geo

Not sure how many hunting dogs you know, but i know heaps of kelpie x's that are used for pigging and they're hardly big, certainly not aggressive and are family pets as well... many are completely reliable around all animals except pigs.. Dogs from even the same litter display different traits, trying to say any breed or dog is more likely to attack than the next is impossible and it all depends on so many reasons... it's only when you know all of the history and facts surrounding a dog can you get a picture of how it may react to different situations and you will still only be guessing. It's up to dog owners to know how their dog will react.. i know how my dogs will react around strangers, children, different types of dogs, kids on skateboards, dingoes, etc...

It's great that the numbers of dogs being PTS is being reduced..2% is what 70000 dogs PTS per year, but when you imagine at how a dog gets classified as a pitbullx... this would include any cross breed or several breeds of dogs, many of which will have no pitbull in them at all, and do shelter staff id the dog? So it stands to question, do they make up 60% (42000) of all euthenazed dogs because of misidentification and / or is it more PC to PTS a pitbull than a Lab mix... do shelters say, "well this one could be a pitbull x, better make space for the ones we can rehome..." i.e like the "Lost Dogs Home" 60% is such a huge figure..

Responsible dog owners shouldbe able to choose which ever breed they please. I, as will thousands of others choose bull breeds over any other, including unpapered rescues that are the most at risk. Excepting ridiculous laws is weak and defeatist and i'm glad there's good people out there trying to change that. People have already won at VCAT so hopefully more will get the right support. RIP Bear & Kooda.

I think your last sentence answers your question. No rules or regs can be successful if people don't follow them. This isn't so much a BSL issue but a society issue. Many unrestrained, untrained, prey driven dogs would'be done exactly the same. The dog being as big as you say could've easily killed your dog, and i'm surprised yours had no injures. I think incidents like this happen all the time and it is ultimately the owners responsibilty to control their dog. Don't think this is limited to large dog breed owners, as i have had to shoo away many SWF from snapping at my larger dogs because their owners do absolutely nothing to control their dogs bad habits.

I cannot believe the other coppers left their mate to deal with the dog!! I hope they do better with humans, but i somehow doubt it going by what i saw.

If this could be a reality would you like to see the APBT taken off the banned list and be responsibly bred? I know i would.

I would love to see random dog breeding under control but that is pie in the sky stuff at the moment. As for the bully/mastiff breeding,as has been pointed out many times in this sort of arguement, these sort of 'people' will just move onto other breeds. And considering Victoria apparently has tough laws on these 'sort of dogs' it obviously isn't working. It is a difficult problem, the answer in my opinion is to make people responsible for the actions of their dogs, no matter what breed. I tend to be of the opinion that these sorts of people choose the Bully/Mastiff types of dog for a reason. I don't think they possess any training skills to extract aggression responses out of anything otherwise they would just own anything from a Labrador to a Great Dane and get the same aggression responses and attack results?. I think with the breed styles taken away from them to produce preditory behaviour from other breeds, they would struggle to achieve it?. I still think there is some merit in the madness of legislation, take the Bully/Mastiff's off theses people and give them a nice well bred Cocker Spaniel instead, the commumunity would be a safer place :D There is no merit to the legislation. It still has not produced a workable solution to responsible pet ownership, And i couldn't disagree more with your opinion that these "types" of dogs are over represented in dog bite stats, (as per the last posts by Snook and Rebel wolf)

I didn't say anything of the sort. I think the other posts sum it up though.

Shoot pets?? just 'cause they attacked a police dog..???? hardly justified. Pets don't chose their owners.

My dogs would tear their police dog to pieces if it came on my property as well. The police can raid your house if some anonymous person makes up a lie that you have drugs there or if they "think" they smell weed. Its pathetic and good on that guy for having dogs that protected his property. I'm not saying he wasn't dumb though but the police should think before they act, not checking for other dogs before bringing a police dog onto a property? Well the dog copped it lol Maybe you could choose other ways to construct the what you mean as i get what you're saying but it doesn't come across that way... You may not like the police or why they raided the house and most people agree that the dog getting injured was tough sh@t, territorial and not newsworthy, as many dogs would've done that, including mine. Just try saying it without making me think you're from the same kind of ilk that the police raided.

