Main > Everything Else
I'm amazed at how many people have the wrong idea...
ChadTower:
The key difference is that if your dog tried to kill your son - and it is an independent living thing, so it could happen - you could stop a golden retriever. It wouldn't be all that hard if you committed to doing it and the dog wouldn't have done critical damage by then.
A pit bull would kill the kid and you if you didn't have a serious weapon. At a minimum it would severely injure at least one of you. You would have no chance of stopping it with your bare hands.
patrickl:
I saw a clip of a pitbull who attacked it's owner and would not let go of his arm. The police was already on the scene and tried shooting the dog, but it still would not release. Looked like it took 5 shots. At least it attacked it's owner (which apparently they often seem to do), but still.
ChadTower:
A pit bull's jaw sometimes will not release even when it passes out - you can kill the dog and the jaws are still clamped shut. A lot of myths say they even have a "lock" so the dog is unable to release but that's not true - the pit bulls are just that fierce when they attack. Some of them you can beat to death with a bat and the jaws are still clamped on something. Pepper spray doesn't work either. They just continue the attack blind and up the aggression. They are not immune to pepper spray, though, as some will tell you.
lharles:
A story from my childhood...
We had a 'purebred' pit bull when I was a kid, (my father used to tell EVERY-freakin'-body that...'he's a purebred, got papers...blah, blah, blah').
I was NEVER mean to this dog and it was always very affectionate and playful. My father was the sort of guy who was a non-discriminating abuser so he had a tendency to kick the dog around when he thought it did something out of line.
Anyway, this dog would obey my every command and was never anything but protective of me.
Then, after having him for probably five years, I was feeding him while my father was away and I was looking after my sister and step-brother...and spilled the food.
He began growling as I was picking up the food and putting it into his dish. I didn't think too much of it, thinking he was just wanting me to be done with it so he could eat. At the point where I was nearly done and just grabbing individual pieces of dog food, no longer handfuls, he lunged and bit my left forearm. I was TERRIFIED. I'd knew very well what the dog could do if it locked it's jaw, (having heard my father blather on about it endlessly for years), and I don't know if it was adrenalin, sheer terror, or what but I threw that dog across the room. His bite had punctured my left forearm in four places.
For the next hour, I basically had a strategic stand off with the dog in the living room, dining room, and kitchen of the house. I was in a situation where the dog was F-IN' PISSED, growling, and snapping. We circled one another that whole time, while I held him off with whatever objects I could grab a hold of, and I had my sister and step-brother lock themselves in the bathroom. I finally managed to get the dog locked in the back bedroom of the house - mine - and called my father.
I went to the doctor, got shots, a couple dozen stitches, and a completely different interaction with the dog after that. I only lived at home for about two more years and I never really tried to bond with the dog again after that.
My father wouldn't even entertain getting rid of his 'purebred' pit bull, so that was that.
I don't know if this directly applies to what you folks are getting at but I know that I would gladly own a pit bull again today as long as some turd wasn't kicking the crap out of it all the time negating any positive interactions and/or training the dog might get from someone else. I believe as much as can be believed that the reason the dog behaved that way was because of the abuse it took and NOT because of anything having to do with me.
...hopefully that all makes sense. :)
ChadTower:
That instance was probably the dog reacting to something that had happened in that situation in the past - your father kicking it for making a mess of the food, most likely. The dog was expecting it to happen again, but your father is the alpha male and not you, so it didn't feel the need to wait around to be kicked by you. Since a pit bull doesn't have much of a tendency to clam down once aggravated, it took a while to get it confined. Trust me on this... the dog didn't want to fight you. If it had you'd be dead. It just didn't want to be hurt by you. Sounds like it gave you ample warning before it bit you and you misinterpreted it.