or possibly thick/naive to wonder why there are so many staffordshire bull terriers in animal shelters?

[GitAwfMayLend]

I know bugger all about dogs (really really want one but am not going to get one because we are out of the house too much) but am looking on animal shelter websites and getting all dopy and feel sorry for the poor bloody dogs.

Is it because they are too difficult to look after? Or more like they are badly treated.

It's bloody sad.

Thinking of sponsoring a dog because I can't have one.

You don't give up do you?

Bless you with your different species, though. Arf. Care to elaborate on that one and maybe let us know what species the Staffies belong to?

I don't own a Staff btw. I have a fluffy, ickle terrier x. He is more than capable of flipping so like the responsible owner I am I do not leave him unsupervised with my children or anyone elses. He has never seriously bitten anyone or snapped at any visiting children, despite being fear-aggressive because he is not given the opportunity.

With careful training he is coming round now and hasn't shown any aggression for over a year now. Still won't leave him alone with my kids though. It's just common sense.

I also have a Whippet who is a bit confused as to which species she belongs to. Perhaps she has been hanging out with too many Staffies [bugrin]

i met a right evil fucker yesterday, first it sniffed my hand!! then it licked it!!!! then it put it's savage claw on my knee and left a dusty print!!!!!

the evil fucker should have been destroyed there and then and the owner locked up and the key thrown away for owning such an out of control animal.

So what's going to happen if he escapes from the back garden and gets into somebody else's

Errr, she would get a little confused, wander around a little before coming home. That's about it, she wouldn't change temperament and flip just because we weren't around.

Our little Westie however is a different story, he doesn't have the brains he was born with so he'd wander off after whoever smelt of food...bless him.

Is that to me PP? I don't have a garden. I have a yard surrounded by 10ft walls with a re-inforced (had to have it fixed to stop up the roads lab x trying to get my dogs) back gate.

My dog can jump pretty high, given that he is Fox Terrier X, but he's not superdog. He cannot fly. Plus I don't leave him unsupervised in the yard, because of the aforementioned Lab x.

And as I said he is being trained and has shown great improvement. The only times he has ever shown aggression is when something a has been happening/about to happen that he does not like such as being sent away from the family to his bed. I can't imagine a random child would pop into my yard and send him to bed, can you?

Should my 10 foot walls one day collapse suddenly I would imagine he would run like the wind for a few miles and then wander back home for his supper. He is/was fear aggressive, not just plain aggressive. If people don't bother him, he doesn't bother them.

a friend has two rescue staffies. they adopted a young kitten a few months ago. yes the kitten is the boss and the dogs are very gentle with her. they are soft, kind, non possessive dogs and are lovely to be around. when i visit i tell my friend i am going to see the dogs (not her!) as they cheer me up so much with their affection

I'll ask AGAIN!

What's the exemt of your experience with the breed, princessparty?

And do you think all black people to be evil fuckers because a tiny minority murdered PC Blakelock. Sorry to repeat myself but I don't think you understood the question properly the first few times I asked it.

:o :o :o @ Dooin

My fluffy white growler is the ony dog who I have ever seen to be aggressive. Which is most odd since I was raised around GSDs, Akitas and Dobermans and have owned Staffies and JRTs myself.

He looks a bit a Pippin off Cbeebies.

I wonder if breed is irrelevant wrt aggression?

princess Please listen to what vallhalla is saying. Her point is very easy to understand. You cannot make sweeping statements about staffies being evil and just waiting to savage people. It is just not true and that kind of fearmongering does not do a lovely breed like the staff any favours.

You seem to be spouting crap.

wine and Val -these people are always spouting similar staff-related crap on threads, radio phone-in shows, etc etc

they never, ever listen, ime

I had a staffie, he was bought as my 3rd birthday present. He was as soft as shit, greedy as chuff and had the worst wind ever. We werent allowed to walk him though as he was far too strong for a child to control. We used to dare each other to get his lead on and let him pull us round the block on roller skates. if the bin men forgot to shut the gate after them he would follow the bin wagon down to the local pub and the bin men would give him a half a pint of guiness and bring him back half pissed in the afternoon.
The only thing he ever bit was a chair leg when we left him in the house one firework night and he was terrified, he chewed the chair leg till his teeth bled he was so scared. I felt guilty as hell and never went to a bonfire again while he was alive. I have 2 sisters and we all jumped on him, pulled his tail, tried to ride him and generally did all the crap things that kids do to dogs and he just put up with it all with a smile and a fart.
There are good owners and bad owners, but no dog is born bad, and staffies as a breed are generally not aggressive towards people unless trained to be that way either deliberately or by abuse. Unfortunately their tendancy to be aggressive towards other dogs makes them an ideal breed for bastards idiots who think dog fighting is fun, which has in turn led to a reputation as a dangerous dog.
In truth, any dog can rip your face off, I have been badly bitten by a yorkie, and I have been slobbered to death by next doors rottweiller. you just cant judge by breed.

