got to work today,to find all police cars around the job centre (which is opposite my shop)
apparently,a dog was left outside the JCentre whilst its owners went in ,& a guy (druggie) came past the JC with his staffie off the lead & it just went & attacked this old dog (scruffy,middleaged terrir /beardie) its owners came running out & the XBs owner just jumped in to get the staffie of off her dogs throat  (staffies owner just watched)& the staffie has shredded her arm. god you should have seen the blood,all over the pavement & wall.
by the time the police had arrived theyd got them apart & the staff was back on a lead

luckily the Xb dosent seem too injured,but not sure about the womans arm?
id do just the same though,protect my dog.

the police didnt take the guy or his dog into custody,which i was kinda suprised at.

it was a really big white staff,totally gorgeous to look at. whyb the hell was this dog off the lead???? bloody people!

These are sort of owners that give Staffords a bad name, it absolutely infuriates me.  I have a staffy and he is unpredictable with other dogs so I do the responsible thing and keep him on the lead when other dogs are around. 

When staffs attack they will not stop and dont know what they are doing - this is when they become dangerous and out of control. Staffs are brilliant pets when correctly trained and handled - but they can be a nightmare untrained like any other dog except they have the ability to do a lot more damage because they are so strong. 

Irresponsible people like this make me sick and they shouldnt be allowed to own any sort of animal. 

exactly i totally agree with you.
im really starting to be very scared of staffies now,because of people like this!

please dont be scared, these people are in the minority. Our 11 mth old Giorgia is soft natured and loves everyone, just wants cuddles all the time. I know that doesnt help you much but I just needed to try and reassure you

thanks Coleystaff!!!
i DO know some nice ones,its just i seem to be seeing LESS nice ones & more horrible ones.

looks wise this was really lovely, & was really calm whilst its "owner" was talking to the police.
of course everybody who saw it was saying it was a pitbull (which it wasnt).
it a shame that dog has such a terrible owner. how can people that are off their heads half the time be responsible for ANY dog let alone a stafford!

Ditto.
I have 2 staffs and the older bitch can sometimes be a little unpredictable with other dogs..95% of the time she is fine but I would never have her off lead with other dogs unless I know 100% that she is ok with them.
It is people like this owner who are keeping up the bad image of Staffies.

i find it really worrying that almost every druggie in this town seems to have a staffie in tow :(
(we are only a little seaside town,with not a huge drug problem)
are they breeding them to fund their habit? to scare off police? other dealers or what?

It just goes to show that stupid, irresponsible owners can give any breed a bad name!!! :( Trouble is, how do you come up with a solution to stop these brain dead apologies for people having a dog?

On a lighter note, OH came home last night, totally in love, he was working with a woman yesterday who had bought her Staff along and his words were "totally gorgeous and soppy as a bag of worms"! (I have definitely said NO, 2 dogs, soon to be 3, is quite enough :P ) He didn't have an opinion one way or the other on them before he met her, but now he is struck. The woman is rescuing another one in 2 months time :) First impressions and all that...........

although.....would another breed caused so much damage????
each time i see a fight a staffie has been involved with it scares me...alot :(, its really not like a normal dog fight is it?

On another lighter note, I saw an old couple walking with their old Lab, the old man saw my little staffie and tried to cross the road but his wife said.

" Its ok thats Rose shes soft and soppy"

and they brought their old boy over and gave rose a little stoke she rolled on her back and had a good belly rub while the Lab licked her to bits!!

I think Staffie breeders have just got to be careful as do all breeders who they are selling their pups too.

STAFFIES ARE GREAT!!

I don't think there is a solution :( I highly doubt that bringing back dog licenses would work because you can almost guarantee it would only be responsible dog owners who would get them. I suppose as long as irresponsible people keep using staffies as breeding machines to make money there will always be this problem and it makes me terribly sad.
The Staffie rescue people really have a difficult job. I am a friend of the Northern SBT rescue group and there have been 3 bitches all brought in just since friday.

