When it comes to dogs everyone will have an opinion. In terms of XL bully’s I haven’t had one but I have had G.S.D’s, Akita’s and we recently got a staffy puppy. We have had lots of Jack Russel’s and Lab’s as well as a few other smaller breeds as well.
I know a few people that have XL’s and they are all experienced responsible dog owners. In all honestly there dogs have great temperament's and I would trust there dogs around people more than most.
All dogs need to be properly trained, socialised and have continuous engagement. Especially so with larger breeds not because they are inherently more aggressive but because a larger dog will simply do more damage if it bites. I very much believe in the nurture over nature argument. I don’t believe that banning a dog breed will make any difference. I do however think that there should be a lot more control over owners.
While researching what dog to go for when we recently got a new puppy XL’s appealed to me. I have always preferred larger breeds. This time though we decided that a medium sized dog would be a better option which is why we got a staffy instead. XL’s and Malanois which I also considered tend to attach themselves to one person, we wanted a dog that would attach themselves to all of us. We spent months deciding on a dog type that would suit our lifestyle. We knew after losing our Lab and Akita last year due to old age that we couldn’t have another one of those. Our lab was 18 and our Akita was 15 and we had them both from pups.
I can see the appeal of XL’s they make for beautiful pups and are great companions with the right owners. They seemed to get really popular over the pandemic but it seems to me that a lot of people got them without doing any sort of research on the amount of work needed to make them well rounded pets.
Because the internet knows everything when I look at my social media my feeds are full of dogs and in particular XL’s. Have seen some shocking videos of how some XL owners train there dogs. Teaching the dogs things like jumping up trees and attacking branches and teaching them to be aggressive when they hear the word “feds”. These people will just move on to other dogs and we will go again. It already seems that many of these types of people are getting Cane Corso’s.
Probably a pipe dream but I feel that owners should be licensed and only be allowed to own larger breeds after they have completed training etc. Almost like doing your driving test.
That's an interesting viewpoint . . .
The fact remains, that even when owned by experienced and responsible people, a dog bred specifically to fight other dogs is very likely to go off the rails and to cause danger to both other dogs and to people - so why take that risk?
The situation has become much worse since the pandemic, when people rushed out to buy pets because they were stuck at home, never giving a thought either to the needs of the animal or to whether they would be able to provide proper care once they weren't at home all day, and of course the isolation of the pandemic also pretty much stopped socialising with other dogs and people, a recipe for disaster.
And, of course, prices went through the roof, encouraging dodgy breeders, and even more inbreeding than usual.
In my opinion (and experience) most breeders are dodgy, whatever they may claim to the contrary, their interest is in making a lot of money. Every one of the 360 recognised different breeds has been selectively bred, originally to create good working dogs but now for their physical appearance, and to make money. "Selective breeding" is really interchangeable with inbreeding, because inbreedings can bring about much more rapid changes of appearance. As a direct result, we now have GSDs' that have such extremely sloping rear ends that they are inherently crippled, these are the ones that win prizes at dog shows but they are freaks. We also have flat-nosed bull breeds that can't breathe, and some can't even give birth naturally. Few, if any, of these inbred freaks, bred only to win at dog shows, are capable of doing the work that they were bred for, but they still have the working instincts, which is what causes most of the problems - or at least, the problems are caused by the ignorant public who can't be bothered to carry out any kind of research into the breed that they want to buy.
The main problem is the inbreeding. In theory, the written pedigree should show where it has occurred, but a written pedigree is nothing more than a bit of paper, there is simply no way of knowing whether the details on it are true or not.
Which breeds are the most popular? Well, sales of whatever breed has won Best In Show at Crufts each year go through the roof, the obscure, unpopular breeds that never win are far less spoiled in terms of conformation and temperament than the winners, so is the only real answer to ban the Kennel Club and ban breed shows? That isn't going to happen, so all that we seem to have left is to ban specific breeds, which can help to a very limited degree.
I very much agree that there should be controls on dog ownership, with compulsory training, but who would get the contract for administering it - The RSPCA, or perhaps Capita - which would be worse than the other? And, as with everything else in life, the underbelly of society would ignore the rules anyway.
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