Guys--and Gals,
A friend of mine was given two Pit/Lab crossed puppies, and he allowed them to run loose on his farm--which was semi-wooded. Both started treeing squirrels. (I, when I was a kid, knew of hound men that would place a pup at a willing farmer's place and allow it to freely follow its instincts to hunt and tree. At an appropriate age, the pup would be picked up and finished. That usually was a matter of breaking them from off game.) He gave me one of the dogs. He was a good squirrel dog, but he was a little on the dangerous side. A true Pit Bull is bred to be docile with people but aggressive with animals--particularily other Pits or Bulldogs; however, when a Pit is crossed, it almost always turns the aggression loose on people. I love and own Pits, but I do not believe that a person should have a Pit who is not at least a semi-professional dog handler. I would make an exception for a person who is willing to take instruction from someone who knows what he/she is talking about. I'm short on time at the moment, but I may write more about this later.
I found my present Pit as a nearly-starved-to-death pup trying to eat a dead 'possom in a bar ditch. We named him Ditch, and he is--so far--a non-aggressive dog.
Add #1: I said that Ditch "is--so far--a non-aggressive dog." Herein is a problem: Pits do what those in the dog-fighting game call "coming around." What that refers to is the FACT that Pits will frequently be completely normal, non-aggressive dogs for a period of time--sometimes two or three years. Then, they will "come around:" their fighting instincts will surface, and, if the owner is not expecting this to happen, there will sometimes be H___ to pay. The best account of this that I have heard is of a man who had a Pit pup which was allowed to run loose in the neighborhood until he was 10 months old. At that age, he started through the neighborhood and eliminated seven other dogs before he was caught. This delay in the on-set of the instinct to fight lulls some people into complacency--a complacency from which they are sometimes rudely awakened.
Add #2: I mentioned the willingness to take instruction, and I spoke of allowing a Pit to run loose. I gave a classy, showy female to a young couple once. Before I completed the transaction, I spent at least an hour talking to him about Pits. Among other things, I told him with a great deal of emphasis that Pits CAN NOT BE ALLOWED TO RUN LOOSE. He agreed with everything I said but absorbed none of it! He considered it cruel to confine any dog with either a chain or kennel--both of which have their place. He allowed the Pit to run loose. His house was next to my pasture. One day, I rode my Appaloosa stallion past his house. The Pit, having never seen such a creature as a man on a horse, launched an attack. Luckily, or by the grace of God, I saw her coming and hit the ground, on my feet, between her and the horse. When she saw me on the ground, she stopped. If she had locked onto the horse before I was off, me, the horse, and the dog would have been in serious trouble. I BOUGHT the dog back from the guy to prevent any further incidents.
Add #3: THIS IS VERY SERIOUS! Some Pits--certainly not all--which would never be aggressive toward an adult will go after a small child hammer and tongs. My thinking is that they do not recognize a child as a person but think that it is some kind of little animal. (Remember, the true Pit is docile with people but aggressive with other animals--particularly other Pits or Bulldogs.) I have known of this in full Pits, and I once had a dog that was 7/8 Boston Terrier and 1/8 Pit who exhibited this characteristic: a friend came over with his little girl. The dog was loose, and, while he made no attempt to attack the man, he went after the child. Her father stayed between the dog and the girl until I caught him. I put him down.
Add #4: The above Add #3 speaks to a particular case, but, in GENERAL, anyone who leaves a small child unattended with ANY Pit is a fool. I'll go one better: anyone who leaves a small child unattended with ANY large dog is a fool--or stupidly negligent! By unattended, I include allowing a child to be any significant distance from an adult and with a large dog. I have seen people on a porch or patio watching a child play with a large dog--even Pits--50 or 60 feet away. A large dog can kill a child that far away before an adult can get to them from that distance. I shudder every time I hear someone say, "My dog would never hurt my kid." Ask an expert about "displaced aggression!"
Add #5: I have mentioned that the true Pit is genetically conditioned to be docile with people and aggressive with other animals. Herein is another problem. When a Pit is crossed with something else, it appears to upset that genetic balance and turn the aggression loose on people. (I have heard it said, and proved it in my own experience, that, if you want a good watch dog, don't get a full Pit: get a crossed dog. I may later come back with the story of Baldy, my Pit/English Pointer crossed dog.) The problem is that most Pits around now are NOT true Pits: they have been "improved" by crossing. I have not, in recent times, seen a true "hog-nosed" dog. As one argument for what I am saying, the true Pit was a small dog. Thirty-five pounds was a good fighting weight. A Pit that weighed in at 40 pounds in good condition was a large one. When you see a "Pit" that weighs in at 80 to 120 pounds, you're probably looking at something like a Pit/Bull Mastaff cross. And registration papers are a joke! (One of my outlaw cousins--I've learned a few things from my outlaw cousins--had an absolutely beautiful Pit male. He was pure white and weighed in at 80 pounds. He was a canine eliminator: any stray that got near where he was chained was a suicidial mutt, and he killed some other Pits in matches in less than a minute.) As a second argument for what I am saying, the true Pit was not mouthy. If someone tells you that they have a Pit, and the dog is standing at the end of his chain barking with every breath, he ain't no true Pit. (Ike, the Pit/Lab crossed squirrel dog that I started this discussion with, would wait silently, near the end of his chain, until another dog got within reach, then it got rough. The salvation of several dogs that approached him was that he would not lock on like a full Pit.)
Add #6: I have digressed from the matter of Pits as hunting dogs. Pits are properly American Pit Bull Terriers. They are generally the result of the crossing of the English Terriers with English Bulldogs. Terriers are hunting dogs: they are dogs that will "go to ground" after game. (My wife's five-pound Yorkie, when she gets an opportunity to be loose outside, will immediately start to hunt--even if a big boar squirrel might whip her b--t.) And there were, I am told, other breeds that fed into the mix. One predecessor to both the Pit Bull and the English Pointer was the Spanish Pointer. A friend of mine--Bob was an English Pointer breeder and trainer--showed me a picture of the Spanish Pointer, and he looked somewhat like an old-time Pit Bull. (English Pointers will sometimes fight like Pits. Bob told me that it wasn't unusual, at large field trials, for a male Pointer to slip his collar on the tie chain and kill others before he was caught.)
Add #7: While it is not unusual here in Oklahoma for Pits or crossed dogs to be used to hunt various kinds of game, their most common use is for Hog/"Hawg" hunts. Hog hunters usually have trail dogs that are loose hunters. These dogs--sometimes Hounds, or Catahulas, or Black-mouthed Curs, or mixtures of these and other breeds--will seek out and bay the pigs. The catch dog is kept leashed until the pigs are bayed. He is then sent in to catch pigs. A Pit catch dog will lock on to a pig and hold until it is killed or caught and tied. (Why catch and tie a pig? So it can be taken home and fed out before butchering.) The catch dog, which is generally a Pit or Pit cross, is kept leashed to avoid an inadvertant match with one or more of the loose dogs. Incidentally, while I really don't know, I am convinced that Catahulas, Black-mouthed Curs, and Plott Coonhounds all have some infusion of Pit blood.
The thing to keep in mind is this: all dogs descend from the Wolf and the Wolf hunts; therefore, all dogs have a greater or lessor instinct to hunt. Another thing to keep in mind is this: individual dogs are different. Some will hunt, while others will not. Individual dogs from one of the hunting breeds will sometimes not hunt. Ever heard the expression, "That dog won't hunt!"? It means something will not work. Very similar to the expression, "That idea won't fly!"
