The only dog that's ever bitten anybody in my family was a Golden Retriever that suddenly snapped and attacked my sister and my mom. I witnessed the whole thing - my sister was 9 years old, laying on the floor next to the dog in the morning, petting the dog and talking to him very sweetly and suddenly he turned his head, bit her twice on the face, then jumped up and bit my mom several times on the legs and arm as she tried to pull him away from my sister. We had no warning, no indications this would happen. My sister wasn't threatening him or hurting him; she was laying on the floor. He didn't growl or snarl or anything, he just...started attacking. He was a stray we had recently adopted and apparently was not quite right in the head. He was tested and didn't have any diseases (no rabies); the only conclusion we've been able to come to was that he must have been abused previously. They had to put him down. Thankfully the bites my sister suffered were minor, she has no scarring left. Mom didn't get off as lucky and lost part of the muscle in her leg and has a pretty significant scar.
ANY dog, of ANY breed can be dangerous if they are raised improperly or treated poorly. I've even read stories of household CATS freaking out and attacking people.
I've owned a pit bull mix and he was the biggest sweetheart. We got him as a puppy and raised him properly. We were told over and over how dangerous he was, how he would "eat" our cats and kill us in our sleep. His best friend was a feral kitten we adopted around the same time we got him, the two of them were best buddies and would sleep all curled up together. He never, EVER did anything aggressive. Most aggressive he got was barking when someone knocked. Most dangerous thing about him was his habit of whipping you with his tail, he had a bony tail that moved like lightning! He eventually passed away from cancer and DH & I still miss him terribly. All our other dogs get compared to our pitty mix; he was the BEST dog.
I would not hesitate to have another pitty in the family as long as I got them as a pup. Ditto for Rotties, Dobe's, ...etc. I WOULD hesitate to adopt
any dog as an adult (especially a larger breed), unless I knew the dog's history. You just never know what's in that dog's head, sadly. Dogs can be crazy too, just like people.
