Pitbulls don't automatically have aggressiveness towards other dogs. That's due to improper socialization, poor handling, and abuse and it's a myth. Just as many labs, Golden retrievers, dalmatians, Jack Russell's etc are involved in incidents involving other dogs. There is no magic 'dog fighting gene' passed along from dog to dog.. it's just not there.
Dog experts agree that aggression is a (learned) behaviour, not a temperament.

hmm, well I'm no dog or animal expert but in the animal kingdom some animals are more aggressive than others. Bull sharks are aggressive, hammerheads are not. Cows and sheep are very rarely aggressive. Is this because they are naturally passive animals, or is it learned behaviour over 1000's of years? I don't know, but I do know that pigs are far more aggressive than their other farmyard friends, and I don't think that humans have given them any different form of education in that time. We haven't been particularly mean to the pigs, but friendly to the cows and sheep. At least not to my knowledge.

Given the above, it seems logical to me that some types of dogs will "automatically" be more aggressive than others. Hasn't it been proven* that some pacific islanders are naturally more aggressive than your average joe bloggs? I'm sure the theory is that the warlike tendencies have been passed down through the gene pool.... and this same theory applies to pitbulls and other breeds of dog that are classed as dangerous.




* Let me find an internet article to support that one.

And your point is what? They should be annihilated, dangerous dogs, bull sharks and Pacific islanders and such?

do some research ... you may get into a whole lot of trouble..

Ok... "proven" was definitely not the correct choice of word....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_A

Ive done some research and Ive decided that my pups a Staffy and Im keeping her.

as long as that can be proven should local council demand it ... then not a problem ...

walking the dog in certain locations may attract attention ... and a local resident may even dob the dog in ..

good luck

A local resident like you eh?

Its alright she looks like a Staffy and I doubt many of the yokels round my way will know the difference or care. The authorities will have to prise her from my cold dead fingers if tis proven otherwise.

a man in qld just spent nearly half a million $$ to prove in court his dog wasn't on the banned list after council went after him to have his dog destroyed... he lost... and had to shift the dog to another jurisdiction asap

Not sure if your council is enthusiastic about this sort of thing or not .. but if you take your dog out and about a lot ... you'll eventually find out if they are or not..

I'm picking up my first pup tomorrow (not a staffy). We thought about 2 but I spent a lot of time reading on the web (places like www.dogzonline.com.au) and decided that whilst 2 pups may keep each other company they will be much more difficult to train. Therefore we have decided to get one, get her trained then in 6 months time, if she is acting lonely, look at another pup

What a load of rubbish. We had our male done and his character has not changed at all. The good thing in getting him done is we have reduced his chance of certain cancer's and other health problems as he gets older.

some of the guys at work have been desexed ... they haven't changed at all since.

You're right, aggression is a learned behaviour and any dog can be trained to be aggressive. However terriers are naturally more aggressive than other types of dogs. This is why terriers were chosen for the fighting breeds in the first place.

I used to have a Bull Terrier. He was socialised and trained from 14 weeks old. He was a great dog but boy was he aggressive towards other dogs. I can tell you right now that was NOT a learned behaviour. He wasn't abused, he wasn't trained to be aggressive, in fact I trained him to be the opposite. While you can train any dog to be aggressive, some breeds are naturally more inclined to be more aggressive than others.

These dogs have been bred for the pits and dog fighting since the 1800's. The breeders bred not for looks but purely for performance so they selected the most aggressive dogs to breed for the pits. It is called selective breeding and over a hundred years, if you match aggressive dog with aggressive dog then the breed will become more aggressive. It's the same as if you breed for size. If you keep matching the biggest dogs, the offspring will be the biggest dogs.

Nowadays the breeders are breeding not for the pits or fighting but for type and they are no longer selecting the most aggressive dogs to breed with but the ones that are closest to the standard. Hence a lot of the natural aggression has been bred out by breeding with naturally more docile dogs.

Dogs are pack animals and when you get two alpha males together they will fight for the spot of top dog, training or no.

Rubbish. I've had a few and de-sexing a male makes them more docile. They have a temperament much more akin to a bitch.

You do own a boxer though (I also have a neutered male boxer) and they are as mad as a box of frogs before and after de-sexing