Original subtitles

(music and dogs barking)

Narrator: Pitbulls. Rottweilers, German Shepherds.

Dogs with a bad name.

Fighting machines, a menace to society, potential killers.

But they're family pets too

and some people aren't buying in to their bad reputation.

A lot of folks don't like that their dog is a branded breed.

Muzzled by law, on a tight leash, on the fringes.

Maybe they are misunderstood, maybe

they're the victims of negative press.

Maybe these deadly dogs aren't so scary after all.

(music)

C'mon, quickly Butch.

(clicking noise)

Hey c'mon you.

Get out for a minute.

C'mon Elsa.

(dog barking)

Y'alright, y'alright, just ignore it just ignore it.

She just doesn't know what the camera is.

Come on, quickly, quickly.

You see, that's why it's so important that if you're ever

bringing strange people into your house or strange equipment

you know, you have to understand from the dog's point

of view that she hasn't a notion what that camera is.

So, you know

just at that stage I was lucky

enough to have some food in my hand

I'm not saying anything would have happened,

she just doesn't know what the camera is.

To just redirect her from the camera,

let her eat her food so she'll be more comfortable.

No just ignore her, you can just leave the camera rolling on her

but the main thing is like if she turns around and

looks at you, you just don't give her any eye contact.

Narrator: This is Lily and her dog Elsa.

Elsa is one of four pitbulls that Lily owns.

She's had pitbulls since she was a young girl.

She's an old girl, she's probably

just a little bit nervous you know?

(music)

She's one of me oldest this little one is.

They're a great dog, they're very loyal, loving.

They love people, they crave human attention.

When you own these dogs there's another

thing that you have to understand is

the fear the general public have of these dogs.

And you've got to respect it.

Every dog was bred for a specific purpose.

The pitbull was bred for animal combat.

(dog growling)

(laughing)

It's like a rottweiler, it's like a German Shepherd.

You know, it's like most of the dogs

that are around today are not used

for their original purposes and can easily

settle in to family homes and be pets.

I'm not saying that

pitbulls haven't attacked anybody, they have.

When you come to own a stronger breed such as a pitbull or

a mastiff or a rottweiler or any of the stronger breeds,

you've more of a responsibility

with a bigger dog. I suppose it's like

driving a mini car, to going to a Ferrari.

You know, it's a totally different ball game.

So, they're not a breed for everybody.

Narrator: The pitbull is one of 11 breeds

on the restricted list in Ireland.

By law, the dogs on this list must be muzzled

and on a short lead in public at all times.

Lily: We've got a country like the UK that have

had these dogs banned for over 20 years now.

And look at the amount of attacks that's happening

in that country where these dogs are banned.

Like we've a simple thing such as restrictions in

this country, which a lot of people don't agree with.

We're living in a country where we've had no children

killed by dogs, there's been plenty of attacks.

When we take on dogs we have a

responsibility to keep the public safe.

And that's exactly what we need to do but in order to keep the

public safe you gotta realise what

you have on the end of the lead.

(music and dog barking)

This is Shadow and his owner, Anthony.

Antho got into training dogs a few years ago. Shadow, a Belgian

Shepherd, keeps watch over Antho and his family in Blessington.

It takes years to build up a proper bond with your dog.

Once you have that bond with

the dog, the dog sees you as God.

(dog barking)

My dog will die for me, no problem,

hand on heart, will stand up against 20 fellas,

go up against and he will die for me, no problem.

(music)

He's not an aggressive dog, he's a

trained dog, there's a difference.

He's a man-stopper basically, you know he's trained to

stop somebody doing something wrong and that's what he is.

(gunshots)

They are a high drive dog, if

he's not trained correctly he can

turn aggressive because he's doing

what comes natural to him.

Out. Out. Good boy.

You have to know what you're doing, if you train

a dog the wrong way, it becomes a weapon.

They are a highly strung dog and there's

cases where they have turned on their owners

because the dog has no respect, the dog's never been

corrected, it doesn't know what it's doing, it just wants

to bite bite bite everybody and it doesn't matter if

you're the handler or the owner, it'll turn on you.

- How are you, alright? - Not too bad, how are you?

