My Pitt Bull is totally friendly and would never harm anyone...

[Dog Bite]

Pitt Bulls are nasty dogs and should be banned.

[Anonymous]

And the City of Denver wants to repeal its ban on pit bulls in the City. :-(

[Ed Pawlowski]

Sad when that happens.

From what I've read and saw, the breed has been ruined. They were not always like that but a lot of thugs bread and trained them to be nasty. Since they cannot legally carry a gun they have a nasty pit bull. Status symbol.

I personally know of two that are gentle and friendly, both older dogs. I also know of some that I'd not be in the same room with and would never trust them.

[micky]

Yes, and even if the dog itself is not different mentally to start with, the kind of person who gets a pit bull, given its reputation, wants people to be afraid, and he ends up teaching the doog to be mean.

[Terry Coombs]

  I know several pit bulls , all are friendly and sweet . I've also met a few that I wanted to shoot on sight . It's all in how they're trained . Actually , IMO we'd be better off if the masters of those mean dogs (and it's not just pit bulls) were the ones that got shot .

[FromTheRafters]

You can train a dog to ride in your shirt pocket, just takes training - nothing to do with breeding at all.

[Terry Coombs]

  I'm trying to train mine (70 lb Mountain Cur) to ride on the back of the Harley , but he thinks the pipes are too loud ...

[FromTheRafters]

Too bad, that would be awesome.

[rbowman]

A local redneck thought his dog wasn't aggressive enough so he tuned the mutt up regularly. One day Spot decided he'd had enough and started chewing on the redneck and his wife. The cops arrived and emptied all the pepper spray they had with no effect so they shot the dog. I still think they shot the wrong critter.

[Hawk]

"Aggression is not a breed issue, aggression is a state of mind"

- Cesar Milan

If you believe it's a breed issue, then you have much to learn about dogs.

[invalid unparseable]

I recall a dialog on TV where the TV guy asked the dog trainer if he could train his dog not to bark. He said, yes, but depends, if your dog is a beagle, forget it.

I think that is the point, beagles were bred to hunt and pit bulls to fight. You may train them not to but the tendency is there.

[FromTheRafters]

An experiment with wild foxes being bred for friendliness to humans resulted in shape and color changes like more white on the snout and chest and a more curly tail. I don't think a dog's psychology can be so neatly separated from breeding as Cesar Milan seems to imply.

[Hawk]

He's been doing it for many years. Has his own show for many years. I wouldn't know who holds a higher level of credibility.

[Hawk]

Of course the fault falls solely on the dog and the owner is not responsible in any way. (◔_◔)

[FromTheRafters]

No argument there, I like the guy's shows, those which I have seen, and he is well respected authority. Appeal to authority does not sway my opinion about genetic traits being somewhat intermingled however. The brain is a physiological entity just like a tail or a cold wet nose is.

[FromTheRafters]

Maybe you will like this authority better:

"A variety of factors may affect a dog’s tendency toward aggression; these include heredity, early experience, socialization and training, sex and reproductive status (Lockwood, 1999). "

So, heredity is a factor according to these people.

From:

So, I still think Cesar Milan might not be entirely correct even though he is a popular dog whisperer.

[Dog Bite]

Good point. Never really heard of a Border Collie or a Labrador Retriever killing an infant. It's probably happened but I'll bet it's extremely rare.

[Dan Espen]

Love that show.

A friend has a female Pit Bull. What a kind, gentle, obedient dog. Not nasty in any way.

But it's also muscular like an athlete and has huge muscles surrounding it's jaws.

They really need to be well trained.

[Hawk]

I've no knowledge of Lockwood and more on Millan. His methods are proven. Akin to humans, one can remove an aggressive person from his/her cultural environment and they can adapt to a newer calmer environment. Dogs don't have the intellectual aptitude as humans which makes the training easier.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Some have been doing that for years. Top 10 banned dog breeds

EverQuote analyzed lists of prohibited dogs from state insurance filings to find the most-banned breeds. We looked at filings made by the 50 largest home insurance companies. Here are the 10 dog breeds most often on prohibited lists:

Pit bull Rottweiler Chow chow Presa Canario Akita Doberman Pinscher Wolf hybrids Mastiff Wolf German shepherd