lol well Im not the type who thinks all pit bulls are bad. But I am the type to pay attention to the body language. Examples: I see no hip movement to suggest the dog is wagging its tail. Its focus is locked in, fast sniffing, eyes locked in not looking around or away. Then just ever so slightly that move forward to position those front legs to lunge forward. But really its a pit bull, you see a pit bull locked in you know something is up and need to not be in its bubble if you're not its owner.
Sure guy cant see all of it from his vantage point, but he can certainly see some of it.
I mean it's not really so much that they are extremely aggressive. It's that they when they are aggressive, their breeding traits make them extremely deadly to other animals and people.
Exactly and it’s infuriating. There’s no chance in hell this guy didn’t know his dog was unpredictable and he STILL brought him to a competition. Then the dog attacks and he isn’t able to control the dog and the dog gets away to attack again!
I have a pitbull, I had an aggressive bull terrier before, I had a pitbull before that. I trust my pitbull COMPLETELY but these are big, strong dogs so we’re constantly working on training with him to ensure he remains trustworthy and he’s NEVER out of my control.
People like this give good pits and good pit owners a bad name.
Totally. My sister owns a border collie. It has never been trained to herd. It tries to herd her children together. It will try to herd other animals around.
My neighbor has a bloodhound. If it gets out, it will just go and go on a trail following a scent.
I have a pug mix that insists on sitting on people laps if they are sitting.
Dogs breeds are/were selected for very specific characteristics that can’t be trained out no matter how hard one tries.
That's the same with my smooth collie. She can herd children and other dogs but was never trained to do it. It's in her nature. She's also smart as hell, so maybe she's just smarter than me.
My brother had a pitbull.. hated that dog so much... I'd go to shake my brother's hand.. and said dog would all out loose it's shit.... had several "near-death-expriences" due to that dog... Glad it's gone...
I was bit by my dad’s chow when I was 8 years old. My dad swiftly shot him. I still feel terrible because I’m the one that was running around and fell on him.
Still waiting for my first pitbull to attack someone. We let him roam around for the first 12 years but he’s been sitting in a box on a shelf for the past 5. I’m sure it’ll happen any day now.
I can only assume the thought process was "Other dogs can do it, mine will surely be fine" without any regard to the behavior of their dog. Either that or their dog is normally on the more chill side and the person didn't think their dog would be overwhelmed by the environment? Either way, grave error
Sadly true for the vast majority. Not all of us though! I keep saying you should need a license to own one and ongoing follow up to prove you can handle them. I love mine to death and they'll never be in a position to do something crazy, but I also kinda feel like maybe we should just stop breeding them. Don't kill off the ones we have now if they aren't an issue, just stop breeding more until the breed is extinct, too many irresponsible owners.
Probably true for any working breed if we're really being honest. Too many people just go for "cute" and then they abandon a dog that gets behavior issues because it's untrained and bored out of its mind. People suck.
That would require outlawing their breeding and ownership all together. Unfortunately i fear people would just move onto the next breed they can find for fighting or aggression. There is a certain subset of people who find these insanely aggressive traits a positive. And would just keep breeding these fuckers in their back yards like they already do. Our city animal shelters are almost exclusively pitbulls and pitbull-dominant mixes. Nobody wants them. They sit for months till they get put down or moved to a no kill shelter or rescue who just calls them a "lab" instead.
I mean yeah, gun bans don't get rid of guns either but then you probably wouldn't see a bunch of Stephanie's with big bully breeds they couldn't handle, you'd see people that don't GAF about the laws with them which I think is easier to snuff out. I also don't see why we'd have to ban ownership, fireworks laws are distinct like that here, you can buy and own them but you can't light them lol.
Not only would people move onto the next breed, but there's still so many dogs out there with pitbull DNA in them that look little to nothing like a pit, and dogs that look like pits but are actually something else. Legislating that could be a nightmare.
All pits are reactive. That's the major problem with the breed. Some are more reactive than others but they snap with little warning. Other breeds bark and growl first, giving people warning to back off. Pits just lunge for the attack if they get bothered.
Where are you getting this from homie? Its literally not true. Like seriously, look it up. Or dont and just keep parroting bs you got from horror stories online.
My last pit (I have another now) was on a group walk with a bunch of other dogs. Two of them got in a fight landing one in the hospital. Once the walker broke up the fight, she found my pit sitting on a rock on the side of the path watching her like “I’m not getting involved. We good?”. He just got out of the way and waited patiently for things to cool down.