Poor dog, but if a large dog behaving aggressively came charging in my house there is a good chance my dogs wouldn't appreciate it, especially if the dog was after me. It is a risk the police are willing to take and put their dogs in the firing line. Like hunting dogs there's a chance they'll get seriously hurt and it's up to the handler to step in. Speculation on breeds, and how the policeman can differentiate between the 2 breeds (does one have papers and the other not?)... regardless 2 bull breeds obviously owned by a miscreant, giving the press another angle to further the story. Hopefully the GSD will recover and be back working soon!!

This i think is due to the large variations in "type" that would lead to all sorts of breeds becoming restricted... i've seen rego'd amstaffs as small as 15" upto 22", 20kgs - 40+kgs (as advertised on DOL) surely this is going to cause issues in id'ing dogs that are on death row for no other reason than the way they look, and any lawyer worth their salt will use this to win cases against local councils who are trying to euthanase family pets.

APBT's come in all colours (except merle and blue) If only the ACO's thought this, we'd have no pitbulls in pounds and thousands would've been saved from BSL! Perhaps they'll add colour to the checklists.... I do shudder to think you feel the BM's you met were absolutely harmless. Though i'm stoked you have a good feel about BM's. Geo, are you on the attack, sounds like it?? Not attacking you, but setting you straight. Sweeping generalisations on public forums about breeds from people who don't own them doesn't do the breed any good, especially if it's opinions formed from media outlets, google etc.. i understand you had a bad experience with one, but i doubt you'd be able to identify one going from the post above. Many of the dog trainers, vets, any people who work with dogs on this forum will attest that they've met good and bad in every breed and that BSL is a bad idea due to the fact that it comes down to individual dogs. Due to the owners the breed has attracted in the past (and still does) APBT's are more likely to be abused, mistreated, untrained, unsocialised and generally not well looked after which is a recipe for disaster. That's not to say there aren't lots of well looked after ones out there but you're not likely to see one walking down the street due to the restrictions placed on them, dob a dog hotlines, nosy neighbours ringing the council etc.. I'm sure most Bull Mastiff owners could set you straight about some of their other traits, beside the cuddly dopey side.... again some BM's may by placid pussycats, others may not. I do hope you get to meet a nice APBT, and when you do you'll know what everyone is on about. I used to dislike SWF's, however i have met heaps with lots of personality, attitude (good and bad) so now i don't mind them, wouldn't own one, wouldn't comment on their ownership but they're ok.

APBT's come in all colours (except merle and blue) If only the ACO's thought this, we'd have no pitbulls in pounds and thousands would've been saved from BSL! Perhaps they'll add colour to the checklists.... I do shudder to think you feel the BM's you met were absolutely harmless. Though i'm stoked you have a good feel about BM's.

You've obviously only googled to find bad news about pitbulls that confirms to enhance your opinion. Plenty of incidents including Rottis, and all the other breeds you love... Why do people continually harp on about "bred to fight other dogs"!! Originally yes, i have not met one pitbull that was bred to fight and they've all been really nice, and just because a dog may have the propensity to be DA, doesn't mean it will attack people and this is well documented in any history you can find about pit fighting dogs, a HA dog will not be tolerated. Perhaps you should get out and try to meet one.

Sorry to hear about your experience but incidents like this are not limited to pitbulls, or dogs that people think are pitbulls... like all the attacks in the list "pitbull type" WTF! they could write any other "type" that could also fit the bill!, except the type the media has portrayed has led to attacks being reported as pitbulls, FFS! I have been bitten by a collie, & mixed breed, but i didn't take a stab in the dark and say it must've been "pitbull type" like the thousands that get reported. If people chose to believe Wikipedia then they will never learn. I'm certainly not denying attacks that have been perpetrated by known pitbulls, and accept that they as other breeds are involved in serious dog attacks and society as a whole needs to generally learn more about responsible animal ownership...

