Brucegirl..your just mad because AKClabs is telling the truth along with the rest of us.. you are a disgrace to pit owners.. I hope you change, get your head out of your ass and learn what is right and wrong!.. AKClabs.. I dont think they adopt out retired military (police) dogs.. I believe they are put to sleep... They do that because moronic people like brucegirl might get a hold of one and abuse there nature

i wasn't inching for a fight i wish peolpe like you would understand whats is actully going on here. brucegirl just asked us for what she could do to have a better protection dog, even though its a pit bull. she just wanted to know what to do.she has said she takes very good care of her dog ,if you would read you would know!!maybe she should have worded it differently.like. what should i do to get my dog to protect me?yes a pit bull is not human agressive and will protect you when needed.like i said b4, find somebody, if any, on your island that does this type of dog training. they can help you out the best.she also never said she wanted an out right vicious dog, just one that would protect her. YOU do not know her or me so don't judge someone untill you actully know someone.thats one thing that is wrong with this world. and jumping to conclusions is not right either!!and with whats going on in the world today, i don't blame brucegirl for wanting an protection dog. but thats my thoughts on the subject!!!

cody'smom, sorry but i think you have replied more than i've have and atleast i don't have a dirty mouth!! i show people more respect then that.you need to treat others like you would like to be treated.

Leanda never once did I curse you, or did I judge you!!! You need to go back and read her posts... she doesnt want advice she wants ATTENTION!!! somehow people keep believing she needs sympathy because she lives in a hut... so what... there are worse out there.. and she doesnt need a protection dog she needs a life!

please refer to post #39, please. what does it say ?sounds like this dog does have a good home. and no codysmom, you never cursed me but you did to others.and refering to her living in a hut, thats rude!!!just the way you talk makes me wounder about you?using the words you know.i hope adwin steps in here and will tell you the same thing. we are not supposed to be using those type of words anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sorry but potty mouths make me mad!!!do you have kids??hope you do not use that mouth around them!? i am not trying to make you mad its just stupid to use those words on here. please type it another way is all i ask!!

I am glad you love your dog. What is wrong with him being affectionate? A non-aggressive dog is good. You should never want a dog to be agressive.

I can't believe how long this post went on. After reading all of that I wanted to add a few items. If you have gone to Jamaica you would see how poverty stricken that place is. The tourists go to specific areas so they are not bothered by the view and reality of the poverty and way of life. Most Jamaicans are poor and do not have luxuries as computers so I'm confused as to how Bruce Girl has one, and a hut with electricity? Perhaps in a hotel there is a computer for $10 an hour but that is a lot of money for a Jamaican to have to just sit and type. Regarding wanting an aggressive dog, that is unfortunate. There is a difference of protection and aggression. Teach your dog to protect (more like to bark and scare people that may come on your property, but yet one simple command that they are taught will call them down when the visitor is welcome). Read the book The Working Pit Bull for more information and help. If your dog is not the right dog for you, more then likely you're not the right owner for it either, so do the dog a favor and find a new owner to care and love. There are much better ways to protect then to teach a dog to kill. Regarding the foods we feed our dogs. I have to agree that there are good brands and bad brands. I dont think someone that feeds their dog Alpo doesnt love their dog, they should just nurish it with supplements to their food. Our pitbull was fed food from Costco/Sams/Walmart for some time. I made a switch over $3 and she grew very allergic to the foods. That sent her in a tailspin where she became allergic to most of the food out there. Her skin was so dry and flaky and itchy and hot spots and sore spots. We paid $36 for a bag of food that was right for her which to most people they would think that is crazy when they can get double the size bag for half that price. However if you had a child, don't you think $36 was pretty darn cheep to feed your kid for a month? My dog was my baby so $36 was nothing, it gave her all the nutrition she needed, enjoyed the food and had no more problems after that. Read up on some of the foods out there. If there is "byproduct" in the ingredients that basically means left overs from what humans can consume and they put it into the dog food. Would you feed your dog something you yourself wouldn't safely eat? A lot of the cheap foods are filled with "fillers", that is why they are cheap. There are better cheaper brands and there are bad cheap brands. Pick your food wisely and get what you can afford or supplement with other food items such as fresh veggies. I don't think feeding dogs cheap food means you love them less, just think for a moment what you would want to drink, powder milk or real milk, powder potatos or real Idaho potato. We want substance when it comes to food, not fillers. Read labels and avoid as much as possible the "by product" foods. You will notice a difference when you feed your dog a better quality food. Just love your pet, spoil your pet and feed and water them good water and food and provide them with plenty of fresh air and the world will be a better place, no matter where you live.

