Pit bull jumps 6-foot fence, attacks 9-year-old Birmingham boy - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Incoming.;48797753]This is pure curiosity, but what is your opinion on pet wolves? A woman had a whole pack of them and got mauled to death, but if a person were to have one from being a wolf pup, is the risk diminished?[/QUOTE] Wolves are different than domesticated dogs. People still try to raise them but it's not like raising dog. After a quick google search, they [url=http://www.fws.gov/midwest/WolF/aboutwolves/nwf-hybrids.htm]don't seem to care as much[/url], [url=http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/so-you-want-a-pet-wolf/]and training them into adulthood is much, much harder.[/url] You can train them as pups but they may or may not carry that on. For an animal to be trainable it has to care to be trained. The people who train tigers and lions and other exotic animals are skilled professionals. I don't think wolves would make a safe household pet. The training ability and risk knowledge of a professional tiger/lion/dolphin trainer is going to be much higher than a person looking for a companion, so as a rule of thumb, I don't think a typically "wild" animal would make a good pet. So no, I don't think wolves make good household pets. They're not domesticated dogs.

they have different instincts .. the pack behavior is very different. in kind, not just degree. also wolves have much greater paternal investment into young than dogs.

and that's not necessarily because they're big or scary or aggressive. It's because they generally lack the ability to be trained like a domestic dog or other animals. [editline]30th September 2015[/editline] FFS I JUST CHECKED IF ANYONE POSTED GOD DAMN [editline]30th September 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=catchall;48797983]they have different instincts .. the pack behavior is very different. in kind, not just degree. also wolves have much greater paternal investment into young than dogs.[/QUOTE] It's a whole different can-of-worms from dogs. Even if you think they're similar. Dogs have thousands of years of breeding and human interaction.

[QUOTE=catchall;48797631]are you seriously saying that a tiger starts on the same level of dangerousness as a dog (modulo size) or[/QUOTE] How do you intentionally mis read something THAT hard?

[QUOTE=OvB;48797607]You can definitely train/tame tigers. They've been training them in circuses for years. However, the bigger the animal the bigger the risk. Accidents do happen.[/QUOTE] The reason dogs are kept around, even big ones, is because a dog is used to human presence and its pack instinct will make it a good companion in a healthy environment. Tigers can't be tamed, they can get used to human presence and the example of a circus is really poor because circuses basically just mistreat and brutalize the animals as much as possible until they cooperate. Since felines like tigers don't have much of a pack instinct they also won't look for a pack leader and will take anything for a threat or for a prey by default. [QUOTE=OvB;48797651]Attacking isn't a thing animals do for the hell of it. There has to be a reason. The animal has to feel threatened. If something doesn't pose a threat, it's not worth the energy and health risk wasted to attack it. You have to determine what's threatening to the animal and what isn't. Body language is a big deal. If the animal is distressed that's also a big deal. Not all animals are trainable, and some respond better than others. [/QUOTE] But the problem is that Pitbulls feel threatened by fucking everything. Dogs are very receptive to eye contact and the reality is that a lot of pits will take eye contact from any stranger as a threat and will often try to wreck their shit. If you own a pit from a young age he won't attack you because he's used to you staring at him but any stranger can cause it. And you have to train pits specifically to not go bonkers upon making eye contact, which instantly makes them more dangerous than dogs that do not need to be trained to avoid losing their shit at the slightest bit of human contact. Dogs are nothing but highly mutated, selectively bred wolves. If we managed to make wolves tamer and calmer and more used to human presence, then the opposite is absolutely possible as well.

When I was younger I once got cornered in a family friend's house by a growling pitbull that looked very convincingly like it wanted to maul me, but stopped when her owners pulled her away. I still don't hold it against the breed as a whole, even if I do have a minor phobia of them now. Idg why these threads always turn into something akin to gun law debates.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;48799152]But the problem is that Pitbulls feel threatened by fucking everything. Dogs are very receptive to eye contact and the reality is that a lot of pits will take eye contact from any stranger as a threat and will often try to wreck their shit. If you own a pit from a young age he won't attack you because he's used to you staring at him but any stranger can cause it. And you have to train pits specifically to not go bonkers upon making eye contact, which instantly makes them more dangerous than dogs that do not need to be trained to avoid losing their shit at the slightest bit of human contact. Dogs are nothing but highly mutated, selectively bred wolves. If we managed to make wolves tamer and calmer and more used to human presence, then the opposite is absolutely possible as well.[/QUOTE] Source on Pit Bulls feeling threatened by everything? Behavioral studies posted up until now say otherwise. [editline]30th September 2015[/editline] Plus aren't all animals threatened some degree by direct eye contact?

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;48799152]The reason dogs are kept around, even big ones, is because a dog is used to human presence and its pack instinct will make it a good companion in a healthy environment. Tigers can't be tamed, they can get used to human presence and the example of a circus is really poor because circuses basically just mistreat and brutalize the animals as much as possible until they cooperate. Since felines like tigers don't have much of a pack instinct they also won't look for a pack leader and will take anything for a threat or for a prey by default. But the problem is that Pitbulls feel threatened by fucking everything. Dogs are very receptive to eye contact and the reality is that a lot of pits will take eye contact from any stranger as a threat and will often try to wreck their shit. If you own a pit from a young age he won't attack you because he's used to you staring at him but any stranger can cause it. And you have to train pits specifically to not go bonkers upon making eye contact, which instantly makes them more dangerous than dogs that do not need to be trained to avoid losing their shit at the slightest bit of human contact. Dogs are nothing but highly mutated, selectively bred wolves. If we managed to make wolves tamer and calmer and more used to human presence, then the opposite is absolutely possible as well.[/QUOTE] Bullshit. You've never even seen a pitbull except on the internet, have you? They are not, repeat not human aggressive unless they have been abused or "trained" to be. They are dog aggressive due to selective breeding, which can be overcome through socialization from puppyhood.