It's that type of owner who has no business whatsoever having any dog, much less a pit bull!  The difference between the 2 littermates is probably just training - he probably figures training the male to kill cats is a "cool" thing and he probably just has the female for breeding purposes only and hasn't trained her to have the same reaction.  As you said, any dog regardless of breed can be made "bad" but that type of jerk just perpetuates the bad image of a breed that can be wonderful when bred & trained by responsible people.

You are a better person than me because I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut when he came out with that comment about training him to kill cats.  I would probably also give animal control a call, even if it's anonymous, and report the statement.  It's not the dog's fault but I agree that dog is a danger to people & other animals due to his irresponsible owner.

Wow...how scary! I don't think I would have been very nice to him after his remark on training the dog to kill cats....make sure you keep your cat inside at all times.

Denise, I would say it was more a matter of temperament than training. More of the pits I have seen are like Ansy's neighbor's male dog, than like the nice one Stormy has.
One of my neighbor's kept a head count once on how many of the feral cats his pit caught and killed. He was proud of the fact that the dog buried them in the yard after he killed them.
One across the street was known for attacking and killing dogs.
One in the back house, who was an absolute angel when the owners were home, after showing kids for quite some time the attitude that Ansy faced, went over a 6ft. fence one day, to attack them. Luckily, I had finally convinced the owner to chain him, due to the fact that he kept scaling the wall, and attempting to get at me from the window.[I had knocked the dog out, after it startled me, attacking me that way, apparently, they are easy to KO if you hit them square on the nose]. The dog hung from it's chain on the other side of the fence, snapping and snarling, until AC came and cut it down.
One that my girlfriend's family had owned for 4 years, suddenly, one day, for reasons they could not figure, turned and bit her sister's eye out.
I will stick to Labs. And I promise, if any act like that pit you saw at the vet, they will be killed so fast, I hope for legality's sake, I wait to let the vet do it. Savage dogs are an abomination. In the old days they would have guarded my house. Nowadays, it is my gun you need to worry about, and me. My dogs don't guard me, I guard them.

Ansy, I know it was not meant like that but i've seen to many pit bull bashings online.

I've seen APBT's off all kinds. From the extremely aggressive to the extremely friendly and lovable. It is all in how they are raised. Most people have no right to have a APBT it takes a strong willed and strong hearted person to raise a APBT. As with any bully breed they can be cat aggessive. I grew up in a family that showed and bred Boxers, I've been around many AB's and APBT's. For some reason they tend to be cat aggressive, some do great with cats and some just plain hate them. Kylse my Boxers hates cats and Storm my AB loves cats. Sampson was a Boxer of mine and he also loved cats while Angel his mother hated cats. All of these dogs grew up with cats in their house hold from pups. Kylse I honestly don't know I got her as a rescue. Storm Angel and Sampson all grew up with cats. My brother in laws old APBT Bru, did not like cats while his female Sassy loved cats. I swear it's something with the bully breed! LOL

Anyways, Ansy please don't take that one experiance and think that all APBT's are like that. If they are in the right hands they are the most lovable dogs ever. For them to be human aggressive is hard, they can animal aggressive which is their nature. Some APBT's no matter how much socialation they recive it will never be enough, they just want to be animal aggressive, even with a experianced APBT owner. At that point they just have to do the doggies shuffle and watch their p's and q's when out in public.   

This is my take on what possibly may be the reason behind the aggressive behavior  from the pit at Ansy's Vet. Or anyone else that has had an incident with an aggressive pit. I do have 2 pit bulls and they have never  experienced that type of behavior. Our Vet welcomes them with open arms due to their passive and easy going nature. My two pits get along great with my three cats but will bark at a stray if they spot one on the yard.

I think the pit that Ansy saw at the Vets was trained more for being a guard dog, (people in general) more so than just guarding against cats. Pits are by nature very people friendly unless trained otherwise. Even trained fighting dogs will crawl into a person's lap and lick their face. That's probably why the male responded in that manner and the female responded the way she did. All in what they were trained to do.

The poor dog is a time bomb just ready to go off which is sad because he's only doing what he is suppose to do. And when it does happen, another pit will die needlessly and there will be another black eye on pit bulls overall. And there will be just more fallout on us responsible pit bull owners.

Uggghh. I'm sorry that happened to you. I would have been terrified, too. People like that man are THE reason that responsible pit bull owners like myself have to spend our time fighting legislation against our breed of choice. If he's going to be a jerk and teach his dog to kill cats, to the point where he wants to get at people who had been holding cats, the least he could do is to have the dog more controlled in an environment such as the vet, with a halti or prong collar or something so that he couldn't overpower the owner and possibly hurt someone or someone's pet.

Rest assured that lunging and growling at people is not a common characteristic of the APBT. My newest pit is the 4th one I have owned, and I have never seen any of them show aggression to humans. Manson would like to eat cats, I think, but he's not allowed to, and certainly not encouraged to! At the vet's office I have him sit/stay by my side. He just sits there, leashed, and accepts petting and attention from anyone willing to give it. 

Kitty, I have always enjoyed your posts, even from way back in the day. Your sense of humor rocks!  I forgot that you usually throw in something negative about pit bulls when you can. Guess that's just something we smile and agree to disagree on.

-- Edited by shinyblackpit at 01:39, 2005-04-19

-- Edited by shinyblackpit at 01:43, 2005-04-19

We are a American Bull Dog and a American Pit Bull Family. My girl is an Am.Bull Dog/Pit mix and my daughter has an Am. Bull Dog/ Boxer Mix. Both dogs are really big and very strong and have hearts to match. I couldn't resist showing a picture of my Grandson and his American Bull Dog.

PitPat, he is just adorable! Storm has that same black spot on her chest!

Storm my American Bulldog..

I love the APBT. But I would never own one, I just dont think I have what it takes to trina a dog like that. I have actually NEVER had a single bad experiance with a pit or even a pit cross, the only time I was ever attack/bitten was a by a poodle cross. So I guess thats why I never have any bad things to say about pits.

I remember WAY back when I was just a kid (like 5 or so) my cousin had a pit named "Belle" very social loved people, other dogs and even cats. I used to hug the crud out of that dog (I was 5 what the heck did I know?) she would sit there a take it, and lick me. she was, however, very food possisive. So when she attacked someone for petting her while she was eating my cousin ended up having her PTS.