I'm honestly very conflicted about the pitbull breed. My brother owned a pure-bred pitbull when we lived together in college. About 2 years after he got her, I moved in and adopted a mutt my brother brought home one day.

The pitbull was always a friendly girl, well-socialized, and frequently accompanied us to friends homes while she was growing up. She was accustomed to being around adults, children, and other dogs. We'd take her and her adopted sister to the dog park in the country and let them run around leash-less without a second thought. We both loved her to death and absolutely babied her.

One day, it was like a switch was flipped in the pitbull. I don't remember the exact incident when it started, but all of a sudden she wouldn't tolerate any other dogs except those that she had already been socialized with. If she was allowed around any strange dog, she would almost immediately attack. I want to emphasize that she was never trained as a guard dog or fighter. I know a lot of people raise their dogs to behave this way. But, this dog was raised very well. (in hindsight, obviously not well enough) I hate dog-fighting and people who breed dogs for aggression.

She never displayed any aggressive behavior outside the near instant attacks on other dogs. Even prior the attacks, she displayed no obvious aggression. She would remain completely silent, but get a certain demeanor, like a big cat stalking it's prey. She would become very silent and her eyes would focus only on the other dog while every muscle tensed. She'd get very low to the ground, charge them, bite down once, and not let go. This happened several times in different situations...a neighbor would stop by with their dog on the leash and when we opened the door, the pitbull would spring out. Or, we'd have a raging party and someone would let her slip out the door, not realizing she'd immediately attack any other dog in the neighborhood. I got disturbingly good at breaking up dog fights, a couple of which resulted in a vet bill for stitches.

Thankfully, my mutt never picked up this behavior and we eventually had routines down to prevent the pitbull from coming in to contact with other dogs by accident. My dog and the pitbull continued to live together without a problem, as they'd basically been raised together.

I moved out after graduating college and I didn't see a lot of my brother or his pitbull for about three years. But, circumstances led us to both be staying with our parents with our dogs a couple of years later.

We'd been staying together for about a month when I got a call from my frantic mother on my cell phone while I was in the middle of a lake in a canoe with my brother. She was in tears and said the dogs were killing each other. We rowed as fast as we could back to our car, left the canoe and raced home. It probably took 20 minutes from the time I got the call to make it home.

When we got there, the dog fight had been broken up. Blood was spattered on the walls. My 72 year old father had tied the pitbull up and was so out of breath and disoriented he didn't know where my mutt was and just pointed in the back yard. I ran out and began calling her name, but I didn't see her anywhere and she wouldn't come to me.

My parents' house is on a very steep hill and my brother and I began climbing down it while calling her name. When we reached the bottom, we still hadn't seen her. After several agonizing minutes of calling for her, she limped out of the nearby woods, covered in blood. She could hardly walk and was in far worse shape than anything I'd seen from the previous pitbull attacks. Now, I think that's only because the other attacks were all stopped within seconds, not because they were any less savage.

I scooped her up and we immediately drove to the emergency vet's office with both dogs. The pitbull didn't have any serious-seeming injuries, but had some wounds that could require stitching. My dog, on the other hand, was in shock and bleeding badly from multiple puncture wounds and a serious injury to one of her legs where I had held a large flap of her skin together on the way to the vet. The vet was uncertain if she'd survive.

My dog was taken to emergency surgery. While we waited, my brother tearfully told me that he wanted to have his pitbull put down. I had loved this dog nearly as much as he did for the past 7 years, and I encouraged him not to do it, or at least to take the night to think about it. But, he told me he really thought it was for the best and he broke down and said he didn't think he'd be able to do it if he didn't do it right away. He decided to have her put down immediately. I always wish we had done more to rehabilitate her and to prevent this from happening in the first place. I tear up and sometimes straight up cry thinking about it, more than 3 years later. After all, this was a dog that had slept in my bed and hogged the covers many nights!

Eventually, we were sent home from the vets office with my dog still in surgery and the pitbull having been put down. Nobody was in a very good mood. Over the next several days, we continued to visit the vet's office and my dog struggled through a period when we didn't know if she would live, and if she lived we didn't know whether she'd lose a leg or have serious brain damage. The expense was enormous. Thankfully, I'd been living with my parents for almost two years and had saved several thousand dollars. All of it went to her and, thankfully, she pulled through. After a week of surgeries and rising vet bills, she got to come home. It then took months of several-times-a-day bandage changes, wearing a cone, barely able to get up, weekly vet visits, follow-up surgery, and ever-mounting bills, but she made it through the whole ordeal with only a few scars left to show for it.

I still think of our pitbull regularly and wish we'd done things differently, somehow. It's a tragedy that her breeding and our training (or lack thereof, I'm still not sure) led to what it did. While I would never allow another pitbull as a member of my household, I still love her and miss her. I don't think the breed is inherently more vicious than other dogs. But, I think breeding and training is more important than ever in breeds like pitbulls. I caution anyone who is considering purchasing a pitbull to consider their special needs and be careful raising them.

TL:DR; From now on, though, I'm sticking with mutts.

Edit: I just wanted to apologize for bringing my baggage in to your post. Congrats on the new puppy and I hope he/she doesn't destroy too much stuff while making it through the puppy phase!