What is gameness? Are dogs that demonstrate gameness temperamentally unsound?
NOTE: Like the AKC, we do not discuss gameness and fighting here either to praise or malign pit bulls. Fighting and gameness are important elements of the breed’s history and, ultimately, a key to understanding our dogs. There is nothing admirable, heroic, or particularly interesting about the fighting aspect of pit bulls’ history. Most importantly, gameness is not aggressiveness. It has nothing to do with aggression (animal or human) and should not enter into discussions about overall temperament. Very simply put, gameness is the will never to quit a task despite injury, illness, and exhaustion. It is the unflagging courage referred to in UKC and AKC descriptions of these breeds. For pit bulls, gameness has traditionally been directed toward fighting other dogs (but never humans), though it is useful for other activities requiring high drive such as therapy work, weight-pulling, drug sniffing, flyball, Frisbee chasing, tracking, or obedience trials. Gameness does not equal aggressiven