But back on topic! My 2 are extremely people friendly. I would imagine that the staff in question probably bit the lady because she got in the way of what it was trying to do :( They are very strong and determined but there is no doubt this one should have been kept on lead.
Sorry for waffling on.

do you think there may be legalisation on staffies in the future in the uk,if people like this druggie continue to own them?

They are very very strong determined dogs in a little package and can do a hell of a lot of damage because they are so strong and determined. Mine is a great big softy with people and absolutely adores children but just not to keen on some other dogs.  

It really is a shame for the breed that careless irresponsible people own them just to look 'tough' and then cannot control them properly hence the bad reputation.  

I think we must be lucky, prehaps its the rural area we live in but we have not come across a  Staff off the lead yet let alone a nasty one. Within 200 hundred yards there are 2 Irish Staffs and Rottweiler and Staff living together and they are always on the lead like ours. I'm sure they're let off somewhere to run like ours is, there are plenty of places by us to go where you wont see another soul. But in close proximity to the houses they're always on the lead.

hi, in public all dogs should be kept on the lead, i myself have  owned and bred staffords for many years, i spend along time explaining to new puppy owners the nature of the stafford, they love human company especaily children, but do not like other dogs invading there own private space, some are more tolerant than others, i myself always have problems with dogs running up to mine owners in the distance shouting, they are ok with others, and that results with me shouting back, well mine arnt, and if you cannot control your dog off lead, it shouldnt be. The other thing i must comment on is IRISH STAFFORDS.... no such thing...... another name for pitbulls or crosses, and  should never be put alongside the name staffordshire bull terrier...
sharon .

Sharon.

You say:

"The other thing i must comment on is IRISH STAFFORDS.... no such thing...... another name for pitbulls or crosses, and  should never be put alongside the name staffordshire bull terrier... "

You are very wrong. There is a strain of Stafford often (wrongly) refered to as the ISBT (I hate the term as it indicates a seperate breed of dog) in actual fact they are just Irish strain or Irish bred SBTs.  You need to do some more reading if you believe they are ALL just Pit Crosses. 

Some unscrupulous breeders do take advantage of this name and do pass off some APBTs as these dogs and they do the same passing dogs off as just Staffords or AmStaffs BUT to deny there is such a strain of dogs is very ignorant.

There are four main strains the Psycho, Dublin Red, O'flynn and Stormer (some debate about the latter though).  If you look back through the history of these dogs you will in actual fact find that some strains such as the Dublin Red  O'Flynn and Psycho lines are traceable right back to old KC SBT lines and (with exception of the latter) have no outside influence at all.  It just happens that whilst the KC took the breed in one direction the old timers kept their dogs as working staffords (like it or not that is the history) and never bothered to carry on the registration process.

Are you seriously saying these dogs do not exist?  That the past 45 years of breeding these working lines of Stafford are to be ignored?  That the famous dogs of past and present are just a figment of our imaginations?  That even though some strains remain pure and go right back to old KC lines they are infact not Staffords?  I think not.  I am not trying to argue here, but as its my chosen breed I cannot sit back and let people who have no knowledge of these dogs make such sweeping statements, hopefully the next time you will think before making such statements.

You say you have seen lots of staffs in fights,You say all the owners are drug dealers in your little seaside town,But you also say that there isnt really a drug problem in your little town so therfore there cant be many staffies nor staffie fights,Would you say your a little OTT with what you see.And are you sure that you know what a staffie looks like,Small dogs with muscles arnt all staffords.Most staffies with problems are usally cross breeds.Im a staffie owner and know lots of other staffies,Its people like yourself and the druggies that make staffords look bad.I know Yorkshire terriors and jack russells with more aggresion and bite than my stafford and my mates.But what do i know?

my staff got attacked by an alsatian who was not on his lead but i do not go around running that breed down. that does not make all alsatians evil.

do you think then nchappers that that GSD that bit your staff should have been on a lead? because that is all im saying!!!!!
are you just abit paranoid?

