Nasty Comments

Have you guys ever had any negative comments whilst out with your Staffys?

So far I’ve had ‘Don’t bring that thing near me’, ‘killer dog’, ‘don’t put your head near that dog’, and all sorts.
It makes me want to cry. Why would they say such things to a little puppy! Also these people are supposed to be dog lovers! What are they doing!!

I have managed to bite my tongue so far, as I don’t want to get in any rows with people and turn into the sort of person they think owns a Staffy, but really – do I need to take this?

Any one got any good comebacks?

The ironic thing is, the guy that said ‘killer dog’ yesterday was out with a Jack Russell, who was so fat I’m not kidding you – he could hardly move! The thing was like a barrel. How cruel to let your dog get like that.

If I didn’t like your jumper, I wouldn’t say ‘I think that jumper looks horrible’ I would keep quiet out of good manners. What gives people the right to think they can sl*g off your dog!

I get it all the time! I usually say something like "Don't worry, he only bites when he's hungry" then I look at Dempsey & say "Let's go get your breakfast/dinner"

They usually back off then.

We don't get it too much tbh but then I don't eally meet that many people when out.

One women with her fluffy thing snapping on lead at Moo (who couldn't care less) had the cheek to ask me 'is your dog ok' in a very demeaning mannar, I just 'well she is slightly depressed'

Other good ones re kids, 'well she couldn't eat a whole one' lol!

Best to ignore ignorant people anyway there loss at the end of the day!

You need a VERY thick skin owning a stafford. The negative comments made by half wits are around every corner And its the papers we have to thank for that.
Once upon a time no bugger knew what a stafford looked like .. now we have a so called breed expert in every street.

Never gotten a bad comment about Suki. I have had alot of bad comments in alot of other areas though. They key is to know you are in the right and simply ignore the ignorance.

You do have to grow a thick skin, at the end of the day its their loss for being so ignorant and believing everything the media tells them about staffies. It used to wind me up when ppl crossed the road to avoid us, call him a pitbull, pick their kids / little rat dogs up as we approach but I do just tell myself now to ignore it. To be honest, for all the negative comments/reactions, he equally gets positive comments/reactions so it's not all bad. There are some intelligent ppl out there!

ignore any comments made,hold your head high and know you own the best breed of dog any one could wish for

Caryll wrote:I get it all the time! I usually say something like "Don't worry, he only bites when he's hungry" then I look at Dempsey & say "Let's go get your breakfast/dinner"

They usually back off then.

That's a good one!

You are all so right. Thanks for that. We do have loads of lovely comments from people. I can hear them as I walk past - aghhh - look at that puppy, and isn't he a lovely colour etc.

Lots of people come over and ask me if it's ok if they say hello - they love staffords, then I get a story about one they know.

I will think about these people in the future - and not the ignorant wally's!

I get LOADS of negativity when I'm out with Charlie but I get positive comments too.

We had a particularly nice, feel good incident on Saturday. I was at the park with my kids and my friend and her kids and Charlie and her dog, and we were sat outside on the grass with the dogs watching the kids play. There was a family sat right in front of us with two young girls, around 6 and 3 I'd say. There was a border collie pup running around off lead and it went up to this family. The little girl started screaming and crying and ran to her mum, who told the owner that the little girl was terrified of dogs, so she took the puppy to the other side of the park.

We had Charlie and Buster (my friend's dog), laying down on the grass with us, and the eldest of the two girls came over and asked if she could pet the dogs. We said yes, and she sat there with us for a bit stroking them both, and her little sister was watching. She came closer and closer, and I asked her if she wanted to stroke Charlie. She said yes, but was clearly scared and hesitant. I got Charlie to sit still, and she came over and started stroking his head, slowly at first, and then she just started smiling and was more confident in petting him, and she stroked Buster too.

Her mum was completely shocked and thanked us for letting her stroke them, and said she hoped it would make a difference to her fear of dogs.

It was lovely because A, Charlie was so good and calm, he seemed to sense that was what was needed, and B, the mum was absolutely fine with her little girls stroking Charlie, alot of parents won't let their kids anywhere near him.

So yes, we do get a lot of negativity, but the positive incidents, like with that little girl, more than make up for it IMO

Thank goodness Staffies are amongst the top 5 most liked breeds here so there is no negativity. I do find some general fear of dogs and if I see small kids are afraid, I ask the parents if they may like to touch Tyson who usually is most oblidging if the kids are willing.

