This was my experience with my mom's pitbull. He was a sweetheart to me and my family, but with strangers and other animals? He was extremely protective and territorial. Very smart dog, easy to train when it came to just about anything else. It's difficult to practice socializing a dog that you know is dangerous around other people/dogs, though. I loved him, but I would never own a pitbull after experiencing the breed first hand. Even playing a light game of tug-of-war gives you a good idea of their sheer power and bite strength, and it's scary. I've never met another breed of dog, even large ones, with that kind of bite strength. Even an accidental nip is very painful and can easily cause a moderate injury.