(grunting)

Oh yeah, good boy!

Shadow's kept at home as a house dog.

He's kept with twin girls and the girlfriend. Not a

problem round the house, no bother with the kids.

He's a working dog, you have to have respect.

I never trust any dog around kids 100%. Never ever ever.

I have to watch them. I have to be weary

of who's coming in and out of the house.

You do have to be careful. He's trying to

do a job and he's working all the time

and that's the problem, you have to watch him. If you forget

that he's there, accidents can happen and that's the problem.

But someone comes round the house

or someone comes into the house,

He switches on, he goes into wolf mode.

You know he's there, you know he's

in the room, you'll feel his eyes.

He'll watch your body language, the way you behave in the house,

if you behave fine and you're sociable, no problem.

But if you make the wrong move, or

you got a command, he will attack.

(music)

Narrator: Here's Laura and Jason with their sons Riley and Logan.

They have two dogs, Buddy who's a border terrier and Ruby,

that's Ruby in the muzzle, a staffordshire bull terrier.

Me and Jason were on together a couple of months

and he went in to shops and seen an advert on the

shop window for what was advertised as a pitbull,

and Jason had grown up with pitbulls when he was younger.

So erm...

I kind of was a bit, oh God, we're gonna get a pitbull.

I was like oh I don't know, and we went to see

her and I fell in love with her straight away.

We had no kids at the time so she was my baby like.

I can remember when I first got pregnant,

people were saying to me 'you'll have

to get rid of that dog. You'll have to

get rid of her, she'll attack the baby'.

But I knew she wouldn't.

So we brought Riley home and we introduced them slowly.

She was never left alone with them or anything

like that but there wasn't a bother on her.

A few months back, the dog somehow got out.

Laura and Jason still don't know what happened.

For Ruby, the escape would prove costly.

Both Ruby and Buddy had gotten out together.

And there was an incident. There was a man

walking his dog on a lead and obviously

my two dogs weren't on a lead and they

were running towards the man's dog.

(music)

It was just a chasing game.

Ruby didn't injure this dog.

A man had stopped on the road in the car and got out to try and

help the man with the dog and gave Ruby a couple of kicks.

(music)

Second incident had happened. A little girl was walking up

this way with her dog and my two dogs came out from this way.

And the little girl obviously seen the

dogs before she approached and ran

across the road. Now God bless her

she must have got an awful fright.

(music)

I don't think it was an attack, it

was being called an attack but there

was no injured parties, no scratched

animals. There was nothing wrong.

(music)

Jason: The girl that actually arrived on the

scene when the incident happened says 'what

are you doing with that dog, why wouldn't you

get a cocker-spaniel or something like that.

So obviously everybody judges a dog on its appearance.

(music)

(dog yapping)

Laura: Ruby was seized. We were just

told she was being brought to the pound.

And on Monday morning we had called the dog

warden and he said that the dog wasn't being

given back. That there was an investigation

into it now because she had attacked.

We were basically given an option to

put the dog to sleep or go to court.

I was distraught, I didn't eat, I didn't sleep.

Narrator: Laura fought a long campaign to save Ruby.

After 6 weeks in the pound, the dog was released on probation.

In a few days, Laura will face the court,

when Ruby's fate will finally be decided.

Laura: Kids absolutely adore the both dogs.

They're part of the family, it'd be like

if one of us would be missing to them.

I can't wait to just close the book on the whole

situation, it's been an absolute nightmare.

(music)

Narrator: Rottweilers have been a

byword for fierce dogs for a long time.

When Ciara in Cork and her husband

Greg were on the lookout for

a pet 12 years ago, they weren't scared away by the stereotype.

I always wanted a dog, always wanted

a big dog once I moved out of home.

So when we were here, we

used to be driving around and next

thing I saw there's these dogs

that I didn't know what they were.

So we pulled over to this woman and

asked her 'what kind of dog is that?'

so she said 'a rottie'.

So we were like 'That's a rottie?!

Isn't that supposed to be a scary dog?'

Got out of the car and rubbed him

and just fell head over heels and

everyone that I came up against

were the same. Big slobs of dogs.

So, Greg was the same, we said 'we have

to have one of them. We have to have.'

