What makes Pit Bulls aggressive?

[Toneseeker361]

I always see these advertised as "blue nose" "red nose" "full blooded this" and "full blooded that".
My question is isn't it their brain that makes them mean?
Shouldn't they say "sane" and "insane"
And what are these owners so afraid of that they need such a mean dog?
I understand, not all PB are mean, some are actually good with kids.
I am for the most part uneducated in this area.
I MEAN NO OFFENSE TO PB OWNERS.
wHT MAKES THEM MEAN?

[The Last Rebel]

Oh good, it had been a little while since the last pit bull thread.

The honest answer? Dumb owners. A bad owner can make any dog agressive, that sort of thing gets exacerbated when you have a big, strong dog with a high prey drive that seems to attract meth-addicted white trash.

Oh, and in before tough-guy posturing.

[Scooter Burbank]

Originally Posted by The Last Rebel

Oh good, it had been a little while since the last pit bull thread.

The honest answer? Dumb owners. A bad owner can make any dog agressive, that sort of thing gets exacerbated when you have a big, strong dog with a high prey drive that seems to attract meth-addicted white trash.

Oh, and in before tough-guy posturing.

The Last Rebel is right. My dachshund is pretty aggressive -- just a big difference in being attacked by a miniature weiner dog and a pit bull (or any strong, athletic dog). Pits were bred to fight dogs, so some theorize that they're slightly more dog-aggressive than some other breeds -- debatable. I've never met a pit that was aggressive towards humans at all. On the contrary, every one I've ever met has been insanely people friendly.

[Clorenzo]

They are agressive (or more prone to defend themselves vigorously if attacked, if you will) because they have been selectively bred that way. As for physical traits that correlate with degree of agressiveness, explained in a simple way, this is due to the fact that there isn't such a thing as one gene for agressiveness, one gene for nose colour: a given trait corresponds to a group of genes and sometimes there is overlap between the groups for two different traits, so if you select for one of them, the other one is also selected for as a "side effect".

I'm citing from memory (I read it in one of the books by Richard Dawkins, can't remember which one right now) but there was a famous experiment by a Russian (?) scientist in the 60's (?) where he set out to domesticate a certain type of fox. He observed that the groups selected for their tameness also "converged" to certain physical characteristics which, as it happens, made them look more similar to domestic dogs: shorter snout, multi-coloured furs, etc.

Edit: this is an article in American Scientist about that experiment: http://www.hum.utah.edu/~bbenham/251...Experiment.pdf

[XmasTree]

Their DNA

[speakerdad]

Their owner's DNA....

[wilblee]

I was a hater 'til my son moved back home with his pit bull. Sweetest, friendliest, best with strangers dog I've ever had at my house. It gave up the alpha position to my black mouth cur (both are uncastrated males) with relatively little contest and will take petting or play fetch as long as you will. Hell on possums, though (which is another big plus in my book).

[bbrunskill]

The only Pit Bull I know well is the easily the sweetest, gentlest dog I've ever met. The aggression largely comes from the owner.

[pwrightmd]

I agree with multiple posts above - it is the owner. I had never owned a Pitbull until I was an adult. We adopted a rescue 6 years ago. At the time - she was an emaciated puppy and we weren't sure what kind of dog she was. After she bulked up - we realized we had a Pitbull. She has been by far the best trained, sweetest dog I have ever owned. People need to remember that there is a difference between aggression and strength. Pitbulls are incredibly strong but they are not aggressive unless trained to be. The fact that so many aggressive people own Pitbulls is the real problem. Anyway - here's a pic of my Pitbull - Piglet. Looks mean doesn't she?

[j2b4o]

Dickhead owners make them mean. Had a red as a kid and you could do anything to this dog and he loved you for it. Take his food away while eating and he would just look at you like "why me". Lived with like 6 different dogs(breeds) and my pit jake was the best dog ever hands down.

[bluesjunior]

Originally Posted by Clorenzo

They are agressive (or more prone to defend themselves vigorously if attacked, if you will) because they have been selectively bred that way.

Not quite true, because of their low centre of gravity and strength they were bred from the Staffordshire Bull Terrier by the gold and silver miners to haul the wagons of ore from the mines which were much smaller than coal mines etc where they used pit ponies due to the added height in these mines. Due to their natural aggressiveness to each other and a mining camp being a pretty boring place at night the miners began using them for entertainment/gambling in dog fights in much the same way as cockfighting went on in the camps as well.

I once read that the reason that this type of dog is preferred for fighting is that they are not very intelligent and once provoked they become mindless creatures and will fight to the death even though they are losing whereas a Doberman, German Shepherd, Wolf etc will try to run away from its opponent once it knows it is beaten and there is not such a spectacle in that. A cruel and inhumane "sport" whatever way you look at it.

[Dickie Fredericks]

Stupid owners

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by XmasTree

Their DNA

Originally Posted by speakerdad

Their owner's DNA....

Some combination of these. A dog bred for agressive traits owned by irresponsible people = a mess of trouble

[plexistack]

Some Pits are aggressive with other dogs, but they're actually very good with humans & kids especially.

They're so string & they don't feel pain easily, so kids can't hurt them, and they don't fear-bite as much as other breeds.

I've never actually seen an aggressive pit bull in all the years I frequent the local dog park. 400 - 500 dogs per day go there, and Boxers get in more fights than Pitbulls, by far.

[Jetrow]

I'll do you one better. It's not even stupid owners that cause aggression in dogs. It's just not knowing what the potential is in the dog to start with. People have a very poor idea of what constitutes a pitbull and even less how to raise one to be a good member of the community.

They are strong and excitement and pain all translate into the same thing with them. The highest level of understanding and skill are needed to turn out a good dog with this amount of potential. It's easy as can be to make disastrous mistakes then dump the dog once it reaches adolescence at a pound or rescue.

If I had my druthers, few would be allowed to breed any dog and ownership would be a major deal making gun, car or home ownership look like a walk in the park.

Pitbulls are naturally not human aggressive. In the right hands, they wouldn't harm anyone or anything because they have no need to do so. They do bond deeply with the right person and to that person they will defend if need be with their life. That isn't a bad thing, it's a testament to their loyalty and honour they put in that special bond.

This also gets them into a lot of trouble when people who don't know what they are doing, misuse this trait for the stupidest if reasons.

Not for everyone, but in the right hands, a magnificent example of Man's Best Friend.

There are no bad dogs, just bad owners.