Do Staffordshire Bull Terriers behave the same as other dogs? Discussions

Very good point- what a ridiculous concept that a dogs pedigree be defined by its level of aggressive behavior!

Can you imagine it at crufts?! The SBT section being judged on how viciously they fight!!

i dont know much about Staffs, but here are my Thoughts & experinces.

The more Staffs are bred away from Fighting Dogs the more this drive should Diminsh, If the dogs been used arent used for their "gameness".

Some of my collies have more herding drive than others & more eye than others, So "extinct" can Def vary vary throught any breed

When on the beach about 5 years ago that Staff went for flynn, there was no signals, it was silent & like a bullett, It was also not interested in grabbing any part of Flynns body apart from his head/neck, luckily flynn kept moving. This i think was instinct on this dogs part.

i hate all this hard dog nonesense, yes a hundred years ago staffys were fighting dogs but they were treat like fighters, there body fat was reduced to next to nothing through hours of running and weight pulling, they were encouraged to attack from the week they were born, fed on red meat and pitted against lesser dogs to improve there gameness but thats not how we as owners would ever treat our dogs nowadays (and if that is how you treat your dog i would like to meet you coss you would find out what gameness is)

i dont for one second think that if my dog was attacked by another dog who was off their leash that she wouldent give as good as she got, i would not chastise her for it because it wouldnt be her fault, but i wouldnt praise her either.
the fault would lie with the owner of the other dog for the mistakes they made in training their dog; not having an unsocialised dog on a lead, not socialising the dog properly in the first place, and having no controll over their pet. my dog knows i am incharge and does as she is told, not only for the good of those around us but for her own benafit too.

dogs are not people, they are animals and should be treated as such, yes my dog can give paw (left and right) and roll over, get spacific toys when asked, open the fridge and get me a beer and sing but they are tricks to amuse me, the important commands such as stay, sit and enough (i use 'enough' when shes over excited, to end play time, cease barking or pulling when she smells a rabbit/fox) must be established at an early age and boundries must be set so your dog nows how to behave.
all this talk of completely unprevoked attacks annoys me too, a well trained dog with set boundaries will not attack anything, and just because a dog is not barking or pulling at the lead that doesnt mean it isnt sending out aggressive signals to other dogs in its vacinity, and as much as that 'cesar' bloke annoys me, watch one episode of the dog wisperer and you will see what i mean

These words are written by a Pit Bull lover...

"THE GOLDEN RULE OF PIT BULL OWNERSHIP- NEVER TRUST YOUR PIT BULL NOT TO FIGHT!!!!! "

And

"A dog that was previously non-dog aggressive may "turn-on" and suddenly doesn't like other dogs of the same sex, or, for that matter, any dogs at all, even housemates they have been raised with."

She has an honest and interesting site here...
http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/breedinfo.php

I have kept many staffords and its a shame when you here of tragedies when owners are not careful even the most placid of my dogs has surprised me on occasions when it has had an altercation with another dog so I personally always like to play it safe this is from experiance.As I had 3 kick off in a field and it was not a pretty site and after that incident I always air on the side of caution.Also im sure you having a multiple stafford household there has been a few incidents over the years when one gets jealous of the other and I doubt if there are many dogs that pound for pound match the strength of bull breeds .You may find it offensive I personally dont care if it prevents another accident with people who are newer to the breed and im sure there is not a stafford book out there that doesnt warn to be cautious with your dog.

As for genectics I doubt you could breed out the gene totally.

As for picking holes old fido may back down from one challenge it doesnt mean that fido would back down next time as for crufts I bet there has been a few altercations over the years especially the raparee dogs as they were very fiery by nature .

Also for the record I do not keep them to look hard or hang on street corners i like them for what they are as in temperament and had many enjoyable years with my staffords over the years and one thing I will say is I like to keep a stafford fit.

all excellent points, i dont leave my dog to its own devices ever, when im at work she is in the garden which has a 7ft fence all the way around it an the gate is pad locked. although she is good with children i wouldnt leave her alone with my sisters kids, not that i think theres cause for concern, but i would do the same with any dog.

its the joy of dog ownership, you always have to be prepared, plan for the worst and hope for the best as my gran used to say.

yes....but all that can be true of any breed.......