I get it ALOT round here as there are many staffies loose always so they all get branded even though mine dont go offlead locally (Kodis got bad recall and Mazda's deaf), But luckily when we get a bus "out of the village" I get mainly nice comments but have had a few people move and look at the dogs like they are shyte had a couple of comments like "devil dogs" "killing machines" etc, I just laugh now days, after 12yrs of it with Mazda who did used to have to wear a muzzle when she was dog aggressive I got used to it.

I have some strange comments like the other when at our local park there was a couple sitting on a bench with two dogs around them.

One came over to Rocky with its frisbee and wanted to play. The woman was a right stress head and started calling her dog back. My hubby and I walked past with Rocky on a lead and the man said:

"Dont come over here or there will be a fight" I replied with " Oh are you're dogs aggresive then" I just got a strange look in reply and we kept walking. Dont know if it registered or not.

idiots

I've not experienced it yet as Saf is a pup. But I know my MIL gets it all the time! The other day when she was taking her girl fir a walk, a couple with alsatians saw her and could clearly be heard saying 'its a staff! Quick cross over!' in a really panicky voices!

Thing is everytime her staff meets another dog she literally just rolls onto her back to submit! Even my Yorkie used to boss her around

Don't get it much but had one women walk her dog into the school playground, I was stood outside with my 2 waiting for my daughter, Anyway she turned round and said "oo whatam I doing walking in here" then looked at me and said loudly "well its not like mines DANGEROUS" I glared at her, then my daughter came out with her friends and they all fussed round my 2 for staffie licks! No1 was fussing her dog! Ha!

I have had many comments on how lovely looking my dogs are which I have to agree with!

I get alot of horrible comments and looks with Buster. I let them go over my head. I do get nice comments about him though, and everyone that will stop to fuss him tells me how nice and friendly he is. But the worst comments I get are when I am walking LuLu. People say such horrible, vile things about her! I know she is not a breed for everyone, but if I thought someones baby/child was ugly I wouldn't shout nasty comments in the street so why do people feel the need to about my dog?!

kathytake2 wrote: " Oh are you're dogs aggresive then".

I use this often with other dog owners

The funniest one I got was at work the other day, "Sure he's cute now, but just wait 'til he grows up and bites your head off!" My response, "Actually, he's full grown and has yet to bite my head off, so I'll take my chances." Big smile! Just try not to let it get to you. You have a great dog and they are missing out.

I've only started taken Loki out for walks the past few days, so I've not had any negative comments. I had a few kids come up to me and ask if he was a baby Staff, and I said yeah and they asked to stroke him but I've only been taking him on short walks to get him used to it, so no doubt when we go other places we'll get some negative comments. That's just people's narrow-mindedness. You know he's not a bad dog, so don't let it get to you. They're idiots and you have a wonderful dog: you win

I was a bit taken back by comments when I first got Lily. I thought people would see what I see - nice dog that sometimes gets bad press. I was really surprised at some peoples reaction. Lily is the only staffie we have come across in my area, most are labs, tibetans, shitzu and Jacks and various designer breeds that we used to call mongrels. Reaction can be anything from crossing over the road and crossing back again when they have passed me to a verbal assault. Some can be quite mild as in someone gingerly asking 'is that a cross staffie' (she is very small) to which I replied 'not if you don't upset her'. Not sure what she was hoping for - if she was crossed with a bichon frise would that lessen the risk of attack. I was in the park a few weeks ago and a group of people with multiple dogs passed when I heard one say 'there's one of those killer dogs' to which I looked in horror and said 'OMG, where???' They were very surprised at that. Another time someone said she was surprised that I would want a dog like that at my time of life but I explained that I had to make allowances once I became a pensioner and the Mastiff became too much for me to handle . I did actually tell someone else that she wasn't my dog and I was minding her for my grandson while he went for another tatoo. But its nice when you get smiles from people just becasue she's cute. To be honest, its enterntainement in what might ordinarily be a dull day. I could have years of fun out of this one as I've only had her 3 months

