Hi, I've got an eight week old SBT puppy and have noticed that her teeth don't meet when her mouth is closed. Her bottom jaw is about 1/2 cm shorter than the top, my friend says it's undershot?! Will she grow out of this? I'm not too happy as I plan to show her (and told the breeder so), also will it affect her eating? She doesn't seem very big. Any advice would be great as I've had her two weeks now and if I'm getting really attatched...

If your puppy's top teeth project well beyond her bottom teeth, then at the moment she is overshot, not under. (Undershot is where the bottom teeth project in front of the top ones.) As she is very young this may well correct itself as she grows, and it certainly should affect her eating.

It may correct itself as she grows - or it may not but it is a serious fault if you want to show

Guest
your pups teeth should not meet at the front.A staff should have a scissor bite..ie.. the top teeth should closely overlap the bottom.
Archer

What are the chances of mouth problems like this resolving?

depends on the severity of the overshot jaw at the moment I would think.
Archer

Hi Archer is right and guest can I ask who says you pup's bite is wrong? because some people just don't know what they are looking at. And if your friend considers her to be  undershot when from your description she sound overshot then I would not "trust" that friends opinion on something as serious as your pup's mouth.

If she is slightly overshot then I would not let her play "pulling/tugging" games. But I would get the opinion of a Stafford person if you can wait until she is old enough and had her jabs then take her to a ringcraft class and in passing just ask an opinion on her bite.

Poppy nurse it depends on the severity as Archer has said
Karen 

Hi
I don't know much about staffies but in my breed we look for puppies with a 1-2mm gap between upper and lower teeth overlap at 8 weeks.  This is because the bottom jaw grows faster than the top jaw, so by the time they have adult teeth they have a correct scissor bite, if they have a scissor or level bite at 8 weeks the bite usually fails at 4 months.

I'd check back with the breeder if you are worried, he/she shouldn't have sold a pup for show if the bite was suspect, but this could be normal for this breed or line for this age.

Sharon

Being under or over shot is probably the worst thing any Stafford can be as they are a terrier and therefore should have a regular scissor bite. At a seminar last year a pseaker said that an overshot mouth is not a massive problem in a puppy as the head moves and so do the teeth so there is a chance that it will all fit together in time but as it is a breed fault you would be punished very harshly if you took the puppy into the ring. A dog I admire very highly has this problem and I fell sure that if he never then he would have attiained his title with consumate ease.