Palmetto Proving Grounds

I used to have a lawn business and I had a client a number of years ago with 2 pit bulls. The smaller dog was the mother of the other which was rather large, even for a pit bull.

I was with them in the back yard cleaning up some limbs and the mother grabbed a stick I was picking up and it was the usual tug of war you can get into with a dog. The mother dog was extremely protective and took her many months to get used to me, but was wonderful to those she knew.

The bigger dog, was a real pussy cat, very friendly like a lot of dogs can be. When I got into the tug of war with the mother dog, her son decided to join in, The stick was shaped like a y. He grabbed the other end of the top of the Y while the mother had the opposite.

Both dogs were having fun, but I became very uneasy with 2 pit bulls growling and tugging on a stick with me...so I stopped as soon as both dogs were growling for 5 seconds. Too late. The totally friendly son lost it, he snapped. He seemed to be attempting to mount his mother, but as it turned out, he was going for the back of her neck. And he got it too.

She had a wide nylon collar, and we think it may have saved her life. He threw her around like a rag doll until he was exhausted. I got out of the yard...scared to death. He stopped, layed down until he caught his breath, then returned to the attack again. I thought the mother was dead. I've never seen anything so vicious in my life.

The son had never attacked anyone or anything. But, he snapped that day. Seeing how a totally friendly docile pet can quickly change, I decided that day I would never own a breed known for violent tendencies.

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My daughter had a rottweiler, and she left it with her mom for a week, and her mom's dogs hunted for food. Instructions were that the rott was not to run the woods with the others, but her mom does whatever she wants, and the rott learned to hunt and got a taste for blood. He went from a wonderful friendly dog, to one that killed and ate every cat that came through the yard. He started to scare my daughter a bit and with a newborn in the house, she got rid of the rott.

Upvotes and downvotes don't really mean much, but it is comical (perhaps I should say sad) to see someone downvote me for posting real-life accounts.

I certainly understand that owners of these dogs stand by the breed. It is also reality that pit bulls and rotts can be extremely dangerous if they are set off, and I witnessed it from a pit I described as a pussycat. When you personally witness that kind of violence, it changes you.

I know someone who had an awesome rott, it was a wonderful dog. I also had a client when I had my lawn business, and the neighbor raised his rotts to be really mean, and when I mowed next to the fence line, one of his dogs seemed like he was going to tear me up. I kept a knife on me in that yard and was ready to defend myself if necessary.