I think there is too much of a generalisation...Staffordshire bull Terriers should not be punished for the inadequacey of their owners....
If they are not trained properly and diciplined you will get problems as you would with any dominant, strong breed.

Its the owners not the dogs!!!

good point blondiflops.

i agree boniflops that the breed should not be punished,but the owners. howver what i asked was do you think that there would be a time (like in other counrtys) that staffords become a controlled breed in the uk?
i dont think that they  should be,but i think that they could be targeted by the government

So would you say that my staffy has a problem because he is dog aggressive and cannot be trusted around other dogs?  Im not trying to pick an argument here but my point is that there are some staffys (who are not X breeds) have been socialised from an early age and trained correctly who still turn out dog aggressive - its the nature of the breed what they were originally bred for. Ive had numerous staffs - some have been ok with other dogs , some havent. 

I think you should just be responsible, I have two staffies they are lovely dogs and LOVE! other dogs...but I still put them on a lead if there are other dogs around...

Better to be safe than sorry

My mates staff is the same as yours,Very aggresive with other dogs but not with humans,It annoys me though people like Michelle are trying to make staffords out to be these man eating animal eating monsters

Unfortunately for these lovely dogs they have got a stigma attached to them through no fault of there own....a FEW of them just get into the wrong hands and that is when problems arise.

Don't tar every dog with the same brush.

im just saying what happened.
didnt say they are man eating monsters.

as i said i know lovely ones,but because of irressponsible ownership they are creating a VERY bad name for themselves. not their fault but the owners,who think that their dog has the RIGHT to be off the lead even when is totally agressive to other dogs.

now if it were my breed,id want to be thinking who i could make sure that they are only owned by people who are aware of what they have.

why are you attacking me nchappers,you should be targeting people that own staffies & let them off the lead when they know they are agreesive. BECAUSE they are the people that will get your breed restricted in this country.

I think people just get defensive about the breed because we know that they arent all bad....

I think the majority of people are responsible if you consider how many Staffie owners to how many Staffie attacks there are.

Things are just blown out of proportion.

Of course this was a terrible incident and there is now excuse for it but thats one dog...

It will make us all more aware of what the dogs can potentially do and therefore we can take the neccesary precautions to make sure it never happens with our dog.,

to be honest blondiflops that was all i was trying to do,  :)

if it was a rottie or a gsd or a jack russel or even my own breed i would have said exactly the same!!!!

we have it in our breed as well,lots of snappy sharp manic collies ,giving the rest a bad name.

Michelled I know that what you were trying to do, at no time did you actually say anything determental about the dogs..

As I said before people take things too personally :)

If you ever want to meet anymore friendly staffs who would help you conquer your nervousness mine would be up to the job...so long as you and your collie don't mind being covered in dribble and licks :d

Sorry to say this Michelle but if you look back at your post it seemed a little alarmist, thats why I tried to reassure you in the first place. But I didnt take offence.
It does seem that Staffs more than other dogs get bad press. As has been said there are breeds who are capable of inflicting the same if not more damage than a Staff but arnt talked about as much. Maybe then as proud Staff owners who know our dogs to be the most affectionate and loveable softies on this planet, we get defensive and this can lead to our posts seeming passionate and  emotional

yes i was alarmed coleystaff!!!! it had just happened!!!!!
it was shocking that the owner would let his dog loose like that.
what if they had gone into the road & caused a crash?
as i haVE said i DO know some nice ones,but more & more that i see do seem abit dodgey???? maybe its just down here?

also i really felt for the owner of the Xb, not because of her arm but because of how much she must have loved her old dog to jump in like that & not stop even when she was getting bitten.
so i was alarmed!

hi brigham.
im not sure if you were talking to me. no i would not say your staff had a problem,because you sound a responsible owner ,aware & in control