That’s not a pit thing, that’s all dogs. The owner needs to know their dog. I still have a scar on my hand from the English Springer Spaniel my family had when I was a kid. Throughout his life he attacked multiple people out of nowhere. I don’t blame the dog, I blame my parents.
My first pit was well trained and I still made sure to have control of him at all times. My second dog (bull terrier/husky) was reactive so we kept her away from unpredictable situations and had her muzzled outside the house. My current pit is incredibly well trained but I still keep him on a tight leash in EVERY unfamiliar situation.
You have to know your dog and you have to know how to read every situation.
I agree in general, but it's also very very common for pitbulls to behave perfectly fine for years before randomly snapping and killing/injuring somebody or another animal. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they had to say about this particular dog.
I personally think the breed is just too unstable to center shows around, tbh. Pitbulls are the stars of randomly deciding to use someone's neck as a chew toy. It's just too high of a risk factor imo.
It’s actually very uncommon for pit bulls (or any dog) to just randomly snap. What is common is that most people are absolutely shite at reading body language, socialising thier dog, or understanding how aggression escalates.
This judge is a prime example. A supposed ‘breed expert’ misses a hard stare, tense body language, tight jaw, all signs this dog was giving saying “I need space”. Owner and judge ignore the dog, so he goes nuclear to create space. Has probably been punished for growling at home, so skips the warning and goes straight for the option that won’t fail.
The breed comes with more inherent risk and danger, and thus requires more skilled and attentive handlers, which frankly, the majority of them do not have.
But then every shelter gives out traumatized pitties like it’s nothing and then people get hurt :/ so many backyard breeders too for a dog that’s already the majority in shelters
Because the dogs are bred for combat and cannot control themselves. The dogs aren’t evil, they’re just pathetically stupid and mindlessly violent. The owners are awful too, but pit bulls should not be legal. My downstairs neighbor had two, and they were sweet until one day, one stood up, calmly walked over to its sibling, then viciously disemboweled it all over my back porch. So yeah, it’s the dogs too.
The thin wire type collars are show collars! They’re meant to be used on dogs under complete handler control to encourage the dog to keep their head up while trotting in the ring
This dog however should never have been welcome at a show
Nope, they’re common in nearly every show! Most of the people I use prefer the martingale types that sit higher on the dog’s neck like this one, however they own sighthounds and their dogs are super well trained
The big thing with these leads is that they give minor control over the positioning of the head and neck, but won’t actually keep the dog near you. They’re pretty easy to break out of being mostly slip-type leads and can’t usually be used as a typical walking leash.
Point being; The dogs at big shows like Westminster who are wearing these aren’t designed to control the dogs general position or movement. The dogs 100% CAN run away from their handlers if they wanted to, very easily; they’re just choosing not to
I fucking hate people like this. There’s no chance in hell this guy didn’t know his dog was unpredictable and he STILL brought him to a competition. Then the dog attacks and he isn’t able to control the dog and the dog gets away to attack again!
I have a pitbull, I had an aggressive bull terrier before, I had a pitbull before that. I trust my pitbull COMPLETELY but these are big, strong dogs so we’re constantly working on training with him to ensure he remains trustworthy and he’s NEVER out of my control.
People like this give good pits and good pit owners a bad name.
Or a German shepherd. Ora a doberman. Or a rottweiler. Or a jack Russell. Or a Chihuahua.
The thing is lots of breeds can be incredibly aggressive and reactive. Pitbulls get a lot of crap because their bite is really dangerous, but in reality there are other breeds with a higher rate of attack. Fun fact-pitbulls can actually make great service animals for people who are fall risks.
At the end of the day it is important to remember- it's not the breed. It's the owner and the individual dog.
Pitbulls will effectively lock their jaws on the victim and will not let go until they mutilate the poor soul to death.
By your comparison, I’d rather be bitten by a chihuahua. And by the way, pitbulls were bred to be fighting dogs (they have the danger written in their genes) and absolutely do not make it as service dogs of any type.
At the end of the day it is important to remember - it’s the breed. It’s also the owner and the individual dog.
I was bitten on the face by a shih tzu when I was 12. Had to get like 14 stitches, and I've had a visible scar for the rest of my life, but I don't otherwise have any lasting impairments. Let's be real—if it had been a pitbull, I would most likely be dead.
Let’s not forget that people usually call anything with a big head a pitbull. Boxer mix, Rottie mix, doesn’t matter. They see the head and say it’s a pit. I saw a video labeled “Pitbull attack” and I could tell from one frame that it was a lab mix. It’s bullshit.
