Bull terriers are not Pitt bulls

[bullielove]

With all the recent dangerous breed interest in the media with the tragic story of the wee boy being killed i just wanted to stress that my bull terrier is not a pitt bull and he is not a dangerous breed.. Some people think that he looks tough when they first meet him but he always wins people over in the end cause he is a big softie.

So many people in Caithness ask me if he is a pitt bull maybe because he is not a popular breed here. Now Im a wee bit worried about getting the police at my door as this has just happened to my friend. Someone had reported them as being in possession of two pit bulls but they were bull terriers. I cant think of any negative media press regarding the bull terrier.

Here is my boy! Please say hello if you see him out and about
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc241/teresafromscotland/P2100172.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc241/teresafromscotland/P2100129-1.jpg

[brandy]

ummm he looks nothing like a pit bull *G* and i love his nose!

[Leanne]

He's got kind eyes :)

If we see you we'll say hi. My two will probably give him big slobbery lurcher kisses :)

[kmahon2001]

I've met a number of bull terriers in my time (where I come from they're reasonably popular) and they are all harmless big softies. I've never yet met an aggressive one. Absolutely gorgeous dogs.

There's a big physical difference between bull terriers and pitt bull terriers, so I do hope people won't mistake your lovely boy for a pitt bull.

[daisychain]

He is adorable!, i've always wanted a bull terrier but they're quite hard to come by in scotland and very expensive too. If i see you i'll definatly stop and say hello :-)

[teenybash]

What a lovely Bull terrier.....If I ever see him I will certainly come over to him for a quick friendly cuddle.......they are such beautiful natured and so loving....Well done for having such a beauty and sharing these lovely pics.:D

[BINBOB]

Love him...adorable.I have a friend with 2 ...Banjo and Bea,mother and son.Such big softies.hug from me.;)

[Liz]

Aw your boy is gorgeous Bullielove.:D I would certainly love to give him a beeg cuddle!

Maybe people think they are dangerous as nasty Bill Sykes in Oliver had one?:confused

All the media re 'dangerous' breeds is very worrying. Personally I believe it is down to 'bad' owners and the dogs are suffering because of this.

This is not to say I don't feel heart sorry for poor bairns who have been viciously attacked but would like to know more about the circumstances surrounding these attacks.

[brandy]

i think the thing about dangerous breeds is the damage they can do in the amount of time they can do it.. while any dog can rip a person apart.. certain dogs have a lot more crushing ability in their jaws than others. sadly, certain breeds are more agressive naturally than others. ive got two laying at my feet at the moment.. looking at them you would think.. omg they are the softest lumps on the planet..and wouldnt hurt a flea.. they are afraid of the cat (rightly so) but if they ever turned they could do some major damage.
at the end of the day, its a combination of things.. the individual dogs nature, the owners and the situation all attribute to how a dog will react. bubbles growled and barked a tme from her bed the other day because i jusmped on ben on the couch and started tickling him.. from her view i would guess she saw me attack him and then him screaming.. she was totally freaked.. she ran over and just the look of relief on her face when he started laughing...then it was i want to play this game. never mad a agressive move towards us, but i have the feeling that she would be aggressive if she ever thought we were really being hurt.
saying that spot just jumped us all and tried to lick and whip us to death.. no protection from the spaniel side of things!

[Liz]

Oh I completely agree with you Brandy and any animal is capable of inflicting damage.
As you rightly say the likes of Pit Bulls can inflict serious injury due to the strength of their jaws.

I just worry that there will be such a backlash from all the publicity which will end up with a lot of 'dangerous' breeds being dumped and those already in care not being homed through no fault of their own.:~(

We don't get the full stories re these attacks and would really like to know what the circumstances were.

[Fran]

Your dog is so lovely, dont see many of them about. My friend in england had one exactly the same, great with kids, affectionate, very very gentle and just a big softie. I will want a cuddle from him if i see you down the street!!!

[Aaldtimer]

Given the right circumstances any dog is capable of this behaviour.
We have a wee Westie, who will attack me if I venture into my wife's bedroom...(it's a long story, she likes to sleep, I like to surf, and I snore for Scotland!)
The same wee Westie will come up on my lap and cosy in no bother in other circumstances.
He also thinks he is the defender of my Grand-daughter when she visits...but doesn't particularly like her boldness towards him!
You have to be aware of your particular circumstances with each and every case.
I invisage in the Liverpool case that the child maybe wakened up and went looking for his Granny, and the dog just reacted to protect her(the Granny).
I may be wrong, but it's a possible scenario.
As Caesar Milan says...it's not the Breed!:confused

[buggyracer]

lovely dogs!

pitbulls were never human aggresive traditionaly numerous years ago, they were bred as fighting dogs and a dog that attacked a human instead of fighting another dog in the ring would be PTS, so any human aggresive behaviour would be erradicated from the gene pool, unfortunately for pits, in modern times the wrong type of people have aquired them, and see them as a status symbol and encourage them to be aggresive towards humans, i feel sorry for people with these type of dogs that are well behaved as they have been persecuted because of some midless idiots :( i really dont beleive its all down to the breed, more so the owners of the breed!

