IWill agree that I wouldn't take a pit that is over 3 months old. But not because they have been trained to fight, just because the usually haven't been trained at all.
Most people have no idea how to train a dog. I the people in the house behind me have 7 Chihuahua's (sp?) they got all 7 on the same day as puppies, no older dog to show the puppies proper behavior and no way to train all 7 at the same time, without some serious time on your hands and some way to separate them so you can do it one at a time.
As far as all people who own pits being wimps or trying to prove something (para-phrased from several posts before) there are many good reasons to own one.
Current dog is a chow/pit mix. 3rd of this mix I've owned. Great dogs, and the pit gives them an excellent disposition, great reasoning brain, and amazing loyalty to her family, also calms down some of the intensity natural to chows.
While the chow in her gives a longer velvet like hair that hides some of the muscles so as not to advertise the pit in her (bad publicity, ya know). Plus chows are very clean, excellent if you are having the dog in the house.
My dog is here for security, bought her when the youngest was 6 months old and would never hesitate to trust her with the baby. She would run and hide from small children because they chew on her ears, and climb all over her.
If an adult would annoy of mess with her she may growl to warn them off but she has never growled at a child (she is 12 years old).
She also is the friendliest dog you've ever seen if you come visit (as long as a family member has let you in).
However if you come into my yard over the fence, or pop the door on your own, God help you.
I bought her because I often travel out of town levying my wife and kids at home. It’s very comforting to know she's there.
In the 12 years I've had her she has bitten twice.
When she was 2 I had ridden home from out of town with another guy (my car had broken down). I had been working night shift and couldn't sleep, so was working in the basement at 2am with no car in the driveway, so it appeared that I wasn't home. I heard a crash (thought one of the kids had knocked something over, turned out to be the back door busting open) so I headed upstairs. Then I heard the second door open and the dog take off from where she sleeps. Then a struggle as I ran up the stairs. As I got to the back door I see the guy roll over the fence, a blood trail leading from the middle of the living room to where he jumped the fence. The next morning when I looked around outside I found muddy footprints on the back porch where the guy had stood outside my bedroom door and looked in to where my wife had been sleeping alone. This guy had more than robbery on his mind and my only regret is she didn't tear him up more.
She also chewed a guy up who was in the yard after midnight stealing tools from my shed.
Basically pits are very easy to train (it's not the chow in her, I've owned pure breds of both breeds and pits are much easier to handle) and the are IMO the best guard dog you could own if it needs to be in complex situations, like being friendly to someone if you let him in as a guest but willing to take him down if your visitor comes back to burglarize you the next night.
If you just want a dog to turn loose inside a fence and bite anyone who enters (to guard your business or whatever) get a rotty but if it also needs to be part of your family, and know it's place without challenging your kids for a more dominant position go with a pit. rot's are good dogs but they are often willing to challenge others in the family to go for a higher position. Dogs are primarily a pack animal and need to be related to on that level.
But if you don't have the time of knowledge to train your dog properly please do them, yourself, the people around you, and all us pit owners a favor and pick another dog, or better yet just get a statue of a dog.
The issue really isn't breed of dog it's training. Any dog, when untrained or trained improperly is a menace.
Btw- I am one of the 30++ owned dogs, guys in my 30's. And while some of you may find that odd. I find such strong opinions on breeds by guys who have owned 2 or 3 dogs of 1 or 2 breeds and also petted a friends dog occasionally and where scared once by a pit to be ridiculous when they have such expert knowledge on what makes a dog bad. It’s a lot like guys who watch 'saving Private Ryan' and 'black hawk down' all of a sudden becoming experts on military tactics
