Not to understand why anyone could choose to have those ugly looking dogs?

[meadowquark]

I may be wrong but it seems that about 50% dog owners in my area have those staffie or staffie type dogs (sorry I cannot distinguish between them), looking aggressive, ugly (sorry) and always pulling the owner on the lead. I honestly don't understand why people choose to have these dogs. When I was growing up, people had cockerspaniels, labradors, daschunds, poodles, terriers etc. Is this a new fashion? Safety? Knife alternative?

I am sure they are friendly and trainable but if I hear a bad story of one dog mauling another dog, it is very often that type of dog.

I am just wondering why wouldn't people keep sweeter looking dogs instead.

Sorry I don't meant to offend any dog owners - I just would like to understand why?

Thank you silver

Thanks for expanding on what I said tabulah, that was my point to the OP's question about choosing a 'sweeter' looking pet.

The only time my bully looks happy is when she gets to pretend she is a lap dog.

Oh be quiet OP. YABVU.

You have obviously never seen a Staffie smile.

Staffies are gorgeous family dogs, our 8 kids adore ours as she adores them. My mums two "beautiful dogs" (bichon/poodle/shih tzu crosses) go for the kids and our Staffie whenever they come round. which is not often as they're all but banned

God what an awful, goady thread.

As for not seeing staffies or pit bulls in the "naice" parts of town? Really? Dog trends? Dog fashion? How bougie and hyacinth bucket of you. The sort of people who spout this tripe are the ones that are desperate to fit in buying everything on HP and fronting through life, belittling others choices.

Our Staffie

Sorry but I just checked out TheKitchenWitch link of banned dogs and I now I can see that I am not being unreasonable. If they banned in so many countries (staffies and other similar dogs), there must be a valid reason.

Staffies smile. If a staffie smile doesn't melt you you're not human

"If they banned in so many countries (staffies and other similar dogs), there must be a valid reason."

Because it's way way easier to do a kneejerk breed ban than to put in place and enforce legislation about responsible dog ownership.

If banning breeds reduced incidents we'd have less in this country in the 20 years since they banned a load of breeds instead of the rising amount we gave which correlates with the rise in dog numbers.

The reason they are banned in other countries is because of titface wankers who train them to be vicious. Going back to the origins of the breed, the clue is in the name. Bull terriers- designed to work with bulls which are evil bastards. They needed to be able to defend themselves and their handler.

Anyone else remember the call for GSD and Rottweilers to be put down in their thousands because some idiots who should never have owned dogs let them get out of control, or who deliberately trained them to be attack dogs?

I do- I was a child at the time and I could see, even at that age, that it is down to how they are socialised and trained and how that training is maintained through the dogs life.

That being said, I am a huge fan of Border collies- my old girl was from working stock and when she died it was one of the worst days of my life. If I was given a choice of a BC or a staffie I would gravitate towards the collie.

I've just realised in the Original post the OP stated that she likes terriers.. What are staffies then? (That's probably already been pointed out unthread aswell but hey ho!)

I found this
Just explains my thoughts.
Scorpio I had in mind something like Scottish terriers.

I would love a border collie secretnutella

Pahaha formerbabe - no staffies in naice areas. See my staffie in the picture below (who nobody would adopt because of her looks). She's currently residing in Henley, you know the place - with the Royal regatta. Do let us know if you ever want to come over the river to our vairy naice town, so we can close the bridge. We dont let scummers like you in.
Thankfully for people like you and meadowquark there are people out there who see beyond looks.

Sometimes she does like to reconnect with her gangsta brap roots though - picture included to scare you pwecious little pwincesses

They are lunatics, especially if not given tasks to do, constantly. If you like a quiet life, as a general rule, forget it. Oh and generally walks of longer than an hour are the norm. twice a day.

Loyal and too damn clever by half.

This is the wicked mutt. I miss her so much even though she's been gone 4 years.

Ultimately OP it depends whether you see dogs as pets who are chosen because their attributes, exercise requirements and training requirements suit their owner, or as fashion accessories chosen to fit an image.

If you care more about the image and what a dog looks like than whether it's suitable for your life, then dog ownership perhaps isn't for you.

So many gorgeous dogs on here! OP you were not unreasonable to not understand, because you were ignorant, lots of people gave tried to educate you on this thread about misrepresentations and misunderstandings about this breed. If you still don't understand now then you are bring unreasonable

Haven't rtft, couldn't get past the shallow, goady twattery in the op.

YABU and cunty

Actually Pippin this thread made me understand why people choose these dogs. I am surprised that people find them cute (because I don't), but let it be; however I am not unreasonable to be slightly scared of them, it may be the issue with my area, and due to their history or overbreeding or overcrossing.

How can you not say my two are not cute!

Your dog is cracking me up U2. What a face

Yeah, they look ferocious Shosha.

I'm terrified they'd lick me to death. Especially the brindle- just wants to cuddle up.

Meadowlark if you're worried about particular breeds of dogs surely you shouldn't be considering which countries have banned specific breeds of dogs, but instead should be asking 'has introducing breed specific legislation reduced the risk of dog bites to the public?' The answer is no, absolutely not, banning breeds is easy legislation to pass and is popular with the electorate, but is totally ineffective. The reason for this is that specific breeds are not more dangerous than others, it is whether the owner is responsible or not that is key.

This article by the APBC has useful info
www.apbc.org.uk/blog/APBC-Views-on-UK-Dangerous-Dogs-Legislation