Dogthing - A little taste of cold hard reality

[pitbulllady]

Pit bulls aren't commonly used for hunting to my knowledge. Where is this primarily happening? Dogo Argentino, a similar breed, were developed and are still used to take down wild hogs (and they're excellent at it), but not the APBT. They were used in bear baiting at times, but that really isn't hunting.

Some Pits can be trained for hunting (just as certain dogs of any working breed can be trained to work in areas outside their specialty) but it was never a major function of the breed.

Probably 90% of all hog hunters in the US use American Pit Bull Terriers and/or American Bulldogs. I used to be an avid hog hunter before my old age caught up with me and I could no longer scamper through the swamps and up the occasional tree, and I bred APBTs specifically for this purpose, to hunt and catch wild hogs. It has ALWAYS been a major function of this breed to serve as catch dogs for both hogs and semi-feral, free-range cattle, and this is why the APBT developed into a taller, rangier dog than its English and Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier ancestors that came to this country, which were pretty much strictly fighting dogs. It was so that they could cover ground better and keep up with larger hunting dogs, like the various Cur breeds. Dogos are still relatively unknown in most parts of the United States; I only knew one hog hunter who had a Dogo. In the open scrub country of TX, they probably would function better, but in the densely-vegetated swamps of the Gulf Coast and southeastern Coastal Plains, the APBT and American Bulldog are the top catch dogs. Go on YouTube and look up "Pit Bull Catch Dogs" or "Hog Catch Dogs" and you'll see that most of them are APBT's or American Bulldogs.

pitbulllady

 

[PlaidJaguar]

I stand corrected.

 

[The Snark]

Another thing Akita's were trained for: protecting babies. I've read a little about this but the literature is scarce. Apparently in Feudal Japan stealing the child of a wealthy or upper class family could reap a fortune. So the specially trained Akita was introduced to the infant as it's protector. From that moment on any contact with the child by anyone, parents included, was done with the dogs permission and under it's watchful eye. This often confined both baby and dog to one room or contained locale and the dog would draw a line set in stone.
I encountered this trait in our Akita. When we first brought the dog home it ranged the house, found the baby in the crib and wouldn't let us get near it. It was a battle where he managed to destroy one of my engineer boots before we were able to get things established.