American Pit Bull Terrier Temperament

Pit Bull

Pit Bull and American Pit Bull Terrrier type dogs, including any dog that possesses physical characteristics of pit bull and pit bull-type breeds” is a common phrase found in much current legislation. This language is both vague and open to interpretation. The term “pit bull” is an unofficial breed group, usually encompasses between 4 and 10 individual, pure breeds of dog, including the American Pit Bull Terrier and American Staffordshire Terrier among others. Thus, in most previously reported statistics related to dog bites and deaths Pit Bull types including dogs of questionable genetic background have been grouped together by the nondescript term “pit bull”.

In these publications, these compiled groups of breeds, termed “Pit Bulls”, were compared statistically against individual breeds. In addition, the authors of these studies have noted within the publications that their statistics could not be normalized using the population of dogs in question. These facts invalidate the results of these studies in relation to the noted pit bull group, from any reasonable epidemiological or public health perspective.

BSL is based on the assumption that there are genetic differences among breeds with regard to their temperament that make them inherently dangerous. However, the genetic make-up of an individual dog, of any breed, is only one of many components that may enhance a dogs relative potential to be aggressive toward humans. This presents us with the scientific question “Are the breeds and breed groups most often targeted by BSL lacking stability of temperament as postulated by breed specific legislation?” If not, perhaps the true problem with any dangerous dog, of any breed, is more likely that of environment, nurture, and careless ownership, which are not addressed by BSL.

American Pit Bull Terrier

If we seek to define temperament across entire breeds or breed groups the testing of a sufficiently large percentage of the population must be performed. In the current study, we present the results of the largest defined and uniform temperament test performed on canines (over 25,000 dogs representing pure breeds and mixed breeds) that were derived from across the United States, as part of the American Temperament Testing Societies (ATTS) Temperament Test. Here we have provided new and novel analyses of these data in relation to breed groups including the legislatively created “pit bull” (pit bull group). In addition, an analysis of the single breed most often associated with the non-descript term “pit bull” (the American Pit Bull Terrier) is compared against all other breed groups.

In the current study, the temperaments of 25,726 dogs, of various breeds, have been evaluated including 1136 dogs from the pit bull group and 469 American Pit Bull Terriers. All dogs were at least 18 months old. The majority of dogs tested can be characterized as healthy, well fed, and well-cared for dogs. Public notices of temperament tests were typically posted and promoted in a variety of ways, which included posting notices at local dog clubs, shelters, pet stores, internet message boards, mailing lists where exposure to dog owners was expected to be highest.

Inclusion in the temperament tests was voluntary and dogs were only required to be over the age of 18 months to participate. Over the course of this study tests were held in all 48 continuous states except North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont. The states in which higher numbers of tests have been held included California, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Illinois. The diverse regional distribution across the United States contributed no bias to the analyses presented (p = 0.22 data not shown).

The Temperament Test was broken up into individual categories that evaluate specific temperament-based characteristics. Each Category was further broken up into sub-tests. Each sub-test was evaluated on a rigorous pass, or fail, scoring system. Failure of any sub-test resulted in a failure of the entire temperament test.

During the temperament test each dog was presented on a loose six-foot (6’) lead. The handlers, which were typically the owners of the dogs, were not allowed to talk to the dog, give commands, or give corrections. One of the 3 Licensed Testers guided the handlers through the course after a brief explanation at the beginning while the other 2 Licensed Testers observed. The specific courses, because of different geographic locations, availability of resources, and weather conditions were slightly variable, though all key aspects of each sub-test were maintained uniformly for all subjects and test situations.

In addition to comparison of breed groups the American Pit Bull Terrier as a single breed was considered separately. The American Pit Bull Terrier is the breed that, because the phrase “pit bull” as part of its name, has been most readily associated with the seemingly catchall category of “pit bull and pit bull type” in relation to BSL. As a pure breed analyzed on its own merit, the American Pit Bull Terrier evaluations showed there was no significant difference even with the group with highest proportion of dogs passing (Sporting Group).

As noted the sporting group contains some of the more publicly accepted (as dogs of stable or good temperament) including Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers. More notably, the American Pit Bull Terriers showed significantly higher proportion of dogs passing the test than hounds, herding, working, and toy groups

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