Great dane x staffie puppies, advice?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Sounds like an ideal mix for dogfighting. Size of a pit bull or bigger, with the jaw strength & courage of a Staff. And no tricky Dangerous Dogs Act breed.

Avoid. Like. The. Plague.

Caroline_a

lisawood78 wrote: »

I own 2 Great Danes and they are indeed, silly soppy lap dogs that like nothing better than to lie by your side/on your feet/on your bed, but they have been well trained, and that was darn hard work and yes we went through shoes/sofas beds etc, all to chewing. But I have never met an aggressive one either, and I have met 100's (literally) we do social walks periodically with up to 40 Danes at a time, and whilst there is the odd snipe (mainly entire males being bossy) none of them are what I would class as aggressive!
Saying all that, I wouldn't take on of these pups on at all, if only to discourage the very misguided owners from doing this again, and as someone mentioned above, giving birth to pups of this size could be very harmful to the Mum!

Yup, that sums up a Dane to a tee! As far as the damage goes, my last one was doubly difficult to train as she was a Harlequin and the deaf white gene came through and made her virtually deaf. Consequently, she took forever to train and in the first couple of years went through 2 microwaves, 2 kettles and a toaster, as well as anything edible that she found! We even had to move the big American freezer into the dining room as she learnt to open it. This we found out, after coming home to an empty fridge freezer and most of the food over the floor, whilst she sat patiently waiting for the stuff that she liked to defrost!

However, she became a most loving bonkers pet, who lived to the grand old age of 11... I miss her lots.:sad:

gettingready

Sorry for off topic but...

My Zara was attacked few times by staffs (really does not like them now, avoid at all cost) and once by... 2 Great Danes.

She was on a walk with a dog walker when they met a person with the 2 GD, they started playing (several dogs, few people with them) and suddenly the 2 GD turned on Zara.... My dog walker was shocked as she never seen GD attack anything, the owner could not grab both so someone else grabbed one and the owner the other....

I met several GD, they were always very soppy dogs, no idea what happened there and then with those 2....

Zara used to have a CC friend, size about od GD but she nipped him (accidently) on his ear when trying to get a ball, it was just a scratch, you could see this was not a bite, just tumbling together his floppy ear got in the way... the owner went into a panic mode and wedo not walk together any longer....Her dog just to JUMP on Zara, THAT was ok... accidental nip was not..LOL

What we have to remember, different breeds of dogs have different ways of play - Zara hates small dogs runign up to her at full speed, staffs do it, JR do it....

Then again if she plays with another GS - everyone walking by would think we are having a dog fight - they growl, they tumble, teeth out. But is it the way they like to play amng themselves...... never ever any harm done

A mix of staff (who is already a mix with God knows what) with a GD - possible lethal combination, size of one and temperament of the other. With 2 kids at home - I would not risk it... all the issues about the "friend" breeding mix race dogs...just purely for the kids and the fact that it is YOU OP who will end up at home with the dog most of the time... just say no....

PRINCESSX87

Caroline_a:-

I was never questioning what you explained to the OP – My point was just, you seem to know the Great Dane breed, so I’m shocked you don’t know of an aggressive Gd!
When I was little, we had a neighbour who owned 4 Dane’s. Each & every one of them was a living nightmare. I remember in the summer holidays 3 of my friends was bitten or someway “caught” by one of the dogs. In the end after loads of complaints the owner handed her 4 over to the authorities!

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way saying all Danes are like this, Just saying I have experienced this first hand.

The amazing thing is, the women who owned the Dane’s was a dog handler.

Also – About reporting, yes nothing might come from it, but you never know it could give him the frighteners to “clear up his act”! & “not use the pups as extra beer money”

RE: Staffs

I bet many of us pet owners have been in contact with some sort of staff who is aggressive, Dangerous ECT. I have a staffy that had the worse 4 months of his life, He was born to byb, He burnt him, Stabbed him with sharp objects, Kicked & punched him … The list is endless, and however I’m now stuck with a staff who is terrified of everything. Hence why is he always on guard and always fearful.

I work hard everyday to protect my dog & other people’s dog’s, Whilst working on his issue’s. I have no choice, But I wouldn’t change him for the world.

And yet...I have always been hearing staffies this - Staffy owners that... We're now all bad! I promise!

As this posters already put….


GETTINGREADY…
A mix of staff (who is already a mix with God knows what) with a GD - possible lethal combination, size of one and temperament of the other. With 2 kids at home - I would not risk it... all the issues about the "friend" breeding mix race dogs...just purely for the kids and the fact that it is YOU OP who will end up at home with the dog most of the time... just say no....

Was the best piece of information the OP could have received! No breed of dog is perfect… But there is some breeds more then other trying to rebuild their name!

sazziecee

My OH has told his friend today that we will not be having one of the pups.

