Whether or not fanciers of the breed want to acknowledge it, besides long history as a working dog, the American Pit Bull Terrier’s heritage is deeply rooted in the sport of dog fighting. As objectionable and barbaric as this history may be, to reject this historical truth is to fail to understand the source of many of the qualities that have helped the breed to flourish. To understand the modern dog one must understand the negative aspects of its history that led to development of those traits.
 

Early Origins

During the time of Minos in Crete the sport of bull baiting was quite a popular form of entertainment. This sport was developed as a part of the worship practice in honor of the warrior god "Mithras".

During this time, most dogs were wild and ferocious by nature. As the Roman tribes of the time conquered and moved across the land, they also took the sport with them. Due to the selective breeding of the best dogs, a distinctive breed began to emerge.

 

The Bulldog

The bulldog part of the APBT was not the bulldog of today.  The bulldog of several centuries ago was an agile, muscular dog of medium size, quite capable of participating in the bull-baiting and bear-baiting events of the time. Bulldogs were admired for their tenacity, gameness and their tolerance of pain - all good attributes for dogs battling foes many times their size.

The Terrier

Terriers had long been used for hunting and then attacking many types of animals. Fox terriers accompanied foxhound packs to enter dens and kill or drive out the inhabitants. Terriers were also used against badgers, otters, and other creatures.

The Bull and Terrier

The bulldog, so ideally suited for bedeviling bulls and bears, was a bit too slow and too methodical for the dog fighters. More speed and flair were needed to bring gambling spectators to the fights. Hunting terriers of the time not only possessed an innate desire to fight other animals, but they also had grit and courage of their own to bring to the mixture. The crossing of the tenacious bulldog and the aggressive terrier became more and more commonplace as the demand for dogs to fight dogs increased.

The Modern APBT

The modern American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) can trace its roots back to England and the early 19^th century. Crosses between 'bully' type dogs and terriers eventually produced the modern APBT. Although not recognized as a breed and much smaller than the modern APBT, the early bulldogs were used as working dogs, controlling unruly bulls for butchers as well as farmers.

These bulldogs resembled, phenotypically, the modern APBT but were considerably smaller, weighing 15-30lbs (7-15kg). The courage and tenacity that made these dogs good at corralling dangerous bulls made them great at the blood sport of bull baiting.

The year 1835 saw the end of deadly bull baiting (countless thousands of dogs lost their lives to this 'sport') and the emergence of an even more sinister blood sport - dog fighting.

The lower class had used blood sports as an outlet for their frustration and aggression towards the monarchy - pit fighting was, in essence, an outcry and an outlet for that aggression. Dogs were bred to be courageous, utterly devoid of pain sensations (they, no doubt, felt pain but were bred and encouraged not to express that pain), tenacious and determined.

A quality that was never bred into them was human aggression. 'Human-aggressive' dogs were undesirable as these dogs required extensive handling prior and during their fights - most of theses dogs were also family pets so no human aggression was ever tolerated. Note: "aggression" may not be the most appropriate term, it is more likely that these dogs simply had a lower bite threshold.

Dogs that exhibited aggression towards humans were typically killed, meaning that only human-friendly lines were perpetuated and desired. It is highly unlikely, however, that these culled dogs were naturally more aggressive towards humans than their bred counterparts. Their bite threshold may have been much lower meaning that it did not take much for them to turn around and bite their handler. Animals were bred for an increased bite threshold, as far as humans and only humans were concerned, which decreased the likelihood of humans becoming victims of dog bites.

In 1898, Chauncy Bennet formed the UKC, a breed registry aimed solely at the registration and acceptance of breed today known as APBT. The AKC had wanted nothing to do with APBT, so Bennet sought to create an organization that would represent the breed as performance dogs. Mr. Bennet added 'American' and initially dropped 'Pit' from the APBT's name but public outcry led to 'Pit' being added back to the name - thus the American Pit Bull Terrier.

