Follow-up to the news from last week about a dog attack in Christchurch that ended with Police shooting the dog.

Here is a great comment from reddit a while back that I think explains what happened here:

The trait is called Game. And yes, it’s a breed trait of singular focus. People mistake it for aggression, but it’s a totally distinct trait. A sweet, friendly dog can be strong in Game. A violent, snappy dog can have zero Game.

Champion breed lines maintain their focus and their bite with zero regard for their own pain. Adrenalin responses have been shown that help them completely ignore their own pain and damage, to their detriment.

It goes back to their “doggy job” which was bull baiting (hence the name “bully breed”). For cruel entertainment, dogs would attack a tied up bull. The ones that kept jumping even after direct hits were bred. Many champions died from kicks but would keep trying to latch on the face as they bled out.

Later, after bull baiting was made illegal, the same trait was bred via dogfights. People think that dogfighting is about the fight, it actually is not - it is a test of this trait. When a dogfight is lost, the loser is given a test to see if they’ll still lunge at the other dog before it ends. If they don’t, they’re not game and they’re not bred.

Half of dogfighting is purely to pimp out champions, meaning breeding for Game is alive and well.

It is not apparent when they’re young. There’s no way to find out if a dog is game until it fights and you see if it shows that determination through adversity. Unfortunately, this means they’re officially working dogs, and most of their owners and the trash backyard breeders who make the situation worse are creating a dangerous situation.

In the video above the dog did nothing wrong. It protected its owner. But the fact that it’s owner is unaware of all this, doesn’t realize the dog won’t let go without a bite stick, and is typical of most pit owners, is a growing bad situation.

There’s a ton of misinformation on this topic. There’s also a lot of well meaning people who love their dogs, haven’t encountered a bad situation, and think all this stuff is mindless hate, but it isn’t.

Shelters are overrun with the results of an informal breeding program that exists everywhere. Dogfighting is alive and well.

Comment by u/EmptyChocolate4545