We have a collie and rescued an old staffy from the rspca last year. She is fantastic and i would recommend an older staffy to anyone. I asked the carer, 'which dog is alwys overlooked?', he said, 'that one, an old staffy bitch, they are really common'. I put a deposit on her immediately, woof!

awww, sickof, you've made me all teary

...in a good way

yes poor dogs getting such a terrible reputation for mauling and killing children they must be all so psychologically damaged from what they read in the papers

the reason some breads have a reputation of being dangerous is because they have killed young children its not sensationalised news you can not really get more shocking news than a child beign killed in such a way how can that be sensationalised (and please the pc blakelock remark was jsut stupid). the strength of some of these breeds an adult would find hard to fight off so why anyone wants a dog of that strength as a pet around young children is imo just ridiculous. if you want a pet why not get one that can not if they for whatever reason loose control or you do cause that much harm. like humans animals can act totally out of character and have mentally breakdowns and no amount of training would matter should this happen

I was almost killed by a ferret once.

When we are banning pets who can potentially cause harm, where shall we stop? Should we stop once we get to your favourite pet?

almost killed by a ferret mmm well they are known for being quite vicious

i never mentioned banning them i just wonder why when someone has young children around do they want such a powerfully strong dog, its just not necessary. i am well aware that all dogs (and cats, rabbits and so on) can bit, scratch and harm a child but when we read of rabbits mauling children to death i shall have the same opinion on rabbits, but we don't.

not all the dogs that have attacked have been poorly treated) for what. could you fight back a rottweiler, saff (maybe but they are pretty strong not sure i could), mastiff is they were on the attack

I find it quite ironic given that I lived with a doberman at the time and was visiting a house with a Rottweiler in it that it was the ferret that almost killed me.

It was my fault though. And no I couldn't fight her off. I panicked and rolled into a ball. It took my Dad and my Uncle quite a while to get her off.

My sisters rabbit is evil. He keeps doing very rude things indeed to her children's bouncy balls

my rabbit emotionally scared me for life. i thought he wanted to play with me when he was humping my leg, later on, a few years after said bunny has passed away i realised he was just using me [busad]

freudian - I found it pretty hard work trying to get a bloody yorkie off the end of my hand, if I had been a small child it would have done some very serious damage, and yes, poor dogs, what did they ever do to deserve getting shitty owner who kicked or abused them until they turned nasty!

I'm not saying some staffies arent dangerous - they are, but in reality, staffords as a breed arent any more aggressive than labradors, but the sort of person who wants a dog so they can look tough isnt likely to choose a lab, and sadly, the sort of person who buys a dog based on the fact that it looks tough is the sort of person who is more likely to mistreat that dog and therefore make it dangerous.
I repeat my earlier assertion, no dog is born bad. Some breeds do have a shorter fuse than others but I dont think the staffordshire is one of them. Every staff I have ever met (bar one, but he had been badly mistreated and was suspicious of strangers, especially men, but fine once he knew you) have been happy little souls, always with a big smile on their faces and have all loved kids.

Staffies used to be known as the Nanny dog because of their affinity to and patience with children. They definitely do not have a short fuse, quite the opposite in fact.

unfortunately for them their looks attract the kind of owner who is most likely to leave them unsupervised with children and least likely to walk and train them

It's such a shame as they are a wonderfully friendly dogs in the right hands.

I believe my dog was abused before he came to me. Hence his fear at, well, most things. But he is getting much better with love and patience.

"like humans animals can act totally out of character and have mentally breakdowns and no amount of training would matter should this happen"

Yes, like humans. So, no reason not to have larger, stronger humans living with children in case they too act totally out of character and have mental breakdowns.

The Blakelock remark was to illustrate a particular poster's stupidity. If you can't comprehend that then I'm wasting my time.

I'm sure that like that particular poster you too have extensive experience in SBT and similar, much maligned Bull/large breed dogs, given that you know so much about them.

You do have significant and extensive experience of large breeds and bull breeds, don't you...?