"Pit bulls are just like any other dog! It's all in how you raise them!"

This, my friends, is a giant myth. It just isn't true. I'm not saying this to be mean, or put pits down (they're my passion, after all)....rather to spread knowledge and make more effort to protect them. Ignorance can hurt our breed just as much as cruelty. Well meaning pit bull owners whose dog ends up attacking another mutt at the dog park unintentionally contribute to their bad reputation just as much as those who fight these dogs and treat them with cruelty.

So let me break it down for ya. Pit bulls are NOT big headed labs. The rule of "raise them right and they'll behave right" is another one you can toss right out the window. If this was true I wouldn't have a rescue full of pit bulls who are loving breed ambassadors despite the fact that many of them have previously been fought and abused beyond belief. American Pit Bull Terriers are inherently dog aggressive. Deny it all you want; it's the truth. The APBT has been "selectively" bred for hundreds of years to fight other dogs. This unfortunately is the sad work that these dogs were created for. In the same way that Labradors were bred to retrieve birds, APBTs were bred to face other dogs in mortal combat. Even in dogs that are not recently bred from fighting lines, the urge to fight can arise at any time. Not to strongly emphasize this fact would be negligent.

Pit bulls should never be taken to dog parks and they should also never be left unsupervised with other animals, I don't care how well they appear to get along. We have a basic rule in the pit bull world and that is simply "Never trust your pit not to fight". Unfortunately people have a hard time accepting this truth about pit bulls and also seem to have a particularly hard time disassociating dog aggression from human aggression. They're NOT the same thing. If a pit bull attacks another dog, it's a normal breed trait and it's YOUR responsibility as an owner to take the proper steps to prevent it from happening. They're doing what they were genetically made to do for years and years--it doesn't mean they are aggressive and need to be put to sleep or that they're coming after you next.