[bullielove]

Thank you for all your lovely comments and Vinnie is so looking forward to all of his Caithness cuddles:)

I totally agree with everything that everyone has said in that at the end of the day it is the fault of irresponsible owners that end up with the dogs and give the dogs a bad name.

Its so sad to see all the rescues filled with staffies and other bull breeds because the owners were totally irresponsible



He is adorable!, i've always wanted a bull terrier but they're quite hard to come by in scotland and very expensive too. If i see you i'll definatly stop and say hello :-)

Daisychain - Vinnie is a rescue dog - if you really did want one there are always lots looking for new homes. We sometimes get some in Scotland too but often we do transport runs across the country to place the right dog with the right person. When we got Vinnie we needed a dog that was dog, cat and child friendly and he was absolutely perfect! Have a look on
http://www.bulliesos.co.uk/ its the rescue Im involved with. There is lots of dogs that dont even reach the site so if you want any more info give me a shout ;)

[Birdie Wife]

Oh, I love bull terriers - much prefer the English Bull Terrier to the Staffordshire Bull terrier, though I couldn't tell you why! I noticed on Gumtree that there is someone in Inverness who's trying to rehome their Bullie (for £500 :confused)... god to know there's someone in this area who's involved with the BullieSOS, I've been sneakily peeking on the website at the dogs wanting homes...

[bullielove]

Oh, I love bull terriers - much prefer the English Bull Terrier to the Staffordshire Bull terrier, though I couldn't tell you why! I noticed on Gumtree that there is someone in Inverness who's trying to rehome their Bullie (for £500 :confused)... god to know there's someone in this area who's involved with the BullieSOS, I've been sneakily peeking on the website at the dogs wanting homes...


I know i love looking too but i know the majority of dogs arent even on there. a gorgeous wee pup was taken down to england last week to be fostered. seven months old and unwanted already :~( I dont think she is on the website yet. She had to go to England because the scottish fosterers are full up. i would have them all if i could but two dogs are enough for me.

[Liz]

Given the right circumstances any dog is capable of this behaviour.
We have a wee Westie, who will attack me if I venture into my wife's bedroom...(it's a long story, she likes to sleep, I like to surf, and I snore for Scotland!)
The same wee Westie will come up on my lap and cosy in no bother in other circumstances.
He also thinks he is the defender of my Grand-daughter when she visits...but doesn't particularly like her boldness towards him!
You have to be aware of your particular circumstances with each and every case.
I invisage in the Liverpool case that the child maybe wakened up and went looking for his Granny, and the dog just reacted to protect her(the Granny).
I may be wrong, but it's a possible scenario.
As Caesar Milan says...it's not the Breed!


lovely dogs!

pitbulls were never human aggresive traditionaly numerous years ago, they were bred as fighting dogs and a dog that attacked a human instead of fighting another dog in the ring would be PTS, so any human aggresive behaviour would be erradicated from the gene pool, unfortunately for pits, in modern times the wrong type of people have aquired them, and see them as a status symbol and encourage them to be aggresive towards humans, i feel sorry for people with these type of dogs that are well behaved as they have been persecuted because of some midless idiots i really dont beleive its all down to the breed, more so the owners of the breed!

Well said both and completely agree with you.

It both angers me and makes me sad to see certain breeds of dogs such as pitbulls being made out to be vicious killing machines when, as you rightly say Buggyracer,it is the fault of the owners in most cases.
I know that dogs will and can attack but there is usually a reason for this but we don't hear about that in the media.
The dog can't give his/her side of the story so is judged without a trial and sentenced to death in most cases.:~(

Bullielove well done on the work you do rehoming bullies. :D Vinnie is one of the lucky ones!

[loganbiffy]

I think a lot of it has to come down to the way the dogs have been treated. My friend in Glasgow has a Staffy that people in the street are afraid of when it shows signs of dominance towards other dogs. They see it as a sign of aggression.

Dominance plays a big part in a dog's life and the media also over-react to this being aggression. Pit-bulls are banned but thay are not the only dog that has killed people before, it can happen at any time.

I do believe it is down to the way the dogs have been treated by the owners.