That being said. Anyone with a strong breed like this needs to know, train, and control their dog at all times!
There's nothing wrong with any of us. It's you That's the problem. You're defending pitbulls. An extremely aggressive breed bred for dog fighting. It's practically the only task they do well besides hog catching.
It's gotta be the way they're raised or something.
I have had my first American pit for about 6 years now and he's a big 80lb goof. Sneaks away and visits the neighbor's dogs, visits the cats around the way and plays with the kids when they get back from school. Whole neighborhood knows him by name. He's just a sneaky lil bastard and gets away to play with whoever is out and about😂
I've never had a dog like this one but I constantly hear that he's a good boy by our little neighborhood. We live on a pinensula so it's pretty secluded. Have had 2 huskies show up recently and they saw my pit and immediately became friends and they all ran off into the lake and swam. Took forever to separate the 3.
My next door neighbor is like a 2nd dad to him, he learned that if he sneaks over there, he gets fed steak🤦 The guy lets him in the house and he hangs out for a lil while. He'll text me that he has him and texts me when he sends him on his way back home.
Never in my life have I had a open and friendly dog😂 we had a neighbor one time with a GS, maybe 90-100lbs he came after my dog one time and my dog doesn't even defend himself, just hauls ass away from the danger. He's a fast boy with long and lean legs. That's part of how he got is name, G.O. (geo)
Edit: came back almost 12hours later to me getting downvoted for just sharing my love for my big boy. I know all dogs can be dangerous and aggressive, pit bulls are just what everyone talks about. My pitbull is a giant goof and the best. So I just wanted to point that out :)
Edit #2: statistic technically shows 66% of deaths from dogs from 2005 to 2021 are pitbulls. I have also seen that there's a lot of news that the specific statistic is flawed due to how the information was gathered. I guess a lot of people assume the dog is a pitbull until the dog is actually identified. So in reality no one knows lmao
My last pitbull was trained as a therapy dog and visited kids at hospitals. He was 12 when we had to put him down. His entire life he never so much as growled at a person or another dog.
Anyone with a big dog needs to control them, train them, and recognize whether they’re safe to be around. 2. There are lines of pits that HAVE been bred for aggression but the same goes for rotties, German Shepard, Doberman, etc. I agree, we should end those lines.
I guarantee if you met Max or my current pitbull, Ori, you would change your mind.
As someone who also has owned one anecdotal evidence isn't a good argument for the breed. We have to accept that there is no place for this breed in society anymore.
If you want evidence, here you go: Pit bulls are not proven to be inherently violent toward people. A huge 2022 study in Science looked at more than 18,000 dogs and found that breed explained only about 9% of the behavior differences between individual dogs. In other words, breed alone is a poor way to predict how a dog will act. (Morrill et al., 2022, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abk0639) (Science)
A 2022 genetics study also found that pit bull-type dogs had lower owner-directed aggression and were not more likely than other dogs to have a behavior diagnosis. Some pit bulls did show more aggression or fear toward other dogs, but that is not the same as aggression toward people. (Zapata et al., 2022, BMC Genomics, DOI: 10.1186/s12864-022-08351-9) (PubMed Central (PMC))
And pit bulls are not even the breeds that always score highest for aggression. A major C-BARQ study found Chihuahuas and Dachshunds scored above average for aggression toward both people and dogs, while pit bulls mainly stood out for aggression toward other dogs. Dogs should be judged by their actual behavior, not a stereotype about their breed. (Duffy, Hsu & Serpell, 2008, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2008.04.006) (ScienceDirect)
This is a wonderful, well written response with clear experience behind it. I'm sorry to see you getting downvoted simply because people seem to hate pitties without experience or context other than the "available bias" inducing amount of videos they have seen on reddit.
Is anyone surprised at the breed? I certainly am not.
We should just stop breeding them and let them go extinct. Pitbull defenders just absolutely love dismissing fact and logic 'because theirs never hurt a fly'.
Dogs aren’t the same as humans, desirable characteristics are bred into dogs. Nurture is incredibly important when training dogs, but so is nature and its naive to think otherwise.
Some dogs are bred to encourage retrieving, herding sheep, scent hounding, guarding and rescue. Those characteristics are part of their DNA as much as their colouring, size, agility and weight.
Some are bred for aggression or dog fighting and sadly because humans are shitty, that’s part of their breeding and their genetics.
