49 Fun Facts About Staffordshire Bull Terrier

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier originated in Staffordshire and the northern parts of which city?

Birmingham. Its dealer James Hinks refined these dogs into the showy Bull Terrier, but fanciers in the neighbouring Black Country stayed loyal to the old fighting type, which became the Stafford.

The Stafford's breed standard likens its low-set tail to which old-fashioned object?

A pump handle. The tail is left undocked and should taper to a point with barely a curl, so one that is too long or badly curled is faulted in the show ring.

What did crosses with Staffords bring into the Bull Terrier breed?

Coloured coats. Bull Terrier breeders crossed back to Staffords for colour while they were fixing the egg-shaped head, and historians say every coloured Bull Terrier descends from that blood.

Which act of Parliament outlawed bull-baiting and bear-baiting in Britain?

Cruelty to Animals Act 1835. With the bull rings closed, the gamblers moved into cellars and back rooms, where dogs could be matched against each other out of sight of the law.

Before breed names existed, bull-and-terrier crosses like the early Stafford were known as what?

Half-and-halfs. The label marked them as mongrels rather than a breed, yet these rough crosses became the starting point for several pedigree breeds, the Stafford among them.

Besides fighting each other, Victorian pit dogs like the early Stafford were wagered on killing which animals against the clock?

Rats. A set number were tipped into the pit and the clock ran until the last one was dead, a wager that kept cellar pits busy long after bull-baiting was outlawed.

According to his son, which breed did James Hinks cross in when creating the Bull Terrier?

Dalmatian. Admirers of the old fighting type wanted nothing to do with such outcrosses and kept their own dogs apart, the line that became the Stafford.

What nickname did the Bull Terrier, the Stafford's show-ring cousin, earn in Victorian Britain?

The White Cavalier. Dealer James Hinks turned the old pit dog into an elegant show dog for gentlemen, leaving the working man's rougher dogs to become the Stafford.

Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, appeared on television beside which wildlife presenter?

Steve Irwin. She rode along on his crocodile-catching trips for 16 years, and he gave his daughter Bindi the middle name Sue in her honour.

Which rescue charity told Britain in 2011 that Staffies are 'softer than you think'?

Battersea. More than a third of the dogs coming through the London home's doors in 2013 were Staffies, and its campaign answered the stigma with stories of rescued family pets.

What does 'gameness', the trait prized in the Stafford's pit-fighting ancestors, describe?

Refusing to quit. Under the old pit rules a dog that could still drag itself across to its opponent's corner won the match, even if it was too hurt to go on fighting.

The Stafford is shown as a terrier, a group name that comes from the Latin word for what?

Earth. True terriers were bred to follow foxes and badgers into their burrows, while the Stafford came by the name second-hand, through the terrier half of its ancestry.

In which classic novel does a Stafford hide the runaway heroes in a removal van?

The Hundred and One Dalmatians. In Dodie Smith's novel a gruff Staffordshire waves the sooty fugitives into the empty van his 'pets' are driving to London, and even offers to deal with Cruella himself.

A 2017 genome-wide study traced all bull-and-terrier breeds back to the terriers of which country?

Ireland. The study dated the crosses to the 1860s, which fits old accounts of dog contests being popular there at a time when stud books were too unreliable to record such matings.

Butchers once had bulls baited by dogs like the Stafford's ancestors in the belief that it did what?

Made the meat tender. The belief made baiting part of the butcher's trade as well as a spectacle, and it appears at one time to have been required before a bull could be butchered for sale.

Where did Black Country fighting dogs, the Stafford's forebears, usually live between bouts?

In their owners' homes. Unlike fighting dogs abroad they were never kept in kennels or compounds, so when the pits closed the step from fireside lodger to family pet was a short one.

Which coat colour does the Stafford's breed standard reject outright?

Black and tan. The Kennel Club calls the colour unacceptable and the AKC disqualifies it outright, so a dog marked that way is out of the ring however sound the rest of it is.

Where did fanciers meet in 1935 to found the first Staffordshire Bull Terrier club?

In a pub. They gathered at the Old Cross Guns in Cradley Heath, where they formed their club and drew up the breed's first written standard.

Film star Tom Walls, a pioneer Stafford breeder of the 1930s, also owned the winner of which classic horse race?

The Derby. Walls trained April the Fifth himself at his Surrey stable and won the 1932 race with him, three years before one of his dogs was among the first six Staffords registered.

Gentleman Jim and Lady Eve made Stafford history in 1939 by becoming the breed's first what?

Champions. The dog and the bitch both took their titles on the same day at a show in Bath, four years after the Kennel Club first admitted the breed.

Breed histories trace the Stafford's ancestry back to which ancient type of dog?

Mastiffs. Their descendants were set on bulls and bears in Tudor baiting rings, and most histories say it was those baiting dogs, crossed with terriers, that produced the fighting dogs of the pit.

Under what name did the AKC first recognise the AmStaff in 1936?

Staffordshire Terrier. The AKC had also weighed Yankee Terrier and American Bull Terrier, and it added 'American' only in 1972, when it was preparing to admit the British Stafford and needed to tell the two apart.

How do the Staffordshire regiments mark the death of Watchman, their Stafford mascot?

With a military funeral. Watchman V went to his in 2022 in a coffin carried by soldier pallbearers at Burton upon Trent, the town that presents each new mascot and remembers the old ones.

Petey, the ring-eyed dog registered among the AKC's first AmStaffs, starred in which film series?

Our Gang. The comedy shorts, later shown on television as The Little Rascals, used a father and then his son in the part, and the painted ring moved from one eye to the other when the son took over.

Which of these is an accepted Stafford coat colour?

Blue. Red, fawn, white and black are in the standard too, but merle is not a Stafford colour at all: the AKC standard says the pattern does not exist genetically in the breed.

