American Pit Bull Terrier

[Guest Anonymous]

I have just recently inthe last few years started reading into the infamous "pit bull". I have found that more over this is one of the best all around breeds of dog. Now I am talking about the well bred American Stafforshire and the American Pit Bull, not the pitbull. There is a HUGE difference. These dogs are really misunderstood. I about fell over when I started, i read the paper and heard the news, they are born bad and they are mean, and heck every one i had ever met had tried to bite me. But I found that they are also one of the most gentle, devoted and couragous dogs ever concieved. The breeding of these dogs makes them natural lovers. People who breed them often have to have other breeds of dogs on site because people can walk right up to an adult unclip him and walk him away!! And to think people get them as guard dogs.

The more I read about them the more I think that they are a great dog, now there is a natural dog-dog agression that is never quite checked, there are some dogs that do tolerate others, but none are trust-worthy enought to be alone unsupervised. It comes with the turf, you gotta give a little to get a lot.

What do you guys think about the APBT / AMSTAFF

[gooeydog]

K, I think ROTT'N'PIT is talking about well bred APBTs and AmStaffs vs the generic "pit bull" (ie: the dogs that are of no specific bloodlines, who's breeder(s) didn't really care about what kind of dogs they were producing). If that's what he (she?) means, I don't really agree with that either. Look at the thousands of indiscriminately/poorly bred "pit bulls" in shelters... the majority of them are stable dogs, barring some minor issues (seperation anxiety, etc) that even well bred dogs can have. At the same time, even with a reputable breeder, it's still possible to get an unstable dog... not likely, but possible. I really don't see much of a difference in the "generic" "pit bull" vs the AmStaff & APBT, and neither do polititions and lawmakers. They will all suffer the same fate (bans, restrictions, etc) if owners don't start taking more responsibility.

[gooeydog]

That's true, and I agree with you completely, but changing the lawmakers minds won't do much if the general public still views them all as "pit bulls". It's like a big circle, and nearly impossible to find the best place to start :roll:

[Guest Anonymous]

I am very specific when I mean APBT I say that a pitbull has no real background, it is any dog of ANY bullybreed that has been bred indiscriminantly with little or no regard for temperment. I know that there are many a stable dog in rescues and shelters, hell most dogs in general love people. But when you get a dog of not questionable temperment but definately vicious and breed it purposely with another of similar temperment that is when you get these human aggressive abominations. I know they are by far the minority, but they recieve the publicity. Its like this if a person has never seen a bully breed in person but everytime they see one its attacked someone or killed something, then that is what they are going to think. And thats not just APBTs and AMSTAFFs, Bullterriers, American Bulldogs, staffie bulls, boxers, and any other close coated athletic breed is going to get pigeon-holed into the same area.

As far as dogs being born bad, OH Yeah, it happens, but it is preventable.
There is actually not alot we can do why would a thug spend the 500-1000 fr a grewat even tempered and tested dog when they can get one just as big that is mean as hell for ony 50-100? The problem isnt the lawmakers, they know not al dogs are bad, but how can you tell which ones are and arent. SUre the law is BULL and shouldnt even be considered, to us as dog-lovers, but if your a politician your only concern is that there are no dog bites in your area and that you can claim that at your next election.

BSL is B-S, I will never condone it simply because its like racism and jim crow laws from our history. But because its dogs we are talking about that makes it okay....I think not.

[Cheetah]

I hate the way so many misinformed people blindly discriminate as soon as they heard the word "pitbull". One incident that really pissed me off was when a woman was planning on adopting two adorable, extremely sweet 8 week old American Pit Bull Terrier (to be specific) puppies a few months ago at my local shelter. Everything was set up, she had filled out the forms, and was checked out as being a suitable home for the puppies. Right as she was about to adopt them, she asks "Oh, by the way, what breed are they?" As soon as she heard "pitbull", she was just like "Forget it", and then she just kinda walked out and refused to take home any pitbull puppies. When asked why this was a problem, she said that although she knew pitbulls could be nice dogs, she didn't want the hassle that people might give her for having a pitbull, and also, they could grow up to be vicious dogs. In my head i'm thinking "A second ago you were cooing all over the puppies, telling them how sweet and adorable they are!" The woman obviously didn't know a thing about pitbulls, especially considering the fact that she couldn't even recognize for herself what breed they were. So many people have the same attitude as this woman and so many are misinformed about what kind of dog the real American Pit Bull Terrier is. I guess we can all thank the media for that.