It didn't matter what

breed the dog was, it was like a big bear, like a big

gentle bear, that's what we thought they were like.

I remember putting out my hand on top of the dogs head

and was like 'God, his head's bigger than my hand.'

Narrator: One giant dog wasn't enough for Ciara

and Greg. Leroy was joined by Missy 6 years ago.

Ciara: Now that they're big and they

kind of slob along, very few people

would cross the road or anything but

when he was smaller, they used to.

A black dog gets a bad name anyway.

Apparently my friend re-homes dogs and the

black ones are so much harder to re-home

than the blond and everything, which is

totally unfair, being a brunette myself!

I just walk them cos they're just my dogs.

You know, whereas obviously when you do see the young fellas and

they have them out the front and they've got a gash in them. Even

though those dogs are probably lovely

too. But I think the way you are

about them definitely helps the

way people look at you with them.

Greg: We're probably talking about the dog

like a child but to me it's probably the same

principal. It's what you would teach your child

to do the right thing or what isn't right maybe.

They're our family and that's what we see them as.

Laura: If anything happens down the line that

they make it harder to get rotties or turn

people off getting them, people are

missing out on having such a lovely dog.

Greg: Just because they're big and

strong, they're put in a box by society.

I think it is unfair just branding,

it's like branding a race

you know, it's just like saying all those people are bad.

I mean really it doesn't make,

it's with no justification.

They've never done anything to anybody.

(music)

Up the road in west Dublin, Karl and the boys are meeting up with

Up the road in west Dublin, Karl and the boys are meeting up with their pitbulls and American staffordshire terriers.

their pitbulls and American staffordshire terriers.

(music)

Ata girl!

Good girl, huh.

Who's a good girl, now, sit.

That's a good girl. You break that up and give it to the dog.

Stand over there, now, see. Tell him easy.

Say 'easy Chop' - Easy Chop.

Don't be afraid. - Easy chop.

That's a good boy - Good boy.

Sit.

Scooby's crying over a biscuit, look!

(laughing)

They're all settling down now, at the start when they meet each

other, they're all hyper just to see

each other you know what I mean.

And now they've all calmed down like. Except

for him, he's going mad over his biscuits.

(laughing and dog barking)

Yogi.

Yogi.

Now take them away.

Take the dog away cos she's trying to domineer your dog.

Sit!

And she knows that I'm not gonna take

any shit off her. But she'll sense that

if somebody is not 100% in control, she

will probably you know, get rough.

(dogs barking)

Chop, shut it!

You see the way she's not going. Yogi! So you

have to catch her in that moment, straight away.

Shut up!

(barking)

Let's move out a bit that all the dogs

aren't on top of each other, you know.

Ata boy Chop.

Now it'd be great to let them off there but

we'd have to hold Yogi. We go in there.

Or we go in there.

Alright let's go, come on!

Come on boys.

(music)

It used to bother me when I used to be walking the

dogs and people would jump off the path and all and

they'd have their own dogs and they'd be nervous and that but

then if I says look he's alright,

he's grand and they'd say

Oh no no and they still wouldn't trust you I would but

the dog's alright like, as you can see,

there they are there running around

and there's kids involved here and you

know. There's not a bother on them.

They're a medium sized dog and they don't shed

hair and all for in the house as well but yeah.

I'd say like if someone looks over your wall and sees

one of them as well, they're not gonna jump in either but...

I'd rather have that than a hairy

German shepherd sitting on

my couch with hairs all over the place you know what I mean.

But they're easily manageable in that way.

(kid shouting)

You see little jack russells that run out and they could

be in the room and they could bite a

kid or you know it's all the one like.

If she seen a jack Russell now, she'd run over to

me but look at the size of them dogs and she won't.

journalist: What happened?

She got bit by a jack Russell.

A dog on the road that wasn't on a lead.

And the dog ran over and bit her on the arm.

Broke the skin.

I wouldn't leave her in a room on her own with the dog.

You don't trust any dog, you know.

But under my supervision or Dean's

supervision, it's only being responsible.

(music)

Narrator: On a bleak Monday in Portlaoise, Heidi from the LSPCA

rescue was confronted with the dark side of dog ownership.