Well with me being deaf, I dont hear the comments, but I do see the faces and sense it. I just smile at them and ignore them. Others say nice things about how pretty Pixee is, but I always say she is wary of strangers, to which they will say ok, but she is still a pretty thing. Hubby however will comment back cos he can hear them. One such thing was, on a walk, a mans dog wanted to play, but was still a puppy. Pixee wanted to play, but she is too rough as staffies are known to be, the man said, oh someone doesnt want to play nice, hubby said, oh yes she does, but her play is rough play and said good day. Only on sunday on a lovely walk up the canal, a lovely lady wanted to fuss Pixee, but Pixee was having none of it, she barked back, the lovely lady said oh, is she nervous, to which we explained, and she said, oh our dog is also from the blue cross. She also said Staffies are the most loving and more friendly and said how pretty Pixee is. So yeah I have a thick skin, a great loving dog and its their loss when they talk out their backside not knowing the facts.

I had one YESTERDAY I was standing outside a bakery with Meiko while Scott went in, there was a woman with a wee kid probably about 5 and a little one in a buggy. The wee boy started to come over to pet Meiko, he doesn't jump and sits very nice for kids so I have no problem with it, she violently grabbed the boy saying "you can't pet that kind of dog" so she's making a scene, the kid is bawling its eyes out and I'm "very annoyed" on her way out the shop she grabbed the boy to her opposite side. Well I'm not always great at keeping my mouth shut so I said pretty loudly to Scott "can you get something for Meiko too so he doesn't eat any children today"

You know, it used to bother me but now...screw them.

Let them think what they want, you won't change their minds anyway. They are uneducated bigots a lot of them.

I get people crossing over the road, literally running into traffic. People grabbing their dogs, turning away..but letting them play with other dogs etc. It's just because I have a Staff.

One guyI bumped into on a walk was saying 'Ohhhhh that breed. Better keep my dog away' etc. I was just like...whatevvvvvveeeeerrrrrrr LOL.

I don't care anymore

I have a laugh with it sometimes too. Sometimes people will ask if he bites and if that person has glasses on for example, I'll say 'Only people with glasses on' LOL. Things like that.

Butkus is 4yr old in sept and I've had a comment practically every time I've taken him out. He does look quite hard looking being black in colour and muscley as hell but then they see how he cwtches into me when we sit down for 5mins for a break on his walks and how he doesn't even bother with passing people or dogs, he just sits and watches the ducks!!!!
Then they tend to say he's a very loving dog isn't he in a rather sheepish way coz they know they're initial judgement was wrong.

Pollyanna wrote:I was a bit taken back by comments when I first got Lily. I thought people would see what I see - nice dog that sometimes gets bad press. I was really surprised at some peoples reaction. Lily is the only staffie we have come across in my area, most are labs, tibetans, shitzu and Jacks and various designer breeds that we used to call mongrels. Reaction can be anything from crossing over the road and crossing back again when they have passed me to a verbal assault. Some can be quite mild as in someone gingerly asking 'is that a cross staffie' (she is very small) to which I replied 'not if you don't upset her'. Not sure what she was hoping for - if she was crossed with a bichon frise would that lessen the risk of attack. I was in the park a few weeks ago and a group of people with multiple dogs passed when I heard one say 'there's one of those killer dogs' to which I looked in horror and said 'OMG, where???' They were very surprised at that. Another time someone said she was surprised that I would want a dog like that at my time of life but I explained that I had to make allowances once I became a pensioner and the Mastiff became too much for me to handle . I did actually tell someone else that she wasn't my dog and I was minding her for my grandson while he went for another tatoo. But its nice when you get smiles from people just becasue she's cute. To be honest, its enterntainement in what might ordinarily be a dull day. I could have years of fun out of this one as I've only had her 3 months

i used to get upset bout it but now i dont care , they can think what they want and believe what they want , but it is really nice when you get a nice comment

I've had nothing but nice comments lately, I've been walking my 2 together and taking my 4 kids with me on the walks, usually my 10yr old holds Tanks lead and he walks beautifully next to her.
I tend to only take his lead if there is another dog approaching.

I had a mum and her 2 small kids come over to us today and asked if they could stroke the dogs... Was really nice.

Then out if no where 2 pomeranians charged out if a nearby house straight over to us wanting to play, one of them rolled around in front if Tank the other was play bowing to Diesel who at this point was super excited and breaking my arm trying to get to them lol the owner came and got her pommies bk and said my 2 were the first staffys hers had met.

All in all , not a bad day x