Late 60's, early 70's, I was in an obedience dog club in LA. One of our members had two pits. They were wonderful dogs to be around as were the other pits I ran into during the period. Fast forward 20 years and all you heard was how vicious pits were. Sorry, it was actually vicious OWNERS of pits, not the pits themselves. I commented, at the time, that I hoped the idiots didn't hear about Rotts. You can get a pit off the ground--and win the fight. Pretty hard to get a Rotty off the ground. Sure enough, someone told all of the idiots about Rottys. They now rank 9th most popular dog in America. Shameful. Americans have done a fine job of ruining several breeds of dogs--by making them "popular." Short list--Collies, Cocker Spaniels, Irish Setters, Dobies...etc. Using Cockers as an example, I have a wonderful old dog training book titled "Gun Dog Training with Elias Vail." He was a very famous gun dog trainer in the 30's-50's. One pic shows 4 Cockers--3 of them were Dual Champions with obedience titles, the 4th was a champion with a UDT degree. Since about 1955 there has not been a dual Cocker and probably never will be one again. Rotts were wonderful companion dogs, until someone decided to turn them into monsters. If you look at the standard, most of the Rotts you see today are over-standard--they could not be shown as Rotts. We now have vicious Rotts, with bad hips and other problems. I have a pit living across the street. He is a cutey! The kids wallow all over him. He's a saint of the Pit world. I have met few "bad" dogs that didn't get that way because someone MADE them bad--and probably bragged about it, too.
The problem is everyone wants to make a buck off of their dogs. You paid good money for the dog, you want to recoup it. Say, your dog is not a great specimen (according to the standard) and he has a few little personality quirks--maybe not bad ones, but... You run into someone who has the same breed. You have a male, they have a female...hey, let's make puppies--we can make money!! The bitch is, perhaps, not a great specimen, and she has quirks, too. So, you breed your, not very good, dog, to their, not very good, dog, and you get a littler of...not very good pups. And guess what? The quirks, say a tendency to be a little too sharp attitude-wise, have been multiplied. You sell the pups. You don't care what they turn out like--you made money!!! You're happy. The pups all have personality PROBLEMS. Guess what? The owners all breed their semi-idiots to other semi-idios and produce MONSTERS. I knew a fellow that produced a litter of 10 pups. He was thrilled! The money he was going to make!!! The pups killed each other--by their 6th week!! That's "the American way" to breed dogs.
I've always been proud that the breeds I really like have never gotten popular. So, the breeders all have an interest in producing GOOD dogs.
I think this was a bit of a rant, wasn't it?