Jeanigenie

>Chinese Cresteds are more usual.<

Ahh, then it was a chinese crested, at least it does have a crest, I have not seen many of either of them.

>I'm not sure what that has anything to do with estimating the national dog population?<

Its all linked to the crisis situation with staffs, these are modern dog keeping trends, the figures and what I am saying is that the figures cannot even come close to being known and people and organisations should not put them out as they do, it would be ok if they said this is an estimate of 'tese types' of dogs but to claim they have knowledge of the numbers making up the national pack is non sense.

According to the Dogs Trust 75% of th3e UK dog population ae purebred and it would seem that about half of them are registered based on KC figures.

In fact the proportion of purebred dogs owned by the general public is greater than ever as 50 years ago few people owned anythign other than crossbreeds, and purebreds were owned by rich people or those whop kept a breed for a speciafic purpose, the fami8ly pet was usually a mongrel.

The vast majoritynof dogs I meet at trainign classes are rescues, and about a third are purebred of quite some diverse breeds, but all the owners have heard of Kennel Club registration, if they hadn't then the fact or registration would not carry a higher price than unregistered stock, even though sadly KC registration is often carried by some inferior badly bred and reared stock.

So extrapolating those figures it would be reasonable to guesstimate that 600,000 pups are born each year, taking into account registered purebreds, unregistered purebreds and crosses. Given an average lifespan of 12 years, that gives a national population of 7,200,000 dogs.

Brainless

>According to the Dogs Trust 75% of th3e UK dog population ae purebred and it would seem that about half of them are registered based on KC figures<

You or anyone should know that is just something plucked from the air, since when did dogs trust go knocking on doors of housing estates or anything like that.

For such a figure to be anywhere near close to accurate they would have to have a reliable system to work out how many x breeds, non registered pedigree dogs and outright mongrels there are  in UK. There can be no such system. I know a family in the North who have had GSDs since the 60's and they have never had a registered GSD.

Brainless

>In fact the proportion of purebred dogs owned by the general public is greater than ever as 50 years ago few people owned anythign other than crossbreeds,<

Yes I would say that's right.

Brainless

>The vast majority of dogs I meet at training classes are rescues, and about a third are pure bred of quite some diverse breeds, but all the owners have heard of Kennel Club registration<

I  know of only one person in my immediate area who went to training classes and there are an increasing number of dogs around, to many in fact, she might as well have taken them for a trip on the millenium wheel.

I am sure if people go to classes run by people who are doing these KC courses they will of course be sold the courses on the basis KC recognises them, that's commercial and that's why they get to know, very few people go to classes here anyway and I bet you will find the same the same on the estates you mentioned in another post (the one with Staffs pulling people up the road).

The training classes I help out at are on this very estate and half of all the dogs home dogs that make up two thirds of our classes are in fact Staffie crosses.

That surprises me, it is nothing like the trend here in London, in fact yet another council has banned all dogs from its estates cause of the growing nuisance,when a current dog dies they will not be allowed to get another.

This in turn will have a serious affect on rescues, I dont follow or research which council is doing what, just pick it up when it someone tells me but it seems all London councils are heading that way, hundreds of thousands of rescues are already deprived of homes by Westminsters ban and now Ealing >>at least.

>since when did dogs trust go knocking on doors of housing estates or anything like that.

But lots of people from estates (and other places too) go knocking on the door of Dogs Trust centres with their unwanted dogs. They're at the sharp end of the dog population problem, and have a better grasp of the reality of the situation than others.

Hiya,

Wow...this took off didnt it? Ive had rpobs logging in but will try and catch up and respond to any comments a bit later :)

For estimating dog numbers wouldn't the vets be a good place to start?  Afterall no matter who the owners are or where they live I would think most if not all know that dogs need to be vaccinated as puppies.

That's why vaccine manufacturers' figures are usually fairly reliable.

Haven't had time to read the whole thread through but i popped on site today & in the intake block nearly every kennel is a SBT or SBTx, 2 EBT's, 3 weims, gsdxakita pup :-(, gsd's & crosses of & general crossbreeds, this is not including the rehoming block or the rehab block, oh not to mention the poor old greyhounds & lurchers but it does seem as though we have a constant flow of staffs, most of which are hard to home as i would generalise here & say that the majority of sbt's we get have d2d issues. We also had 2 am bulldogs in within 3 weeks of each other, breeds seem to be a burst then a lapse like the weims & i am hoping the am bulldogs are the same & its not going to be the norm for them to be in all the time like greyhounds & staffs :-(

Sorry to see the AMBs are at the rescue stage already,I was waiting for that. I am sure with your background and after reading your site you knew it was all so predictable and the worst is yet to come, as I said in an eariler post-to many people in denial and they would argue and scream "No Problem".

Well your an actual rescue so at least now you have given credibility and a sense of realism, difficult to get away with here although soon enough we will see popularising promotions such as "Ohh AMB are so cuddly, its the owners" - posts like that everywhere are partly to blame for all this.

I think everyone on here knows well that the staffy is overbred to the extent that rescues are overflowing with them and their crosses - nobody's denying that! That's what this whole thread's about!

I couldn't aree more Jean :-(
It is very sad.

lol...exactly. I havent had time to go through the whole thread yet and as firework night fallout is now starting, doubt i will have time. Ambulls are in rescues due to the recent attack so i think their numbers will drop slightly in time tho im sure we will see an increase of those too. The biggest problem is many peole who are not part of dog forums still beleive two  things: firstly that this country doesnt have a stray problem, and secondly that pound dogs do not get pts after 7 days. If we can get the message across that we DO have a problem and poundies ARE put to sleep that would help. Then we need the neutering side tackled which could be somewhat harder!