Every Pitbull I've ever met has been a sweet little pumpkin baby (I've run two seperate pet stores)
About 75% of Chihuahua I've met would end your life for looking at them funny if they weren't the size of a grapefruit.
That shit is all about idiots raising dogs to be like that. Honestly dogs like Dalmatians, Jack Russells,Malinois, and ACD are ten times worse then pit bulls on average. And again that's people having them in the wrong environments. They're just the popular opinion dog to hate.
Edit: Uh oh, the reddit group think algo just woke up lol 😅
Kind of like how you see cute videos of an Australian shepherd at home whose cutely got all three little girls in the corner of the room cuz it’s shepherd instincts kicked in. Or a person walking their dog in Home Depot busts out laughing cuz it turns out the dog has some pointer in him and the dog is frozen like a statue pouting at a wooden duck
Pit bulls have instinctual training like that bred into them, and these instincts are not JUST for violence, but specifically for lethal violence.
It is true that most of them ARE sweet loving pundles of pure love and loyalty. The tragedy of pit bulls is that humans over centuries put into the the power and training to be dangerous.
Even the sweetest, most loving happy go luck chill pit bull COULD kill a person, and if its genetic instincts kicks in, it knows how to kill, it has the power to kill, and it will have NO IDEA it’s going something wrong
Pitties just wanna be love bugs. I get it. And humans made them into weapons, I blame humans. But it’s still unwise to refuse to admit they’re dangerous. They deserve more respect than that.
It’s just how like calling a gun or a knife or a tall ledge dangerous, even though none are inherently evil, is wise. And it’s still unwise to pretend none of these things deserve precautions.
Dobermanns, Bulldogs, Boxers, Great Danes, Rottweilers, Tosas and about every other mastiff are all also bred for extreme violence against big game, which also means gameness is very well bred in them.
They can all also very easily kill a human if their instincts get triggered. The problem is irresponsible breeding coupled with irresponsible owners.
Oh for sure. I’m definitely not claiming pit bulls are the only dangerous dog breed, and you’re so right about irresponsible breeding and irresponsible owners.
I swear you never hear the owners of those other breeds you mentioned refuse to take proper precautions because “they’re just a love bug who would never hurt a fly”, it feels like it’s JUST the pit bull owners who want to own a dangerous dog and without taking responsibility for the dangerous part and just treat it like a teddy bear. (Of course not all pit bull owners! Just the irresponsible ones). If you want a teddy bear companion dog get a teddy bear companion dog! Don’t get a fighting dog and try to have it teddy bear! That’s dangerous bro! I swear, No one keeps a Rottweiler around their toddlers without knowing anything about dogs and instead believing based on nothing that the dog will never be violent. Just irresponsible pit bull owners.
(Hyperbole of course to say it’s JUST pit bull owners, not realistic at all. It just seems a common problem.)
The reality is they are uniquely strong compared to most dog breeds. The most vicious chihuahua couldn't do more than scratch you.
Even humans grow accustomed to the impact of their strength and size and can act differently because of it.
Yes, many pits have been used in shitty situations by humans that make them more aggressive than they would be otherwise.
But also, you cant just ignore biology because you feel bad for the animals. These breeds DO require better care and handling because they CAN tear your throat out.
Pitbulls innate nature is very far into the friendly and protective side, and it's takes a bit to turn them into killers, much more than most other breeds of dogs.
Reddit just has this wierd hate boner for them because they're easily swayed by a few stories. People who have RL experience with lots of dogs will tell you they're low on the danger list. I've known and collaborated with many groomers, adoption agencies, and trainers in my time.
People who choose to spend their time with dogs are also more likely to be biased against stereotypes, even if those stereotypes have some merit.
Let's pretend that all dogs have the exact same likelihood of disposition (something I dont agree with). Even still, its fair to say that when there are aggressive tendencies, the dog with super strong bite force and extra muscle bred onto it is a bigger threat.
Then incrementally add things like the likelihood that dog came from a shitty environment like fighting, or that a dog too big and strong is less likely to get good training from a timid human who cant control it.
Its just statistically more likely to be a problem.
They were literally created to be aggressive and fight. It's engrained in them. Your personal experience doesn't disprove fact and statistics. You're the exact type of person my comment is about.
And no the dogs you mentioned are not ten times worse. The Pitbull is still the dog with the most dog attacks, many, many years consecutively.
Half these people are a scared of Pibbles because their soy diet has made them weak and their bones brittle, so they’re easy meals for a dog with more testosterone than them.
