The military will NEVER accept APBT...the reason is public perception. We can't even use E-collars unless one of the experts personally show us. Also, the military dogs must be capable of easy transition, multiple handlers, detection work is a priority( sorry don't know much about APBT detection), and the patrol work.

Impossible to answer this question without a philosophical point of view. I am no expert, but the breed name alone says it all, "Pit Bull" means purely and simply a terrier bred to fight in a fighting pit, originally or recently, it is not a pseudonym....an abomnation in and of itself. For all of the good qualities there may be, the original rationale for the breed indicates selecting for characteristics not desirable in a service dog. The breed's poor press is enough alone to keep public safety or service organizations from utilizing even the best APBT's very often, if ever....that name itself is negative. I live in what may be the dog fighting "capital" of the country...the Detroit Metro Area. Scarely a week passes we don't have newspaper coverage of some "pit bull" incident or dog fight "ring" police raid. I exercise and train my german shepherd regularly in Rouge Park, and the only "threats" I encounter are poorly trained, mentally stress conditioned, hyper-aggressive pit bull or pit bull mixes (such as cross with Neopolitan Mastiff)wholly lacking in aloofness and wholly overwhelmed with instant animal agression. Almost all of the park joggers carry 7-Irons for defense, and it isn't the shepherds, malinois, or dobermans they are afraid of. Within the past 5 days a "breeder" is the object of a neighbor's complaint, and newspaper article, for 6 up to 16 dogs, all pit bull terriers or mixes, each chained to a car axle stuck in the ground in his back yard on 3/8" alloy chains set so that dogs can't quite reach each other...one got loose and nearly killed another, and the guy was offered $3000 for the "winner" by a "fan." It is this sub-culture that looms in the public mind regarding APBT's, sad as it is a commentary on our natures. In contrast, there is a Michigan State Police dog, a GSD named "Taz" that goes to the pet store I use with his handler, and displays no agression toward the other dogs in the store, remains aloof and attentive to the handler, and isn't suspicious of the human strangers either...just goes about his business without distraction. My question is could the average or even a top APBT do the same regularly? The answer may be "yes", I don't know. My daughter, when 2-3 years old, spent great summer days with an American Bull Terrier, not a APBT, owned by a friend...fantastic with children, but same dog could not be allowed off leash near any other animal, ever. This is why I believe APBT's and derivative breeds are not used for serivce work, even though some do compete successfully in Schutzhund, with good, sane handlers.

WOW! this is obviously a sore subject for you. Any experienced dog person is awrw of the down side to Pit down breeds (animal aggression) but it does not mean they do not have ability and talent. Perhaps if 'more sane handlers' choose to own or breed them there would be less insane dogs. The biggest problem with these dogs is that they attract scum (no offense to the real dog people that own, including myself) The urbanites that breed for questionable purposes are breeding with no regarding to Temp. or physical soundness. There are some really great dogs out there. malinois are now becoming trendy as urban guard dog dogs get back to me in a few years when they have destroyed that breed as well.

I am going to close this thread. there is no question that Pits suffer a public relations nightmare and that while some could do service work the public image is not going to allow this to happen. It's just politically not going to happen.

So this is less an issue of the dogs capabilities and more a political issue. It's in the same catagory as assault rifles. There would not be any problem with them if they were not abused by a few.