For a pitbull to be accepted into the UKC the dog had to have won three fights - a requirement that was later dropped. Another registry that was started solely for APBTs, the American Dog Breeders Association was born in 1909. The ADBA was started by Guy McCord who was a close friend of one of the founding fathers of the modern APBT and a true legend of the breed, John P. Colby. The ADBA was created to test the performance quality of a APBT without actual pit fighting; the ADBA's main focus was on weight pulling competitions with a spattering of conformation shows.

The AKC decided to register American Pit Bull Terriers but under a different name - the Staffordshire Terrier, which was later changed to the American Staffordshire Terrier in 1972, or AST. Up until 1936, Pit Bulls and ASTs were physically identical. After 1936, ASTs were bred solely for conformation and their breed requirements became much more stringent. APBTs were being bred for both performance as well as conformation shows and the breed standard became much more lenient. The ASTs, phenotypically, became 'flashier' with blockier heads, larger chests and a thicker jaw while the APBTs varied phenotypically from lanky to stocky. Although the phenotypic expression varied in the APBT, relative weight, size and proportion remained constant and dogs over 60lbs (27kg) were rarely seen. Both ASTs and APBTs were bred to be exceptionally sturdy and extremely human friendly, not to mention athletic, courageous, and tenacious.

The 1980s saw an upsurge in the popularity of American Pit Bull Terriers as 'guard' dogs for drug dealers and also as an expression of ego or 'manhood' for street kids. Thus, it began - the production of disproportionately large 'Pit Bulls'. For all intensive purposes, these were not (and still are not!) true American Pit Bull Terriers - lines of American Bulldog, Cane Corsos and other Mollosser/Mastiff breeds were incorporated into the APBT lineage to produce massive brutes. In some cases, a large APBT pup was born and was overused as a stock breeder, thus producing highly inbred dogs with serious behavioral issues. It is a myth that an APBT can weigh 80lbs (36kg) or more - those are not true Pit Bulls and if a pedigree was attained, at some point, there would be Mollosser/Mastiff blood added or the dog would have come from highly inbred lines.

Today, thanks to breeders and fanciers organizing themselves to protect the true APBT, the vast majority of APBTs do not get over 60lbs (27kg - and this is true for ASTs) and the vast majority are household pets. Unfortunately, a minority of APBTs are poorly socialized, chained, abused, neglected or allowed to roam free and inevitably attack something that may venture near. As with any breed of dog, it is imperative for owners to properly socialize their dogs, which means exposing them to everything imaginable: from young to old children, from the elderly to the wheelchair bound, from umbrellas to kites, etc.

Dogs should never be chained or left outside in the backyard for most of the day as that is simply creating a dangerous dog by any circumstance. The APBTs that have attacked have ALL been poorly socialized, under-trained, and neglected - they never learned appropriate behavioral skills to cope with the outside world. All that these dogs had were the poor social skills that only a chained or neglected dog can receive; since they were never taught to suppress some of their predatory instincts.

APBTs are no more or less difficult than any other dog to train or socialize. Owners most certainly need to understand the dog fighting history and take necessary precautions by ensuring early socialization with other dogs and monitoring of their interactions with other dogs. And even with extensive socialization, some APBTs may never become comfortable around other dogs, so each dog should be treated as an individual with careful consideration. By their very nature, APBTs strive to be around humans - centuries of breeding have seen to that. They need a kind heart and a kind hand - physical reprimands are useless and ineffective for any dog and should rarely, if ever, be employed.

Today the APBT has evolved into a marvelous working companion whose jobs are only limited by the imagination. Many work as Police and Armed Service dogs (historical photo attesting to this fact is shown below), while others save lives on search and rescue teams. They excel as therapy dogs for hospital and nursing home patients, they herd and guard livestock, compete in dog shows, obedience trials and contests of agility. Of course, their most important job of all is protecting and loving loyal family companions.

A huge majority of APBTs are no longer involved in the sport they were originally bred for. Perhaps the most ironic truth of all is that there are thousands upon thousands of normal, well-adjusted, non-dog-fighting people and families who wouldn't own any dog other than an American Pit Bull Terrier. We can say, from first-hand experience, that we have never owned such a loyal and versatile animal. And we could never see ourselves with any other breed.