Anyone else going to be watching?..........

[Charlie]

I really enjoyed watching this and am thrilled the Staffie was number 1. I hope it encourages people to rescue them and get them into loving homes.

Very proud that Hattie came in at a very respectable 13 and the lovely Cockapoo at 2. Brilliant news. I would however like to see an end to the term "designer" breed. It infuriates me as Hattie works once a week which is more than a lot of dogs and is our family dog. Also nobody critises the Guide Dogs for crossing breeds. Double standards me thinks I think it must not be forgotten that ALL dogs are crossed and back crossed to make them the breed they are today. A Spaniel or Labrador did not walk out of the woods all those decades ago looking like they do today.

All dogs should be embraced because for the dog they are xx

 

[edzbird]

Also nobody critises the Guide Dogs for crossing breeds. Double standards me thinks I think it must not be forgotten that ALL dogs are crossed and back crossed to make them the breed they are today. A Spaniel or Labrador did not walk out of the woods all those decades ago looking like they do today.

Absolutely!

 

[Lab_adore]

Where did Labradors come?

 

[Charlie]

Where did Labradors come?

Third. x

 

[Lab_adore]

Third. x

Must have been rigged.....

 

[Charlie]

Must have been rigged.....

I wonder why they have dropped though? x

 

[Lab_adore]

I wonder why they have dropped though? x

Money changed hands to the judges. Obviously. How can any other breed even come close? Not that we are biased or anything

 

[Charlie]

Money changed hands to the judges. Obviously. How can any other breed even come close? Not that we are biased or anything

I'm not biased I don't even own a Labrador xx

 

[Lab_adore]

I'm not biased I don't even own a Labrador xx

In spirit you do...and your two are so gorgeous they come into the same category as labs anyway

 

[Charlie]

x

 

[Jen]

It was a public vote and you will never find more passionate and defensive owners than staffie owners. They’re determined to change the reputation of the breed!

Probably the same with the hybrids - I think people get defensive that they can sometimes be considered not a real breed and cockapoos are by far the most popular mix.

Next year I imagine the lab owners who got complacent will be back out in force like not a chance!!

 

[Lab_adore]

It was a public vote and you will never find more passionate and defensive owners than staffie owners. They’re determined to change the reputation of the breed!

Probably the same with the hybrids - I think people get defensive that they can sometimes be considered not a real breed and cockapoos are by far the most popular mix.

Next year I imagine the lab owners who got complacent will be back out in force like not a chance!!

True, the lab owners were probably just smugly sitting back thinking 'well of course we will win' and dropped the ball completely!

 

[Charlie]

It's high time the Staffie's reputation changed. We all know it's the owners not the breed.

I'm not sure it's the owners of 'hybrids' that feel they are not a real breed, it's everyone else with the unfair labelling of 'designer' dogs that's the problem.

Hattie is a dog in her own league as far as I'm concerned. xx

 

[Jen]

What I found the strangest about it was the “mixed breed” catergory they had.

Why have a mixed breed category when a large amount of mixed breeds of dogs were specified separately in the top 100.

They then used a full staffie as an example for the mixed breed

 

[Xena Dog Princess]

Are you seeing more of the pug crosses in the UK?

My cousin has a Puggle. He was from a breeder in BC (they were living in Van at the time) and now they're living in Cheshire. I'm not a fan of the look of the breed but it's definitely a way to get the hilarious Pug character with a nice healthy snoot.

 

[Emily]

It's high time the Staffie's reputation changed. We all know it's the owners not the breed.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Staffies and tend to avoid them. Of course, I'm not saying that you can't find a nice staffie, I've just known of many that have displayed their natural instincts (i.e. what they were originally bred for) and it's lead to a lack of trust for me.

Ella is a lab. She's never worked and never been trained to work but she'll still find toys and other objects and bring them too me. She'll also carry things along with us on a walk from time to time (with a soft mouth) - again, completely untrained. I put this down to generations and generations of breeding. Labs had/have a job to do and breeders focused on these traits.

Staffies were bred for bull baiting, bear baiting and dog fighting.

Now of course, not all labs show 'labby' traits and not all Staffies show staffie traits. And I'm sure (well I certainly hope) that staffie breeders are no longer focussing on the traditionally desired traits of the breed. But still...

 

[Charlie]

I feel sorry for Staffie's and the reputation they have wrongly gained, certainly in the UK which is largely down to the irresponsible owners who have them on chains, encourage aggression by locking them in dark rooms for hours on end, use them to fight each other to death for money, drug dealers have them etc. etc. My PAT area coordinator has a Staffie and he goes into special needs schools every week Personally I wouldn't have a Staffie but I do know a few and they are lovely. I wouldn't have a Labrador either xx

 

[Emily]

I wouldn't have a Labrador either xx

That's it - can someone delete her account?

 

[Charlie]

That's it - can someone delete her account?

xx

 

[Jacqui-S]