Heidi: The LSPCA helpline got a call, from the

young girl to say that she'd found a staffie

It had been tied to a tree and it was

in a bad way. They took me down to the dog

and basically he was hidden in bushes under

a tree, right at the back behind houses.

Nobody from the road could see it.

There was old and fresh blood there, there were quite a lot

of dog poops there so he'd been there a couple of days.

What beats me is that someone tied him up and

kept going back to him and leaving him there in

that condition and going back to him. How anybody

could do something like that is beyond me.

We came back in the afternoon to just take a walk around and

just take a picture of where he was so that you can see him

the way they'd hidden him in the bushes and the tree.

And when we arrived and my husband pulled in here

and the next thing he just hit reverse and went and

just between the two houses there was about 9-11 lads.

We thought no we're not going to take the chance of going

in there. They'd obviously been there looking for the dog.

And even the guard just said to stay out.

A baiting dog would be tied to a tree or a pole. It's face

would be masked so that it can't fight back. In severe

cases, if it could break the tape they'd actually break the

teeth out so the dog cannot fight back. And then they would

set a pack of dogs on them.

Because the more competition there is, the

more ferocious these fighting dogs would be.

(music)

Narrator: Some dogs are scary because they look like wolves.

Maybe even have a bit of wolf in them.

This pair play the ferocious direwolves in Game of Thrones.

In real life they're Thor and Odin, belonging

to the Mulhalls in Ardglass County Down.

So the breed is northern Inuit and it

came from a mix of Alsatian, wolf,

husky and malamute, all mixed together to make

the most wolf hybrid dog that you can have.

Usually when dogs get to about 4 years

of age, Alsatians or doberman,

large dogs, they start to take over

the house and the surroundings.

These guys are quite flexible, you

know, you have a little talk with them

and say no you can't do that or

whatever and then they work with you.

(dog howling)

They are a part of the family, they are

actually a big part of our family.

Every day we look out for them, every

day we feed them, every day we

walk them and every day we show them

to tourists from across the world.

We had absolutely no concept when

we first went in to the film.

I thought it was just going to be a middle ages, run

around with a few swords, cut a few heads off.

I had absolutely no idea it was going to be the biggest

film in the world and I don't think anybody did.

A lot of people see them on the TV and it's just like

seeing a real life actor you know and there's something

spectacular about it and cos they're so cute

and cuddly it makes it a whole lot better.

Gimme a howl. Howl. Howl.

No howl, alright.

It's almost as big as seeing Obi-wan

or C3P0 you know what I mean.

Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker...

Elvis.

(music)

(birds crowing)

Sometimes when people look at them

they can be very scared of them.

As soon as you see the dogs it is a very scary thing

you know like they look so real like they're gonna eat

your head off you know but they're not, they're just

interested in what you are and then they'll run on.

That's just the nature of the breed.

If someone's afraid of a wolf, it's because they've been read

childrens' stories about Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,

and Little Red Riding Hood. All these are written

by older men to scare people, why? I don't know.

Oh what big eyes you have, oh what big teeth

you have, all the better to bite you with.

So when children are growing up they're told wolves are

bad so kids are gonna grow up thinking wolves are bad.

But any kids that we know that have met the wolves,

they are their favourite dog now you know.

So we're doing our bit for love the wolf.

(cinematic tense music)

Narrator: There's been a surge in

popularity of dogs with the wolf look.

Mostly thanks to their presence in big movies and shows.

Cameron and his mother Jacqueline found out

just how fierce a real life husky can be.

And all my friends love dogs so, we saw a husky and I think

it was a little small dog, I don't know what it was.

And then we went into the garden

and we were playing with the dogs.

And the dogs were messing with each other

and we're all laughing and then I went in to wait

in the garden and I was petting the dogs and

my arm just got tired and I stopped petting the

big dog and started petting the small dog.

The big dog obviously got jealous

and then just attacked me.

The friend ran around to my ma's house, screaming

screaming quick quick Cameron Cameron.

And I thought he was after getting

knocked down or something. I was like...

Ran down, I was like, what's wrong, what's wrong?

I just went into shock. So they came back

and told me his face was badly marked.

