need to train your dogs properly; they are still animals at the end of the day.

I've been bitten by far more small dogs than I have large ones. I have a scar on my leg from a small dog when I was a child. Then when I was walking one morning, this woman let her chihuahua out in the front yard (instead of the fenced backyard) to go to the bathroom. It ran for me and tried to bite my ankle. I just kicked it and the woman had the audacity to yell at me for it. I yelled back something about effing leash laws and went on my merry way. Then a dude two houses down did the same thing with his chihuahua who would roam the neighborhood. Little runt would growl and scare my kids while they were in OUR yard.

Again, it's not the breed but I think people just PAMPER smaller dogs too much. They see them as replacement kids and think they can't do any wrong due to their size but they can be quite the menace. People put more emphasis on larger dogs strictly because of their size but ALL dogs need training. Period. If you don't want to put forth the effort training it, you shouldn't have gotten a dog. Thankfully, our gentle giant is extremely submissive and needs little training other than the basics of sit, stay, come, etc.

Nice little pellet gun comes in handy from time to time. lol

Pretty much just skipped to the end of the comments so I can add something.

1)My brother had his face bitten by a poodle when he was younger. so just because its not reported doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
2)Its the dog, not the breed. BLAME THE DEED, NOT THE BREED.

At my house we have three Labradors (white, chocolate, and black) and a red nose pit bull. The pit bull is great around kids.. If you are a dog owner you know that dogs have their own very different personality's.
I do however feel that the owner of the dogs(said by neighbors do be a little nervous about her 'powerfully built' dogs herself) should not have let her kid have company. We NEVER let anyone in our house without us, and our dogs wouldn't even do anything to them.

My most insensitive comment of all would be, You don't even have your own oven but you have five dogs? I guess I wouldn't understand, I'm American and even the ghettos have ovens. sorry, that detail just stuck with me. The only reasons I can think of for using the neighbors oven(which is weird) is that either theirs was broken or the 14 year olds couldn't use the oven unsupervised.

Thats not right either...Rotties and Pits were not bread for fighting at all...

Pit bulls... In the U.S., these dogs were used as catch dogs for semi-wild cattle and hogs, to hunt, to drive livestock, and as family companions.[6] Some have been selectively bread for their fighting abilities.

The Rottweiler was employed in its traditional roles until the mid-19th century when railways replaced droving for herding livestock to market. While still used in herding, Rottweilers are now also used as search and rescue dogs, as guide dogs for the blind, as guard dogs or police dogs, and in other roles.[2]

http://pinterest.com/tikitacky/photographs-i-vintage-pit-bull/

There are also reports that pitbulls were used as babysitters for victorian children.

No breed is a bad breed when trained correctly.

This. So many dogs get a bad reputation because douche bags abuse them and teach them horrible things.

Just a little test, for all us dog owners?

Leave a little doll or teddy bear with your dog when you go our for a couple of hours?

A doll or teddy bear isn't going to antagonize a dog like kids can. Plus most dogs left home alone will get bored and chew it up anyway.

I used to be on the fence about this... then a few years ago, a pair of bull mastiffs escaped from their house, prowled the neighborhood, and attacked my neighbor and his toy poodle, who was in minding his business in his own garage. These were well-trained, loved dogs in good neighborhood, that just decided to go and snack on a human one day.

The cops had to shoot both six or seven times, just to stop them. I'm glad my kids weren't outside.

I try to avoid all animals that are capable of eating me.

Totally depends on the dog's personality. I had a border collie that I would have trusted with my baby - he was so calm and obedient....but the border collie I have now, snaps at the cat if she thinks the cat is getting something she isn't. So I wouldn't ever leave her alone with babies or kids. I believe every breed has the potential to do something terrible, because they are animals.

I have a boxer! she's very hyper but shes the sweetest!!!!!!