How impervious to pain is the pit bull?

Pit Bulls and Pain

Pit Bulls are not impervious to pain. All humans and animals feel pain.

However, many Pit Bulls have been bred and trained to be fighting dogs. Just like a professional boxer who is trained to keep fighting through the pain, Pit Bulls may be "better" than other dogs at fighting through pain. For example, there are stories of Pit Bulls attacking children and being shot by the police multiple times, and even after this, their jaws have to be pried apart.

It is important to note that it isn't always easy to categorize dogs as Pit Bulls. Typically the dogs the media labels as "Pit Bulls" aren't related to the American Pit Bull Terrier. If it's large and muscular the media instantly slaps on the label of Pit Bull. This is the natural sensationalism of the media. According to one dog trainer, only a small percentage (say 8 or 9%) of the stories she has heard in the news where a "Pit Bull" attacked someone was a Bully actually involved.

This can be a controversial question for Pit Bull owners. Please click on the Discussion tab above to read more opinions on Pit Bulls.

Answer

It depends on the dog and the situation. For example, if one of these dogs really wants something, he can ignore pain to a large degree in order to get there. But step on his toe and he will still yelp. You have to take the motivation into consideration. Its not that these dogs don't feel the pain, but that they choose to ignore it because of something they'd rather do.

First answer by Marcy. Last edit by Bahamutt99. Contributor trust: 65 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 40 [recommend question]