Which breed?

[Minihero]

Which breed dog do you have?

We are planning on getting a puppy in Spring and looking at breeds. We love golden retrievers and have the space for a medium-big dog. We also like the idea of cocker spaniels and cockerpoos. There's also a maltipoo in our family that we adore.

We have 2xDC age 8 and 6 and DH works from home every day.

Labrador every time, we have one now and great with grandkids as was our last one with our kids, we also have a cockerpoo, lovely dog and no problem with anyone but definitely needs a lot of exercise, much more than the lab

For me it's not just about being safe with children, it's being safe around other dogs as well!
And saffies have a rep with track record that they can be dog aggressive.

Having a dog like that with babies or young children just isn't worth the risk.

Going for a walk, never let the dog off lead doesn't sound like fun either! - And I include other breeds as well in that last sentence, even the ever so docile ex racer greyhound.... I grew up with pointy dogs, if & when they catch something, I can assure you it's not a pretty sight....

For me it's not just about being safe with children, it's being safe around other dogs as well!

This is key for me as well. It's all very well having a dog that's perfect in the house, but they do need to be walked and to go out and interact with the world - and handling a dog-aggressive dog with young children isn't easy and can potentially be very dangerous. All it takes is for a child to get in the way of a fight or a lunging dog and you're in real trouble.

Then add in the fact that a dog aggressive dog can't go to daycare or out with a group dog walker and suddenly things are very restricted.

As above I don't actually have an issue with staffies as a breed choice but I just don't think it's helpful to come on and talk about any breed without mentioning the negatives, especially when there are going to be children involved.

There is a lot of bunkum talked about with Staffordshire bull terriers. You often get one camp calling them "nanny dogs" and the opposition claiming they have lock jaw. Neither is true.

Staffs can show aggression to other dogs, but often they are not the instigators. One of my own dogs has hidden behind me on several occasions to avoid a larger more aggressive dog.

They were originally bred as fighting dogs. When it became illegal working men who had these dogs in the pit would hide the injured dogs in a pram to escape being seen, hence "nanny dog" Because also working men didn't have huge houses and gardens the very same dog would be sharing space with his children. In addition to this the men needed to be able to part the fighting dogs in the pit by getting between them. The dogs had to be able to distinguish between dog and human very quickly, very accurately and in the heat on the moment because any dog that showed aggression towards humans was no good and could not be used in the pit. As such, dogs that showed aggression towards humans were culled and not bred from. Thus, Staffordshire Bull terriers are excellent with people. One of the very few breeds where any aggression towards humans was actively bred out.

A KC reg pure bred staff should be small, short legs, and weigh no more that about 15kg. Twenty years ago people were breeding between pitbulls and Staffs. Pitbulls were made illegal. Not only do these longer legged, heavier built dogs possibly have pitbull in their lineage but these dogs appealed to a certain subsection of society that wanted big musclebound heavy intimidating looking dogs. These dogs are not Staffordshire bull terriers, but strangely in dog circles these dogs have actually been accepted as such. And I wouldn't have one of these new staff dogs around children.

I have had bull breed dogs all my life, various breeds and cross breeds. KC reg Staffordshire, Boston or Boxer make great family pets. Other bull breeds not so much, and it would be idiotic in the extreme to take on a bull breed dog of unknown breeding when you have young children.

Do you take them to dog parks?

Second this - we have a viszla - (very loving yet very bouncy), and a lot of her friends are black labs. They are wonderful, loving, but also able to be left to sleep downstairs, can skip a walk if things get too busy one day, and very trainable. They don't even bat an eyelid at fireworks. They also have a good rep, so other families don't run screaming if they get sniffed at.

You would have to ensure there are no health issues of course, they have a lot of joint issues.

@KeebabSpider - I can tell you, my DD aged 3/4 was laying on the floor with a Staffie in the discover dogs section at Crufts may may years ago.

The dog was fine, and yes loved children and tolerated other dogs, I wasn't worried neither was the breeder ... it was literally love at first sight for the dog and DD.
It's still not the breed for me because of the dogs have the fighting gene in their DNA.

I think when choosing a breed of dog, it's worth making a list of traits you would like your dog to have, traits you are able to tolerate and live with and traits that you absolutely don't want your dog to have. Then look at size, coat, colour and other attributes of different breeds.

*Arran2024 *
Why?

Do you mean why would you take them to a park? Most people like to take their dogs out surely, but I never see staffs unless being walked round the streets.

I'd just say staff owners don't want to be seen at a dog park. Nothing to do with the breed. Just that they're the place of nightmares.

TBH most good intelligent dog owners avoid ‘dog parks’ - and most people involved in animal welfare advise against using them as well (vets, trainers, behaviourists) as they are usually rife with badly behaved dogs and a one way ticket to severe dog fights. Too many dogs off the lead in an enclosed space is asking for trouble.

I don’t take my dogs to ‘dog parks’ - I guess that makes my dogs automatically aggressive?

As it is, I usually see several Staffies on my morning walk and my dogs usually greet them. It’s the little rat dogs people need to watch out for - not Staffies.