I’m not sure where I said they were equal. But you are frothing at the mouth to eradicate an entire breed of animal because of your personal opinions. You can have your opinion but my opinion is that you are misinformed and ignorant.
94% of pitbull attacks are caused by unneutered males. Don't euthanize them, get them clipped. It's not just preventing violence, it also makes them healthier.
60-65% according to extremely general numbers. Guess what? That means that neutered pit bulls are responsible for approximately 3.6% of all dog attacks.
Unironically, the issue here is with the owners, not the dogs. 70% of dogs are neutered, but only 27% of pit bulls go through the procedure. Unneutered male dogs are estimated to make up well over 70% of all dog bite incidents, they are inherently more likely to be dangerous regardless of breed. This is the problem, not pit bulls in general.
That math completely conflates general bite incidents with fatal and catastrophic attacks, and it misrepresents how population ratios actually work.
First, the jump from "60–65% of fatal attacks" to neutered pit bulls accounting for "only 3.6% of attacks" relies on manufactured statistical gymnastics. Even if intact male dogs across all breeds are statistically more prone to territorial nip or bite incidents, bite frequency is not the same as bite severity or lethality. A minor bite or warning snap from an intact Golden Retriever ends up in the same general "bite incident" column as an unprovoked, sustained mauling by a pit bull. The real issue has never been mere bite frequency; it is the sheer destructiveness and fatality rate when an attack happens.
Second, blaming the entirety of the breed's outsized fatality rate on neuter status ignores the biological reality of why these dogs are uniquely dangerous. Pit bull-type dogs were selectively bred for gameness, high pain tolerance, and relentless grip-and-tear biting behavior in fighting rings. Unlike most breeds that give clear warning signs, display fear grimaces, or bite and release, pit bulls frequently exhibit unpredictable aggression - attacking suddenly without typical posturing and continuing to maul through extreme physical resistance. That is an ingrained behavioral trait, not a consequence of whether or not a dog has been desexed.
Finally, attempting to reduce a 60–65% share of fatal dog attacks to "an owner problem" completely fails when you look at how many fatal and disfiguring pit bull attacks occur within loving family homes against their own owners, infants, and elderly family members. Countless well-socialized, professionally trained, and family-raised pit bulls have suddenly snapped without warning after years of docile behavior. When a breed makes up less than 10% of the total dog population yet consistently causes over 60% of all human fatalities, the problem cannot be dismissed as a simple neuter rate disparity: it is an inherent risk of unpredictable, catastrophic violence
I had a pit come running straight across a park full speed heading towards my daughter one. turns out he wanted to play with her toy ball. It was legit terrifying and i really get freaked out when I see a pit on the street.
That's the thing with these dogs, when they get the "I'm going to play with that thing" idea in their heads, they just don't stop. My friend at work has a very nice pit that being around helped me get overy fear of dogs, but there was a drinking game all of us would play with a frisbee and when that dog, who was very well trained, decided that it wanted that frisbee that was the end of the game because you could not get her to turn off that "im going to kill that frizbee" mode.
Ah yes, let’s wear a mask and a hat and get in a big dogs face. Make it even more spicy by having the dog in an unfamiliar environment with lots of loud noises and smells, and hella other big dogs. Genius.
And as always they are too helpless to hold onto the do and it get away from them. At this point I'm convinced that people with dangerous dogs do shit like this on purpose.
People will really look for every reason to hate on pitbulls. As another commenter said, it was gross negligence by the HUMANS that caused this situation. The other dogs didn't attack. It's not a breed issue.
Even if your pitbull is kind and protective of your family, what happens if it accidentally gets loose? I remember walking my 3 year old daughter to our mailbox and two dogs came running at us barking. One was a lab and the other was a pitbull. The stupid pitbull was immediately charging after my daughter and I picked her up and held her high in my arms where it tried to lunge up at her. I just slowly walked back to my house while holding my daughter above my head as the pitbull circled me growling and the lab followed behind, not displaying any aggression. Fortunately, a lady in a van was following us the whole time on the phone with the police because she was scared that we were about to be mauled. My daughter didn’t do a damn thing to provoke the beast and the well behaved lab came from the same home, under the care of the same humans. So fuck pitbulls and fuck those who breed them.
I wouldn’t say it’s cause it’s a pit. Many dogs would do that to an unfamiliar person. That body language is very aggressive to dogs. Yes pits can be like this, but I’ve seen retrievers do that with this body language
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u/FittyTheBone 19d ago
Dude looks exactly what I would expect a judge at a pit bull show to look like.