No michelled i wasnt talking to you i was talking to nchappers who sounds to me like he is just joining in on this debate to cause an argument.....

thanks brigham!
does anyone else on here think im anti staffy?
i admit im getting scared of them but im a real dog lover, & do know somelovely ones. & i know how much people on here love theirs & are commited to the breed.

however,if someone like me is getting scared of them.....what must other non doggy people be seeing?????????

im not trying to start an arguement. im fed up with all the negative talk about staffs. it annoys me having to deal with people crossing the road when im walking my dog (on a lead and he is the softest dog in the world). also people labelling staffs as pit bulls. i just get very defensive about staffs.

i would cross the road if i had my dogs out &if a staff wasnt on the lead!!!! im sorry but i would. this does not mean i hate them or want them banned,but i DONOT trust ones i dont know? & having had flynn attacked by one i wouldnt risk it again.
if the staff was on the lead under control i would have no problem at all!

I have a dobermann and I get exactly the same reaction people think he is going to be vicious (I don't know why though!)  It is always okay for peoples little dogs to have a go at my boy and they say "oh he's/she's a bit of a misery" but if it was the other way round there would be a problem.  There is one lady in the park with two yorkies and everytime we approach she picks them up - and my boy has never even as much as sniffed them, we always tell him to leave.  I see people actually go in the opposite direction.

I've a young male medium sized terrier who some days thinks he's a big "I AM".  Nice dog but huge ego, often I just put him on the lead and walk in the other direction purely because he may want to prove something when meeting a much bigger dog (if their taller than him, somedays he thinks he's got something to prove) .  Often I feel embarassed that the owner of the big dog thinks I'm neurotic, which I'm not as my bitch is left lead. 

yes i know what a stafford looks like.
please dont label me,as if the incident didnt happen then i couldnt have reported it.

it sounds like you would like the breed banned. Staff are great dogs. why not inform the police about the drug dealers, they are easy to spot, just look for the staff. If the police sort the druggies out then you will not have a problem with staffs in your area.

err no!!! are you actually reading my posts?????????

some people say collies are snappy little things that always bark,snarle and bite other dogs, but is it fair to say that all collies are like that. i think not. so why  do the same thing with staffs

She didnt say that about staffs all she did was let us know about an incident which happened.  She was not slagging staffs off! Why are you being so aggressive, no-body else has took her post in the wrong way.....

If you read her original post she was slagging off the owner

you quite obvisley ARENT reading my posts as i just actually said that!!!!!!
where exactly did i say all staffs are bad?
i think your attitude on here is doing more damage to the staff rep than mine to be honest!!!!!!

Unfortunately nchappers,to take one of your comments literally, because an owner is irresponsible, it does not mean that they are on drugs. Heck, drugs would probably make some of these people more intelligent :P (prescriptive ones I mean)

I understand why you are defensive about your breed, but I also understand and agree with michelles point of view, Through irresponsible breeding and ownership, there may come a time when this breed is censored. As Blondiflops says, we shouldn't tar every dog with the same brush.

I have had GSD's all of my life, but I still wouldn't trust one when I was out if it was off lead. If you go back a couple of decades, GSD's were the devil dog of their time and were very unfairly looked upon and treated. Its simple for us dog loving owners, if our dogs are not trustworthy in any respect, we keep them on the lead, alas, not every numbskull that has a dog is a loving dog owner.

Woo woo woo...no one said anything about getting breeds banned!

Calm down! Your blowing things out of proportion!

Michelled never said that!! and she also never mentioned the man eating comment either...

i think it was perhaps the comment from Michelle about almost every druggie in her town owning a Staff that might have annoyed some people. Michelle I'm sure doesnt move in those types of circles so it was just a generalisation on her part but too many people who arnt as well meaning as Michelle make this comment, hence the reaction.

whoops! id also like to say that i know staffie owners that arent druggies! :)

Well I do partake of the odd paracetamol ;) :)