[topotheuk]

I agree re bringing them up and how they are treated. I have friends who have had Rotties, Staffies, etc, etc, and they have all been lovely dogs. The only incident I have had personally was a year or so ago 2 English Bull Terriers attacked my jack rascal. My parents were walking my dog on a lead and had my 2 young kids with them. It was really quite scarey for my kids. My dad was injured when he lifted my dog up by the lead to get her out of the way, one of the dogs jumped up at my dog and grazed my dad on the chin. My poor we rascal is now quite agressive if a dog approaches her while she's on the lead, but ok if not on lead, and all due to this one incident. The owners to say the least were not very helpful or apologetic. In fact they said if we didn't scarper they would let their dogs out again, and by the way this was on a public road. We have never walked our dog on this road again :(

[cazmanian_minx]

Ah, I think it was you and Vinnie who came to do our home check for NESSR springer rescue wasn't it? He's a lovely dog :D

[cat]

ah,he looks lovely.
to respond to other replies though,im sory but if a dog is showing dominance to others are we supposed to think thats ok then??it is aggresion,call it what you want. i have lovely neighbours that would never teach their dogs aggresion,but they have two that are very aggresive.one dog can easily get out and has attacked all my dogs(lab,basset and collie) and i can assure you none of my dogs even attempted to stand up for themselves,the collie ran for home,the basset lay down and surrendered and my poor old lab made noises that iv never heard a dog make in my life,and i never want to again.but all the attacks were relentless and have changed my dogs natures,for the worse.
the only thing i can say wrong about the owners is their inability to accept its their dogs fault.apparently its mine for walking past their house!i know their dogs are great pets and great with their kids,but one is a guard dog breed and the other a staffy,that can make good pets but need to know their place and can be very defensive of their teritory.

[loganbiffy]

Dogs are pack animals and if you have more than one living in a household, chances are there will be a dominant one. Dogs displaying dominance to other dogs is not aggression is such, they are very territorial animals.

I know first hand about dog attacks as when I was five i was attacked by a German Shephard, my Grandad's dog at the time.
It was the nicest dog you could ever hope for, but with me being 5 I didn't know he had a very bad ear problem and I whispered right in his ear and he turned and bit my face, his teeth puncturing my skin and ended up hitting my teeth.

I chose not to get him put down because no sooner had he bitten my face he knew it was wrong and let go. Then he came over to me and sat at my feet with his toy and cried for ages.
Believe me there is a very big difference between dominance and aggression.
Dominance is in a dog's make-up. Aggression maybe is too but a lot of the time it can be down to the way they have been treated.

[Liz]

ah,he looks lovely.
to respond to other replies though,im sory but if a dog is showing dominance to others are we supposed to think thats ok then??it is aggresion,call it what you want. i have lovely neighbours that would never teach their dogs aggresion,but they have two that are very aggresive.one dog can easily get out and has attacked all my dogs(lab,basset and collie) and i can assure you none of my dogs even attempted to stand up for themselves,the collie ran for home,the basset lay down and surrendered and my poor old lab made noises that iv never heard a dog make in my life,and i never want to again.but all the attacks were relentless and have changed my dogs natures,for the worse.
the only thing i can say wrong about the owners is their inability to accept its their dogs fault.apparently its mine for walking past their house!i know their dogs are great pets and great with their kids,but one is a guard dog breed and the other a staffy,that can make good pets but need to know their place and can be very defensive of their teritory.

Cat I am so sorry that your poor dogs were the victims of an awful assault.:(
However, it is definitely the fault of your neighbours for not keeping their dogs under control.
It is their responsibility to make sure their dogs stay within their own boundaries. Some dogs are very territorial.

Have you tried bach flower remedies for your dogs? They can really help with all kinds of emotional problems.

A real bug bear of mine are people who let their dogs off the lead and have no control over them!
One of my dogs was attacked as a puppy when we went for a walk on the beach. This black lab appeared out of nowhere and no owner was in sight. It pounced on my poor wee puppy and pinned him to the ground!

Benjy would have been attacked a few times by various other dogs had we not had him on a lead and been able to 'reign him in' and lift him out of harms way.
On all the occasions it was the owners' fault for not having their dogs under control.
A few of them called their dogs back when it was too flipping late!!!!

[bullielove]

Ah, I think it was you and Vinnie who came to do our home check for NESSR springer rescue wasn't it? He's a lovely dog :D

I did too. Imagine that its a small world:lol: I have sent you a pm

Vinne will be going on another homecheck very soon I hope;)

[Birdie Wife]

I used to work in a kennels and never really had a fear of dogs. What some people call 'dominance' is a very fluid thing, and if the owner sets proper boundaries for their dog, and treats them like a dog rather than a child, there's rarely any problems. The only dog that ever bit me was a tiny ball of fluff - it went straight for my face while I was sitting on the owners' sofa. :eek: