Explosion of "bad" breeds around here...

[Ritz459]

I was just browsing through our local shelter. Normally, it is full of the hounds, terriers, and Labs, with the occasional Rottie, Shih Tzu, Min Pin, and Husky, Boxer, or GSD. You would never see a Pittie or a Dobe or anything like them.
Well, in just the past week, around eight Pit Bull and Pittie mixes have come into the shelter. Not to mention about that many Rotties and there are even a handful of Dobes.
There was a huge increase in the Rotties and Pitties, so I'm just hoping that we won't start to have problems with idiotic people owning these breeds. We've never had a problem before, so I'm hoping it won't start now.
I mean, honestly, if there was a huge increase in little dogs, one of the worst thing that could happen was the Puppy Mills would be having LOTS of customers, but with an overflow of the "harder" breeds, there tends to be more attacks and untrained dogs running around.

Has anybody had an increase in the "tough" breeds around them lately, or is this "big bad dog" fad just hititng Lafayette a little late?

[schnzrluv]

If they are ending up in shelters it means that people have lost them, or that they are unwanted. A big influx of people looking to own these breeds would mean the shelter numbers would go down. Labradoodles are all the rage here and as soon as one shows up at a shelter it's gone within a week.
I live in Michigan and at least 1/2 the dogs on every petfinder page (when searching med. to large dogs) are pitts, rots, and other various bully mixes. It's hard to find a home for a "viscious" (insert sarcasm) breed. There are hundreds of these dogs comming in, but nearly none getting adopted out. It's a very sad situation.

[IceyBlueSibes]

All of the breeds are about the same around here. The most popular breed are pitties and pit mixes. Next up are a lot of hound and lab type mixes. I've only seen one doberman in the shelter near me, and have seen rotties quite a few times, but the two breeds I mentioned are about all you can find here. You either have to go to a no kill shelter or a rescue to find other breeds.

[elegy]

the shelter where i got luce is probably close to half pit bulls at all times. it's very sad.

[Beryl]

I'm seeing pits and pit-mixes at the Boulder shelter too. OTOH, at least they are showing up at the shelters and hopefully people are bringing them in. It floors me that people still do the "ditch the dog on the side of the road" stuff to this day.

The word "sad" doesn't fully describe it.

[flyndog]

Yes, it's like that all over the country. Shelters are full of pit and pit mixes. And now, with BSL, shelters are claiming dogs are Lab mixes instead of, for instance, pit/lab - or sometimes claiming they are "shar pei"/lab. Knowledgeable people can often see pit in a mix, but many only see a lab mix. I don't have a solution and IMO the problem is often the shelters. Shelters and rescues that don't perform good temperament assessments and training or behavior mod (and I think there are many) are putting the public at risk. And, fueling further pit bull hysteria when there is an incident.

[elegy]

Originally Posted by flyndog

And now, with BSL, shelters are claiming dogs are Lab mixes instead of, for instance, pit/lab - or sometimes claiming they are "shar pei"/lab. Knowledgeable people can often see pit in a mix, but many only see a lab mix.

i've seen shelters do that and i absolutely hate it. it makes me so angry. it's nice they want to save the pit bulls blah blah blah but a pit bull takes a special kind of owner and a special kind of outlook on the world that's different than that of a lab owner. not better, not worse, just different.

false advertising like that is doing nobody any favors. not the dogs, not the new owners, not the people with pit bulls who suffer when these "lab mixes" get into trouble and it comes out that they're really ZOMG pit bull mixes.

[ewarp]

The adoptable area at the shelter I work for is easily half bully breeds. Of the dogs we take in, easily 2/3 are bullies or mixes. We temperament test, and unless the bully is an "ambassador of the breed" (my exec. director's words), the dog can't be adopted out. There can be no resource guarding, no food aggression, no unreasonable dog aggression, they need to be sociable, and able to calm down after getting excited/agitated.

We get some great dogs. We get some horrendous ones too. There's something to be said when THREE people can't safely pin a 40 lb dog down to euthanize it.

Rotts and dobes are occasional visitors. We haven't had many nice purebred rottweilers- I blame that on the pet store in town where the majority of these dogs come from. The mixes we've had through have been great dogs though.

Recently, we've been getting more transports from NO- lately it's been hounds and pointers and variations of those two. Previously, dogs from NO were mostly bullies and mixes.

On top of that, we've been working with Anti-Cruelty of Chicago, swapping our adult cats for their bullies. We're in a farming and college community- cats are a dime a dozen, and are difficult to adopt out. Chicago has a hard time placing bullies in good homes. It's a win-win situation for both communities.

I don't think it will have much of an effect on your community provided your shelter is being responsible and weeding out dogs that are not good potential pets for your average dog owner.