I met the most gorgeous dog today on my dog walk.

[DooinMeCleanin]

I was leashing up our dogs when the girls spotted a SBT and rushed off to ask if they could pet him. He was a big ball of love and happily rolled over and let them rub his tum.

His owner called over asked if mine were dog friendly, I explained that Devil Dog is not aggressive but can get over excited and is prone to dry humping in excitement, which can be a bit much for other dogs. She told me her dog would be fine with that, so we walked over and chatted for a while, while my girls played with the dogs.

He was the friendliest wee thing I have ever seen on one of my walks. He loved the children, was very gentle with the whippy one and didn't even mind when I got distracted with chatting and the devil dog humped him.

They get such bad press on here I just thought I'd mention it. Lovely young female owner too. Very friendly and not at all chavvy or hoody like.

thats lovely

Hurrah! I have a SBT who puts up with my 3 year old roughing her about, who will run into Walls in an attempt to make people laugh, and who has on 2 occasions been severely attacked by a cat (different one each time) and has whimpered at me until I've removed the offending feline.

Glad to see you too had a good experience. They're amazing characters.

I know a few, all soppy .

Yes they are very lovely dogs. I keep trying to adopt/foster one, but they aren't that common around these parts. It's the poor sighthounds who are in the most need.

I met one myself last week that was quite delightful. She ran round happily with my two (terrier and Cavvie) and quite altered my impression of them as not especially friendly with other dogs. I had a lovely chat with her owner too. I love dog walking- it's so sociable!

I had a SBT bitch prior to current VirgoDog - was found as a stray - MOST lovely dog in the world. Was blessed with her company for 5 years and miss her still.

Makes me very sad and angry that such lovely, trusting, clever dogs are given such a bad reputation.

Jack Russells are the snappy guys where I am! The staffies are pussycats beside them.

Yay!!!
Staffs are fantastic... To know them is to love them.
(And yep, JRTs, feisty little fuckers - not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's nowt worse than a JRT owner who reckons they've got a lapdog.)

Gawd, Dangerous Dogs Act and Daily Mail have a lot to answer for...

I met a poppet of a Staff the other day, name of Daisy. She was with two small boys, and totally soppy. I thought of the Doghouse whilst I played with her!

I love staffies, used to not like them, but they've grown on me.

I have to admit (ashamedly) to judging a fairly chavvy looking bloke with a staffie around where we walk our dog. However his staffie is gold as gold, and he is a really responsible dog walker (unlike most around here!) and puts our daft dog to shame

Yes we have the obligatory chavvy looking bloke with a staffy in a studded collar at our park. Lovely bloke, really though. Perfect dog. They do the school run sometimes and his dog is by far the best behaved dog at the school gates.

I met lots of lovely dogs on our walk this morning. One dog in particular (a whippet) took a fancy to chewing my poor springers ears!

"Yes they are very lovely dogs. I keep trying to adopt/foster one, but they aren't that common around these parts. It's the poor sighthounds who are in the most need."

Our local RSPCA is full of staffies.

I had a Staffy cross (x with manchester terrier) until she sadly died three years ago (RIP Pip) who was the most soppy, tolerant, stoical and faithful dog I've ever known. She was a star. Not an ounce of bad nature in her.

Same here sampusa! I should think at least 50% of the dogs are sbt. Although at the rescue our dog is coming from there was a rottie that was being adopted by someone who was driving nearly 200 miles every weekend to get to know her before the adoption. Apparently they have been looking for ages. Obviously there are shortages of different sorts of dogs in different places.

I too have a beautiful SBT, she is usually bullied by mil's JRT! The close we live on has 24 houses and 5 sbt's (plus at least another 6 as next doors bitch was in labour earlier!) Our neighbours saw how good our Ruby is and took the plunge themselves :)

We live in a very typical northern town. Lots of racing and rabbitting. Hence the popularity of the sighthounds with the nobs

You still get staffys in the pound/rescues but not so much as sighthounds and terriers. My Dad was offered £300 on the spot for his Lurcher by a group of hoodies. He turned them down, obviously. I have had people asking if I'd consider breeding my Whippet as she is very small and very fast, apparently this would make her 'great at turning corners fast. Not like d'em big whippets'.

I can't afford to insure another dog, so I am fostering with local rescues, who desperetely need foster homes for greys and other sighthounds, much more than Bull breeds.

Yikes! And I thought driving 25 miles every other day to see our rescue was a lot! That is going to be one spoilt rottie

SBTs - just lovely dogs....
Also, IME, sensible SBT owners tend to make sure they behave really well (i.e. about 10 times more reliable that every other dog in the neighbourhood), since the ridiculous reputation that been manufactured for them by irresponsible media, etc. means that you can't assume (as many dog owners seem to do, even though they really shouldn't) that everyone will be charmed when they/their children/dogs are charged at/leapt on/slobbered on by your mutt.
It's not a problem though - yes, they're quite hyper when young, but they really, really are very intelligent, trainable, loving dogs.