How do a Stafford's ears sit, according to the Staffordshire Bull Terrier standard?

Folded at the tip. The standard asks for small 'rose or half-pricked' ears that are left natural, never cropped, and a judge will fault a dog whose ears stand fully upright or hang right down.

The Kennel Club's breed standard notes the Stafford's particular affinity with whom?

Children. The standard calls the breed 'highly intelligent and affectionate especially with children', the trait behind its old nickname, the nanny dog.

What grooming routine do vets and kennel clubs recommend for a Stafford's short coat?

A weekly brush. The coat never tangles, but it does shed, so the point of the weekly going-over with a brush or hound glove is simply to lift out the dead hair.

A UK study found young Staffords unusually prone to demodicosis, a skin disease caused by what?

Mites. Demodex mites normally live harmlessly in a dog's hair follicles and cause disease only when they multiply out of control, which the study found in 2.14% of Staffords under two.

L-2-HGA, an inherited disease that Stafford breeders DNA-test for, mainly damages which part of the body?

The brain. An acid the body cannot clear builds up in the nervous system, bringing a wobbly gait, tremors and seizures, but a DNA test now lets breeders avoid ever pairing two carriers.

Brindle is one of the Stafford's classic coats, accepted in any shade, but what is a brindle coat?

Dark tiger stripes. The word seems to come from an old term for 'burnt', as though the darker streaks had been branded into the lighter coat beneath.

Which game do Britannica and vets single out as a favourite of the Stafford?

Tug-of-war. The breed thrives on tests of strength, weight pulling among them, and its strong jaws love to chew, which is why vets tell owners to buy the toughest toys they can find.

Which group lobbied Parliament in 2018 to add the Staffordshire Bull Terrier to the Dangerous Dogs Act?

PETA. It told the MPs reviewing the Act that a ban would spare Staffies abuse and abandonment, but more than 150,000 people signed a petition against the idea and the government ruled it out.

Which banned breed have UK sellers passed off as an Irish Stafford to dodge the Dangerous Dogs Act?

Pit Bull Terrier. An RSPCA officer called the Irish label 'a codename', and it is no defence in court, because the law judges a banned type by what the dog looks like, not by what it is called.

The Stafford's breed standard asks for a 'distinct stop', so where on a dog is the stop?

Between skull and muzzle. The Stafford's cousin the Bull Terrier once had a stop too, until its breeders bred the step out, leaving the smooth, unbroken curve of its profile today.

What label do British police and charities give tough-looking dogs, Staffies among them, kept to boost an owner's image?

Status dogs. The fashion grew serious enough that in 2009 the Metropolitan Police set up a dedicated status dog unit to deal with it.

In UK slang, the Stafford has been unfairly associated with which subculture?

Chavs. The slur stuck as the breed's numbers boomed, yet the Kennel Club says Staffords are not naturally aggressive and lists them among its best breeds for family life.

Boxer, an army Stafford, leapt from a troop train and trekked 200 desert miles to rejoin his regiment in which country?

Egypt. The men had given him up for dead when he staggered into camp days later, and the Staffordshire regiments have kept a Stafford as mascot ever since, each one now called Watchman.

Where was Cooper, Staffordshire Police's first Stafford police dog, living when the force recruited him in 2018?

An RSPCA rescue centre. Cooper had been a street stray, yet in four years on the force he sniffed out more than £375,000 of drugs and cash before retiring to his handler's home.

Jock of the Bushveld, a dog long portrayed as a Staffie, is the hero of which country's classic tale?

South Africa. Percy FitzPatrick's 1907 book tells the true story of his own dog, whose breed has long been argued over: one author has made the case that the real Jock was a bull terrier.

Which traits do the AKC and the Kennel Club standard both credit to the Stafford?

Courage and tenacity. Both come down from its brawling past, yet the AKC says good breeding has turned the old gladiator into a mild, playful companion.

A UK vet charity tells Stafford owners to grip the lead tightly on walks because of the breed's strong what?

Prey drive. Many Staffords have the urge to chase and catch small animals, so vets also warn against keeping smaller pets with one, though a dog raised alongside another pet may learn to live with it.

In bull-baiting, which part of the bull were the Stafford's ancestors bred to seize and hold?

The nose. It was a small, moving target guarded by the horns, so a baiting dog had to be quick as well as brave, which is why some fanciers doubt terrier blood was ever needed for speed.

What kind of bite does the Stafford's breed standard call for?

A scissor bite. The baiting dogs' pushed-back jaw was made for hanging on to a bull, but the pit rewarded a dog that could let go and bite again, so breeders wanted a longer, cleaner muzzle.

Vets and the AKC warn that Staffords cope badly with which kind of weather?

Hot, humid days. The breed is heat intolerant, so exercise is cut back in warm weather and the dog kept in shade with water, however keen it looks to carry on.

How does the Kennel Club's breed standard sum up the Stafford's temperament?

Bold, fearless and totally reliable. The last quality goes back to the pit itself, where handlers lifted fighting dogs apart with bare hands and a dog that turned on a person had no future.

Reputable Stafford breeders DNA-test their dogs for an inherited form of which eye condition?

Cataracts. The inherited kind clouds a puppy's lenses within its first year and can blind it by two or three, but the test now lets breeders screen it out before a litter is planned.

Which of these terriers shares the Stafford's bull-and-terrier ancestry?

Boston. The breed goes back to Judge, a bull-and-terrier type bought in the city around 1870, whose descendants were bred down from a 32-pound scrapper into a small, dapper companion.

Some argue the Staffie descends solely from which breed, with no terrier in the mix at all?

The Old English Bulldog. That leggy baiting dog is extinct, and old paintings of it look far more like a modern Stafford than like the squat Bulldog of today.