Sigh.. here is a lil science for mr Spanish fly.
During a study in Lower Saxony in the temperament of several breeds including the bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, pit bull terriers and 11 other breeds, no significant difference in behaviour between breeds was detected. The results show no indication of dangerousness in specific breeds, justification for specific breed lists in the legislation was not shown.
Although all dogs tested were confronted with stimuli with which aggressive behaviour could consistently be provoked, only 9% of the dogs showed biting with complete approach and earlier threatening behaviour. Of the dogs tested in the temperament test, 95% showed behaviours that were appropriate to the particular situation.
In another temperament test carried out in the U.S. the results showed that interestingly, the pit bull group had a significantly higher passing proportion (p < 0.05) than all other pure breed groups, except the Sporting and Terrier groups. These groups however, did not have a statistically higher passing proportion (p = 0.7
than the pit bull group. The group that had the highest proportion of breed groups passing the temperament test was the sporting group (85.48%), followed by the pit bull group (84.50%). The groups that failed, with the lowest proportion of dogs passing the temperament test, were the toy (79.01%) and hound groups (77.01%). The groups were compared to determine if there was a significant difference in the proportion of dogs from each group that passed the temperament test. It was found that there were no significant differences between the proportion of dogs passing in the two groups with the highest passing percentages (sporting group and the pit bull group). Both of these breed groups performed significantly better (p > 0.05) than all other groups.
Sporting group contains some of the more publicly accepted (as dogs of stable or good temperament) including Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers. More notably, the American Pit Bull Terriers showed significantly higher proportion of dogs passing the test than hounds, herding, working, and toy groups.
Reasons for biting are the dog is intentionally or inadvertently provoked, the dog is owned by someone who is ignorant about the characteristics and behaviour of the dog breed and has done nothing to familiarise him/herself with the breed or the dog is not properly confined, controlled or socialised.
Most dog attacks on people occur in the dog owner's home or in close proximity to it. Attacks on private property frequently happen when a dominant, protective or injured dog is not adequately supervised with children and visitors.
American records show that several TOY BREEDS have killed infants, and recent unpublished Australian study recorded very serious injuries to children inflicted by toy breeds. This highlights that all dogs should be trained and socialised, regardless of breed. Its the OWNER not the breed or the dog...............
DOWD, S.,Assessment of Canine Temperament in Relation to Breed GroupsMatrix Canine Research Institute.
SHALKE, E., et al., 2008. Is Breed-Specific Legislation Justified? Study of the Results of the Temperament Test of Lower Saxony Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 3 (3), 97-103.
Toy breeds are more aggressive because they are small and cute so people don't discipline them and some have caused deaths and maulings of children too.