So my sister went down in the ambulance with him

and I was brought down in a car to the hospital.

And when I went in and seen Cameron, I nearly died.

His face was ripped apart.

He received over 50 stitches on his face and he was very lucky

because another half centimetre, his eye would have been gone.

Look you can't even see this one anymore.

- And I had loads - He had some under her as well.

- But they're all gone - They're faded.

They're gone. And even my friends said

that in school that all of them are gone.

They can't really see any of them just

this one cos this scar's very thick.

He's having future surgery now just to correct his

lip but he's done good and just a freak accident.

The dog's put down. Straight away. The guards

went down and took the dog off the dog owner.

The dog owner was happy to give the

dog, take him and he was destroyed.

People get these dogs because they

look good. They're a beautiful dog but

they're not a dog to be left in a

back garden and be walked once a day.

And that's just how I feel, and as far as the restricted list, I

don't think it's any use at all

because all dogs can attack a child.

(music)

Cameron: I still do love dogs, now.

And like I love cuddling up with my dog,

sitting down and watching telly with him.

Jacqueline: He's lucky he's not afraid of dogs

but I hope he's learnt a lesson and he'd know not to rub a stray

dog again, a dog he doesn't know or go into a garden with a dog.

But he's a child and that's what children do.

People on the radio saying where was

I, where was the mother. This accident

literally happened around the corner

from my mother's house and Cameron's 11.

He's a boy, I can't...

say 'you're not allowed to go out and play.'

It can happen to anyone, it can happen to any child.

You could be walking down the

street, a dog that's not on a lead

the dog can run and attack you.

And it's everywhere you see dogs without leads, everywhere.

Little, small, they're all dogs and they can bite. Can't they.

Yeah.

(music)

Narrator: After more than 30 years

on the beat as a warden in Clare,

Frankie has faced off with more dogs than most.

(music)

Frankie: I suppose I've been bitten 9 or 10 times.

Badly bitten 9 or 10 times, and

small bites, it's part of the job, yeah.

I have been assaulted,

I've been threatened on more than one occasion.

I've been hospitalised after an assault and

yeah, you'd be hated by a lot of the community

but there's an awful lot more there that respect it.

Look,

Come up this way a bit, it's better, round there.

(chatter)

A dangerous dog can be any breed, any dog.

The most dangerous dogs that I have seen, have

been what are classed as pets. Labradors,

I've seen some terrible attacks on people and

livestock. So any dog really can be dangerous.

You don't want to go do you?

Good boy.

No, stop stop.

I had to go for a black Labrador.

And it attacked its own owner.

And I have never ever seen a more dangerous dog in my

life in the 25 years I've been involved in this job.

This black Labrador would have killed me if he could have and

would have killed a member of the public if he had escaped.

Now that's unusual, because normally

Labradors are a wonderful breed.

I've kept them all my life myself.

But this dog, the world I would use in any dog, it's a

rogue. You get a rogue dog, it's hard to be prepared for it.

We had three cases in the one year a couple of years ago,

where dogs and they all happened to

be husky dogs, attacked children.

One of the neighbours child was attacked, very

badly mauled and another, the parents own

child, by their own dog was mauled on their own property.

9 out of 10 of the really bad cases I dealt

with, the dogs were on their owners property.

So I mean, there's not much a dog warden can do about that.

90% of dogs will give the owners the warning

that they are going to do something.

And a lot of people put it off.

The amount of people that would say to me. 'oh he bit my niece,

he bit my daughter, he bit myself, oh I think it's time.'

I think it's time after the first bite

to muzzle that dog or let the dog go.

Don't be waiting for the child's face

to be destroyed and I have seen several

of those cases where childrens' faces

have been destroyed by their owners' dog.

It's your responsibility, you're the

parent, you've got to protect your child.

So I mean I'm not looking for dogs to be destroyed

here, I'm looking for owners to be responsible.

Keep her on the lead please.

It's not illegal to have a dangerous dog,

it's illegal not to have a dangerous dog under control.

Like every law, it only works with

certain people who comply to it.

There's another element there that

don't comply to the law and they

have dogs which are basically weapons

and that's what they're used for.

