Quote Originally Posted by drache View Post
I am curious as to why you leave out families with kids?
in my experience pit bulls in particular are fantastic family dogs
they are loyal, extremely child friendly, and playful in a (would you believe it?) careful way
it's the dog I would get for my daughter over any other ecxept perhaps a pit bull lab mix, because they're strong too and I feel it could be a buddy to her

perhaps those of you who don't know what it actually takes to make a dog go vicious, ought to watch something like "Off the Chain".
there is no dog breed born vicious
I know that pits can be wonderful with children. The only reason I leave them out is they also have a bad reputation and I think many families avoid them. For the wrong reasons of course. It just seems that families with kids, at least the ones I know, go for labs or goldens or some other less imposing breed, at least in their minds.

I'm not sure how it is in your world rancor but that's the way it is in mine. Young adults + reptiles + dog = pitbull or rot a vast majority of the time. Its a macho image in many cases, as is the choice of reptile, and in many cases I doubt if there ever was a decision to be made. Now, I will add that the majority of the people in that age group who don't own herps probably also own one of those two breeds as well but it doesn't seem as prevalent.

I've heard that about the chows, not about the shar peis though. The AC agent in my town said the worst animal they ever had was a golden retriever. Thats the one that makes many peoples top of the list for best family dog.

I never made any comments about any breed of dog. I made an observation about what dogs were owned by a certain group of people. Notice that I prefaced it by saying I might be way off. I know that how things are in my world are not necessarily how they are in the rest of the world. I also disagree with banning any type of animal. I am strongly oppose to any animal ban and strongly in favor of very harsh penalties imposed on anyone owning any type of animal that they lose control of and damage of any kind is the result. The problem is, most people look at the penalties as sort of "closing the barn door after the horse has escaped" if you know what I mean. their mindset is one of "Sure the guy is locked up and the dog is dead but the little kid will still be disfigured for life. If only we had banned that breed (whichever breed it happens to be) the kid would be OK"

I also agree that the upbringing is the reason most dogs act the way they do especially the vicious ones. Still, I think some dogs and even breeds are prone to bite. The thing is I think those that are more prone to bite are the little yap dogs. I've probably been bitten 5 times in my life. 4 of those were by my grandpas schnauzer, meanest little ankle bitter I've ever seen. I think there are a lot of reasons for this that I won't go into here as this is not a dog forum even though this thread would make one wonder.

All that said, I would only consider owning one breed of dog. That is a black lab, and it has to be black, no chocolates or goldens for me. I don't particularly like dogs but I grew up with a black lab for 12 years and even though I was about 20 years old when he was put down its the only animal I ever had that I can say I got a lump in my throat when it died.