The truth is that it is not the dog that is at fault.....it is the owners who take advantage of the pit bull's build and turn the sweet dog, which was previously referred to as the "nanny dog", into a literal killing machine. The reason pit bulls have such a bad reputation is a result of cross breeding by ruthless gangs who fight dogs illegally for money and their own amusement. The American Temperament Testing Society did a recent test on 122 different dog breeds which showed that pit bulls are not any more vicious than the average golden retriever. The pit bulls passed with an astounding 83.6%, which is better than beagles at 78.2% and the same as golden retrievers. The truth is that pit bulls really don't attack abnormally more than other dog breeds. Pit bulls are so powerful that when they do attack, it makes the news. Another positive characteristic of pit bulls is that they are really easy to train because all they want to do is please their owner.