(music)

It's 24 hours since Heidi found a staffordshire

bull terrier tied to a tree and left for dead

on a ghost estate in Portlaoise.

That's Buzz

And that's Tom who's looking after Buzz.

Tom: Heidi rushed him in. He was

literally just wrapped up, bleeding.

Collapsed cold, shocked, very very

sick. He had extensive wounds and gashes

along his right shoulder and chest and he has also

got facial bruising and eye injuries as well.

We suspect that he has been involved in either

dog fighting or maybe even dog baiting and

perhaps even that he got some blunt trauma or

even some injuries through beating as well.

This is quite repulsive when you see something like this.

Buzz is such a docile dog, he doesn't

deserve to get victimised like this.

The breed of dog that he is, which is a

staffie, a staffordshire bull terrier,

I think that they do get bad press

because of their physical appearance

but I mean when a staffie comes up on the table I'm more

concerned about whether my glasses are going to get licked

so that I can see out.

I've never been bitten by a staffordshire bull terrier

and what happens with this type of a dog, because

they have the physical ability, because they're such

powerful, strong dogs, if they're in the wrong hands,

they can be generated into a fighting machine,

but it's not the instinct of this dog.

He's never had any TLC, never had.

So he was bred purely for a function and that

function was obviously for fighting I would think.

And again if he didn't turn out to be the big powerful fighting

dog, well then I think he was like

the sheep to be sacrificed then.

Where they blood the other dogs but

he didn't deserve any of this anyway.

(music)

(road noise)

Narrator: In a back yard in Meath, Sarah Jane and

Mia are getting their dogs ready for a walk.

Otis, the smaller one, is an English

bulldog who's not on the restricted list.

And the big one is a bull mastiff called Leyla, who is.

Mick: The bull mastiff, they're a big, powerful dog.

In the wrong hands, they could be a very dangerous weapon.

Like a gun, like a knife, like a car. You put

anything in the wrong hands, it's going to be dangerous.

Sarah Jane, Leyla is actually her dog. She's

not my dog, we bought her for Sarah Jane.

I know what type of dog I have here.

I wouldn't have a dangerous dog around my kids.

Leyla was reared with my kids, with me, we

reared her the right way, we socialised her.

Sit! Sit!

Good girl.

Mick: I walk Leyla local here and

she doesn't have a muzzle on her.

I know she's not going to do anything with

the muzzle or without the muzzle on her.

All the muzzle does to me is make a dog look more aggressive.

(dog panting)

Notice people crossing the road or

jumping back away from her because she's so

big, when you're at the shop. But nobody has

ever come over and said 'look you must get

that dog out of here' no never had that.

Ok, let them off.

Go!

I'd only let the dogs off the lead where

I know there's no other dogs around.

Where the dogs won't bolt.

I'd only feel comfortable in places that I know.

I wouldn't let them off the lead if I went to

a different park where I don't know the dogs.

I don't know whether someone else

might have a dog off the leash.

Cos I know that my dogs won't do anything to a dog but

I don't know if a dog would do something to them.

(music)

Narrator: Out for an evening stroll a

couple of weeks ago, Karen and her

collie Milo were met with the perils of

meeting a couple of dogs off the lead.

(chatter)

See this little fella was attacked a couple of

weeks ago, so he's had a rough couple of weeks

but he's doing grand now.

Come on.

(clicking noise)

You nervous?

No?

He's not doing down, he's nervous.

That's weird, that's the first

time he hasn't run out to the sea.

I'm a bit startled about that and that's

another little thing I hadn't anticipated.

That he'd have normally

jumped right down those steps and into

the sea and he just wouldn't go there.

And now he's like this,

That's not like Milo.

This is his first time back here since it happened.

It was a lovely day and the sea was just

a day like this, the tide was way out.

There was a man out there with two dogs, way out to sea.

And Milo loves going out to sea so I just let him

off the lead and he just charged out to the two dogs

and next thing one of the dogs starts to

attack him, grabbed him by the throat.

And the closest thing I've ever seen was

you know on the telly you'd see a

hare being flipped or a rag-doll

or something you know of that, from the

neck, thrown forwards or back like that.

Then the other dog starts to attack him, these two big dogs

I didn't know the actual breeds of them

at the time, I had to Google them

afterwards to see exactly what they were.

