If you ask Google "are Pit Bulls aggressive," the first link takes you here, where prospective owners are told:
Most people, who are unfamiliar with the American Pit Bull Terrier, falsely believe that they are dangerous dogs. Unfortunately, Pit Bulls have a bad reputation because of some mean people who have abused their dogs and trained them to be aggressive. Pit Bulls are actually very stable, intelligent, and highly trainable....
While many Pit Bulls do tend to be aggressive towards other DOGS (as are most terriers), the normal, well raised Pit Bull has NO human-aggressive tendencies! In fact, human-aggression was actually bred out of the breed. The majority of Pit Bulls are affectionate, intelligent, trainable dogs. In fact, the highest obedience trial record of all time is held by an American Pit Bull Terrier named Maddy!
If you ask Google "are Jack Russells aggressive," the first link takes you here, where prospective owners are told:
Jack Russells are first and foremost hunting dogs. The traits and skills that make them excellent hunting dogs (i.e., digging, barking, aggressive nature, ability to follow scent) are often interpreted as bad habits that cause people to give them up....
Jack Russels are often aggressive with other dogs. Same-sex aggression and aggression towards other breeds of dogs is well documented with this terrier. It is strongly recommended that no more than two Jack Russells (of opposite sex only) ever be permitted to stay together unattended.
Bottom line: Both breeds have a tendency to be dog aggressive.
One site is warning off casual owners, explaining that the Jack Russell is a specially-created game-bred hunting dog.
This site is clearly working hard to "unsell" the breed and to keep it out of the hands of people who would abandon the dog to rescue.
The other site is trying to explain away the game-bred qualities of Pit Bulls, and tries to suggest that this breed is the friendliest, safest and easiest breed of dog to own in the world.
Which web site is doing right by the dogs?
- Related Post:
** "Unselling" Dogs and Selling Commitment
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4 comments:
That obedience record held by a pit bull sounds awfully lorish. A fact pulled from someone's backside and then repeated over and over on teh internets. What exactly do they mean by obedience record?
I guess that's why all the obedience competitors are dropping their golden retrievers and border collies and picking up pit bulls.
Anyone who has trained those two breeds understands why they are chosen for this particular competition. It's exactly why Jack Russells are good earth dogs and why pit bulls aren't bad catch dogs. They have an inherited tendency that gives them that advantage.
I think it's mostly that they have a very heightened ability to read people, as in they really pay attention to your voice and body language.
Pit bull people always have their backs up. It's not that their dogs aren't trainable. It's that they are always fighting an uphill battle with propaganda and in doing so, they do bad propaganda themselves.
At least JRT people admit it about their dogs and from my experience with them, they are naturally a bit dog aggressive. My golden retriever had previously only been around other dogs that wanted to play with her, but she wasn't there a half hour with two JRT's, that they put her in her in her place. They made it clear they didn't want to play with that big blond coyote! The younger one, a male, eventually warmed up to her, though.
I have a JRT, was a throwaway, worked with JRT rescue, had 6 dogs at once, a bit much considering they were all rescues too. I'm also famililar enough with the background of pitbulls...terrierman it appears to me you're doing a much better job educating people truthfully about the two breeds. I suspect because BSL as led to a lot of bleeding heart sympathizers, their judgment has become clouded, perhaps serving for some selfishly motivated purposes 8-)
What do you suggest APBT owners/advocates say, then, when they know every word on the internet will be thrown back in their face the next time a town is considering adding BSL banishing their dogs from the town? "Oh, 'pitbullowners.com' says that APBTs can be dog-aggressive. By an owner's own admission, they are dangerous! We must ban them!"
Just curious, and sort of playing devil's advocate. I think it's clear that the APBT people want to be careful about what they say. If a large percentage of the population wanted to ban JRT ownership and have them all kicked out of the town/county/state or euthanized, wouldn't you be singing a different tune?
I think if people who own Pit Bulls deny the history of their dogs, deny how and why too many of them are bred ("We sell pit bulls, not pet bulls" says one pit bull site rather pointedly), they will get what they have gotten up to now: a large and expanding pool of cities putting in place breed bans.
Or, as we say in the street, "Keep on doing what you've always done, and you'll always get what you've always got."
Too many pit bull owners are breed-blind and/or well and truly ignorant about what a game bred dog is about.
Too many pit bull owners are BAD owners who acquire dogs too fast and abandon them at their leisure.
Too many young people with unstable homes and lives are getting pit bulls as a first dog.
Too many pit bulls are still intact and too many are being bred, and too many are being killed as a result.
Problems begin to get resolved when you admit there are problems.
This is the First Step, and the most important step as all others depends on this one.
Problems are only unsolvable if you are looking for solutions.
When Pit Bull owners lie about the statistics, the game-bred nature of many dogs, the problems of having unaltered males, of having small children in the house, etc. they LOSE the only weapon they have in the battle against irrational fear-mongers and demonizers: some small hope of entering the debate with more credibility than the other side.
Assume people are not stupid, blind, or evil. Assume they are smart, observant, and compassionate, because most are.
And assume that EVERYONE believe there is a Pit Bull problem.
Because there is.
Ask the 200 dogs a day being killed in Los Angeles.
Ask any pound worker or animal control officers.
A Pit Bull is a not a Pointer or a Standard Poodle, is it?
No.
So let's stop that lie, admit that small truth, and get on with doing right by the dog.
Doing right by the dog starts with accepting the breed for what it truly is.
Patrick
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