Originally Posted by
canklecat
Personally I like pitties and don't fear them any more than any other dog. The vast majority I've encountered were lovable goofballs. I've encountered a few on my rural bike rides and don't worry about them since they're just excessively enthusiastic, not aggressive. They tend to wander around in front of me like they're leading a parade. A couple of times I've run over their haunches when they suddenly stopped or changed directions, even when I'd slowed down to a walking pace. I didn't fall and they weren't injured. Those particular dogs didn't repeat that stunt.
What I do worry about is how even apparently friendly dogs can suddenly turn when they sense fear, excitement or pain. They can unexpectedly become vicious. This sudden personality change can happen with any breed. I've seen it in my own dogs and those owned by other family members. Several years ago we had a pair of part-bassett siblings. They were fine for several months, seemingly harmless and friendly. But before the puppies were a year old the female began attacking the male, and each attack got worse -- she nearly killed him once, shredding the hide over his abdomen and throat as he rolled over submissively. We had to split them up and gave the female away. And my in-laws had a couple of goofy bird dogs that seemed to be inseparable pals in harmless mischief. But one day one of the them injured its paw and the sibling attacked and nearly killed it. But the most dangerous and foul tempered dog we tried to adopt was a young adult chow that was wildly unpredictable and couldn't be trusted around my grandmother or grandkids. None of the usual methods for winning over difficult dogs seemed to work. We finally had to give her away to an experienced owner who understood what she was taking on.
I agree with these sentiments. Every pit bull I've personally known has been a lovable goofball. The problem is that they are built so dense with muscle that IF they do attack, it's going to hurt. I think they have some of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom as well. Not only that, but they're also stubborn as hell. You don't play tug of war with a pit-bull. The pit bull lets you pull on his toy until you get tired, and he comes back for more.
The second thing you mentioned can happen to ANY dog. Dogs have bad days just like us. We just have the common sense not to bite someone. Even our two dogs who were littermates and lived together their whole life and played together every day would fight every once in awhile. I'm talking like once a year or so. I think the issue is that people get SCARED when they see a dog having a bad day, and that's not what you want to do. Owning large dogs has made my fear of dogs go away. I have held both of these dogs back from attacking other animals at the same time. (They're bird dogs, they like to chase small animals like cats... and other rat dogs...). I have no fear that if I stayed calm when being attacked by a dog I could come out with perhaps a torn up forearm, but hopefully that's it. Protect your neck, protect your abdomen, protect your jewels. If it's anything less than a very large dog, you can sit on it or kneel on it and it's probably not getting up. Yes, animals are strong, but in the end they still often weigh less than 100 lbs. And most fully grown adults (some small adults may not apply) (even us bikers) should be able to hold one even under the worst of conditions.
Now, if I were a 100 lb person, it'd be a different story.