Pit bull is not one name. The Pit Bull is said to have come from England and trace it’s roots back to the 19th century. The English White Terrier, the Black and Tan Terrier and the Old English Bulldog are supposedly extinct breeds and ancestors to the American Pit Bull Terrier. However the descendants of those few breeds include the bull-and-terriers, the Fox Terrier, and the Manchester Terrier. So when you condemn a Pit Bull for attacking you are condemning more then one breed of dog. As we all know Terriers are Verman Hunting dogs. In england at the time Verman were a real threat to the farmers crops and fields, while damaging belongings and homes. Terriers destroyed vermon efficiently and were easy animals to take care of. As time went by Terriers came to present sports such and rat bating and badger hunting. Pit Bulls get their juvenile behavior, and loving nature from the terriers. While looking inside the English Bull Dog, we know that Bull dogs were used as working dogs, controlling unruly bulls for butchers as well as farmers. These bull dogs are were our Loving American Pit Bull Terriers get most of their looks from. Bulldogs were also used in Bull baiting witch caused numerous dogs their lives. In the year 1835 Bull Baiting was banned and the rise of dog fights begun.

In the Lower classes had used dogs for fighting as a way to get rid of frustrations towards the Monarchy. Dogs were then bred to be tenacious, determined, courageous, and utterly devoid of pain sensations. Unfortunately these breeds could still feel pain they were just not aloud to show their pain. A quality that was never breed into these dogs was human aggression. These dogs worked with their human owners and families and only faught to please their owners. They needed to be human friendly so the owners could clean and handle them while they were healing after each fight. Most of these dogs were family pets and were handled by children and adults on a regular basis. Therefore HUMAN AGGRESSION was never tolerated. Dogs who showed human aggressions were killed leaving only human friendly dogs to breed creating more human friendly dogs. They were breed to have a strong bite threshold so humans wanted to make sure that their dogs would not attack another human. Even in the 1900’s humans wanted their dogs to be seen as loving family members not vicious attack dogs.

The AKC wanted nothing to do with the Pit Bull’s and still to this day does not recognize them as a breed. In 1898, Chauncy Bennet formed the UKC allowing the Pit Bulls to be registered as performance dogs. Bennet added American to their name while dropping the Pit from their name. After public outcries Bennet allowed Pit to be placed back into their registry name thus the American Pit Bull Terrier was first recognized as a breed by the UKC.

At first the UKC said that Pit Bulls had to win at least 3 fights in order to be recognized into the registry and in later years that was dropped. In 1909, Another registry that was started solely for APBT’s, the American Dog Breeders Association. Guy McCord who was a close friend of one of the founding fathers of the modern APBT, John P. Colby was the one who founded the ADBA. The ADBA was established to test the performance of Pit Bulls with out fighting. Their main competitions were focused on weight pulling and conformation shows.

In later years the AKC decided to recognize the American Pit Bull Terriers as a breed but only by a different name, The Staffordshire Terrier, which in 1972 became the American Staffordshire Terrier. Pit Bulls and American Staffordshire Terrier’s were physically identical until 1936. Conformation and their breed requirements became much more stringent after 1936 when they were bred for conformation shows. The American Staffordshire Terrier became more flashy with blockier heads, larger chests and a thicker jaw while the American Pit Bull Terrier’s varied physically from lanky to stocky. Although the looks changed relative weight, proportion, and size remained constant and dogs over 60lbs were rarely seen. Both American Staffordshire Terrier’s and American Pit Bull Terrier’s were bred to be sturdy and extremely human friendly, not to mention athletic, courageous, and tenacious.

In the 1980’s drug dealers and street kids saw the popularity and potential for American Pit Bull Terriers to become “Guard Dogs” This is how the overly large American Pit Bull was bred. These never have been and still are not lines of the true American Pit Bull Terrier since lines of American Bulldog, Cane Corso’s and other molosser breeds were introduced into the larger forms of the American Pit Bull Terriers breeding to form larger and more dangerous dogs. The Puppies born from such litters would be rebred an inbred to create larger more aggressive breeds creating a dog with many behavioral problems. Some people say that there are such Pit Bulls that weight 80 pounds or more. The truth is that NO True American Pit Bull will ever weight that much. These are not true lines if your Pit Bull weights more then the recognized breed weight. If Pedigrees were investigated for these massive Pit Bulls you will find highly inbred and highly larger mastiff lines that come together into the breeds pedigree showing that they are not of true lines.

Today the majority of Pit Bulls do not reach over 60 pounds, and most of the populations of Pit Bulls are family pets. Unfortunately, a minority of Pit Bulls are poorly socialized, chained, abused, neglected or allowed to roam free and inevitably attack a living creature, typically a child. Thus making the world see them as dangerous. It is our responsibility as owners to make sure we socialize our dogs (and this is with any breed) well. This doesn’t mean that you stop the socialization with your family and the back yard. We as owners need to get our dogs out there and get them used to anything we can think of. From a parked car, to a child screaming in the back seat of a mini-van at a restaurant. This also includes taking our dogs to dog parks and around cats and kids and any human from all age ranges.

If you as a owner choose to leave your dog chained all day in the yard you are only asking for a aggressive dog. It is our responsibility to make sure we know how to properly care for our dogs and how to prevent any unwanted behaviors from arising.

Pit Bulls are no harder to train then any other breed. It is all in how you choose to train your dog. Always ask your local trainers the best methods to training your dog (and that is any breed of dog) All dogs need to be trained according to their personalities, not their breed. Pit Bulls strive to be around humans and love to be with their families. By excluding and not training your Pit Bull proper you are only going to be creating behavioral problems from aggression to fear from the outside world.

There are numerous events you and your Pit Bull can enjoy together from weight pulling, cart pulling, search and rescue, therapy work, agility, and many other sports. Some have even been able to train their Pit Bulls to hunt. Your Pit Bull will even enjoy walking with you on the leash and many other out door activities. Do not exclude them from the family because you do not have time for them.

Pit Bulls bite down with the same amount of pressure as a human bite. It is the ability to hold there bite closed that makes them seem more dangerous. No dog can Lock his or her jaw. It is not a lock it is a holding factor. They are just more capable of holding their mouths closed for longer periods of time. If you as a human had the muscles in your mouth to hold onto your car tire for a long amount of time people would look at you as being able to lock your jaw. So it is not a lock as much as it is holding.

Also remember, Other BREEDS are just as likely to be Dog, cat or kid aggressive as a Pit Bull. It is all in how they are raised and how each situation is handled after they lash out. Do not judge one breed because of what your neighbor or friend says. I know if I would have listened to my own mother I would not have been able to prove to her just how sweet this breed truly is.