[ArtfulDodger]

I was adopting a cat from a cat shelter and had chosen a nice big ginger Tom with a great attitude. As I was talking to the lady at the shelter I said to her that I needed a cat that got along with dogs because I had 2 at home. She said, "yeah, this cat loves dogs, what sort of dogs do you have?"
As soon as I said "pitbulls" she told me she couldn't give me the cat. I asked why not and she said because the pitbulls would kill it. I said "Well, the 6 year old cat I have at home is still very much alive even though he's been around pitbulls since he was a kitten". I told her that I could show photos of my cat asleep on the couch in between my two dogs and she still didn't want to hear it.
She had the audacity to tell me that some people get cats to use to warm their dogs up before a fight. I told her that I have never fought my dogs and that if I was after a cat just to get my dogs to kill it I sure as hell wouldn't come to a cat shelter and pay $70 for one when I could get any number of stray cats or kittens for free from out of the newspaper.

I told her that just because someone might have a couple of bottles of beer in their fridge at home it doesn't necessarily follow that that person is an alcoholic, just like because I have a couple of apbt's at home doesn't mean I use them to fight. :x

I ended up demanding to speak to her superiors and, after a couple of hours of indignant outrage on my part and alot of apologies on their part, I took the cat home where my dogs promptly killed him. :o
I'm kidding, he's been with us now for 1 year and my dogs love him, the only aggression he copped at my house was from my original cat who got jealous of the love my dogs would show him. They get along well now.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was reading in a APBT book and they made great point. If we could rewind time and get a desciption of the APBT as an new and exciting breed, we would think of it as the best thing since sliced bred. Short coat for easy grooming, very athletic for those outdoorsy types and late night joggers, great with children and humans in general to be honest, will willingly give its life in protection of home and family, a wide variety of colors get one to match you house!!. But when you attack the hype and stigma from the media, the bad breeding from the bone-heads, and the ignorance of the population and you get one of the best dogs ever bred ruined and left to be the bane od the canine race. That really makes me mad :evilbat:

[Guest Anonymous]

I was reading in a APBT book and they made great point. If we could rewind time and get a desciption of the APBT as an new and exciting breed, we would think of it as the best thing since sliced bred. Short coat for easy grooming, very athletic for those outdoorsy types and late night joggers, great with children and humans in general to be honest, will willingly give its life in protection of home and family, a wide variety of colors get one to match you house!!. But when you attach the hype and stigma from the media, the bad breeding from the bone-heads, and the ignorance of the population and you get one of the best dogs ever bred ruined and left to be the bane od the canine race.
That really makes me mad :evilbat:

[Guest Anonymous]

I breed raise and train American pit bull terriers(for show ,weight pull,Schutzhund,Obedience.and hopefully in the future SAR) I do usually refer to them as pit's or pitbulls it is kind of like a nick name to me but more often than not I refer to them as Bulldogs but since most people don't know the difference between the bulldog of the old or the english bulldog I generally have to say pitbull.I have noticed that most people don't know what they are if their ears are un cropped they may think it is anything from an english bullterier to a labrador so it is easy to see that most "pitbull attacks"were not really apbts. This breed has been around for more than a hundred years and is for the most part un changed(unless you count the people who breed the huge over sized ones) there was never any problem with them in the news untill recent years so for some reason people think that this "killer breed" just popped op out of nowhere and suddenly started wreaking havic on our planet they fail to see that this breed has been around for decades without any problems and that even known pit champions of the past wher great with children. They always say what if that dog had attacked a child instead of the other dog but what they fail to realize is that the dog would never attack a child because he is only animal agressive not human agressive and yes he does know the difference between another animal and a human being.I realize that you people who are sticking up for shelter dogs want them to be adopted but there are risks involved with getting a BYB dog of any breed so people need to be aware and they need to learn how to Temperment test their new dogs prior to adopting them.I wish there was a way to eleminate all of the BYB's but still allow the people who care about the breed to breed them without costing an arm and a leg.As for all of the people interested in getting an Apbt here are some pointers.
Never trust an Apbt or Am.staff not to fight.
Never listen to people who try to tell you your dog is going to eat you
You not only have your dogs life depending on you being responsible but the whole breed.
Dog agression is inherent in the breed(Am.staffs and showbred apbt's are less so)
They are very active and smart and can get bored easily.