You gotta be kiddin' me!!!! You actually want to make it aggressive??? You're the kind of person that gives a great dog like the pit bull a bad name. I'm a police officer and it kills me when I have to put down a dog because some moron decided to make the dog aggressive and it went after another dog or even worse a child!!!!! It would be my hopes that you grow up and realize what is best for the dog!

I'm sorry but i do not see what was wrong with Brucegirls comment. i have a pitbull also, named sal. i spent alot of time with him as a puppy, we walk, play, he sleeps with my boyfriend and i. if you sit on one end of the couch he's not happy unless he's sitting on you or laying on ya. i can safely say i have a 69 pound baby. i use to think the same thing. i wanted a large breed dog for protection and i have a pit that won't "buck up" to my chi-wa-wa (lol, i know thats not how its spelled) who weighs in at a mind boggling 4 pounds!! here's the thing, love and attention will pay off in the end. teach him the basics, mine knows sit (but won't stay ha-ha), fetch, drop it (when he has something in his mouth he is not suppose to) and that's pretty much it. if there is someone your not sure about, put your dog in another room while that person is there. i'm very selective about who i want my dog to see. but i'm sure if you broke into my house he'd more than likely will like ya to death before he'd hurt you. you might also want to socialize him with large breed dogs while he's still little or he just might become aggressive with larger dogs. (mine is fine with small and med. dogs but with the larger ones forget it he wants to act the fool so to speak.) anyway, my point is our dogs sound like they have a lot in common. i can tell you from experience though, i was put two different positions, 1 we were being circled by 2 large dogs, Sal blocked each as they came to close and got aggressive when one of the dogs bared its teeth at me.(i was walking the smaller of our dogs and my bf had sal,) i somehow got a little to far from them and one of the dogs lunged at me from the side. sal almost ripped my bf's arm out trying to get to the dog because of it. the 2nd was i had gone to the 7-11 one night (walking a bit late) and was approached (sp?) by a man. i was nervious but my "big baby" didn't seem to mind that he was so close and even let the man pet him. lets just say that, he made to grab my arm in an aggressive way when i tried to walk away. Sal growled a low warning, then man stepped back, and sal bared teeth and didn't return to his normal poise until the man was out of sight. so trust me your baby or "sissy" won't let anything happen to you, keep showing him love and he will show you loyalty when it is needed.. as for the dog food thing i do the Pedigree as well but have heard about Bill Jack?? i think its for bulk i'm not sure it runs about $34.00 a bag for 20lbs. anyone use that? P.S. pit's are naturally look intimidating, no one would mess with ya anyway!! (unless they are mental hehe)

Bruce, I hope you are still here... I am glad that you are giving your dog lots of love and attention. I think that is the very best way to assure that your dog will want to protect you. Pit bulls are not naturally a guarding breed. I have heard of way too many that were abused horribly in hopes to make them aggressive, then thrown away because they were STILL people friendly. Having said that, if you treat your pit bull with love, so that he loves you, trusts you, and wants to make you happy (for example, he wants to SIT when you say SIT because that will make you praise him and pet him), he will also want to protect you. SOOOO even though you don't think you are on the right track, by being good and kind to your dog, you are creating loyalty to you. Here is a link, and it is the second time referred to it now, that someone started about how their dog was not being protective. From all the replies there, you will see that many, many dogs that are friendly to friends and unthreatening people are NOT friendly to people threatening their owner. http://www.terrificpets.com/forum/7938.asp SAL'S Mom's story about the man at the 7-11 is ther perfect example. I don't think you really want him to be aggressive to ALL people... do you? That could get you in lots of trouble, plus it would be one more pit bull attack adding to the banning by whole states and even countries of these wonderful animals.

