Why do people say certain dog breeds are bad?

part of it is how the dog is raised, part of it is what the dog was bred for histroically. As with most things, it is a combination of nature and nurture.

I know I will get nothing but thumbs down for this but I am speaking my peace about this subject... I have grown up with big dogs my entire life. I had an Akita, Great Dane, Huskey,Golden...the list can go on. But I live with a girl for 2 years and now I own a Jack Russell and that is as big a dog as I can be around again. My old roomate had a 4 year old Pitbull. She was a very happy dog and everything. One day I was walking my dog outside, I didn't close the inside door because I was waiting for my boyfriend to follow me out. I heard the screen door slam shut and all I remember was feeling a sharp pain in my elbow. I passed out from the amount of blood I lost and woke up 20 stiches later from a bite recieved from her dog. I did not press chrages because I knew if my dog did something like that I would not want him to be put to sleep. A month or 2 later I was making dinner. My roomate told me she was letting her dog out for a little bit to let her run around the house. As I was pulling the roast out of the oven the dog jumped on my back pushing me into the oven and biting my shoulder blade. Not only did I have yet another 5 or 6 stiches from that I recieved 3rd degree burns on my ears and cheek. All together it was over $3,000 in medical bills, and I am truamatized from that one dog. She was never beaten, neglected, raised with a loving couple (they broke up and still took care of her equally). Now you cannot say that it's just the way they are raised. That is not the only pit I have had an encounter with, but this is the only that has cost me thousands of dollars in medical bills and theripysts bills. I wish they would ban them in my state. Bash me all you want but I stand by this because of experience.

A lot of people who are bullies buy certain types of dogs and train them to be bullies. Think, when was the last time you saw a welfare recieving 300 pound guy walking a french poodle. Aint gonna happen. He wants a rotweiller or a pit bull. So when you describe a breed as bad, you are really describing the typical owner of that breed.

People who believe this are uninformed and uneducated. They base their opinions upon rumors, false news reports, false breed classification, urban legends, emotional pooey, etc... You will probably receive a lot of negative answers from many of those very people.... you know... the types who will see a report on the 5pm news about a dog who bit some brat who stuck his hand in the fence... The dog will be a boxer, but the news morons will call it a pit bull, and the idiot public will believe it (even though there's NO SURE WAY TO DETERMINE WHAT BREED A DOG IS, and what's more is that ''pit bull'' isn't even a breed), and they'll all shout "KILL THE PIT BULLS!" I hate stupidity.

In my experience all dogs have the potential to be great family pets. I have volunteered in all kinds of animal shelters and have seen the sweetest pits and the meanest poms! My point is that if you raise the dog to be kind and obedient that is what they will be, a loyal family member.

unfortunately there are so many stereotypes towards certain breeds and I am sure that a pitt bull or bull dog could do more damage than say... a chihuahua but ANY dog has the potential to be mean and we need to look to the owners of these animals to find the problem. Not generalize the breed. Our pets depend on us to care for them and teach them right from wrong and when as owners people fail or teach these dogs the wrong habits then we have no one to blame but ourselves. Just as if a dog comes from abuse. That dog could either be very timid or very aggressive but does that make it that animals fault? Does that make the whole breed a bad breed? The same would go for humans. They learn by what they see in the people they depend on and when coming from a bad enviroment they may be very shy and nervous or they may be very mean and defensive but it is all habit they have formed as a way to protect themselves and the same goes for these dogs that have come from a bad home. There is definately a sad stereotype that generalizes certain breeds and I believe that no breed is evil or bad. There are only bad owners. It is not fair to these poor animals that they be given a bad name when if properly cared for, they can be nothing but loving companions. <3 Laura

You cannot make a blanket statement about ANY breed, good or bad. You also must remember the breeds tendencies- for instance, pits often can be very dog aggressive, but not EVERY pit is. It IS a large part of how you raise them, but even a well raised dog will not ignore it's natural tendencies- a German shepherd can be raised to not be generally aggressive, but will still rise to the challenge if it perceives it's owner to be in danger (real or not). Also, some breeds have been inbred/over-bred into the ground, causing unbalanced behavior not normally found in the breed (we will never have a Dalmatian in the house with small kids- too many issues with over breeding after the Disney movies have put a lot of ill tempered Dals out there). I always liked pits, figured it was how you raised them. we adopted a pit mix from a rescue 2! states away a few years ago- we liked that the group had the dogs TT'd by 2 sep. trainers and were thorough in their check on us. We did everything 'by the book'- on the 2nd day, right in front of us, that damn dog attacked our 5 yo for NO reason we have ever figured out. He was OK, after 3 layers of stitches to his arm (I had to kick that monster off him to get her to release). Long story short- we will NEVER own a pitt or pitt mix again. Just an opinion based on personal experience. Do I hate all pitt bulls? No- but we use extreme caution around them now. the media can overplay things and make people hysterical about every dog of a breed, but the warnings should not be ignored in total. Some breeds, larger ones especially, can be very aggressive, and you hear about them more often than the chi's or the min pins simply because they do more damage. A pair of presas can kill adult (and has, that incident in CA a few years ago). A pair of chi's- no.

most people are just ignorant about dog breeds. Every breed of dogs needs a different environment to be happy. Dogs breeds are a very personal thing.

I have answered this type of queston repeatedly on Answers. My husband and I used to own 3 Pit Bulls. A male . 2 females. The dogs were all wonderful, sweet pets until they grew older. One female, at age 12 or so, attacked my husband without provocation. She tore into his leg and got a major vein. The vet diagnosed the dog with age related dementia. We had her put to sleep. The other female Pit Bull, attacked me for no reason the following year. She, too was diagnosed with age related dementia. The male pit attacked a neighbor's child, at a bar b que at our home , 2 years later, without provocation. After losing 3 Pit's to age related dementia, I started doing a lot of research. Age related dementia is characterised by sudden, unprovoked, incidents of uncontrolable agrressive behavior. Some breeds of dogs are geneticly more prone to it than others. Pit Bulls, Wolf hybrids,dobermans, and rottweilers have the highest chances of developing it. 80 percent of all Pits develop it by age 10 years, that goes up to 95 percent of all Pits by age 15 years. It has nothing to do with the dog's owner. They can do nothing to prevent the animal from developing the condition. Most of the pit bull attacks and attacks from other dogs have been linked to dementia. More people need to be educated about this inherant risk in those breeds of dogs. More research also needs to be done to find a way to cure or prevent it from occuring. Anyone who believes it is all in how a dog is raised needs to rethink this whole issue and get educated about the risks of age related canine dementia, before their family or someone they know becomes victimised by it.