I have a question for posters on this board. Please don't include political or social views in your answers. I'm aware of all the negative connotations associated with breed bans, and drug dealing thugs. My question is this: Why are there not more APBT trained to do security, police, and protection work? They have the following traits (some of which are unmatched) which gives them a strong propensity to do the work.
1. very tenacious
2. good drive and desire to protect
3. healthy, hardy, athletic, agile
4. strong grip
5. very easily bonded
6. not typically handler aggressive
7. very easy to obedience train
8. very high pain tolerance
9. good nerves
I'm not looking for examples of poorly bred dogs, or dogs reared in abusive, unethical ways. I simply want peoples knowledge of drives, nerves, short comings etc. I have no first hand knowledge of their air scenting ability. How do they do in extreme climates? They appear to be the ideal military sentry and or area protection dog.

There are quite a few Pits trained for protection I know of. There is a kennel in California that raises and trains them for just this purpose. I have seen their dogs work and they are nice dogs! There are several Pits training in our group also. They are good dogs also. Several of the higher level NAPD competitors are Pits.

As to the question as to why you don't see more of them, you can't separate the social and political areas form this question. They have a bad reputation from Pit Fighting and several of the brain dead owners that have the dogs. They are a dog and have no control over their use and training, but because they can be so effective and can be purchased cheap in comparison to other breeds they are used for bad things. The other problem they have is they are frequently very aggressive to other animals and a lot of people don't want to deal with that. It also makes it difficult to get them to work in a group setting with other dogs.

Their tenaciousness can also cause problems. In Phoenix last week a company had rented 2 Pits for area protection, and someone broke into the business. The Pits killed him. That will create some bad publicity for you, won't it?

Aside from their dog to dog agression there is no reason that APBT's Am Staffs, American Bulldogs etc. cannot be used for police work. None. The original post asked not to discuss the political reasons but this is why they are not used. Departments would have to fight the bad PR both in the public arena and in the courts (where any thing goes in civil actions and a plaintiff's legal beagle will drag the bulldog types through th e mud using current public opinion to bolster his/her case).

How about the military where there is alot less political pressure. The dogs I've seen have been awesome. Particularly with young children. I'm guessing their high pain tolerance helps. I'm not aware of near the physical problems in them either..displasia. I'm on the other hand not as impreesed with the American bulldog. This could be as a result of me not seeing them until after their poularity spike. Can these dogs track? Has anyone trained one?

If anything the military is more subject to policical pressure, remember Congress? Functionality is not always a top priority. In addition the military expects their dogs to work together, thae dog aggression problem again.

Your right! Thank you for responding.

Some of the traits you mention work agaist the use of APBT's . I know of several Pits being used as guard dogs that were stolen, by thugs. Their rep may scare off some, but attracts more...the easily bonding, good nerve you mention, make them prime canidates for de-conditioning. Not that most guard dogs get that much training to begin with.
Avoiding the obvious PR issues as asked, the fact that some pit dogs are being used for sport work doesn't change what they were bred for , excell at... dog fighting.
Gameness is not fight drive as it relates to man work.
Scenting ability could vary in dogs, but other more traditional breeds would be a better bet.

How do APBTs do in scent work? Anyone doing SAR, detection, tracking, w/APBTs?

We did a SAR AmStaff..was a APBT, but he was blue so all the hardcore Pit folks said he was a Staff...LOL. He was in our Humane Society and my civilain trainer(who is also the CT Humane Society Head Trainer/Behavior Person) pulled him out for me. He was a GREAT dog. 10 months old, a great nose, hunt drive all day, and soooo social. I couldn't find a PD that wanted him for Narc(free) so we started him in SAR. The dog is now in Turkey certified as one of the first national emergency response disaster dogs. He lives fulltime with a fireman and is a great little dog. I am told he's the best of the now I think six dogs in Turkey right now. I will give the credit and selection to my trainer Joanne Lincoln for picking him out, testing him and getting some of his foundation work done. She was a very proud "mom" when he left for Turkey.

That is interesting, Josh. I can see where the dogs would have the prey drive, just didn't know about their scenting skills.