I think the biting and being mistreated go together, so which is it? I think both. My point, is that early socialization has a big effect on working type dogs, big enough that the people I know selling dogs to police,military, SAR, etc are told how they want them socialized before they pick them up, often right down to the exact number of days of age at the time they are removed from the mother, usually 45 days. If it is that important to them, they obviously believe it can only be fixed to a degree.
I agree that many need to be one dog families, haven’t seen anyone have a lot of luck ‘curing’ dog aggression. Koehler type training works better with some breeds than others, I haven’t read up on it a lot, as it is considered old fashioned, as it relies more on compulsion and corrections, which works. The malinois and dutchies respond better to the modern styles because their prey drive is LOTS stronger, as a rule. Any good trainer uses a mix, but often wants the dog owners to think they use no compulsion/corrections, because that’s what they want to hear. I’m sure you are familiar with that. I have no experience with pits, so don’[t know how they are handled, mine is with GSD, mali, dutch shepherds mostly.
As you know most of the leftist child rearing techniques were created by sociologists with no kids! I raised my kids pretty much the same way I train dogs and cutting horses, both turned out well. Of course mine were socialized well as kids and still have mom and dad together, which is probably the most important thing.
My rescue shepherd was a handful, she never became trusting (except me) but she loved kids and was trustworthy with them. Adults, not at all. She was a one-man dog, period. We’re closer to the same way of thinking than you may think, IMO.
I train however works. I started using Koehler and while I successfully put a CD on my first dog (a golden) she wasn’t a very happy worker. I ended up doing Ian Dunbar’s method with a generous sprinkling of the Monks of New Skete and later, as time went on just sort of compiled my own method which includes a lot of different things. I like to think about how the dog thinks.
But you simply cannot only use positive training methods because at some point the dog will simply say, “nope, I think I’m tired of doing what you want and there is something over there that is more fun.” At that point you MUST have some way of conveying to them that even when they aren’t really interested in doing what you want it’s still better to do it. I have not trained for other people in a very long time, but I still read a little online and it seems that everyone just wants to be their dog’s friend (much like parents want to just be their kid’s friend). And when I walk my dog I see all of these 10 lb doodle mixes walking their owners around (the dog dictates if they stop and bark at me while the owner stands their and says, “Brittni, no no” helplessly, and I think, “Sheesh, you outweigh, the dog, just keep walking.” But I mind my own business. My golden ignores them and we keep walking.