Hey Brucegirl, I did not read this entire thread. I started to and then got to the fighting part where people were swearing and fighting like children, so I stopped reading. Anyways, I do not know about your nieghborhood, but I can tell you this. If your dog loves you, and I am sure he/she does...if it came down to it, believe me, she'd protect you. I have a GSD who is the sweetest dog in the world. But my brother thinks its funny to pretend to hit me sometimes, and Abby goes crazy barking and growling, warning him to stop. My advice is, teach your dog that you are the boss and your dog will respect and love you way more. If anyone ever came into your house to hurt you, your dog would protect you. Just because he/she does not act aggressive all of the time (thank god!!!), does not mean shes a wimpy dog. Good Luck! =-) Please think about what I said. ***Kris, Abby, Ace, and Summer Ace: http://www.dogster.com/?41494 Abby: http://www.dogster.com/?50370 Summer: http://www.dogster.com/?70413

Shiny and SalsMom- You should be thanked for your decent and informative replies. This thread needed it. CodysMom and Public- I just have to say that I know your opinions are strong but you will never educate anyone by calling them a moron, it doesn't work that way. You have to be decent. You can have a difference of opinion but state it intelligently and use some diplomacy. You don't know where this person is coming from. Her culture is totally different, her world is different than yours. She actually sounded like a nice person, she babied and loved her dog, just wanted to be sure she'd have some protection. Maybe she isn't aware of the problems with pit bulls here. Maybe she isn't aware of a lot of potential problems, but you're not going to educate anyone by insulting them. How well would you have learned in school if your teacher called you an idiot, instead of listening to you and trying to help you? People come to this board for advise, not to be put down. Please try to use some restraint and kindness in the future. It will pay off. Brucegirl-I hope you don't judge this forum by a few people and come back. There are many who will be willing to give you good advise.

I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt because you said that your dog is friendly because you have loved and cuddled him. I am going to assume your concern is similar to the one I linked to above, and to this one: http://www.terrificpets.com/forum/8069.asp . You are not the only person concerned about whether their friendly dog will be protective of them. Nor the only person who has purchased a pit bull thinking it was a guarding breed. It happens all the time. People can say you should have learned about pit bulls' nature earlier; and sure, that would have been best, but there is no time better for learning than now. I am not a trainer or an expert, I learn new things everyday. But I do have a very very friendly pit bull who will protect me if, and only if, she feels I am being threatened. If you want to contact me, visit my dog's website here: http://pages.ivillage.com/holly42/ . You can email me by clicking on the contact me/links page. There are links to some good pit bull sites there. I would be happy to talk with you and help you as best I can to train your dog to be your best friend, who will love all people unless or until they threaten you. I don't have all the answers but I can tell you what works for me. In the meantime, keep loving and cuddling! P.S. at 7 mths he is still a puppy, a wonderful time for bonding (which you've been doing) and positive obedience training :-) ! To get started you can do a google search on positive dog training tips.

This thread is soooo old, can't we drop it now?

This thread was started in February of "04 I seriously doubt most of the people who replied are even still around the forum. What I don't get is why it's normally the controversial Very Old Pit bull posts that seem to resurface. But then again there are a lot of people mostly trolls who like to make Pit Bull posts just to stir things up. You can usually bet if there's one Pit bull thread five minutes later there will be 5 more.

What the hecka re you talking about, 1brucegirl?! You shouldn't have a RIGHT to own a dog! Your probably the type who is in to dog fighting! This is where pit bulls get there horrid names! How DARE you do this, and DON'T you be mean to your dog EVER! Fi you love him, then why would you wan to make his life miserable by making him agressive? Dogs are NOT items to be used, they are living, bretahing creatures. Get a guard dog if you want to be defended, and DON'T call codysmom or any of ym other friends the word, because thats what you are. Also, Leanda, BACK OFF codysmom! We are ALL angry at brucegirl because she wants to make her pet AGRESSIVE, not a guard dog! BACK OFF YOU ATTENTION BEGGER!

Shadowdog This post is from FEBRUARY and quite frankly I have not seen Codysmom or Brucegirl on this forum one time since I have joined most likely they are not even participating members of this forum any longer. So just calm down and take a deep breath there's no need to get so worked up.

Shadowdog. Those are some pretty strong opinions you have. I have a pit and yes i would like her to seem agressive. No i do not fight my dogs and i never will. I will be living by myself soon and would like to know that my dogs would protect me. Yelling at people and telling them they shouldnt own dogs is not going to do anything. Its just going to make eople angry and not listen.

Leanda still posts on this forum,as a matter of fact she just got a little stray male pitty she adopted.

why would you want you dog tio be mean? that's crazzzzyyy!! im trying to keep my pit/lab mix from being aggresive now.