I have to say it is fun to watch it. I will disagree with just about everybody else on this one.

For good reasons we are subjected every half a generation with the “This race of dog is bad and should be prohibited” versus “That is bullshit, the dog is fine, it is the owner.” As sometime happens, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I have owned German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois and Dobermans. You know what I found out? They are three different breeds, each with a specific way of behaving and doing things. You know what else I learned? They are dogs, not brothers/sister/babies/members of family. Dogs run under the principle of pack, not human family.

Basically, I would say that 95% of dog owners do not know how to have dogs. They will buy them a shitload of toys, a nice bed, take them to be groomed, buy them expensive treats and “balanced” foods but very few understand what is to be Alpha, the mean fucker that has no problem inflicting pain if the dog decides to step out of his standing. Does that mean I beat my dogs into submission? No, but it took only a couple of corrections to make them understand who was really Alpha and yes, they may have not been painless.

Are Pitbulls specially mean? Not any worse than a Doberman or even a Chihuahua but they were created for a purpose and you either learn to deal with it or don’t expect a happy ending.  I have a friend that got himself a Neapolitan mastiff puppy. This were dogs bred for warfare, not just pussy-ass dogfights in the junkyards of Little Havana and if you ever see one of them in adult form and close to you, you will understand how its ancestors took down horses with people on top. Now, as any dog, I believe that if you not only establish who is Alpha but train it, you can have a working animal, the problem is that I knew my buddy and knew damn well he did not have the knowledge or the desire to do so and treated him like a part of the family, pampering him and treating him not like a dog of his class should be treated. Yes, there were consequences, but thankfully it did not involve humans but about a dozen sheep were hunted down and killed because once his instinct which was never restrained, kicked in, my friend could not stop him.  The dog was put down because it was impossible to control after that.

But establishing Alpha and properly training a dog is hard work. I spent a lot  of time training mine. It was a daily chore from the moment we got them (usually 3-4 months old) till I deemed they were trained enough to be useful. I can’t give you exact times: Dobermans were incredibly smart and required little time training (Six months) and then only quarterly refreshers. German Sheps took longer and they needed to be refreshed basically every time they farted. The Malinois fell somewhere in the middle.

My dogs never slept inside the house, hell they were never allowed inside the house because their duty was to watch the property. Out back door was always open, but you would never see one of the dogs come in, at best if they wanted your attention, they would sit in front of the threshold and bark. I understood what they were made for and trained them for that, not to do yoga with the lady of the house and appear in Youtube videos. They understood their position in the totem pole which is why my 100 Lbs wife could walk our 120 Lbs Malionis with confidence he would obey her. The only exception was one specific vet which he hated with absolute relish because of the use of a rectal thermometer once so I had to take doggie to the vet and literally wrestle with the asshole not to kill the poor woman.

So, same as guns, unless you have the discipline to properly use them according to its design, you are bound to get yourself in trouble. The problem resides is that most people thing a 4 Bore rifle has the same recoil as a 10-22 and that is when things may get interesting.