some facts

If you are looking for a dog with a good temperament, a Pit Bull just may be the dog for you and your family.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Pit Bulls are so great, they just get such a bad rap,” I wouldn’t need a job.

According to the American Temperament Test Society (2010-2011), 804 American Pit Bull Terriers were tested and 695 passed.  This means that 86.4% of Pit Bulls tested by the ATTS had a good temperament.  Pit Bulls pass rating was above 121 other breeds of dogs, including Golden Retrievers!

So, how did some of America’s other “favorite” breeds do?  Hopefully these figures will help diminish the negative stereotyping of Pit Bulls.

Golden Retriever = 84.9%

Beagle =80.6%

Bichon Frise =76.7%

Chihuahua =71.1%

Cocker Spaniel =81.9%

Labrador Retriever = 92.4%

Lhasa Apso = 70.4%

Shih Tzu = 78%

Yorkshire Terrier 82.5%

Imagine that!  The American Pit Bull Terrier had a better temperament than every dog on this list except the Lab.  Wow, do you think it could be the irresponsible owner and/or environment that’s the issue??? 

Several factors are taken into account by the American Temperament Test Society: the breed’s temperament, training, health and age.  A dog must be at least 18 months old to participate.

The test is evaluated by 3 trained individuals and takes about 12 minutes.  During this time, the dog is walked through a park or neighborhood where they experience visual, auditory and physical stimuli.  The dog will encounter neutral, friendly and threatening situations so the test administers can see if the dog can distinguish between threatening and non-threatening events. 

The dog automatically fails if it shows panic without recovery, strong avoidance or unprovoked aggression. 

here is a chart showing dog bites in relation to amount of the breed in the country

The Pit Bull breed makes up 5-9.6% of the United States dog population.  In 2007, there were above 72 million dogs in the United States provided by American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.  That’s between 3,600,000 and 6,912,000 Pit Bull breed dogs in the United States.

So, for our example we’ll take the average percent between 5 and 9.6, and use 7.3 percent, which would give an average estimation of the Pit Bull population in the United States.  That leaves us with 5,256,000 Pit Bulls.

Other dog populations (United States):

(estimation) Pit Bulls: 5,256,000

(estimation) Rottweilers: 900,000

(estimation) German Shepherds: 780,000

(estimation) Chows: 240,000

Fatal attacks by these breeds of dogs (1979-1998):

Pit Bulls: 66

Rottweilers: 39

German Shepherds: 17

Chows: 8

When we divide the population by the fatal attacks, we can get a percentage based on the dogs probability of fatally attacking a human.

Pit Bulls: .00125 %

Rottweilers: .00433 %

German Shepherds: .00217%

Chow: .00333%

stats from http://defendpitbulls.com/pit-bull-attack-statistics/

unfortunately even with these facts the breed  or more correctly breeds known as "pit bull" are under heavy atack across the united states . part of this is due to the breed being attractive to irresponsible owners and just a genereal overpopulation/over breeding of the american pit bull terrier . They are after all an animal and a sensitive tenacious animal at that if mistreated they will lash out and are very capable in destruction if that is what they know .  I how ever don't believe that they should be eradicated because of bad owners if laws shifted more of the blame to owners and away from landlords and city's i believe it would help to eliminate irresponsible owners .