I'm so tired of having to defend my smart, sweet, and lovable pit bull (American Staffordshire Terrier) against this kind of smear campaign. My vet told me when I adopted this dog (it was mutual, she was injured and stray and liked me so she stayed here after we met, and I thought she was a great dog) that 70% of the dog bites reported in the U.S. come from Labrador Retrievers. But you don't hear about when someone's black lab bites the neighbor kid, do you? I was bitten by a neighbor's dog when I was a small child. It was a cocker spaniel.

Dogs can bite. And if you leave your dog where people can come into contact with them when you're not around, any dog COULD bite under provocation or feeling like they need to protect their house or yard.

There are a lot of stupid owners. There are also a lot of owners who mean well but don't have a clue as to how to control their animals. I have a neighbor who went from having an anti-social dog (you couldn't pet this dog when he was out for a walk, and if you stopped to talk, you had to keep your distance) to having a timid little abused pit/akita mix rescue dog. She also needs work now, or she'll be just as pathetic and unpleasant as the last one. But I think he's clueless.

I not only have a fence around the yard where the dogs live, I have Invisible Fence in place so they can't go all the way up to the chain link fence. The kids next door can't stick an arm through to pet a dog and accidentally get knocked over or an arm broken if they get knocked into. (The dogs love those kids!) Or have fingers injured when reaching through with food. My dogs don't bite, but they get pretty excited about food, and sometimes the pit bruises your fingers when she takes a biscuit. Both dogs catch food very well, for a reason.

SRS