who agree's or disagree's?

All living things are born with a set of genetic blueprints. These genes control physical appearance and general temperament. Temperament is not a guarantee of behavior. You could say that a person is "quick-tempered," but if they existed in a vacuum, would they still be short-fused? If nothing exists, what could possibly cause such a person to be angry? Similarly, you could call a dog "friendly," but that dog is friendly because it has people and dogs to act friendly towards; if it had a friendly temperament but was the only living creature on the planet, what "friendly" behaviors could it exhibit?
The "pit bull problem" seems to center around whether aggression is inherent or learned. Let's cut to the chase. Aggression is a behavior. A complex behavior, to be sure, but a behavior nevertheless. And what do we know about behavior? It is influenced by environment and experience.
John Paul Scott is a scientific researcher who was interested in the interplay between genetics and behavior. He did experiments with mice to determine whether highly aggressive mice could be created through breeding.
"The experiments with mice show us that aggression has to be learned. Defensive fighting can be stimulated by the pain of an attack, but aggression, in the strict sense of an unprovoked attack, can only be produced by training... Heredity can enter into the picture only in such ways as lowering or raising the threshold of stimulation, or modifying the physical equipment for fighting... In considering hereditary effects, we must always remember that the environmental situation is also important..." - John Paul Scott, Aggression
Mr. Scott has done all the hard work for us. Aggression is a learned behavior.

"But," shouts a voice in the crowd, "I knew someone who had a dog that was never trained to be aggressive, but it still attacked someone without provocation. Scott is full of it!" This line of reasoning is fallacious because this person assumes that learning only occurs when a dog is formally trained by its owner. This idea is both naive and arrogant. Dogs learn life lessons from a variety of sources, including but not limited to the owner. For example, a dog's play, in which two dogs pounce, growl, and tussle in a playful manner, is actually ritualized aggression. When dogs play, they are practicing aggression.

Regardless of whether or not a dog is temperamentally inclined toward aggression, it is the owner that ultimately determines whether the dog actually has the opportunity to react aggressively and rehearse aggressive behavior. Owners who are responsible and involved do not put their dog in such situations; they do not give their dog the opportunity to practice or escalate aggression.

I didn't write it. I got it off a pitbull news site.


A pit bull remains the most decorated dog in US military history (Sgt Stubby) and another pit bull is the only dog saluted by a sitting president (Abraham Lincoln).

Great post. The only thing it misses is the fact the aggression in question is dog aggression no bull and terrier type dog should ever be bred that's human aggressive. It was never a desired trait. Although some backyard breeders have screwed it up - most of todays dogs still love humans.

And another one to add to famous pitbulls - This guy Bandog Dread holds (or at least held) more working titles than any other dog of any breed. Now that's a huge achievment.

http://www.workingpitbull.com/New%20Site%202005/dread.htm

Dread sounded amazing

I agree to a point. However, certain stud dogs (and brood *) in the past have been known to pass on aggressiveness in their offspring.

One recent case (I can't mention names cause the guy is really upset about it) involves a puppy Bull Terrier which was sold to this guy. He is a really good, experienced dog owner & has never had a problem with any of his BT's.

This pup, at 10 weeks old started to show signs of nastiness. No amount of training could deter it. By 16 weeks the pup had to be returned to the breeder. 6 months on and the breeder is having to decide whether to put the dog to sleep because of it's aggressiveness. Now we have been told that the stud dog has a long line of agressiveness in its pedigree. No one has been able to make an ounce of difference to this pup, and one of his female siblings is the same.

Go on dread!! Impressive!!

wow that's interesting caryll!! So is there not any checks on agression when breeding like there is for health??

you can only really go on seeing mum and dad and breeders word with regards to aggression , and from a personal point of view ive never seen a human agressive sbt so the chances of someone viewing a litter and experiancing agression from sire and dam are small i think although i would say maybe an early viewing and seeing some aggression from the dam might be expected by way of protecting her pups

Yeh was thinking that myself,just wondered if it was recoerded if a dog was aggressive but I spoze it would be hard to do!

Most responsible breeders would never dream of mating an agressive dog (male or female), but there are those who wouldn't think twice.

I know that one particular male BT champion from many years ago was never bred from at all - not even offered at stud. The reason the breeder gave was that he was infertile. The rumour was that he was agressive & had to doped down for the show ring.