I also keep other terriers and none of them would I leave to their own devices.

We have had a couple of squabbles and each time it has been started by a coated terrier.

The trouble being is as we all know the press have a vendetta against bullbreeds and when reported sell papers also Im sure if something happened with another dog regardless if the other dog started it.The bull breeds would be blamed regardless.Im sure we have all been there and some people leave there dogs off leads to try and provoke trouble with bullbreeds so they can scream devil dogs.I remeber one incident I had a really fiery bitch and as soon as I saw a dog I recalled her and put her on her lead anyhow this womens dog came running over and she couldnt recall it and mine had a pop even though I had tried to shoo it off it still came back no damage just a lunge.Anyhow she got her dog and went round the outside of the childrens park saying those dogs should be banned etc there devil dogs to anybody who would care to listen.So I tied my dog up and decided to confront her I stayed calm and politely informed her that my dog was not breaking any laws and infact it was her that had an out of control dog and should have it on alead and do some recall training lessons.Her face was a picture and i made sure all the parents in the park heard and her face was even more of a picture when my young daughter walked out of the park and gave her favourite dog a big kiss and I said yeah she is a devil dog and walked off proud as punch.

that story made me smile thank you

i find bull and terrier breeds take instruction better than other breeds. they seem to want to do the thing youre teaching them to make you happy, i take mine out with 2 jack russels and she seems a bit brighter than them and easier to re-call, not a dig at jacks coss there excellent dogs too, just a bit small for me

Don't blame the breed, blame the owner!!

Sorry, i thought i would put my experience down on here and its not meant to cause offence to anyone. When my Parson was a pup ( Mar/Apr 09) a particular Staffy used to run up flatten him and bowl him over, in full view of the owner. My puppy was on a lead as being a typical terrier and coming from hunt kennels he was a bit of a roamer, so letting him off the lead in our local park near a busy road was a no no!
Eventually being a typical terrier he got fed up with being flattened and growled at the staffy who then launched at him and was still holding on to my dogs tail when i picked him up, anyway after numerous encounters with this staffy (each one getting more serious and me sorting each fight out) i stopped her and in a friendly joking way commented on how they clearly don't like each other and that maybe we should try and give each other a wide berth, each time i had recalled my terrier and put it on the lead, where as her dog just wouldn't come back to her and would just make run for us from 500 yds. In July my partner got a SRHP puppy, very early one morning in september i was walking both of the dogs on my own on the lead in the park, the staffy owner was there she was about 500yds away, instead of even attempting to put her dog on the lead when she spotted us, she made no attempt to recall it till it was about 50yds away from me, by which time it was too late, a full scale dog fight set off, she hadn't even broken out of a walk, meanwhile i'd let the puppy go to get a free hand to try and separate them, my terrier ended up badly bitten on his face, ears, stomach, groin and his stitches where he had been castrated 4 days before were ripped open, i also got very badly bitten on the chest and needed stitches, i know i was bitten purely out of adrenanline and i don't blame him at all, but as for the owner, well i'll leave it to your imagination. My terrier ended up having issues with other dogs and i have had to go carefully to resocialise him all over again, although i think we are nearly there, but to top it i have been to the park since and she has let the dog run over and try and start another fight, fortunately i've seen the dog coming and have picked mine up and walked away!! I just can not believe that someone would be so selfish both towards her dog, my dog & me.

Oh no, that's an awful thing to happen to anyone's dog. As the owner of a staffie who is unfortunately dog-aggressive he is not let off his lead at any time as the very thing you have discribed is something I would hate my dog to do.

The owners lack of responsibility is deplorable.

I hope your puppy makes a full recovery and gets to enjoy the company of other dogs again.