Fed up with people slagging off my new Staffy pup!

Jay_Tee

tankgirl1 wrote: »

Jack Russells, and all the other smallies are the worst culprits!

What even Shelties I've never known my ones make a murmur about being treated at the Vets or having injections, isn't this rather a generalisation as well?

dirtysexymonkey

people are wary of staffies because of the type of people who get staffies, so are you really surprised when people become a bit wary of you when you get one? i wouldnt have a staffy because i dont like the look of them and i dont like how some people think theyre devil dogs and then others think theyre nanny dogs - neithers true not that either side will admit it.

Person_one

Tankgirl, when you are looking after people's much loved pets I think its important that you leave prejudices and stereotypes at the door and treat each one as a new individual, decide how to best care for it and relate to it based on its behaviour, not what you expect its behaviour to be based on something as arbitrary as size or breed!

A 'human' nurse (you know what I mean!) must do this with her patients. It doesn't matter if every other little old lady, or alcoholic, or person from a certain part of town, or person of a specific religion has behaved in exactly the same way in the past, they still have to treat the new patient as an individual and give them the best care without any preconceived ideas about them.

There are some small dog owners who don't bother to socialise, exercise or train them properly, but equally there are owners of all sized dogs who don't. There are many many owners of small dogs who take great pride in having well behaved, well trained friendly little pets. Its just as wrong to assume all small dogs will be spoilt, yappy and nippy as to assume all staffies will be aggressive, or all border collies will be hyper, or all terriers will be stubborn and so on.

Please please look at the dog's behaviour, not its size, and care for them based on that. Do vet nurses get any training in dog body language and interpreting it, or in positive training? I'm a bit alarmed now that they might be grabbing my dogs by the scruff and shouting at them as soon as I'm out the door! My vet is wonderfully gentle but I don't know any of the nurses.

SingleSue

My ex next door neighbour had a rottweiler, gorgeous thing. Yes, he had a mean bark and would be very vocal if you tried to break into his home but around children, he was the most intuitive dog I have ever known. If he spotted danger, such as a child nearing the edge of a pavement, he would stand in front of them to stop them going into the road and he just loved to play football with the boys (even if he sometimes confused the rules about not eating the ball). As he got older, he could no longer play football as he developed arthritis and the forlorn look on his face when he got his ball out and no one would play or would play a gentle game of pass the ball was so sad...he was so so soppy around children.

That said, his owner was always very careful to not leave him on his own with children and of course, I was always reminding my boys that dogs are not play things to be pulled about or sat on. This became especially important when the arthritis developed, we knew that the potential for him to turn if one of the boys touched a sore point was increased.

Another friend has an alsatian, big begger of a thing and again, makes lot of scary noises when you knock on the door but once in the house, she is more likely to lay down to have her belly rubbed than to bite you, she is completely daft! Again though, caution is used around the children (as she would with any dog) and other dogs, even though she has been very well socialised with both.

I personally decided not to have a dog (any dog) when the children were small even though I have always wanted one (I come from a family who always had dogs) because I just could not take the risk of one of the children winding it up and for it to then turn but I still dream about having one once they are all grown up....in the meantime, I have cats!

Kazzabell80

warehouse wrote: »

It's not a "Staffy" it's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. They were bred to be fighting dogs. Giving them a fluffy name doesn't hide the fact that they can kill a child if the mood takes them.

Have only just started reading this thread, but what a stupid remark!! ALL dogs are capable of killing a child.

I have a choc lab and a weimeraner - both are gorgeous, loving animals. But I would never leave them or any other dog alone with a child unsupervised.

Kay_Peel

Poor old staffies can't win.

I am a volunteer dog walker at a sanctuary/rescue centre. The majority of dogs are staffies or staffy crosses. They have been dumped by owners who thought that they were getting a fierce-looking trophy dog and ended up with a little sweetie. They aren't popular with new owners for two reasons: (a) they believe them to be 'chav's dogs' - it's a phrase that comes up time and time and time again, unfortunately and (b) they feel that people have an irrational fear of staffies, born out of ignorance, and they don't want to spend the rest of the dog's life having to reassure neighbours, family and those they meet while the dog's on the lead.

Personally, I haven't met a staffie or a staffie cross that wasn't gentle, cuddlesome, cheeky (give them an inch etc.), very biddable, responsive to training and a pleasure to be around once they know who's in charge. And I've known hundreds.

Kazzabell80

warehouse wrote: »

No, it's because they DON'T.

My family had a boarder collie. We had her from 13 weeks old, for 7 years. She bit my brother (twice) and my sister - on the face, she had to have plastic surgery.

Lyka (the dog), was the most loyal dog ever. But she had arthritis in her hips, and both my brother and sister have since owned up to being antagonistic to the dog (they were 18 and 22 when they were bitten and they should have known better).

Lyka was put down....RIP

Dogs don't 'turn' for no reason.

pulliptears

Kazzabell80 wrote: »

Dogs don't 'turn' for no reason.

Exactly this.

When I bought my Westie I was warned they were not good dogs with children, I taught both kids they needed to respect Bob and not pester or irritate him and in return he would be their constant companion.

For the most part it worked, my daughter wound him up once and he snapped at her. I chastised the daughter, not the dog.

With any animal the general rule is they can all turn, either from provocation or generally feeling ill and wanting to be left alone. They can't say "hey guess what, I don't feel very well today please let me sleep". For this reason it's never sensible to leave a child with any dog, be it a teacup yorkie or a Doberman.

Paradigm

Person_one wrote: »

Size has nothing to do with it, its all about owners. Yes a lot of owners of small dogs fail to train them properly because it doesn't seem to matter as much when they can't reach higher than your knee, but that's only a very indirect side effect of their size.

Small dogs are no different than medium or large dogs if they're trained and exercised properly

I'm not disputing that you are right & the owners of small breeds don't take enough care to train & socialise properly but....

If that's the case then, from my experience, it's the majority of small breed owners failing in their duties.

Person_one

Paradigm wrote: »

I'm not disputing that you are right & the owners of small breeds don't take enough care to train & socialise properly but....

If that's the case then, from my experience, it's the majority of small breed owners failing in their duties.

The majority? Not in my experience, I walk my little dogs every day and every day we meet lots of perfectly friendly, happy, well behaved small dogs.

Even if it were the case why is it ok to make these incredibly nasty generalisations about small dogs and tar all their owners with the same brush when we've spent something like 10 pages all agreeing that its wrong to do so about Staffies and their owners?!!!

This makes me so angry. :mad: