>The liberal mindest that “if you just give these dogs a chance, if you just treat them nicely, they’ll be good!” dominates in the pit bull defender mindset. <
You missed the mark here. With any large, powerful breed, whether pit bull, Anatolian Shepherd, German Shepherd, Tibetan Mastiff, Doberman, etc., there is an inherent responsibility to keep the dog under control at all times. Powerful dogs need socialization and training, which is not to the average pet owner, “treating them nicely” necessarily. Training a dog means modifying its behavior to stop whatever it’s doing at the time on command. Socializing a pup with people of all ages means the pup will treat all people as people, and will not give chase to a screaming toddler.
Most of all, anyone who chains a dog and leaves it unattended in the yard is asking for a tragedy, especially if they know their neighbors have little kids. At the very least a little child could get tangled in the chain. At the worst, the child could get killed.
Finally, whether you like it or not, parents must teach young children to never, ever approach a dog that is not theirs without the dog’s owner present. In addition, contrary to popular belief, it is dangerous for anyone to hug a strange dog, especially a little kid on eye level with the animal. Dogs do not like to be hugged by strangers. Most will suffer through, to the trained eye showing signs of stress, but some will lash out and bite, usually grabbing the person’s face. Parents have a responsibility to teach children how to behave around strange dogs and there are a number of programs out there to help them do so.
Even though parents have the responsibility above, should a dog bite a child, the dog owner is ultimately responsible for not keeping his animal under control. But, any thinking parent needs to do everything in his or her power to keep his child safe.
Most people are unaware that “hugging” mimics the “dominance mounting” that dogs do to each other to display pack rank.
It is, in every dog’s primal mind, an act of aggression and challenge.
Some dogs, having been “cuddled” all their lives permit it.
Others react exactly the way they’re wet-wired to do so.
If their “alpha” hugs them, they submit.
If somebody else tries it, it could lead to disaster and *every* kid want to hug the doggy.
I’m not sure, having no kids myself, how I would explain to a child that hugging Fluffy ~might~ make him angry.
We are inter-species partners, eternally bound, who walk in two worlds.
Our body language and theirs is wildly disparate.
We swoop wildly down upon a strange dog, meaning only to embrace and love it.
The dog sees a potential predator attacking it and reacts.
We gaze into their eyes lovingly; they see a challenge/dominance stare, instead.
We roll them over for tummy rubs.
They understand that they’ve been forced into a vulnerable position, soft underbelly exposed and ripe for tearing.
Ironically, dogs can learn to “speak our language” quite easily.
It is we who [usually] cannot understand theirs.