Like bigarn, I was always an advicate for the "it's the owner not the dog" theory, until my parents got a pit bull. They got him as an 8 week old puppy and he was family raised, around small children and spoiled rotten for 2 yrs. Then one day my mom, myself my 2 little nieces and a family friend and her 2 sons were all in the backyard just hanging out all was fine the kids and dog were runinng and playing ball, until.... as we all watched in horror when the oldest one of the boys who was 8, just went to pet the dog and did nothing and i mean absolutely nothing to prevoke the dog in anyway and the dog just preceeded to turn his head around and take a big chomp out of the kid's arm!! We all freaked and started yelling at the dog and luckily he let go. It was still a serious enough injury that he needed alot of stitiches and later plastic surgery. The hospital auotmatically calls animal control and they told my parents they either had to put the dog to sleep or it would be labeled as vicious and if this happened again they would be held soley responsible. My parents felt so bad and so guilty for both the dog and the kid but after thinking it over a couple days they decided to have the dog put to sleep. Even though they were heartbroken to lose their dog they said it wasn't worth the risk of always having to be "on guard" around the dog and worrying about it attacking someone. Just take this story for what it's worth, dogs are still animals and even if you do everything right as an owner sometimes things can still go wrong, and with some breeds the risk is higher than others, you jus have to decide if the need to have the dog you want is worth it. My parents now have 2 border collies and they are the greatest dogs ever!! IMO pitbulls are dogs for mature adult only homes/owners and aren't really for a family setting, I know others will disagree but after my family's experience, I wouldn't own one again, the risk for me is just too great.