I take my dogs on lead walks, to dog parks, to green spaces, to quiet beaches in winter, over the downs, through the woods.....basically any place suitable for dogs. They are social, have great manners with other dogs, enjoy playing with other dogs and they have good recall. Haven't a clue what other people do with their dogs!

A Labrador or (as are depicted as friendly and happy) a whippet are just as (if not stronger) than a staffy.

The risk of a staffy is much lower around children than the risk of a male goldren retriever.

I must be cut from a different cloth than to think a dog breed dictates a play date or a venture outdoors. Some may call me ‘scruffy’ (although I own my own home and work 12hr shifts). Perhaps I grew up poor and relate to the ostracised dogs which are criticised based on their looks and posture in society. I was once the kid/teenager which was viewed as ‘up to no good’ and now live a better life than the ‘posh’ kids who encountered me in school.

a label is a label.

I see many greyhounds/whippets/lurchers in shelters (I adopted my current dog from a shelter who happens to be a whippet), known for being loving and energetic breeds. Yet, nobody asks why there’s so many of them in the kennels.

This is probably down to them being injured whilst working, then dumped. Whippets are still used in hare coursing, despite it being illegal for many years now.

Could you explain why a dozen Staffies and half a dozen Staffie crosses have been implicated in dog bite related fatalities in the UK in the past 20-odd years, several of them of children, and not a single GR of either sex?

I'm not saying that all Staffies are bad, but it looks as if a higher proportion of them go wrong than of some other breeds.

I know it's only anecdotal, by over the last 20 years there have been three occasions when another dog has drawn blood on one of mine, and the aggressors were a Dobe x, a enormous mastiff and a Staffie.

If you breed a line for guarding and aggression, that is likely to be what you get.

A Labrador or (as are depicted as friendly and happy) a whippet are just as (if not stronger) than a staffy.

And yet neither Labradors or whippets have ever been involved in the death of a child - whereas staffies have. Multiple times.

I mentioned previously there are now more staffie x than Pure bred KC staffordshire bull terriers. It has been generally accepted (unfortunately) by most people that these staffie x dogs are "staffie" but no one seems to make the distinction between the two, instead assuming these two types are the same dog. They are not.

It may be useful to refer to these dogs that are generally much larger, heavier longer legged dogs as 'Staffie' but they are NOT staffordshire bull terriers. In fact if you pay attention to some of these 'staffie' dogs you can see they have pitbull in their lineage.

These much larger dogs now go back a good 30 years, and so many are unregistered, ill bred, appealing to a subsection of people who wanted large muscle bound intimidating dogs. For many years they were still the dog of choice, huge numbers bred by backstreet breeders. Even police, vets, dog day care providers refer to these mongrels as Staffie but failing to make the distinction.

So we now have a dog gone rogue with an identity crisis! I'm fairly certain a good number of these dogs that make up the stats on attack and serious injury are not KC SBT.

I see lots of 'staffie' dogs, in the last five or so years I've seen only one staffordshire bull terrier.

@KeebabSpider I get your point but for the purposes of the discussion the dogs involved in multiple fatal attacks were reported as being staffies. Whether they're pure KC bred or not isn't really relevant, to be honest, as being KC registered means very, very little in terms of health and temperament.

There are no "dodgy" Labradors on there that have killed toddlers, or badly bred whippets, or golden retrievers as someone else mentioned upthread 🤷‍♀️

We've had a 16 week old pup need vet treatment after suffering puncture wounds to head and face from a Labrador, one of our adult males got a tear to the flank when a Border Collie shot out of the woods and leapt on him and our other male was viciously attacked by a Border Terrier. One of our bitches was also set upon by a Labrador and a Springer together; fortunately, she, unlike our boys, decided to stand up for herself, and the other two bitches retreated. Our current pup has recently been jumped on by a growling Cocker but thankfully she was not hurt

In each case, our dogs were on the lead and walking quietly, the aggressive dog was loose. All of these attacking dogs are breeds that have been recommended on this thread... 🤔

We live semi-rural so admittedly we don't encounter a lot of Bully type dogs, but there have been Staffies aplenty over the last 30 years and we've honestly never had an issue with one. Maybe we've just been lucky.

It matters a lot to make this distinction.

XL bully are not a recognised breed, there has been no recognised breed standard. Many of the breeders have been trying to create a standard as is evident from them setting up their own club to which their dogs could be registered. Others have more recently been crossing their dogs with other large mastif dogs....and voila these f*ing tanks won't fall under BSL because no tape measure will dictate they do. See the problem now?

The thing is, I think we all have a story of how our dog has been attacked or gone at by a supposedly placid breed - in our area some golden retrievers nearly killed a spaniel.

But that doesn't really change the fact that, year after year, it's always bull breeds which are responsible for the deaths of humans. That's not a coincidence.

@KeebabSpider and yet it's still the same breeds and breed mixes that are responsible for the deaths of humans.

You never see a cockapoo being shot for killing a baby. It's never a golden retriever who has savaged grandma and killed her when she's gone in to feed the dogs. It's never a beagle or a Labrador or a poodle.

Yes, I know it's bad breeding but every single breed on this planet is subject to bad breeding and yet it's still, time and time again, the same breeds and mixes dogs that are responsible for killing people.