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You have learned something along the way, and that is a good thing. My daughter can get the jeep to the barn and back and she is very young, but not a NASCAR driver yet.
I train for a living. We sell a dozen fully trained border-collies a year and more than twice as many certified ordnance dogs. As I get another trainer up to par we will double the bomb dog total per year.
I sort through and try out over 200 puppies a year to get the dogs I need. I work with border-collies in the stock dog training program and an now working with only german shepherds for Law Enforcement dogs and bomb dogs. The reason for this is simple, they are #1 and #3 as far as intelligence by breed. We start with the smartest and quickest learning dogs we can find and breed out own pups. Then only 10% make make the grade. I need dogs that are not only smart, but that learn quickly. They have to learn and respond to new commands in 5-7 repetitions, remember that command and respond to it that command instantly every time.
You can find the comparative data here.

http://petrix.com/dogint/intelligence.html

I fully understand you like you pit bull, he is valuable to you as your pet and your friend. That breed always ranks in the lower half of all dog breeds for intelligence and only respond to a command the first time half of the time. They take 25+ repetitions to learn a new command and then only respond to it correctly the first time every other time it is given. I can not and will not deal with that.
When they run a bomb dog over a plane prior to an international flight they tell the dog to look for explosives. I want that dog to respond to that command every time he hears it, not half the time. Look at the data from the link and you will be able to easily follow. These are the numbers and the criteria they use in placing the breeds on the chart. You can search for other lists but they all are about the same. This is what professional trainers and handlers know to be true. When you and your family get on that next plane what dogs do you want doing the search.