How can any dog that rolls over on his back showing his pee pee, and hanging his tounge out while smiling be bad?
Much like the boys in the jailhouse, the dog at this point is bowing to the alpha male. It's basically a submissive move. Any dog can and will attack, I've seen little rat terriers that are mean sumbitches.
It's the old nature versus nurture argument. Spaceage and I have talked about this before, some breeds have been bred to do certain things, it's hard for them to get away from that mapping, watch an aussie shepherd with a group of other dogs at a park, it wants to herd the other dogs, my lab wants to get in the water and pull things. Unfortunately Pit Bulls were bred to fight. does that mean that they are inherently evil, I don't think so, I think I could raise any dog to be loving and gentle, then again I've been doing it for 20+ years.
Who said euthanize the idiot owners, that gets' my vote.
Keep in mind that Pit Bulls were bred to fight
dogs, not people, and they are smart enough to know the difference. In fact they were also specifically bred to be friendly toward humans. It was a general safety issue- a handler didn't want to have a dog who might turn on him before, during, or after a fight. In fact, the old breeders used to destroy immediately any dog that showed human aggression or general instability toward people. The argument can be made that some breeders of lesser repute have intentionally bred dogs who display viciousness, and this may be true to some degree, but it is not in their fundamental genetic makeup. Viciousness is a tendency that has to be cultivated, either through intentional training, or through neglect (as in Aske's story about his relatives' dobie).
It is true that you can, for the most part, take the dog out of the fight but not the fight out of the dog. Monte has displayed aggression towards other dogs, though almost in every case it was in direct response to the dog being aggressive towards him. I can't expect a dog with generations and generations of dogfighting in his genes to suddenly be a different breed. We socialized him very young so he is good with other dogs, but he will certainly not say no to a good fight. He doesn't seek them out, but he won't turn them down. I'm realistic about it, which is why we don't allow him to be unattended with other dogs.
What bothers me is attitudes like "the dog killed a cat/dog/rabbit/squirrel/etc today, tomorrow it could be a child." It's irrational, and it's incorrect. Beagles, if given the opportunity, will kill a rabbit in a second, but at the same time be gentle and docile with children. A beagle knows the difference between a rabbit and a baby.
I remember hearing a story a while back about a family's St. Bernard that "suddenly snapped" and mauled their child. When they put the dog down, they discovered that it had a pencil jammed 8" into its ear canal. My question, however, is what the hell are people doing leaving children unattended with dogs, of any breed, in the first place?
Until someone figures out a way to keep idiots from owning dogs, I'm afraid there's really no way to prevent bad/vicious/dangerous dogs. Unfortunately, as I said before, the dog, not the owner, will always be blamed.
Damn. There I went again.