Aggressive Breeds

I believe that there is no such thing as an aggressive breed of dog. People often claim that American Pit-bull Terriers (Pit-Bulls) are an aggressive breed of dog. That is frustrating to me as I have a Pit-Bull and she is not aggressive.

The day I brought Jaz, my Pit-Bull home I looked at her and saw an itty bitty puppy with shiny, smooth black fur and big brown eyes. She was cuddly and sweet, the most laid back pup in the litter. Apparently others saw something very different, something much more ferocious, more dangerous.

I knew when I decided to get a Pit-Bull pup that I would be met with skepticism and told a great deal of horror stories. Some were true with details left out and others dramatically altered to prove a point, that Pit-Bulls were aggressive. So I decided that I would arm myself. Not with a weapon but with something more powerful, knowledge.

I learned that Pit-Bulls are bred more often than other dogs. I also learned that a bite from a larger breed dog would result in more damage than a bite from a smaller breed dog, which in turn would increase the amount of reported attacks to hospitals or law officials. However simply because Pit-Bulls have a greater populace and are essentially “told on” more often it doesn’t mean that they are primarily responsible for most of the dog bite attacks. It could simply means smaller dogs are getting away with biting more often.

I noted that all of the so called aggressive breeds were larger dogs. That being said it was easy for me to conclude that with the mass amount of dog breeds and mixed breeds (large and small) in this world it isn’t likely that people have enough factual data to blame a specific dog breed or breeds of being more aggressive than any other.

Most importantly I learned that no breed of dog is genetically predispositioned to be mean, hostile, angry or aggressive. That any dog breed (large or small) can become aggressive if neglected abused or train to be.

Jaz is three years old now, I still see my sweet, cuddly puppy when I look at her and she is still very laid back. People still tell me half-truth and fictional horror stories that they have heard of dog bite attacks containing Pit-Bulls and other so called aggressive breed dogs. But now not only do I have an arsenal of knowledge on the subject, Jaz is my living example and that is why I believe that there is no such thing as an aggressive breed of dog.