that staffs get a bad name? Some bl***y owners.
we were at a obedience show yesterday & its a public park & whilst we were doing stays,which is in a different field there was a group of teenagers,about 18 ish,with a stunning staffy ,sitting in the grandstands.not only did this staff have a huge chain for a lead ,the idiots were teaching her to bite.
firstly it was onto objects,like clothes,then it was on their arms :O
the owner would tell her to bite & when the victim could take the pain no more they would shout "submit" & she would ,bless her let go.
they were doing it for ages,she was having a great time bless her & all the praise she got,
i think it was some sort of comp to see who could last the longest :(

ive gone out of my way to meet some lovely staffies recently,& really like them as a breed & am losing my wariness,i even let flynn say hi to a strange one in the street a few weeks ago, (she was a lovely little bitch who you could just tell was 100%)
yet i see things like the above...well it does make you think :(
im so glad its not my breed.

Words fail me. There's a prat born every minute. There's every possibility that this poor girl will be in trouble sooner or later. :(

Dawn R.

What absolute idiots - the dog sounds lovely though.

Lindsay
x

bless her,she was only doing what she has been taught,she was a lovely dark brindle with two short white socks on the front.
the gang were idiots anyway as they were calling & whistleing to our dogs throughout the stays, 3min sit & 10min down,all with us out of sight.not one moved or even looked around.

not one of us said anything to them,about the staff or the calling.
do you think we should have said something about the staffie?

The dogs that have caused the problems where I live have been Airedales, Belgian Shepherds (not sure which variety) and Golden Retrievers :D I have no problem with our local staffies. I just accept that the owners of the others are idiots - not the dogs :D

Daisy

The sad thing is that this dog will end up in a rescue centre because its bitten someone and thought this was the right thing to do. If my puppy bites me or my clothes while I am still in them she gets a good telling off and I hope she will soon learn that its bad thing.

Staffies are lovely dogs in the right hands and you have to wonder if the kids went along to get the dog with their parents. We need to get the law changed and bring back the dog license. The more they pay, the less dogs will suffer as these stupid kids won't be able to afford them in the first instance.

I saw a staffie dog on Sunday, whilst at a dance show in Sheffield.  It's owner did something nasty (didn't see what) which made one of the girls nearby say 'awwww poor thing' so he then went on to kick the dog.  Not particularly hard I don't think, but obviously he did it to get another reaction from this girl.  :( He was only a young lad and I hate to say it but he looked the kind of guy who's got a staffy dog because he thought it made him look 'hard'.

"Staffies are lovely dogs in the right hands"

There you have said it all, "In the right hands". I know a family who always have crossbred dogs, they can't afford high pedigree prices and for them a dog licence would be just another financial burden to stop them having a dog. The fact is they think the world of the two dogs they have and both are very well cared for, both are always walked not just once a day but usually twice or more. The teenage children spend their pocket money on the dogs.

"and you have to wonder if the kids went along to get the dog with their parents. We need to get the law changed and bring back the dog license. The more they pay, the less dogs will suffer as these stupid kids won't be able to afford them in the first instance".

Another family where I live in are totally different, they have plenty of money, kids and parents went along to choose their lovely pedigree pup. A licence is not a problem not even if it was £100 or more per dog per year. The pup came to live with them and at first went out with the kids and the gang of friends. Like the staffy seen they taught it to bite and eventually it did bite one of the gang, it then was not wanted by the gang, it 'cramped their style', plus growing up a bit more thekids found they couldn't take it to pubs and clubs. So now it sits at home going nowhere at all and everyone goes out leaving it alone for hours at a time.

If I was a dog I know I'd prefer the poorer family and rather have the love and attention their dogs get. Money does not make a good owner. It can infact enable bad owners to get a puppy and deny good owners the chance to love a dog.

Just on the news last night , following the pitbull pan that was announced said staffordshires are banned as well as any "bull" breed resembling. That really sucks.

i would have been as cross with seeing ANY breed treated like the staffie was,
this dear little girl is another staffie statistic just waiting to happen imo

>The more they pay, the less dogs will suffer as these stupid kids won't be able to afford them in the first instance.

But dogs would suffer because people wouldnt be able to afford important things like vet bills, and the idiots would still have dogs because they just wouldnt bother getting a license, the same as some people dont tax their cars :(

  "I would have been as cross with seeing ANY breed treated like the staffie was,
this dear little girl is another staffie statistic just waiting to happen imo"

It annoys me too. Why do the parents allow these idiots out with the dog unsupervised in the first place?

shouldnt be let out FULLSTOP,& defintally not in charge of a living breathing creature.:(

staffies are banned?!?!? is that just in the USA?? oh please say it is coz no one is taking my baby away :(

dont panic voors..... think you'll find mannyG is in the states. :-)

Some German states also.

staffies are banned?!?!? is that just in the USA??

Not true.  Be serious for a minute, Labradors and Cockers would have to be banned first for statistically they bite more people.  Staffies are 4th...from the bottom of the list.  Staffie fighting is banned obviously in the US and done only through illegal underground, as in the UK.  I know someone will probably be tempted to say, oh no, this never happens here in the UK...your only kidding yourself, it happens everywhere.

