It’s a fighting breed. Accounts for 1% of dogs in UK yet 44% of dog attacks are by American bully -type dogs. How are stats “yellow journalism”?
There’s no such thing as a fighting breed, only dogs that have been abused historically and contemporarily.
As for the statistics, there’s a shitload of factors that skew them that have nothing to do with them being inherently aggressive.
To name a few:
- People are more likely to report an attack by a dog of a breed with a bad reputation.
- People who should never own dogs often choose big and strong ones and don’t train and socialize them properly
- well-meaning but thoughtless people take on dogs without considering the exercise and discipline needs of the breed, leading to acting out
- when a stronger dog DOES attack, it tends to be more serious and thus more likely to be reported
In conclusion: there’s no such thing as an inherently dangerous dog breed, only bad owners who should never have been entrusted with the care of a dog who needs to be trained in ways they (the owners) are unable or unwilling to do.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_fighting
Read this to know the history of roughly thirty breeds of dogs that were selectively bred (some over hundreds of years) with the primary goal of being used in fighting.
You are just another of the many people who will happily ignore or hand-wave statistics and historical facts simply because it supports your predefined ideas that your special puppy would never. Until, they do.
Selection bias is running rampant here when interpreting the (partial) statistics around dog attacks and their seriousness.
For example: the dog breed most statistically likely to bite in the UK is the labrador (source). Jack Russels, chihuahas and dachshunds also rate highly in aggression but attacks are mostly unreported because they are rarely serious.
So saying some breeds are more aggressive than others may be true, but that’s only half the picture and the narrative around this discussion misses out that there are more aggressive breeds than bully types.
Bully breeds are strong, and if they attack, the damage can be serious. But the likelihood of them attacking is relatively small, they aren’t more predisposed to attack than the other breeds I’ve mentioned, and their attack response is heavily dependent on how they are trained, socialized and treated. The cases where a well-trained, well-treated and well-socialized bully breed dog is involved in an attack are pretty rare. Where attacks have happened, digging into the background often shows that the dog’s owners had not properly trained or controlled the dog. It is always the owner’s responsibility to care for and keep these dogs safe around others.
Finally, I’d like to say that this community is for appreciating dogs. Not some dogs. It shouldn’t be for berating people about pictures of particular breeds.
Fighting breed = Guard breed
A pit bull will guard you with its life. Not only will it, it can.
Other types are:
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Herding Dogs
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Sporting Dogs
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Hound Dogs
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Working Dogs
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Terrier Dogs
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Toy Dogs
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Non-Sporting Dogs
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Companion Dogs (sometimes included within Non-Sporting or Toy groups)
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Mixed-Breed Dogs (not an official group, but commonly recognized)
Guard dogs fall under working dogs
Working dogs = Guarding, Pulling, Rescuing, Sledding, and Service assisting.
Like you said, the reports are probably skewed to some degree, but that doesn’t stop the fact that you’re more likely to get mauled to death by a Pit Bull then say a Shetland Sheepdog.
Pit bulls are both able and willing to guard. They will stand their ground or attack.
Could you train your Pit Bull to always run in a precived danger situation? Maybe. But you have to train it.
In conclusion: there’s no such thing as an inherently dangerous dog breed
only a dog who needs to be trained in ways they (the owners) are unable or unwilling to do.
If you have to train a dog to do something or else it will “naturally” or “inherently” do something different. Then it is naturally or inherently trained to do that thing, “Guard”.
Fighting breed = Guard breed
Do a guard dog equals a fighting dog? Protective equals aggressive? Gtfo with that weak bullshit 🙄
A pit bull will guard you with its life. Not only will it, it can.
If trained to do so. Because of bad owners.
For someone talking a lot about working dogs, you seem utterly clueless about how they BECOME working dogs.
Dogs aren’t machines with certain behaviors hard coded. Some might have generational trauma and/or PTSD from previous owners, but properly trained and socialized dogs EXTREMELY rarely exhibits aggressive behavior and when they do, it’s not caused by being a specific breed.
If you have to train a dog to do something or else it will “naturally” or “inherently” do something different. Then it is naturally or inherently trained to do that thing
That’s a Ben Shapiro sized “let’s say that” 🙄
You don’t have to train a guard breed to not guard any more than you have to train a seventh generation farmer not to farm or he’ll just spontaneously start growing crops.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_Kingdom
“Between 2021 and 2023, around half of fatal dog attacks were caused by a single breed, the American Bully XL”
Gee, that was hard to google
No need to be snarky here. It’s just good practice to provide a source when making claims to statistics. “Just Google it” doesn’t validate a position.
Now that you’ve provided a source, we can talk about the information at hand instead of talking out of our asses.
With the source you’re quoting, and in fact the specific sentence in this Wikipedia article, the sources provided for that claim are 3 news articles and a UK government webpage.
That government web page details the way someone can safely and legally have a dog of these breeds.
With the news reporting, even a cursory glance at those news articles show that there could be reasons other than the biology of the breed in play here.
