Which breed of dog would you classify as dangerous?

DontDropTheQuaffle

Hello,
I'm doing my extended project for A Level and I'd really appreciate it if anybody would answer the question 'What breed of dog would you classify as dangerous?'. It'd also help greatly if you could say why you think it's dangerous or vicious.
Thanks

cherylim

Personally, any medium or large dog. I think animals are unpredictable, and whilst I'm fine with small animals that could do limited damage I don't trust medium or large dogs and aim to avoid them wherever possible. It's not a fear of them, as such - I'm fine being in a room with one if I'm visiting someone who owns them, but I will move away if one is paying me attention.

My fiance wants a dog in future, and I've agreed to this but on the condition that we get something small.

geri1965_2

I don't think any breed of dog is inherently dangerous - much depends on the character of the dog, which is mainly shaped by how it is treated. Large and strong dogs are able to inflict much more damage than a smaller breed, but I don't think they are more dangerous per se.

My mum's little Yorkie gave her quite a nasty bite to her toe.

Kinski

Any dog can be dangerous, I have a sheltie with fear aggression and he will go for dogs that get in his face. I also have a Bichon who came to me from a puppy farm where she was used to churn out pups, she is good with dogs but will '' go '' for men that she knows ( she's okay with ones she doesn't know ), my adult son has been bitten by her when he gave her a fright, he says she's bitten him more than once but she's only drawn blood once so to me she's only bitten once . I also have small grandbrats running about and both dogs are great with them.

geri1965_2

We used to have a sheltie that hated men, apart from my dad! We had to shut her in a bedroom if any men came to the house.

vax2002

A lot of people on here own illegal Putbull and part breed pitbull terriers and they will try to convince you that they are no more dangerous than a Yorkshire terrier.

The line "its never done anything like that before" remains on their lips.

But basically and "bull" breed is to Dog Fighting what Spaniels are to chasing Pheasants, its in the blood.

Not withstanding this the "most dangerous" I have known was the Mother in laws Jack Russell, it would have gladly given its life to protect her shoes, never mind her.

Fosterdog

No one breed of dog is dangerous, there are certain breeds that people train to be dangerous either for fighting, protection or status but not every dog of that breed will be dangerous.

I'm a firm believer in deed not breed and would love for banned breeds to be abolished and instead treat each dog and owner on a case by case basis.

In my years as a foster home for rescue dogs I've had mostly large and bull breed dogs and all but two of them have been great with all people and other dogs.

Of the two that had issues one was a small breed and a quite old dog who had been kept isolated for years, she learned to love and trust people but has never been great with other dogs and is now very old and doddery so doesn't pose much of a risk as she can hardly walk let alone chase and attack.

The other was a large breed dog who had been badly abused for five years and was initially great with people and dogs, his issues started when he got attacked by another dog while on a walk and has since hated other dogs and wants to hurt them before they hurt him. This is still a work in progress and he can now be around other dogs as long as he is introduced slowly and carefully and is kept muzzled for initial meetings with new dogs. Once he knows and trusts them he is fine to run and play with them with no muzzle, hopefully in time he can go back to never needing a muzzle.

I've seen many "scary" dogs be the gentlest dogs in the world and many small, cute, handbag breeds be really nasty but they are allowed to get away with it because they are so small.

System

vax2002 wrote: »

A lot of people on here own illegal Putbull and part breed pitbull terriers

Are there really?

Evidence?

System

Based on experience then a labrador retriever is a dangerous breed as that is the only breed that has ever bitten me.

Fosterdog

OP just a thought, it may be worth you contacting a few local behaviourists and asking for an "interview" with them for your project and possibly see if one will let you spend a day with them so you can see them working with "dangerous" dogs first hand.

kiss_me_now9

I used to know a girl who was mauled by a JRT as a kid, she was sitting in her grandparents living room minding her own business and it came in and bit her face several times, only stopped when her dad hit it over the head with a Yellow Pages. My BF used to have a JRT and he said she was a family pet but definitely a terrier, would take on anything she felt like even a massive Great Dane. Terriers don't seem to have a massive amount of control or sensibility in their targets.

Next door neighbour has a staffy, she's a fruit loop and honestly the sweetest, craziest dog I've ever met. She's liable to lick you to death rather than bite you. Personally though I wouldn't have a staffy or ANY dog with two young children (4 and 1 years old) because at the end of the day any dog can turn if they're stressed and upset enough.

A couple of years ago I was walking down my BFs street to go back to uni when a Doberman, who'd been let out the front gate of it's house by it's dumb owner, cornered us on the pavement by barking and snarling at us. The owner was too busy chatting to her friend to notice that her dog was attempting to savage us (I have never seen a dog so angry or threatening before in my life). The best bit was when my BF shouted over to her to get it inside and she turned around and went 'Oh, it's only a dog, stop over reacting!' Yes, it's only a dog that's trying to rip into us. :mad: Eventually she got it inside by rattling it's treat bag - didn't even apologise to us, in fact I think she swore at us as she walked away... Still don't like walking down that street. BF's lived near her for 15 years and he said she used to have a Great Dane that would get out all the time similar to the Dobie and it actually bit him once when he was walking to school :eek: That one got taken away and destroyed, as did the Labrador that she trained to attack strangers... I'm fairly certain the Dobies gone now as well. I'm now fairly scared of dogs and don't like being around them, especially not in the street.