For more insight, do a web search for: pitbullproblem.tk/  I don't want to break the TOS here, but I'll give you a hint, if you put 3 W's in front of that you'll find it no problem.  Warning: graphic and some images not suitable for young children.  This is educational.  You are all correct; people are the problem, not the dog.  Michelled, I think you should have made a phone call and informed a local official / policeman and told them what was going on in the stands.  Hopefully then the proper authorities would have confiscated the dog, and relocated the pet to a loving home not teaching violence and hatred.  Charles

I think you'll find that the only reason more bites are recorded by labs and cockers is because there are more of those dogs around. Labs are the most popular dogs in the country, (therefore it is inevitable a higher number of attacks occur). Proportionately you will find that a higher percentage of staffies and bull terriers attack. I'm not aginst the breed as at the end of the day it's not their fault. Stupid owners are to blame, plus the fact that they were specifically bred to fight so therefore sometimes (not always!) have a shorter temper. When they do attack it is rarely a quick snap, it is a prolonged and savage (and often unprovocked) attack UNLIKE LABS AND COCKERS. Also, don't forget you only mentioned staffies biting PEOPLE, I'm sure you'd find far more staffies and pitt bulls attack other dogs too (far more than any other breed).  

Claybuster where did you get your statistics from?

The stats I mentioned were from the video clip.  Whether or not we can believe the stats, who knows but they mention a 7 year study.  As far as bans go, some cities, i.e. Denver have a ban, and the state of Oklahoma had attempted a state wide ban years back.  A poster had mentioned a USA ban w/ question marks but that to me would imply some sort of nationwide ban, which simply is false.  Now up where Manny is from, the Province of Ontario had imposed a province-wide ban.  I'm sure this has many folks upset up north who truly care for the breed and realize people are the problem, but not the dog per se.  As mentioned by another poster, years of breeding with sole intent to raise and fight has created a short tempered dog, and their bite can't be compared to a quick snapping bite of say a cocker.  Get these dogs out of the wrong hands and bust up the fight network.  You want a protection dog; get yourself a Bovier des Flanders.  Now here's a dog that will do natural figure 8's around their owners on a walk and have a bite that crush bone.  Whoa be to any intruder in your home for they will be pinned up against a wall for 8 hrs plus not dare moving an inch.  If you need some fighting and gambling, try the roosters, but leave the dogs alone!

Some years ago while walking my dogs I slipped on the mud and reached out to stop my fall. Unfortunately I grabbed a barbed wire fence, and ripped open the palm of my hand. My doctor sent me to the local hospital who asked me how it had happened, so I explained and got the reply, "Oh so it is a dog bite then" I said no it wasn't I had ripped my hand on a fence, but they would not accept this and put the injury down to a dog bite. Since then I cannot believe the dog bite statistics as I wonder how many are really dog bites?

Imagine if I had said "When I was out walking my staffie"....... I don't have a staffie by the way but the point is how many are bites and how many are other accidents where a dog was present? My sister has a staffie and he is great with everyone. He is a big soft boy, she has had people refuse to call at her house, because he is there.

("Staffies are lovely dogs in the right hands")
Never a truer word spoken.   Unfortunatly round here there are literally hundreds of them all owned by druggies or youngsters as a status symbol, they are bred from as fast as they can produce, yes I know this for a fact as I was always seeing pregnant bitches out and made a point of enquiring about pups with several, the answer was the same they have a waiting list but will put me on it as they breed all the time to try and meet demand. (I obviously didn't really want one was just inquisitive)
I move in the oppisite direction fast if i see any of them coming when out with my dogs as have had a few encounters resulting in one of my dogs needing stitches, Sometimes they are out loose and have spoken to others who have had bad encounters with many round here.  One person reported it to the police and had thier house set fire too whilst asleep.
I have however met 2 lovely ones with older resposible owners, as with all dogs they are what the owner makes them.

Bev

god,you dont live where i do ,do you? its like that here too.
since my bad experinces last year ive gone out of my way to  soclise myself with LOADS of staffs,they are great little dogs.
WHAT can be done about the bad people that are attracted to them trhough?,because they are ruining the reputation of this breed

Cocker Spaniels are top of the league in biting,way above Staffs anyway.This is quite true.

Outrageous!  No it doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me it would happen in the UK!  We all know (even some of us in the states), that the UK is probably the most dog friendly country in the world.
Heck, if I flew British Airlines in route for Heathrow, my Countess Zoe would probably be bumped up to first class and they would throw me in the baggage!  Well, I guess you just have to take a get-tough stance with these types and play and let them know that doesn't flush down in your book.  You insist they write what you tell them and you insist on a copy for your records.  You mention your uncle on the board of whatever medical association will scare daylights outs of them, and you have a good mind to write a letter to the local newspaper and mention this farce they're trying pull!

I would be interested to know where you got your stats from too Anastacia.  I am not questioning or doubting posters but merely interested where these statistics come from and how reliable they are.  It is easy to bandy this type of information around but even more interesting to know how it came about.

'don't forget you only mentioned staffies biting PEOPLE, I'm sure you'd find far more staffies and pitt bulls attack other dogs too (far more than any other breed).' 

I wouldn't listen to stats really, as I said earlier there are more cockers and labs about so there's bound to be more reported attacks. The truth is that the only breed to have ever attacked my dogs have been staffies or staffie crosses. I didn't report these attacks as no damage was really done and also I had no idea where the owners lived as it has always been in public places and parks. Therefore it makes me question how many attacks like these are going unreported. The thing that bothers me most is when these dogs have attacked, the owners seem completely unphased and don't even apologise. It's true that it's owners like these that give staffies a bad name. Unfortunately, idiots seem drawn to the breed.  

I don't listen to stats that can't be substantiated as that makes them just heresay!  I like evidence!  It would appear that nobody can tell me where all these stats come from!

I don't know where they got the stats from, can't help I'm afraid. :-( I can only speak from personal experience. :-)