On Friday morning, as I was out in the front yard setting out my lawn sprinkler, I was surprised by two large and very rowdy pit bulls. They were just rambunctious and not aggressive which was lucky for me since I had nothing in my pockets nor on my person to protect myself. Still, I made my way into my garage and grabbed a broom and managed to get them to back out of the garage onto the driveway. That would have been the end of it except for the fact that there was a group of elementary school students two doors down, outside - waiting for the school bus. It took almost 5 minutes before the constable's office answered their phone only to tell me that I was not in their area. Transfer to the county sheriff - the dispatcher had the nerve to ask me if the dogs were dangerous. Gee, I dunno, what's it take to turn a rowdy pair of pit bulls into carnivorous child eaters? Possibly not much. They didn't seem real interested in sending a deputy to watch over the kids or chase the dogs off/capture them/whatever. After transferring to animal control, another neighbor and I ended up watching over the kids until the school bus came.

Anyway, point of this story is that if the dogs wanted a piece of me, I would have been in deep you-know-what. At lunch, I bought some pepper spray that I have velcro'd up under the side rail of the bed of my pickup. Now I've got at least something to use. It also ocurred to me that it might be useful after a fenderbender if the other party becomes violent.

It is good to know that you are OK Had they been German Shepards or Dobermans you may have been dead.

Is there a leash law in your area? If not, I'm wondering what the concern was. Are pit bulls automatically a concern, any more than a pair of loose poodles or labs?

What are the statistics on Shepherds and Dobermans? Every Shepherd I've known has been excellent with children.

I'm not one of those alarmists that automatically equates pit bulls (or any other breed for that matter) with "dangerous dogs". I've had friends that owned pit bulls and they were wonderful, gentle pets. Unfortunately, lately there are a lot of ghetto pit bulls around here that are untrained, unloved, and unsupervised. They are bred (and inbred) by people who don't know diddley about dogs and bought by people that want them only as a status symbol. I am a dog owner myself and my dogs are well behaved and controlled. I wish I could say the same for other dogs in the area. It's sad sometimes.

Pitts usually aren't human agressive.. if they are it's a fault.
blame the owners not the breed!

Dog breeds as ' inbred killer' rotate faster than a TeeVee wrastling champion. I hate to tell you this, but the most popular breed statistically also was reported in more attacks in the last national survey. I'm talking Golden Retrievers. Whod'athunk! Just like nightmare Bears sizing up our potential calorie value vs dealing with swiss army knives, EVERY INDIVIDUAL IS POTENTIALLY A DANGER OR A NON THREAT.

THE STATISTICS - FATAL DOG ATTACKS IN THE U.S. FROM 1965 - 2001 *

Breeds Involved
Pit Bull and Pit-bull-type dogs (21%), Mixed breed dogs (16%),
Rottweilers (13%), German Shepherd Dogs (9%), Wolf Dogs (5%), Siberian Huskies (5%), Malamutes (4%), Great Danes (3%), St. Bernards (3%), Chow Chows (3%), Doberman Pinschers (3%), other breeds & non-specified breeds (15%).

"FATAL DOG ATTACKS"

This information came from a quick internet search. The link above shows that there were many factors aside from breed.

Golden rule with dogs. Let them check you out before doing anything. Never wave your hands around their heads and never, ever lean over a dog.

here in southern ohio, pit bulls/rottweillers, etc., are a real problem. many drug dealers are training fighting dogs by the dozens, some were busted recently. They have houses set up with treadmills, etc for training the dogs. we have vicious dog ordinances now, but I wish they would do more to eliminate this threat.