They're bull mastiff terriers.

And neither were

on a lead and neither had a muzzle.

And then eventually the guy got his two

dogs on leads and then he disappeared.

He went off this way, walked up the beach

this way and went up the stairs up here.

I thought he was dead.

He was just completely covered top

to toe in Grey sludge and blood.

There was a puncture wound went

straight in there, right into his jaw.

And all along here.

And his throat was just ripped open.

You know what keeps going through my head is this is a

dog and I love him to bits but what if he was a child.

You know I have three children, what if it was a child that

went out to the beach that day and was grabbed by the throat.

That's the bit I worry about.

(music)

Narrator: On the Curragh plains, a whole crowd of

bull breed owners get together for a Sunday walk.

(music)

They're all hyper, it's like kids going to a party!

(music and background chatter)

We kind of get together April through October generally

just purely for the weather, to socialise the dogs.

Because we're not able to bring our dogs into dog

parks, we're asked to leave if they're on the restricted list.

You're told to leave, the dogs are not allowed in

and we also find that whenever we do go somewhere,

that people with other breeds are not always

open to letting their dog socialise with ours.

(dogs barking)

I have mother and daughter,

American pitbulls,

I've two more at home but I've only two arms.

They're sweethearts absolutely,

they have a bad reputation obviously.

But, they're pets, absolute pets.

No matter what you've got, a poodle or a jack Russell,

they'll always find some dog they don't like.

You know, they'll always have an

interaction somewhere along the line.

And the minute it's a pitbull or a

bully or a something of that breed,

it's advertised everywhere

but nothing about a poodle or a Labrador and

the biggest biter in Europe is a Labrador.

I bring him out just to socialise him.

To prove the negativity behind her, prove it wrong.

It's just a stigma behind her.

Nothing against yous but it's more so the media.

You know.

That has tarnished them.

We're just trying to do good and give them a good name back.

We have to come to not even a private

place, just somewhere off, we couldn't

come walk down the middle of a street now could we.

You know, we'd be intimidating.

Just because what they've read in the papers.

(music)

You do have to look at lineage and the way that they're bred

to know everything that's behind the dog like you know.

But

she has good lineage now behind her.

People probably would have used her ancestors

for things that we don't use them as

but I chose to go a different route with her,

and look at her.

She's as docile as they come.

There's three or four different breeds there.

Staffie, American pit, Am staff and a pit.

(dog barking)

I know myself I wouldn't keep an aggressive dog.

(music)

Narrator: This is Alan.

And that's Swagger.

Alan likes rottweilers.

A lot.

I've spend 34 years obsessed with

rottweilers, passionate about the breed.

I bought my first rottweiler when I was 18.

But my parents wouldn't allow me to keep the pup

so I bought a house so I could keep my pup.

(music)

We have

14 dogs

13 rottweilers and one Swedish vallhund.

(music)

Narrator: 13 rottweilers in a

back garden in Cavan may sound like the

foundations for a riot squad, but this

is breeding ground for champions.

(music)

Alan: I was an exhibitor for 15 or 16 years.

I would buy a rotweiler, I would show it

and then, you'd have people say oh yeah he's

won this and won that but what has he bred.

So, I then bought myself a very good bitch.

She's done a lot of willing, we bred her. Everything we have now

in our kennels that you've seen today,

they've all come from her.

It's very easy to go just down the road cos

your mate has a good dog and breed with his dog

but with Facebook and the internet you get to

see all these dogs from all over the world.

And for years I was buying

magazines and I was drooling over

these dogs going 'oh God I wish I could have some of that.'

Now I realised, yeah no point in

dreaming, I can have some of this.

(music)

I started travelling to Germany, bringing

dogs in from Germany, travelling to Croatia,

breeding with what I thought were the top dogs in the world.

When you drive all the way to Croatia and

you have little pups, it's very hard not

to keep one or two or three or four and

that's really how the numbers creep up.

Come on.

(dogs panting)

Going back into the early 80s, there was an

explosion of the population of rottweilers

people just wanted rottweilers and in the

80s, we had a number of dog attacks.

