Sadly if you look into dog attacks and the frequancy of each breed causing some sort of injury to people there is a direct link to how many of that breed are actually kept. A few years ago it was all the rage to have German Shepperds and of course the reported "attack" rates rose, the same can be seen with the standard Labrador and Border Collies and any other breed that the masses choose to keep. There is also many reasons behind attacks that never get mentioned, i.e the dog was babied like a human and therefore thought it was pack leader, the dog was food aggressive (common arguement here is "we knew it protected it's food but we forgot we had given it a bone and now its bitten us, we can't trust it any more so it must be killed") and this is the owners own fault for not training/ teaching the dog that aggression will not be tolerated, the dog was protecting it's family members (well why else do many people have dogs?) and it attacked a neighbors kid who was running around chasing my kids playing and squeeling, the list is nearly endless. Everytime I hear of another so called "unprovoked" attack I have to wonder what went into the history of that dogs life to was the true factor behind the attack. True a pack of dogs can be deadly, but so are humans when they get into a mob and mob rules takes over....look at any riot to see this in action.
I keep a staffy who was 6yrs old and a rescue dog from the RSPCA, he needed a lot of education and trust development and now he is a wonderful dog that I know 99% of Staffies can be. My other dog is a Staffy x Cattle Dog (Australian Cattle dog well known for being aggro dogs), Leah is totally trust worthy with people she knows but I know her faults and NEVER allow a situation that could cuase her to lash out in fear (she has fear aggression tendancies and we have worked with these non specific fears her entire life she is now 14). My previous dog (another rescue dog) I got as a pup and she had the potential (like all dogs) to become a savage dog, her recogonisable breeding was Red Australian Cattle dog (nastier than the blue in my experience), Staffy and Bull terrier, other dog breeders insisted she also had German Short Hair Pointer in her. Even though she was a total mix of breeds she was an amazing dog who I will cherish the memory of for ever. And becuase of her dubious parantage I took the precaution os spaying her so she never had a season let alone pups, I trained her in both basic dog obedience as well as advanced and I always placed myself as pack leader in her eyes so what I asked of her was done.
All of that said I trust large dogs more than I will ever trust a small dog that somebody has moddie coddled its whole life. And people need to stop looking at dogs as being little four legged humans, they aren't, dogs think differently and react differently. Yes a dog can be your best friend and a wonderful companion but they will always be a dog and need the leadership of a pack leader.
