It can scar you mentally I had older brothers and they were always prepared for my feet on the ground one minute then up in their arms the next if I saw a dog.
When my sister Gill married she adopted a lovely spaniel cross breed as a pup and Susie healed me slowly and my love of dogs grew from there.
All my family were very surprised when I eventually got a dog of my own and a big one at that.

I used to work with dogs some of whom were trained for manwork. One of the dogs a large GSD flared up at another in a different yard and redirected aggression onto me. I was shocked and tried to grab him and that was a mistake as like lightening he released my hand and grabbed my other arm. At that point I stopped. He didn't increase the pressure and just waited. I managed to back to the compound gate as I was on my own and a builder working on the neighbouring property opened the gate for me to back out of it and the dog released me because I had submitted. I had about 18 puncture wounds and ended up on a drip to fight the infection a day later.

My boss told me it was clear the dog liked me as he had not ragged me. If he had ragged me he would have shredded my arm and he was big enough to get me a 5'7" adult off my feet so I was lucky. I was not put off dogs because it was the situation and I made a mistake in calling a dog away and he redirected his aggression. In hindsight, because the dogs could not get to each other I should have left them to calm down. I also don't think I would now act aggressively if attacked but if in danger I do not know what I might do.

Logically a larger dog can do more damage than a smaller one plus some breeds have been bred to hold on. Many dogs will rag something they grab onto. We used to own a GSD but I never and will never play ragging or tug games with any dog as it is aggressive play. My dogs were never allowed to jump up as a large dog can easily knock a child or older person down. Dogs may then react to someone who is on the ground and screaming. I do not think that I would own a dog that I physically could not control because it outweighs me and I have always wanted to be able to carry my dogs if they got hurt.

A jogger once yelled at my GSD when he startled her because she had earphones in and he barked back and she ran straight across a road because she was scared and could have been run over due to a coincidental meeting. Accidents can and do happen but I ensure all my animals are monitored when with others so that everyone is kept safe. It's such a shame that not all people are responsible. Many people will not get over the fear of being hurt by an animal. My heart goes out to these people.

"Pit bulls" are mauling people, NOT the APBT. Same thing? Pfft, not even close. This is why I think the UK banned the APBT for absolutely no reason. The APBT is used for fighting, but was never bred for human aggression. Surely this doesn't earn it a ban over other breeds...

Breeding poorly often causes poor temperaments. Fact, not opinion... but people don't even bother to consider this or other factors, such as how the dogs were treated before deciding they hate these "monsters".

True APBT normally are extremely people friendly and child friendly. Take a look at "game bred" APBT lines and try and compare those dogs to the dogs that you see on the news that mauled a child or old person. Not the same.

The breed no longer has a true standard. The American Pit Bull TERRIER can now weigh pretty much anything so long as it's proportioned properly. That is actually listed in the ADBA breed specifications. Since when could a TERRIER breed weigh 80 lbs without being DQ?? AHEM!!

These new dogs aren't APBT. They are bigger, bulkier, and have very little true APBT temperament.

As for banning dog breeds, I'd like proof that is it useful and helpful. From what I've been able to see, dog bites don't just go way down when bans are put into place. It just wastes money and is pretty much useless, which is why I don't see why people who claim to be dog lovers promote banning breeds.

It doesn't even help...

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