Greytmate & Telida, I hope you read the rest of my comment where i am essentially agreeing with your comments... and your posts definitely have a place in discussion about dog ownership regardless of breed. (and i know you didn't only mean to infer you have to be careful with APBT's) totally agree with your posts. However i feel thread may not have even been started had this interaction not been with a restricted breed. The sheer fact it had "pitbull" in the title had the masses coming to comment, and hopefully people learnt a little about their own dogs behavior.

Whoa big thread.. i wonder if all the advice about playing with bigger dogs, dog behavior opinions etc.. would've been mentioned if the thread was, "my cav just had great fun with a Lab". The thread would've been about a page long of "oh that's nice" comments... However advice about large dogs, behaviors et al are all really important issues and applicable in any conversation regarding dog ownership, and not only applicable to pitbulls. Sometimes people forget that pitbulls are just dogs and owners of other breeds don't realise that their dog is a dog like the rest and you can guarantee it will behave like a dog so you better learn how to deal with it, large or small they all need appropriate training. Yes some pitties are hard to handle, others are pretty easy... same as all dogs. It comes down to sooooo many things and responsible owners should be aware of them all.

" Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." ~Aaron Levenstein For stats to be taken seriously you have to provide all relevent information that could be used as proof against your argument. i.e dog bites should take into account everything from age, gender, training, de-sexed, to things such as socio economic status of owners.. such that many people on this forum would belive all APBT owners are bogans and are more likley to live in the rough end of town.. and for most part that may ring true, such stats could also say that APBT's are more likely to suffer from abuse than other breeds because of the type of owenrs they attract.. Good luck!!

My Male is intact and 2 1/2 years old and we have a 5 year old desexed famale.. He doesn't try and escape despite many wandering camp dogs, and certainly doesn't try to hump our bitch. He's shown tolerance for many dogs but again has shown dislike for some large intact males. He does drool at the mouth around some female dogs, nose running, and the walking hump, though no desire to wander. He has however ejaculated (yuck) over the floor when getting a shampoo! As some of the posts say, it all depends on your dog and his beahvior and size, i would definitely wait though should i have a larger breed dog.

Doesn't matter what the dog is or looks like, if it's harrassing people or animals whether or not harm done - it can be declared dangerous. Read the act. I linked it up the top. Keep reporting it, and demanding action and contact your elected rep if the dog is still out and scaring people. You're right, if it's harrassing then it can be declared dangerous and it shouldn't matter what it looks like. However if you mention pitbull in the same sentence people automatically blame all pitbulls and the hype continues, and as suspected it went from being a large pitbull to a pure bred amstaff lookalike?.. it could be a number of bitsas, it could be a pitbull... how about people ask the owners before spreading news that a pitbull is harrassing people, or for that matter an amstaff..

Whilst i think most of the comments are spot on, many pig hunting dogs up here get on well with other dogs as they run with different dogs regularly. I've had a few come and say hello to my two who and even though they were large intact males all was ok. But i accept that this is probably not the norm. Though they certainly don't treat the dogs like pets, or care for them in the manner which most of us would. My neighbour has 3 dogs, great friendy dogs, though they're not walked on a lead, kept in a poor state,(fed very well, but not groomed, washed etc..) they crave human attention but rarely get it, then he gets upset when he loses one.. he has all the gear too, chest plates, tracking collars, and genuinely talks about his dogs with love but they just have a different view of dogs than we do. And yep Totally Bogan!

why didn't you say amstaff then? a large pitbull cross could look like anything.

Could it have been a Mastiff Cross, Amstaff Cross, AmBull cross....?

Sadly for the owners they're left thinking the last minutes of their dogs life was horrible, and the council can't account for their behavior. Basically it seems if you have a big dog and it gets out, no matter how friendly he may be, he is going to be treated differently and seen as a higher risk for ACO's so they're going to use more force.. But the thing is you don't need force, you need to be smart and calm, seriously i wonder what the employment policy is of some councils when advertising for ACO's! If my boy got out and there was a man chasing him, he'd freak, if it was a woman chasing him he'd be fine (he prefers ladies over men)... but out of their comfort zone we can never know exactly how our dogs will behave, or the people around them.