[croatan]

I'm not anti-pit by any means, but the pit-boxer mix we rescued a few years ago led to nothing but trouble and heartbreak for us.

We got him at not more than about six weeks old and he'd been separated from his mother for a while at that point. As a puppy he was extremely rambunctious and playful, but loving toward my wife, me, and our other dog.

As he grew in size and strength, though, there was no containing him. He could easily leap our 6-foot fence and would regularly do so to go forage around the neighborhood for cats. Once he leaped it and went after a mailman, with my wife and I running behind. The mailman sprayed him with the pepper spray or whatever it was he was carrying and the dog just licked his lips like it was a tasty snack. He was impervious to pain and had the the highest prey drive I've ever seen in a dog.

We spent a couple grand building new fencing and another three grand on a dog trainer over a period of at least a year. Finally, the trainer said that he believed the dog was bread to fight and that, due to its prey drive, it was only a matter of time before it killed our other dog or a child--the dog showed such aggression toward every dog at the trainer's facility that he had to be separated from the rest and the trainer wouldn't let his family close to it. He actually went so far as to refuse to give the dog back to my wife and found a a couple just outside of town with a few acres and no other animals or small children who would take him.

He really was a very sweet dog to my family and my wife cried for weeks after we agreed to give him up, but I have no doubt it was the right decision. I literally did everything I could think of to avoid that result, both in terms of time and money spent, but the payoff never changed: we were basically held hostage in our house by a dog that might snap at any time and go after anyone or anything.

That being said, nothing about the experience would cause me to write off pit bulls as a breed--like humans, sometimes dogs just aren't right in the head--but before I'd have another in my home, I'd want to know more about the dog and its origins.