Something alot of people might not know, pits have been used a good bit as hog hunting dogs in the south. They aren't known much for their nose, but as a hold dog to keep the hog contained until the hunters get there.

A friend of mine has a pit, that is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever been around. That dog will not even eat food put infront of it, until it is told to. I have saw her throw a piece of a hamburger infront of that dog, and him sit there looking at her with those "puppy dog eyes" (pun intended :P) waiting on her to tell him to get it. They may have a bad reputation, but are still very trainable.

I've also been around a couple rottweilers that were just big teddy bears. My neighbor had one when we moved to our new house, that we were a bit worried about. After he got to know us, he told us that if he was ever in our yard just call his name and say firmly "go home" and he would. One day I put that to a real test. I saw the dog dropping a present in our yard. I told him to go home, and he stopped right where he was at, walked back into his yard, and finished his business. I was pretty shocked at how well he listened especially in that situation.

For what its worth, the only two dogs I've ever been bit enough to bring blood by were a blue heeler and a chiwawa (both owned by the same person, several years apart).