[ArtfulDodger]

I've got to admit, you should never trust your apbt not to fight with another dog, there's always a situation that can spark some aggression among even the most well socialised dogs.
I must say that I have been lucky with my apbt's over the years. I have a 12 year old bitch now and a 2 year old male. I know that some male pits don't have a problem fighting with bitches and I know for a fact that most apbt bitches just don't have a problem fighting with males full stop.
In my case, my male Reggie, is a true gentleman and just doesn't show aggression toward bitches at all. He will act like a lovestruck puppy around bitches, obviously this might change as he fully matures but I don't think so, not in his case. Luckily my old bitch, now 12, has realised she is old and isn't as aggressive toward other dogs as she used to be. This makes life in my household very peaceful.
I am looking after a friends bitch while he's away for a couple of weeks and she is VERY aggressive to all dogs. I can convince her to curb her aggression while I am there but I would never leave her alone with my dogs, I always seperate them when I go to work etc.

My dogs ears are uncropped, I live in Australia where it is illegal to do so. Personally I think cropping ears is outdated, why would you crop a dogs ears unless you were doing it to make them a smaller target for when the dog is fought? This is the original reasoning behind cropped ears. Fighting dogs would always get serious ear infections etc after a fight and some "bright spark" decided to cut out the middle man and cut the ears off before the dog fought. People think it looks good now, I can see the attraction, apbt's look more formidable with cropped ears, but I still think it is cruel and selfish behaviour on humans part.
I disagree with tail docking in boxers, rotts etc too, unless an individual dog is having medical or psychiatric problems that require the tail to be amputated.
By the way Iaduenda, a pitbull's history is alot older than 100 years, maybe you are referring to only registered APBT's and AmStaffs, these dogs are now showing a standard look and build, but they are in no way more pure than the small, tight lipped pitbulls or the rangey, houndlike jowelly ones. Somebody decided that the big headed, muscular pitbull should be the standard all pits are judged on and began breeding them to look like that strain.
In australia the trend seems to be for the biggest pit with the biggest mouth and many pits are starting to look like American Bulldogs or dogo argentina's. These dogs are still pure pitbull though. I can see the time when the Amstaff and the APBT will have to be recognised as a different strain to the other types of pitbull. In which case, what will we call the pitbull that is small and tight lipped, or the pitty that is houndlike and lippy?? They are still pitbulls but they have developed a different look to the show pit or amstaff.

[Guest Anonymous]

I dont have aproblem with docking or cropping. My dobies and Rotties have allbeen docked, I personally dont crop females bacuse I like them to have a softer look. My APBT is cropped, and I dont fight him I just like the ears like that. My rottie has ear problems for some unknown reason but none of my other dogs have suffered from it, i suppose it has to do with air being able to get in there, Im not a vet nor do i profess to be, but all my cropped dogs are great and I am steadily cleaning funky brown crap out of my natural eared dog. By the By anyone know what the h### this is and how to stop it, the vet is no help. she says just keep cleaning it, which i have done everyother day for almost a month now and its not getting better.

[Guest Anonymous]

My APBT is my only Tailed-one and im looking at the rott and dobie nd thinking about all the stuff on my tables and just thanking God i docked. when they get excited those they wag the nub so hard that thier entire back end wobbles just thin kif there was an extra foot or two back there. They could probably take out a leg or at least give you a real nice bruise.

Ive seen them both ways and i just prefer the dock as i said i go both ways with the crop. whatever floats your boat

[Guest Anonymous]

The pitbull has had a bad reputation, that it does not fully deserve. Yes, i will be the first one to admit that the breed does have its bad side, however most of the dogs that people hear about were trained to be mean. Yes, sometimes a pit that has been trained well will bite some one, but i also just heard of a Golden Retever that bit a girl a few days ago. I have owned and been around many pits in my day, and never have had a problem. I truly believe that they have gotten a bad rap. Mine was the sweetest dog you could have ever been around. But i knew what i was doing in training him and taking care of him also. People need to know that the breed does require a lot of work to keep there dog from becoming one of the ones that you read about in the paper.

[Guest Anonymous]

Study your breed of choice BEFORE you get the dog, so many time people buy a puppy and then grab a book at the pet store as they get some bowls and a leash. What happens if you find out that you have a giant breed and didnt know it, or a highly active breed, or a breed with a higher protection drive and you have lots of strangers over? Rescue or worse yet local humane society, that is what p***es me off. How can a breeder of any dog just give it up without knowing if the prospective buyer has any knowlege whatever about the dog that this cute little pup will become.

