The pit bull type was also used in rat baiting contests.
You are smart to pick up your little dog when a pit bull comes near, especially if it’s (what I call a `yapper’) a terrier. Terriers are a doughty, aggressive breed, pound-for-pound, especially the Fox, Airedale and Bedlingtons, and Cairn/Scottie types, and the pit bull breed was bred to fight other dogs, while terriers were ratters.
I had an English bulldog and she was safe around other dogs, but my American bull will remain on a leash and harness until he’s socialized. They used this dog down south as it was brought over from England to fight, and maybe still do, while it was also a general use farm dog, and a good dog around people, even people it doesn’t know that well, unlike some smaller breeds.
(lecture over)
I had a Cairn Terrier and he was a great dog. But he wasn’t afraid of anything. He was also friendly.
He’s not a yapper, more like a squealer when he sees another dog. He wants to play and roughhouse, and he LOVES ‘large women’. At 9 lbs of white and black fluff almost all females are bigger than him, but he’s an ambitious boy! He used to annoy a 100lb+ chocolate lab a friend owned. It was funny to watch- the look on her face was ‘what? is this??’ or ‘oh, no, not this pest again!”
I’m seriously considering getting a baby sling to carry him in, he loves being held like that. Don’t know how good it would be for his back tho.
The pit bull type was also used in rat baiting contests.