instead of levying an ad hominem attack on me...?Geez...touchy or what?! No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.
If you think that is what my post was,
instead of the friendly advice it was intended to be,
it is perhaps better that I avoid responding to you.
'Cause'= point, reason, goal of your post(s)
This part of your Clifton quote is particularly off the wall....
"They are also notorious for attacking seemingly without warning,
a tendency exacerbated by the custom of docking pit bulls' tails so that warning signals are not easily recognized"
We have discussed this statement before on FR
and no one had ever heard of
nor seen anything to remotely justify it.
There is no "custom" of docking tails.
The only "pit bull" I've seen either personally, on the web or in news reports with a docked tail, is my own...
What a handsome dog. Is that vest available? We are in hunting territory, and have a vest that we put on our dogs during Autumn and Winter, but I like that one a lot. :)
No, not touchy. Your post focused on Merritt Clifton as a "kook" and you sounded pretty condescending with your comments:
"Here is a sample of your "expert's" thought..."
"You do no service to yourself nor your 'cause' by using him as reference."
You said there are "more accurate, unbiased and reputable sources out there", then didn't provide a single source. So, your goal is to discredit, not educate, and after seeing your dog, it connects the dots for me. I said some things about your breed that you didn't like, but had no defense for, so attack the messenger.
The numbers in the Clifton report are what I was focused on, not the man. He doesn't seem to know a lot about dog breeds, but he collected data, I think as best as he could, over a long period of time.
My family had had up to 23 dogs at a time. My dad for some stupid reason bought a giant Alaskan Malamute. It was essentially a super-strong wolf and escape artist. It didn't matter how we tried, the only thing that could keep it home was a totally enclosed pen with a cement floor. That sucks for a dog. Dogs get out and they get into trouble.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I witnessed a spectacle involving a Pit chasing a horse on a beach. I have never in my life seen an animal take the punishment that the Pit did. Direct, full-force rear leg kicks from a large horse to its head and body - not so much as a yelp from the Pit. Maybe your Pit will never get away from you and will never even nip at another dog, but the sad truth is that mistakes handling these indestructible dogs have far greater consequences then the average dog. Our Malamute was about 120 lbs and was supposed to be able to pull 2,000 lbs. on ice. It's a wolf. There's no way the Malamute would have a chance against the Pit Bull I saw on the beach!
Cesar Millan's opinion:
"I deal with a lot of red zone cases, and I often hear people incorrectly blaming the breed. Any breed can cause trouble. The difference between an aggressive Chihuahua and an aggressive pit bull is that the bigger breeds can cause proportionately bigger damage. It is important to recognize the power of a strong breed, like the pit bull, the Cane Corso, and the Mastiff. These dogs are very powerful and, if they are unbalanced, they can cause serious injury."
Here's something I found on The Discovery Channel: http://blogs.discovery.com/news_animal/2008/06/the-most-and-le.html
" This data comes from owner-reported interactions? That's about as useless as Clifton Merritt's use of newspaper articles. Could we possibly get a little actual science with our, you know, "science" article?"
"Hi Emily,
The researchers conducted two independent surveys and each resulted in nearly identical data.
They also address your concerns at length in the study, as many other such reports have relied upon dog bite statistics. They argue that such statistics are misleading because:
a. most dog bites go unreported unless medical attention is sought
b. the total number of dogs of a given breed in the local community is seldom known, so the degree to which that breed is over-represented among reported dog bites is usually undetermined
c. in many cases the breed of dog involved cannot be verified
Also, it's important to note that the study has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed journal Applied Animal Behavior Science. It will be interesting to see what other studies—using this method or perhaps something else—will determine.
Jen"