Worse: Pomeranian owners. With their reddish-brownish hair done just so, their makeup and sweaters. The owners, that is.

[shivers]

They give me the creeps.

Y'know, there are an awful lot of pit bull owners who do fit the commenter's stereotype. If there was some way of getting rid of those pit-bull owners, I'd be all for it. Though people like that who are irresponsible with other breeds ought also be prevented from having dogs.

My (wife's) dog gets mistaken for a pit-bull, and *may* be part pit-bull. But the biggest danger she poses to people is that she might lick them to death. In her middle age, she's getting more crotchety around other dogs; if it gets worse, we may go back to obedience school.

I know two different Pit Bull owners. These dogs are extremely well trained and socialized with humans. Indeed, both dogs love little children. Neither dog will deliberately attack unless one of the family is threatened. Case in point, the wife of one of my friends was walking Bruno late at night. She was approached by a strange man while Bruno was doing his business just inside a clump of trees. As the stranger kept approaching, Bruno finished his business and then came out and sat between my friends wife and the stranger. The stranger immediately turned around and quickly left the area. The next day, the man was arrested for committing a rape in the same apartment complex earlier.

My Doberman Susie (Koehler-method trained) walked off lead on heel all over with me. I have found that people you'd prefer not to meet cross the street first to avoid meeting you.

I put it down to the bad reputation that such breeds have among their social peers, where dog training is done by teasing until the dog is insane, the form of toughness they prefer.

So it's bad for the breed's reputation, but works in your favor once in a while.

You might feel bad for being tarred with the same brush as irresponsible pitbull owners, but that is the way it goes. Unfortunately, I've met far more of the owner she describes than those resembling you or Cesar Milan.
I lived in Germany for over a decade, and on the whole there is a very noticeable difference between the way the Germans train and handle their dogs and the way an unfortunately very visible number of Americans do the same. Maybe it has something to do with the culture and atitudes that mark the two societies, but Germans really put out an effort to train their dogs to be out in public, and well behaved at home, and are almost embarassed by failure..

As the committed owner of Springer Spaniels, I am not sure that I am a big fan of pit bulls. My sister-in-law, who is a vet, has had them, though, and she's a fan.

My own view is that a big part of the problem is the name. "Pit Bull." It just does not sound friendly. The whole species needs a re-branding.

Precedent? Well, the popular restaurant fish "Orange Roughy" is the re-branded name of the New Zealand Slimehead, which you have never heard of and would not order off a menu. The name was everything.

Good comments all, and appreciated. The thing is, I don't think I fit the stereotype, but I nonetheless get a lot of dirty looks when I walk "pit bulls" even though they're always under my control and I always obey leash laws. This makes me think the prejudice is in fact against the dogs, not based entirely on perceptions of the owners as unkempt, slobbering tattooed yahoos.

Of course I recognize that not everyone likes these dogs, and people have a right to think whatever they want about me. What set me off here was not so much being "tarred with the same brush as irresponsible pitbull owners," as seeing someone express a desire to shoot me and my dog with the same gun.

I realize people have a deep seated need to hate someone, but when a lynch mob mentality sets it, it's more than a little disconcerting.

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Although I didn't appreciate all the language that person put in their post, there is some truth to what was being said. The pit bull itself can be a very sweet, inoffensive dog. But there seems to be a particular demographic, around where I live at least, that gives the dog and the good owners like yourself a bad name. Kind of like Michael Vick. He is a BAD OWNER. There are rednecks all over the place that specialize in the same type of environments for the poor dogs. So I would be more apt to focus my energies on trying to make sure this breed gets adopted into loving, nurturing hands than worry to much about the demeanor of the writer.

Although I didn't appreciate all the language that person put in their post, there is some truth to what was being said. The pit bull itself can be a very sweet, inoffensive dog. But there seems to be a particular demographic, around where I live at least, that gives the dog and the good owners like yourself a bad name. Kind of like Michael Vick. He is a BAD OWNER. There are rednecks all over the place that specialize in the same type of environments for the poor dogs. So I would be more apt to focus my energies on trying to make sure this breed gets adopted into loving, nurturing hands than worry to much about the demeanor of the writer.