Should certain types of dogs be banned?

No creatures must be banned, it depends only on the master and environment of the dog, and the training how it is. It isn't the dog's fault when a human is an idiot.

I feel that people should research the type of dog that they are getting before they get it. They should know the temperament of the breed and take that into consideration before bringing it into the home.

Most people don't think before they bring one dog breed into a home with another. That's when accidents can happen.

Training and socializing is important for dogs, but temperament of a breed is huge.

i don't think so, no

No. I know everyone says it, but it really is about how the dog is trained. One day a Yorkie is going to go ape shit and then it will be the new 'bully breed', and everyone will want them banned. Remember when it was rottweilers? It is always something new.

Breed banning serves only to reinforce stereotypes about certain breeds. Some breeds are more powerful than other due to selective breeding; I won't argue that, but with proper research, education and training on the owners part as well as the for the dogs, there is great potential for all dogs to be loving, loyal pets.

I have a pit/bulldog mix and he is the biggest baby I have seen, my neighbors all comment how he sits in the window and whines at them because he wants to play unlike other dogs who bark at them. But even saying that they still feel the need to tell me I shouldn't have him that he can turn and bite somebody. Any dog can turn and bite anybody and I feel it is unfair to the breed that they assume because he is a pitbull they have to point that out. When I had my lab who was huge nobody felt the need to warn me about having her around my children and nobody was scared to pet her when I was outside with her. But now even though my pit doesn't bark at them wags his tail when he sees our neighbors they still won't come by me even though he is not showing any aggression what so ever he wants to honestly play with them. We have 5 children and with teenagers I have kids coming in and out of my house all the time and not once has he growled or showed aggression. These kids all love him and have heard the comments our neighbors say and agree with me that they don't even think Titan could hurt a fly. And the ones who weren't around from the time he was a baby the fear of him wore off once they seen that Titan was a big baby.

No that is crazy.

This debate always makes me think about my friend's pitbull. The muscley beast of an animal spends most of his day rolling around with her three-year-old daughter.

Once, he stole an ice cream cone right out of her hand.

He is clearly a vicious, horrible animal

I'm glad to see most people are aware that there are NOT more inherently dangerous dogs just based on breed. I guess there's still a few out there who need a little more education on dogs, and how breed bans have never worked to stop or even decrease bites or attacks from dogs.

No, some pit bulls are sweet any dog has the potential to be dangerous. Its basically how it was raised. I honestly think more little dogs are annoying then the big ones. Thats like almost saying lets ban any big dog, but lets be real dogs are great protectors.

Maybe certain people should be banned from having dogs.

Instead of banning the breed of dog, why not ban the idiots who mistrain, or don't train them at all!

That being said, I have a Pitbull/Labrador rescue, who was abused by his former owner, and he is still the sweetest lump you'll ever find. However, I'm still not dumb enough to leave him alone with small children. He's not unpredictable, but a dog is a dog, and you never know-especially when he's nearly 160lbs!

I think ALL dogs should have mandatory obedience training, for the owners as much as the safety and happiness of the dog! A well trained dog that can be controlled easily by voice commands does not usually pull on the leash while walking, making a walk easier on both dog and owner. Training can also save the life of the dog in some situations!

I think the problem is at the other end of the leash, not with certain breeds.

Its some dog OWNERS who should not be alowed to own a dog, not the dog themselves.

but yes some breed were bread to be more dangerious

I had to go to my neighbors yesterday and they have 2 chihuahuas and one of them bit me when I walked into the house and it made me think of this, my pit would never bite anyone for a woman the worst damage that he does is try and insert his nose in there butt and for a male they have a wet foot from him peeing, people have a right to be afraid of him.

I am RABIDLY opposed to ANY breed-specific legislation! I'm a dog lover. I've known tons of pure bred and mixed pit bulls who are some of the sweetest dogs I've even met. We have pit/boxer mix who is the most gentle, sweet-natured dog I have EVER encountered.

When a dog as loving and tender-hearted as a pit bull is abused, they suffer terribly! If anything, I think that sort of treatment can drive a dog insane. Especially dogs like pit bulls that want nothing but love and affection!

I agree with an earlier post that said some people should be banned!! The sort of person that is capable of harming such a beautiful innocent creature is FAR more dangerous than ANY dog could ever be, in my opinion.

Absolutely not.

These stories make me sick, it's not the damn breeds fault they attacked someone, 99% of the time it's the owner and lack of attention, training, affection, whatever the case that the dog was probably neglected. Bottom line to most problems with dogs can be traced back to the owner, period. Now the only thing I can say about the dogs themselves is there are traits with in each dog that require them to have different approachs to either earn their trust or establish dominance, and yes some will challange for dominanace, some dogs don't handel well with kids, some dogs... well mostly all dogs might get NERVOUS when approached by someone very close to their face.

Dogs inherently read body language from the moment they lay eyes on you, each dog will respond differently, this is one thing I wish parents especially would teach their kids. Just because their let's say German Shepard, since it's considered a 'dangerous dog' is so friendly and fun with their kids, never bared it's teeth, always showed submission. Now they are going to visit a friend, who has never seen their child, and the parents never mentioned anything about how to approach a new dog. The kid runs up to the dog and does exactly what he/she would do with their dog.

Again this is a new situation, maybe she gets close to the face, says "ohh how cute" or something along that line, all the while all the dog sees is: there is this new human here in my face, showing my teeth, making noise, it's over run with a sudden batch of stimuli. Even if it's the sweetest dog, this is going to be where instinct kicks in, and then it becomes a flight or fight situation. That is when the kid might be attacked, not because the dog has an aggressive nature towards kids, but because it more than likely feels threatened!!!

My point with that is that it's never the animals fault these things happend, it's almost always the persons fault. The only case I can say it's highly unpredictable is if a dog has the possiblities of having Rage Syndrome... which is a very sad... and scary thing to witness... and is actually caused by a genetic disorder... BUT! Any owner of dog breeds that carry those (springer rage and cocker spaniels come to mind) SHOULD KNOW THESE FACTS BEFORE BUYING THE DOG!!!!!!!!!!! Also why the hell do we always target after the dog!?! We need to spend all this money and time wasted on writing up these bullcrap excuse of laws to direct it towards finding puppy mills, 'rescue shelters' that have ties to fighting rings', etc etc! These are the main cause of so many different problems, those and the filthy pet stores and the second hand unregistered-i-don' ;t-g ive-a-damn breeders that are only in it for the money, and could care less about the animals health conditions, or horrible inbreeding traits that may have been passed along!

I'm hoping I didn't get too off topic, or this post didn't seem sporadic, I truely wish this message could get out to more people. To help educate people, and eliminate the TRUE causes of attacks... I almost wish they would institute some sort of test to see if you are up to par with owning any of these 'dangerous breeds' maybe then people will force themselves to become educated with breeds. One more note Wolf hybrids.... please for the love of everything right and good.... do the research.... they are in no way like dogs... and WILL challange your dominance learn about pecking order... please please please.... do the research...