My OH is disappointed, but as it's me that will be at home with the pup for most of the day, I need to be 100% happy with the decision.

We will get a dog at some point, but there is no rush, we need to find the right match for us.

Thanks for all opinions

foreign_correspondent

Bl00dy hell - what was the owner thinking of, allowing (or facilitating) these two dogs to mate?? Physically and anatomically, the size difference between the two breeds was quite likely to result in pups that would be unable to be born naturally... imagine the poor staffie trying to give birth to pups with skulls perhaps two to three times the size of a normal staff pups head...

Staffies quite often have difficulty giving birth anyway, due to the broad skulls of their pups - this is an emergency, and requires a c section, or the b1tch has to be put to sleep to end her suffering - I hope your OHs friend was aware of this? He endangered the life and health of his b1tch here, and I would not, on principle, be giving him any money, or encouraging him to carry on with his horrible breeding experiments.

Quite apart from this, these pups, whilst they may end up being lovely dogs, could possibly end up looking similar to a pit bull type - and thats all they have to do, look similar- in order to be seized and destroyed as being 'of type'.

I wish people would quit this irresponsible breeding - of the 10,000 healthy but unwanted dogs put to sleep last year, most were staffies and their crosses... this will only stop when people stop over-breeding these dogs so irresponsibly.

OP for your circumstances, I agree that a retired greyhound may well be ideal.

sandralovesknitting

Getting a dog is a lifetime decision that you need to take on very seriously.

It is good that you already have children and pets as the new dog will automatically be bottom of the pack.

I will say that

Yes they are expensive. Insurance, food etc is very very expensive
This breed tends to live for less years and have medical problems
They are very very strong so need constant training

If it does misbehave you can't simply get rid of it. Not sure if that was what you were saying but it did sound a bit like that.

Anyway good luck. I have had a Great Dane for 6 years and every day is a new adventure.

ali-t

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

Bl00dy hell - what was the owner thinking of, allowing (or facilitating) these two dogs to mate?? Physically and anatomically, the size difference between the two breeds was quite likely to result in pups that would be unable to be born naturally... imagine the poor staffie trying to give birth to pups with skulls perhaps two to three times the size of a normal staff pups head...

Staffies quite often have difficulty giving birth anyway, due to the broad skulls of their pups - this is an emergency, and requires a c section, or the b1tch has to be put to sleep to end her suffering - I hope your OHs friend was aware of this? He endangered the life and health of his b1tch here, and I would not, on principle, be giving him any money, or encouraging him to carry on with his horrible breeding experiments.
.

I totally agree with you about this being a poor cross breed. The options are either a long lived muscular giant creature with the tenaciousness (sp?) of a staffy or a large, couthy, dog with lots of muscular weaknesses due to the mixed construction of both these dogs. Or perhaps even something different.

The bit I don't agree with is that staffies often have difficulty giving birth. To my knowlege it is fairly rare for staffs to require c-sections.

There was a study done in Sweden quite a few years ago where staffs did have a high rate but recent studies into purebred staff C-sections have shown fairly low in comparison to other breeds. The studies relate to purbred dogs with the sample gathered through breed clubs and in my experience some of the show dogs are the ones bred with exaggerated features (e.g. big heads) but the bog standard back street bred staffs often have less pronounced features.

I would also have thought (but don't have the evidence to prove it) that it wouldn't make sense to use difficult whelpers if you are churning out pups for money.

Heaven help anyone who takes on these pups in good faith, it sounds like a match made in hell

peachyprice

sandralovesknitting wrote: »

Getting a dog is a lifetime decision that you need to take on very seriously.

It is good that you already have children and pets as the new dog will automatically be bottom of the pack.

I will say that

Yes they are expensive. Insurance, food etc is very very expensive
This breed tends to live for less years and have medical problems
They are very very strong so need constant training

If it does misbehave you can't simply get rid of it. Not sure if that was what you were saying but it did sound a bit like that.

Anyway good luck. I have had a Great Dane for 6 years and every day is a new adventure.

Did you actually read the opening post?

meritaten

I am not going to preach at the OP about NOT buying a dog from these irresponsible people or tell her to go get a rescue dog - as far as I am concerned by buying a dog from these people she IS rescuing it!
what I would say though is to think long and hard, and please research both breeds thoroughly! as the mums owner is a friend then she probably knows the mum dog well enough to know if its a kind and sensible dog (most staffies are). if the Dane is unknown then chances are its a lovely dog as Danes are so rarely aggressive!
just because a dog is large doesnt mean it requires more work - many smaller terrier types would have their masters tramping the fields or streets ALL day and never tire!
chances are good too that with this cross the pups will inherit all the good qualities of the parents and both breeds have VERY good qualities - especially with children!
if she does decide to take the pup then I wish her all the best and my bet is she will have a faithful, companion and guard dog and a playmate for her child!