I don't like them. My brother was almost attacked by one. We were visiting friends and their dog was well treated and they were ideal dog owners [all that you hear about it's the owner that makes the difference is bunk]. He was watching TV and found himself alone with the dog when suddenly it was growling at him. He screamed for the owners, who came in and took the dog away. He could have been a statistic....
Osiris, I just find them ugly. As a kid I grew up watching the Doberman Gang, and after 47 year, Enzo is my first doberman because I kept on taking in strays and hard cases. It's really personal preferences, why does someone like Porsches over Ferrari's? Regarding the Kenneling part. While I truly love my dogs with every breathing breath, they are working dogs. I'm spending a lot of time and money training them and their focus must be on ME. Trust me when I say this, dogs have much more fun with other dogs than with humans. So to keep them focused you kennel them and remove the desire for interaction with dogs. It sounds screwed up but it's really not. Also I fucked up with Enzo and allowed him to play with my other dogs. He was kenneled until until he was about 6 months old when I wasn't home in a 12x12 pen and when I got home he was allowed to play with me and everyone. Apparently my old female rottie terrorized him when I wasn't home and then she passed when he was about 8 months old. I never knew that until the first time we were doing a test run for his behavioral test and the women that was going to trial with me had a rottie and he flipped out, wanted to kill the rottie and was reactionary towards me. YES, dogs will remember a breed or look. Also keep in mind, Enzo and Shelby aren't neutered. They both come from different lines, so I can't have an "accident" happen, and she actually came into heat on Monday, so Enzo and her are fricken pisses me off right now. Someday, I think what we'll do is have an out cross with her and Enzo just because his genetics and hers are damn nice, but we first have to line breed her which will probably happen on her next heat cycle because we've already got 11 puppies and we want exceptional homes for them. So next March puppies from Shelby and maybe this time next year an Enzo Shelby breeding. Now I didn't recognize some of this hierarchy shit that these monkeys do. But if you take the time to watch this video. This was when Enzo was 16 WEEKS old. You'll see Indy being the mom, and my rottie Jinx completely avoiding him. I also think there are a few things in play here. I found Jinx on the 605 and 10 freeway completely emaciated. Ribs showing, the whole nine yards, we don't know old she was but I'm guessing 2, regardless, I had her for 10 years. So when the puppy showed up she was an old woman. Probably joint pain, thinking about OMG there's another mouth to feed, this punk is crazy, because she'd never experienced a crazy puppy. You probably didn't know this but two males rarely fight to the death, and a male will allow a female to kick the living shit out of him, and females that aren't neutered will fight to the death. So let me ask you a question Osiris. Am I being a dick, or just looking out for the welfare of my dogs? BTW, when I leave a crate open, Enzo will go into one on his own and fall asleep, it's a safe place for them.
Having had only small dogs all of my life, I have pretty much been afraid of all big dogs. Lab, standard poodle, pit bull, boxer, dalmatian, irish setter, mutt . . . it doesn't matter. I look at their mouths and think, "OK, you can bite my face off", whereas my dogs can maybe draw blood from someone's finger. (I realize there are advantages to having a larger breed.) Even though I am not that comfortable with larger breeds, I have spent time with boxers, labs and pit bulls that were the pets of friends. They've all been super gentle and sweet. My vet and vet tech say that the most vicious dogs they come across are cocker spaniels, just as a side note. I've met a few of those and they seem like really dumb, super loving dogs to me. I think there is validity with regard to who is raising them, and how they are treated and trained. What those dogs did to that car in the OP is freakin' scary! Seriously. It may be in the media because it is sensational, but it is . . . sensational!
This is why you kennel your dogs. I've got 10 silver ounces that says those dogs weren't trained, or neutered and they were feeding off each other and the owner promoted prey drive. There are several types of dogs and let me make 3 categories. 1 - Dog one, works for pleasing the owner 2 - Dog two, works for pleasing himself 3 - Dog three, doesn't know shit and is confused all the time There are four drives that we work with. There are probably more but these are the ones I work understand. 1 - Aggression 2 - Defense 3 - Prey 4 - Defense/fear Enzo is in category 2, he's a fucking punk. He's at training to please himself. And this next Saturday is going to be come to Jesus time. And it's completely MY fault that he's this way. But he works in 2 drives, aggression and prey. This is why Schutzhund and working dog sports are so fucking key to producing dogs that love and kiss the baby, and will die protecting it, you, your family and be the "meat shield", that gives you time to survive. Here's his FIRST session in schutzhung and me the noob completely unaware of what I know now. This is from December 2010. This whole play, from barking and biting is from getting the prey drive into everything else we're doing. So I venture to guess after a bunch of typing, the owner is probably a dickhead. Probably someone the didn't need to exist. .