powernoodle, that statement, "A pit bull terrier will lock on to a rope, an arm, another dog, and not let go. A yorkshire terrier won't." is simply a fallacy.
Terriers of ANY type, grab and hold, even Yorkies, that's what the Terrier breeds do!
But, it was a Lab mix that chewed off the French womans face last year, and since 1975 over 30 breeds have been implicated in fatal attacks, including Pomeranians (originally bred as watch dogs) and dachsunds!
Pits actually come out above a high percentage of supposedly "Safe" dogs when personality profiling is done. They seldom attack humans unless they have been viciously abused.
In fact, here's how they rate out:
They do tests on dogs to check for aggressiveness and likelihood of attack, guess where pit bulls rate out? How about better than Coonhounds, Cockers, Collies, Border collies, Dobies, Dachsunds, miniature poodles, chihuahas, English Setters, Samoyeds, Saint Bernards, and Weimeraners, and lots of others, and only slightly worse than Newfoundlands and Golden Retrievers. In fact, 83.5% of all Pits passed, while 83.7% or Goldens did and 87% of Newfoundlands. All the rest above were lower than the pit bull pass rate. In reality, most dogs are in the 80-90% range, although smaller breeds tend to do worse.
First this was a puppy, and puppies chew on whatever, and if it's wiggling or moving, even more likely.
Blaming it on the breed is ridiculous, like blaming all handguns because someone got shot with one!
Bill
