Pit Bull or Aussie: One Loves People, One Loves Dogs

It is unusual to find two breeds whose social ratings mirror each other this precisely, and the explanation is entirely in their working histories.

Bull-and-terrier dogs were handled constantly by people, often in close physical contact and often in stressful situations, and any dog that was difficult with humans was removed from the population quickly and deliberately. The result is a breed that is typically warm and open with people — 4/5 with children, 3/5 with strangers, and described as courageous, friendly, eager and playful. What was not selected against, historically, was intolerance of other dogs, which is why the 2/5 sits where it does.

The Australian Shepherd is the reverse. A ranch herding dog worked alongside other dogs constantly — in teams, around stock, in yards — so dog-dog sociability was functionally necessary, giving the 4/5. Meanwhile a dog guarding stock and property on isolated land had no reason to welcome unfamiliar people, and the 2/5 reflects a natural reserve that shows as aloofness, watchfulness, and in poorly socialised dogs as fearful barking or backing away.

The practical translation is about your life rather than the dog. A household that walks in busy parks, uses daycare and meets other dogs constantly will find the Aussie far easier. A household with a lot of visitors, children's friends coming and going and people at the door will find the Pit Bull far easier.

Both ratings improve with work, and both degrade without it. For the Aussie the work is early, calm, repeated exposure to unfamiliar people with no forced greetings. For the Pit Bull it is controlled, well-chosen introductions to stable dogs and a lifetime of sensible management rather than optimism.

The Aussie's own notes specify one to two hours daily and describe a working dog that excels at sports. Its 5/5 for both energy and exercise is honest, and the mental component is not optional.

What satisfies an Australian Shepherd is a task with rules: herding, agility, obedience, rally, disc, scent work, or structured training sessions. Distance alone does not do it. A five-mile run produces a fitter Aussie with the same unmet need, and that need surfaces as behaviour — herding children and other pets, nipping at heels, chasing bicycles and cars, patrolling, shadow and light chasing, and obsessive repetitive habits that are genuinely difficult to unpick once established.

The Pit Bull's 4/5 is a simpler proposition. An hour to ninety minutes of real activity — a brisk walk plus flirt pole, spring pole, tug, weight pull or a training session — and the dog settles. It is strong and athletic and it enjoys work, but it does not have the herding breed's compulsion to be employed. Its 3/5 tolerance for time alone against the Aussie's 2/5 reflects the same difference.

Both rate 2/5 for first-time owners, and both fail when under-exercised, but the failure modes differ. An under-exercised Pit Bull is mouthy, destructive and harder to manage around other dogs. An under-exercised Aussie becomes frantic, obsessive and neurotic.

On space, the Aussie's 1/5 for apartments against the Pit Bull's 2/5 is fair. Neither is ideal in a flat, but the Pit Bull is quiet at 2/5 barking, settles hard indoors and needs less, while an Aussie in a flat needs its whole requirement met outside the building every single day.

The merle coat pattern — the mottled blue or red marbling the breed is known for — is produced by a dominant gene, and it carries a specific risk that every Aussie buyer should understand.

A dog with one copy of the merle gene is a normal merle. A dog with two copies, produced when two merle parents are bred together, is a double merle, and the outcome is frequently serious: substantially white coats, congenital deafness in one or both ears, and eye defects ranging from small malformed eyes to blindness. Roughly a quarter of puppies from a merle-to-merle mating are expected to inherit two copies.

Responsible Aussie breeders do not breed merle to merle. Asking a breeder directly what colour both parents are, and whether either has been genetically tested for a hidden or cryptic merle — a merle that does not look like one — is a fair and revealing question.

The breed's health list carries two more eye entries alongside it: collie eye anomaly, which is congenital and best identified by an ophthalmic examination of puppies at six to eight weeks, and progressive retinal atrophy with cataracts. Eye certification on breeding stock is standard practice in the breed.

The list also names sensitivity to ivermectin, which is the MDR1 drug sensitivity common in herding breeds. A cheap one-off DNA swab identifies it, the result should live on the dog's veterinary file, and it changes which antiparasitics, sedatives and chemotherapy drugs are safe at normal doses.

The Pit Bull's list is orthopaedic and dermatological instead: hip and elbow dysplasia, skin allergies, heart murmurs, bloat, obesity, cruciate ligament disease, arthritis and cancer.

This is one of the widest coat gaps between two dogs of similar size.

The Pit Bull's short glossy coat rates 1/5 for grooming and 3/5 for shedding. The routine is a rubber curry mitt once a week and a bath when needed. No matting, no undercoat, no seasonal event, no professional appointment and no equipment. The short stiff hairs do embed in fabric, so it is not a hair-free dog, but the time cost is essentially nil. The thin coat does mean the breed feels cold quickly and benefits from a coat in winter, and pale-skinned dogs can sunburn.

The Aussie carries a medium-length double coat rated 3/5 for grooming and 4/5 for shedding, with heavy seasonal blows. It needs brushing two or three times a week with an undercoat rake and a slicker, more during a blow, with attention to the ruff, the britches, behind the ears and the feathering on the legs. Twice a year the undercoat comes out wholesale for two or three weeks. It should not be shaved — a double coat insulates in both directions and regrowth after a shave is often permanently altered.

Across a twelve to fifteen year life that is a real difference in hours and in the state of the house.

Cost follows the same pattern. The Pit Bull sits at cost level 2/5, $80–150 a month and $1,200–2,200 in the first year — one of the cheapest dogs on this site. The Aussie is 3/5, $100–200 and $1,500–2,800.

The caveat on the Pit Bull's low cost is insurance and housing. Breed restrictions in tenancy agreements, housing rules and insurance policies frequently apply to bully-type dogs and almost never to herding breeds, and that is worth checking in writing before committing.

Both breeds rate 4/5 with children and both can be excellent family dogs, with different cautions.

The Aussie's caution is herding instinct. Circling, bumping and nipping at running heels is common around young children, it is hardware rather than naughtiness, and it responds well to early redirection into legitimate outlets. Its reserve with strangers also extends to visiting children, which is another argument for broad early socialisation.

The Pit Bull's caution is physical and social rather than temperamental. It is a strong, enthusiastic, body-slamming dog that can knock a small child over in play, and its 2/5 with other dogs means family walks in busy areas need planning. Neither of those is about the dog's attitude to children, which is generally excellent.

Both rate 2/5 for first-time owners, for opposite reasons: the Aussie because its needs are relentless and its reserve requires work, the Pit Bull because managing dog-dog reactivity and navigating breed restrictions takes commitment and judgement.

The honest recommendation is that these two rarely suit the same household. If you have one to two hours a day, want to do a dog sport, and live somewhere with plenty of dogs around, the Aussie will repay you enormously — it is one of the most capable breeds there is. If your life is busier with people than with activity, and an hour of exercise plus a five-minute grooming routine is what you can sustain, the Pit Bull is a far more realistic dog, provided you take the management and the paperwork seriously.

Lifespans are similar at 12 to 14 and 12 to 15 years, and both are good figures for medium-sized working dogs.