[ArtfulDodger]

Docking and cropping are purely for the "look" of the dog. They serve no other function than cosmetic and aesthetic. They are like the trimming on a beautiful cake, the mag wheels on a nice car, the glomesh purse for the slinky sequined ballgown etc etc etc.
I totally agree that a docked and cropped boxer, for example, looks magnificent and I have owned a docked boxer many years ago so I am guilty too, but I have changed my view now.
My boxer used to wag his whole body too, I think he was aware that his tail, a vital piece of equipment in dog body language, was gone and he had to compensate for its not being there by wagging like he's having a fit.

Other tailed breeds live happily enough with that horrible swaying thing behind them, why do we humans have to mutilate our best friends to make them look like what we think they should look like? If you can't breed erect ears in the breed of dog you own, then maybe you should try a dog with naturally erect ears. If a tailess dog is what you're after try an english bulldog, it's the next best thing to being tailess. Unless there is a medical or psychiatric reason for a tail to be docked I think it should stay.

This is not a personal attack on anybody with docked or cropped dogs. I believe it to be true for human circumcision, male or female, as well. If there's no medical reason to do it and you do it anyway you are just mutilating a child to serve a barbaric tribal ritual.
This is my personal opinion and my opinion of others does not change because their opinions differ from mine.
I LOVE YAS ALL!!!! :wink:
8)

[gooeydog]

ArtfulDodger napisał(a):

Docking and cropping are purely for the "look" of the dog. They serve no other function than cosmetic and aesthetic.

Not necessarily... many of the hunting/protection breeds are docked because they have slender tails that are easily broken/split while they're working. And cropping is/was supposedly done on some hunting/protection dogs so there's less to grab, and because ear tears also bleed heavily and are hard to fix. Of course those dogs that need to be cropped/docked because of their function are the minority, and most dogs that are cropped or docked are done so for cosmetic reasons. Out of the two, I think cropping is usually a more difficult/painful procedure... it's done at 8-14 weeks, and is considered a surgery, whereas docking is done at 2-4 days, before the pups nerves in that area are fully developed.

[Guest Anonymous]

Now I do kind of disagree about that I took Daz to the vet and there was a litter of Dobie pups getting docked they sure did scream like it hurt. Of course immediately after they were fine itsjust the initial cut. I personally will continue to dock and/crop depending on the breed or sex of the dog. I do respect your opinions though and as i said i agree to a certain extent.

[Guest Anonymous]

Well I am guilty on both counts. My son was circumcised and my Springers are docked. I have my docking done when the dewclaws are removed, I use local painkillers for both. While I agree that docking is done these days for aesthetic reasons (although there is an argument to be made for docking in hunting breeds) my pups would be there for their dewclaw removal anyway.....so why not have a snippet of tail removed? So far I held each pup I have bred as this procedure was done and they do not even seem to experience mild discomfort due to the local. Of course, I have no way of knowing the pain threshhold of a 3 day old puppy....but it is a procedure that I am comfortable doing. I personally loathe the look of undocked Springers and if docking is banned in the US the fit I pitch will be heard around the world. But of course this is just my own personal feelings and preferences.

Later,
Trinity

[Guest Anonymous]

Trace should be getting ready to be cropped pretty soon the breeder is going to have it done for me because i made the mistake of letting my vet crop my dobie. I asked him if he had any experience in cropping he retorts "yes, ive cropped dozens of dogs" What I should have said was "Have you ever cropped a DOBERMAN before" He does the op. and when i go to get my boy his ears arre like two little nubs, I EXPLODED. :mad:

Not only did I not pay for the crop he did all the re-wrapping and subsequent ear care for free too. It still doesnt make up for the fact that my dogs ears are so darn short and crooked. If you are going to get it done make sure that the vet in question is experienced.

[Guest Anonymous]

Okay I had the breeder crop and i think that was a bad idea too, they crop is too short and he looks kinda funny but i have seen a lot of puppies look wierd but gorw into thier ears, so i guess that is what i will have to pray for.

[Mary's Mama]

How old will he be when you get him? How much longer do you have to wait? Why did you decide to crop them? Sorry just nosey. I dont have an opinion, I just dont know much about the breed. :D

[Guest Anonymous]

we have to drive to MO on saturday, the weather is just too crazy it has to be at least 20 here and over 70 in FL. And every time its warm enough here its too warm there and when its cool enough there is too cool here, so we decided to take a small small family outing back to MO which is where my dad was born and raised so we are going to visit some family on his side and stop at the airport to get him on the way back. he is now about 16 weeks old. i decided that i wanted him cropped as he had bat ears, they were semi erect but still floppy and long, like his father. so i thought we could go for a nice erect crop giving him a more aler expression, oh well.