Help us decide - SBT or Beagle?

[IndecisiveWombat]

DH and I first started talking about finally getting a dog around 19 months ago. But even after research we just can’t agree on a breed.

Just a bit about our situation so you knowledgeable lot can help!

• three bed Victorian terraced house with a small garden (narrow but not tiny, we have a green house, veg bed and lawn). Live near a small local park and luckily 10 minutes from a very large country park.

• 2 dc, 5 and 7 and both at school. Youngest ds has aspergers (they don’t call it that now but it sounds nicer than ‘high functioning’) and is sad that he has no friends at school, he says his friends are grandads dogs (Dalmatian and JRS).

• DH works from home, luckily only has to do a few hours a day. I’m a part time OU student so also at home all day.

DH loves beagles (he has never owned one) but I’m put off by some of the differing accounts of them. The kennel club page on them reckons they only need a small house/garden and up to an hours exercise a day. However my research has come up with accounts that swung between agreeing with the KC and others which say without 12 hours hard exercise they are demon dogs.

I love SBTs (grew up with two successive dogs but have never owned a dog as an adult). I think that they would fit us perfectly but DH is put off by their ‘rep’ and is worried that he would find them scary. I loved my grinning soppy dogs more than anything.

Clearly I’m biased, but after lurking here for a bit I thought people with more personally experience of actually owning/training the breeds could help us finally make our minds up.

I know we aren’t very experienced. I’ve had a chat with the local dog training club and will be taking future pup there to train/follow the KC good citizen doggy programme.

Happy to put the effort in to whichever breed we do eventually get but we currently seem stuck at a stalemate.

I would go sbt. You get the right one they are totally precious.

Staffys are amazing, my autistic daughter loves ours and they are truly besties x

I'm biased too, but vote sbt!

I’ve never met a staffy that was anything other than a grinning great loon who just wanted to say hi!
Beagles are a bloody nightmare to train. Nightmare off lead. Stubborn as hell too. I wouldn’t.

As you may guess I’ll go with staffies. I now have one girl, having lost my other girl and my corso boy in the last year. I have other dogs but my staffy is truly my heart dog, beautiful temperament, very clever and loyal, loves ppl and other dogs. The KC approves them as family dogs, tell DH to ignore the nonsense in the press, point him to Twitter to PD Cooper, Stella the Police Dog, great examples.

You are all being unreasonable.
NO PICTURES!!
Where are all the staffy smiles?

Trying not to look too smug as I read these replies to DH

There are actually three SBT puppies at a local rescue at the moment. They aren’t ready to accept applications yet (poor things were in a terrible state) but I have been keeping my eye out for updates on them...

@Wolfiefan
My girl

Staffie, such great all rounders

@IndecisiveWombat
All of mine have been rescues 🥰

Oh god - Staffy in a heartbeat. But I feel your pain - my DH not a fan either.

So we rescued a lab cross, who has very Beagle-y ears and the scent tracking thing of a hound. She’s a sweetheart, but I’d not want her any more Beagle-y!

They are beautiful dogs but stubborn as anything and I have watched too many owners yelling at their very pointedly deaf Beagles from across a park or field to want to own one myself. Their recall is definitely selective, I’d say.

@SBTLove Finally!!
We met a lovely one today. I do think some people have a bit of a preconception about them (idiots!). But people who know dogs can’t misread the smile and the wags!
Lovely one we meet on the school run. Loveliest ever was a blue (right wording?) who we met at a pub fun dog show. Never has ever dog in the whole world had a bigger smile.

My Godson has a Beagle. It's gorgeous, loyal, adorable and a right royal pain in the arse despite being walked for miles (and I do mean miles) everyday & getting loads of attention. No way would I take the risk.

SBT's are great family dogs. I was a little bit concerned when my brother got one when my 3 nieces were all under 6, but the dog has been nothing but brilliant with them.

Personally I'm a Spaniel kind of a girl.

@IndecisiveWombat

Trying not to look too smug as I read these replies to DH

There are actually three SBT puppies at a local rescue at the moment. They aren’t ready to accept applications yet (poor things were in a terrible state) but I have been keeping my eye out for updates on them...

Will they let you rescue with 2 young kids?

@SBTLove she looks very much like my first childhood dog! Beautiful.

DH even agrees that’s she doesn’t look scary at all really .

We may have to wait a while (there are about a million people interested in the three local staffy puppies on Facebook so may not be lucky) because I’m insisting on adopting but DH, though starting to grudgingly accept staffs aren’t hellhounds, is insisting on having one from a puppy.

The kennel club page is talking complete bollocks. I’m surprised at them. Don’t get a beagle

Could be worth contacting the rescue with all the ways you would be amazing puppy parents????
Breed rescue?
Or contact the breed club if you’re thinking puppy. They can advise re breeders if you’re thinking that route.

Will they let you rescue with 2 young kids?

I hope so, I messaged them earlier (just in case ) detailing our circumstances and asking if we would be able to apply. Didn’t want to waste their time if not, but couldn’t see anything about children’s ages on their website/fb).

If we have to wait longer then we will.

I know the RSPCA had a gorgeous older staffy about 6 months ago who it did say could be rehomed to a family with primary school aged dc, so I’m hopeful (and would have applied for her in a heartbeat if we had agreed a breed/DH would consider an adult).

There a lot of smaller rescues who are foster based therefore able to assess and rehome dogs individually rather than sweeping rules of no kids etc

Definitely Staffy and definitely not a beagle! I say that as an ex vet nurse

@Scweltish

The kennel club page is talking complete bollocks. I’m surprised at them. Don’t get a beagle

Hope this link works:

www.thekennelclub.org.uk/search/breeds-a-to-z/breeds/hound/beagle/

I was very surprised, and quite shocked as I trusted the KC webpages for advice. I had almost completely talked DH out of a beagle entirely when I read out stories of exasperated/exhausted owners to him. But then he found this page that seemed to entirely refute that!

I vote Staffie. Beagles are lovely but hard work. I wouldn’t recommend as a first dog for anyone.

My family had a Staffie when I was little and he was the most amazing dog. The only issue he had was that he wasn’t keen on other dogs but he hadn’t been socialised much with dogs as a puppy. He was soft as a brush with people and absolutely loved kids. He rarely barked and was very affectionate. I can’t really think of any reason I’d advise against one.

This is my vote...

Vet nurse here , sbt every time , we see loads at our practice , we don't see many aggressive ones.
As with any dog they need lots of socialisation early on, very strong and will damage another dog in a fight so aim for a dog friendly one if using a rescue .
Personally i would put a lot of effort into finding a reputable breeder as over the years they have been massively overbred , i would also not buy a staffy mix ,we see staffy x that could have american bulldog , pit bull etc types .
They do not have the same type of characteristics as a sbt , from what we see in our practice a lot of potential for unpredictability .
It saddens me that the good old staffy gets labelled in a negative way, they are great dogs .
Beagles can be hard work .

There's a thread below yours on beagles, where I and other have posted our experience of the breed.

No, they don't need 12 hours exercise a day.

The one thing that strikes me as that staffies are great family dogs, but every single one I know is dog-reactive. When you're mainly walking in a park, that could be a total nightmare. Whereas beagles love everyone.