I´ve just moved back to the UK so today took a (long) walk into the town.  In the busy town centre I noticed 2 scruffy looking men walking together each with a mastiff.  The adult male dog was wearing just a leather collar and lead and was walking absolutely perfectly (not an obedience "heel" but who cares about that).  The other chap had a puppy which I guessed to be around 4 months old.  He also only had a leather collar and lead on and was walking very nicely although occasionally, being a puppy, he allowed his nose to roam.  This was gently corrected.  I overheard one of the men say to the other something about showing people that dogs could walk nicely "without a harness or gadgets".  I was so impressed.
On the way home, on a side street, I saw another younger man with a Staffie wearing a harness.  This dog was also walking quite nicely and when it tried to sniff me (narrow pavement) the owner just gave a gentle pull, made a brief comment to the dog, and the we passed each other.  Again, it´s nice to see a young (by my standards) man with a "dangerous" (huh) dog which had obviously been well trained and was well behaved.  I have always said these breeds are nice dogs but the media portray them as bad whereas we all know it´s the owners who have the problem.  Seeing butch young men with impressively well trained dogs was a delight.  I just wish the media would show them as an example.

What a nice thing to see. However, it does not sell papers and all we see of them from papers is a dogs head with teeth hanging out and slavering.

yes,a lovely thing to see.My son paul is a tough body builder,mixing with lots of the same type,and he often tells me the men are softies when it comes to their dogs.He certainly is!