And whether it was a rottweiler or not a

rottweiler, it was attributed to a rottweiler

cos at the time, rottweilers made headlines.

All my rottweilers are socialised.

From the day they're born, they interact with their puppies.

It's all about early imprinting.

So the puppies from before they can open their eyes, are well

used to being handled by children.

They love human contact.

If you've got a steady, calm dog, he's not gonna

bite. Because dogs bite through nervous aggression.

So it's all about responsible ownership.

A fully grown male rottweiler can do

as much damage as a loaded shotgun.

(music)

They actually have to look for my vet receipts for court.

They want them because when she came out the

pound, she was sick so they want them for that.

Narrator: Laura and Jason are going to court.

Their staffie Ruby got out and

allegedly attacked people and dogs.

After months on probation, today Ruby's fate will be decided.

Jason: I think it was the fact that there was no

people injured or dogs harmed that we actually fought.

Had it been the other way around where

she actually did bite somebody or she

did savage somebody's dog, we would

have thought differently about it.

(music)

See you later.

(music)

First case in and out, boom.

It's all over now and you can get on with your life.

- Close the book now - Get on with Ruby's life too.

Woo!

I have to pay the South Dublin county

council €200 euro towards their costs.

And, we didn't get a fine as such, I have to pay

€150 to the DSPCA, so it's going to dogs anyway.

By June I think it has to be paid.

That was it, no fine, no big fine, my dog is still at home.

I'm gonna go home and see my little dog on the sofa so I am.

Maurice: I would hope that the law would be

changed at some point in the future.

That you'd categorise a dog not by breed but by deed.

One of the great ironies about

some of the restricted breeds is that

the staffordshire bull terrier was known once

as the nanny dog, cos it was so good with children.

So the law I think can be made an ass of in these instances.

(cork popping)

To Ruby!

We bring her in?

You're never going on your holidays again Ruby.

Gracie was never said but I think it was

just a total discrimination of breed.

You know so yeah I think it is a

major victory for restricted breeds.

We done everything possible to get her home

so I am, and now it's finished thank God.

(music)

(growling)

(growling and barking)

Narrator: It's a big day out for a load of bull breed owners

from all over the country, and it's all been organised by Lily.

We do athletics with them, we do long

jumps, high jumps, speed pull, weight pull.

It's just a fun day out for these types of

dogs cos they're not very welcome in other places

like agility places or the kennel club for instance

you can't have these type of dogs up there.

Woo!

(music and ambient sounds)

You've probably over 100 dogs here today, all

different type of bulldogs and pitbulls and staffs.

You can see that all the owners

have them under effective control.

If there was someone irresponsible

here they'd be asked to leave.

(clapping)

Little bit intimidating for people, could be,

but we know our dogs, we're used to our dogs.

You either love these dogs or you

don't you know and when you're

passionate about them, nothing

will stop the drive that you have.

I don't know whether people's

perception will change with time.

The dogs are going nowhere at the end of the day and

someone has to help and look out for them don't they.

(music)

Narrator: 7 weeks since she found

him at death's door in a derelict

estate, Heidi from the LSPCA has re-homed Buzz the staffie.

Today she's dropping in to see how

he's settling in with his new family.

He's just got a little bit of a scar but he's

literally healed physically and mentally as you can see.

I mean he's got a staffie little girlfriend,

a little dog, big dogs and you can just see

he's settled in.

With him being involved in fighting, he would

automatically (inaudible) another staffie

and you can see that wasn't true.

They will kiss us, he'll kill em and kiss us.

It's not the breed of the dog.

I'll stick by that 100%

I mean there's two here and you haven't

seen any aggression from either of them.

But I mean if you're gonna breed

them and you're gonna fight them.

They don't know any better, so it's not the dog's fault.

He's a pet.

He's not a fighter dog, he's not a dog

that can be used as bait for another pet.

He's a pet.

He deserves what he's got now is what he deserves.

To be loved and cuddled and well looked after.

It would break my heart if he

ever landed up in that kind of situation again.

He's happy, he's not vicious.

It's the way he's been treated.

He would have attacked somebody eventually.

And I know he's not going to ever

turn out to be a vicious dog.

He's just one of the lucky ones.

(music)