A Look at the Pit Bull and Responsible Ownership

The Pit Bull has been seen in a negative light in society. Many people fear them and refuse to own one because of the negative traits they believe a Pit Bull possesses. Many cities and towns across the United States have Ordinances that forbid the owning of a Pit Bull within the city limits. Do people really understand the Pit Bull?

Before I go off and tell you about the Pit Bull, let me first tell you about " Responsible Ownership". Responsible Ownership applies to any dog breed you own. A tiny Poodle can prove to be dangerous if treated cruelly or neglected. The only difference between a vicious mistreated tiny Poodle and a vicious mistreated Pit Bull is that the Poodle is smaller than the Pit Bull. So this allows for a human to easily fend off the tiny Poodle. You must be responsible with you dog and not neglect or abuse your dog. By being responsible you are insuring a good temperament in your dog no matter what the breed.

Responsible Ownership means more than just treating your dog right. It also means keep a close watch on your dog and making sure that not only your dog is safe but also that all animals and people around your dog are safe.

A lot of the cases reported on attacks by Pit Bulls were from dogs that were abused, mistreated and/or neglected by their owners. You can not abuse, mistreat or neglect your dog and then be surprised when it attacks a person. The same with a human, if you abuse a person long enough eventually they will begin to start lashing out at anyone that gets near them. Well if a human can be reduced to that point, why can't a dog do the same. After all dogs do not have the reasoning a human does.

History of the Breed:

To start to explain the breed let us look at the history of the Pit Bull breed. The Pit Bull was originally bred for blood sports. This included bull baiting and bear baiting. It would later move on to dog fights as well. When organized dog fighting was allowed the dog handlers would be in the Pit with the dogs and throughout the fight the handlers would have to separate the dogs numerous times.