I have seen a few American social media pages post videos with titles like "Lovely Pittie and his friend" but the video is of a child and what I would call a Staffie. In the UK, Staffies and Pitties are considered different breeds of dog. Are these videos badly titled or do Americans call both breeds by the same name?
I have six dogs, all well-trained and non-agressive border collies and podencos. Currently we have a guest staying with us who has a "banned breed" American Staffordshire bull terrier called Sky who is very high energy. She constantly initiates rough play with our dogs to the point where often we find our dog Dusty just lying there exhausted while Sky is jumping all over him, growling and biting. It's "play" but he's clearly had enough. If I bring Dusty in she will pick another dog and start the same play fighting. I don't love it and it often escalates to such rough play that things are getting smashed and broken. I'd like to stop this behaviour but Sky does not take commands from me.
Sky has also attacked Molly, a golden collie and leader of our pack. Molly is not a fighter by any means and clearly dislikes Sky. The first incident happened when Molly and I came home from a walk and Sky ambushed us, clamped onto Molly's ear and wouldn't let go. I couldn't get in-between them as I was down an embankment but I managed to break up the attack by chucking my bag really hard at Sky and by some miracle she let go. There was a lot of blood but Molly recovered.
The second attack happened about two weeks later when Molly was in the greenhouse with me, an enclosed space. Sky came in at 100miles an hour and Molly barked as a warning. Sky immediately pounced, clamped down on to Molly's neck and started thrashing/shaking. Molly was screaming and since I was right there so was I. I was kicking Sky as hard as possible trying to get her off and nearly broke my finger trying to grab her collar. Within about 1 minute everyone came running and her owner got Sky off by literally choking her and lifting her off the ground. Thankfully Molly wasn't badly hurt.
I was quite shaken afterwards and felt guilty that I'd kicked Sky like that but I was frightened. I asked the owner if he had a command for "release" or "leave it" and he said no and looked at me confused.
Following another incident where Sky body slammed me into the ground and hurt my leg pretty bad I've now made it a rule that Sky must stay on the chain/leash for the next month until she moves out.
My question is what should I do if my dog is attacked by another dog?
Supplementary question, is there anything I can do to help Sky calm down and learn some manners? I feel like this is a tragedy waiting to happen as she clearly has it in her to attack. Because of her breed she's not allowed in public without a muz
... keep reading on reddit ➡
I’ve been reading a lot of stuff in this sub recently after an experience I had with a Pit bull that I knew since a puppy. It was a pure bred pit bull.
I’ve always had great experiences with both dogs up until that point, but now I’m wary of Staffordshire Bull Terriers or “Staffies”. From what I can gather, Staffies were sometimes used as fighting dogs but more used as a family dog; they were bred from American Pit Bulls though, so I’m not risking anything with them until I know for certain.
tl;dr: are Staffordshire Bull Terriers as bad as pit bulls?
I ask this because in Britain, Pitbulls and Staffy’s are sort of piled in the same group or their breed names are even used interchangeably.
Whilst I agree pitbulls are inherently dangerous, I’m not sure I would say Staffy’s are.
Thoughts? Is it just pitbulls, or all of the “bully” breeds, for you?
He was only 6 years old, I had him for 2 years. For 6 months of those, I was away with work. My ex partner looked after him because it made sense, it was his home and he had a garden and family to look after him in the day. I couldn’t bare to leave him but I had to. I visited him twice in the stint I wasn’t with him. I was due to go and visit him again in 1 week.
I got a call saying he passed away as he had to be put to sleep. He was fine one minute, 30 minutes later he was limp and weak. It transpires he had a tumour that had dislodged and caused cardiac arrest. The survival rate of the cancer is grim and it goes undetected.
The guilt and pain I feel is immense. I wish I could have seen him. He saved me more than I saved him and I didn’t get to say goodbye. He was my best friend.
He was a Staffordshire bull terrier, pure breed. He was taken from a home where they kept him in a cage in the garden 24/7 in his own excrement and filth. Because of this he HATED flies.. apparently the only people that would care for him were the babies in their house, going up to his cage and giving him snacks. I suppose that’s where his love for babies came from.
When I saw him at the shelter, I drove 4 hours to collect him that day. He jumped up and wrapped his front legs around my leg as if he was hugging me and cuddled into my lap the entire way home.
He was bouncy, energetic and my best friend. In the time we had together we celebrated his birthday with a dog friendly carrot cake. Took him to the sea for the first time and watched how he became electric. We teamed up to battle against scary daddy long legs and flies (aka spicy sky raisins) together. We watched as he was proud to show off his first giant stick (it was basically a tree) He was our shoulder to lean on in tough times and knew exactly when to give you a staffy kiss or a cuddle.
Most importantly he taught me unconditional love. He was and always will be my best friend. 🧡
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/staffordshire-bull-terriers-been-named-24763166
Hi. My GF found a perfect dog, a 5 yo sbt. I have always been a little worried about the breed until I read more about it, seems like a friendly dog. However, my worries come from seeing the type of owners this dog sometimes attract, the type that probably chooses it for the tank look.
I am wondering, how will I know it's been trained properly by the previous owners or that it hasn't been trained in a way to provoke aggression? Any tips?
I love dogs, but I also tend to be paranoid about most things. I think most of my worries come from that, and the stories that sometimes flow in the media.
I want to add, my GF will be with the dog 24/7 and plans to go to dog training with it.
Thanks for taking your time to read this.
