Quote:
Originally Posted by BarelyBreathing
You think a Pit Bull is scarier than an untrained unsocialized Border Collie? You obviously haven't met many. Untrained Borders are super nippy and intense dogs. When a Border Collie doesn't have a job, they will MAKE it their job to make your life a living hell. A Border Collie without work is a very distructive animal. An untrained Pit is a normal dog. In fact, to have an aggressive Pit Bull you have to TRAIN it to be mean.
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I owned a pit bull who became a victim of people's prejudices and an unfortunate situation. At the time, we owned two dogs - a Basset, Buster, and the pit bull, Nala. Buster has always been...off. He's very nice sometimes, but other times he's vicious and will try to kill other animals, including dogs and cats. The key is if they're
afraid of him, which I know sounds weird, but it's true. They're the only animals he'll try to kill. I've seen him play with neighbor's dogs, and I've seen him try to throw himself through the car window to try to attack others. I don't know if a dog can be a sociopath, but he makes me wonder.
Anyway, we got Nala, and she was the sweetest, friendliest, most wonderful dog. She loved everyone and everything she met, and all she ever wanted to do was play and give kisses and cuddle. I'd always wanted a pittie, and when I met her, I knew she was 'the one.' Unfortunately, though, she was
very untrained. Her mother had been abandoned while pregnant in a house, and had given birth and then died. Nala and her brother were forced to eat her corpse to survive, while her father was chained up outside (also a very nice dog, but not as sweet, so I chose Nala instead). Still, after some training, she listened pretty well. At the time, we'd always let our dogs run loose (as everyone here does, and no one had complained). When she was alone, she was an angel. But Buster
never listened to
anything, so when they were together, she was almost as bad as him. One day, they went over to the neighbor's place and attacked the neighbor's puppy. I found them and broke it up, and Nala was very clearly in the 'play bow,' while Buster was very clearly being vicious. She had no idea why I was yelling at them, but Buster knew. I dragged them back to the house, and took the puppy to the vet. We apologised to the neighbors, covered the vet bill (the puppy had only a few scratches but was otherwise fine), and promised it would never happen again. Unfortunately, my dad's a jackass. He continued to let them run loose. I would often see them loose outside through the window, and I'd come down and tell him that we couldn't do that anymore and bring them inside. Still, he'd keep doing it. He'd try to tell me he only did it when he was out there with them (which was a lie, but even if it wasn't, they didn't listen when they were together, so it didn't matter). We fought about it several times a day every day for a week. Then a week later, they got over there again and killed the neighbor's other dog. I'll let you guess who got blamed and we had to get rid of, despite Buster having been proven to be vicious. Unfortunately, we still have him, and he's still vicious. I've wanted rid of him since then, but no, Nala is the one who had to go. It was obviously her fault because she was a Pit bull. She was too rough when she played, even with me. She was still a puppy (about a year and a half), and even with me, I'd sometimes end up with bruises. But she never meant any harm. She just thought she was a little lapdog when she wasn't. It might sound like I'm making excuses for her, but I know both of these dogs very well, and I know what he's like and I know what she's
not like. If she hadn't been a pit, Buster (or both of them) would have been blamed, as he should have been, and we'd have had to have gotten rid of him. But she was unlucky enough to be a pit, so it was all her fault.
She went to a shelter and ended up being the favourite of everyone there, even getting painted by a volunteer and eventually adopted to a nice family with kids. But, to this day, I still hate my father.
I recall one neighbor saying that, now that she had the "taste of blood," she would become uncontrollably vicious. As if she was a bloody werewolf.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StudentoReptile
As far as "pitbulls" (a somewhat debatable term itself since the actual breed is Staffordshire terriers, and actually look a little different than what most people think pitbulls look like)
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Pit bulls refers to
three breeds - the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the American Pit Bull Terrier, and the American Staffordshire Terrier. They all look a little bit different (Staffy Bull Terriers are stockiest, American Staffies are medium, and American Pits are more slender), but they're all covered under the term "pit bull."
~Maggot