I know most people think pit bulls should have "great temperaments," I certainly do, but how does this apply with children?
I personally have never felt it is an entirely good idea to have any bulldog alone with children, no matter how seemingly-sweet the dog is, especially with very small children. The fact is, all dogs are predators, and a pit bull is nothing but a highly-specialized predator designed to dispatch smaller animals and even be able to attack and control very large animals. And, while I do believe that the breed should be (and most often is) "people friendly" ... I am not sure this always spills over to children.
From a dog's point of view, children are small, squeaky, erratic creatures compared to adults. Where a bulldog looks "up" to an adult man or woman, it looks "down" on a very small, squeaky child. I believe sometimes it is very dangerous to leave any baby or toddler alone with a bulldog, especially if the bulldog was not used to a baby in the house ... and suddenly one day a new child is brought into the house. Lots of utterly clueless new parents have discovered to their horror what can happen in these instances.
And, even in a case where a seemingly sweet dog that's "good with kids" is enjoyed by a family ... what if one day A CAT is at the window, and the dog goes apeshit after the cat, and a little boy or girl tries to grab the now-geeked-up bulldog? What happens then? :shock:
Hell, I have been bit by my own dogs in the corner a time or two, dogs that were normally friendly, but who (now that they're geeked-up and wanting to scratch back) will do "whatever it takes" to be released and go back into an opponent. Red Sonja in particular comes to mind. Here was a bitch who was as sweet as a dog could be to people. Loved children and would snuggle up to them. But, if Red Sonja ever made contact with another animal, or got geeked-up over a flirt pole or hide, "the whole moving world" became fair game: your hands, your legs, a rake, whatever was a'movin' she was a'grabbin'Red Sonja would even grab the pit wall or carpet when she was geeked-up in the corner and would have to be pried-off with a stick. Her eyes would get big and round, like she was in some kind of euphoric trance once she was "on," and I sure as hell would hate to see what she might do to a little boy or girl who tried to "play ball" with her :shock: And yet there was not a drop of "meanness" in what she was doing: she was happy as hell.
So, as an offshoot of the "human aggressive" pit bull, the man-killer, what about the normally-sweet dog that loses all ability to reason once it's "on"? I know A LOT of pit dogs are like this, sweet under every "normal" instance, and yet wildly-intense once they're "on," so is it really such a good idea to leave these dogs alone with kids? Because, again, I can think of a lot of dogs, that aren't true man-killers ... that even LOVE children under controlled conditions ... that I would still never leave alone with any child, never in a million years, because IF they get "geeked-up" ... then they are as dangerous to a child as any mankiller, without actually being a mean dog.
How do you judge a dog like that, whose natural temperament is to be sweet and calm, but whose "combat intensity" is so great, that once triggered it doesn't come with an "off switch", and so they will indiscriminately grab "whatever's moving" once they get in that zone???
Should dogs like this be culled too ... or should they be treasured (and just kept away from kids)?
Jack
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Originally Posted by Eliman
