Negative stigma

Since this is my first Staffy mix i was suprised that straight away i had 3 people telling me "oh i cant believe you got that kind of dog ...you have to be carful cause they are aggressive and can snap on you and attack". Now granted i just got the dog but he is sooooo loving and sweet that i'm suprised people would think such negative things about him. My husband and i have had dogs all our lives growing up and if we in anyway felt he was aggressive or "mean" we would have never got him. Just curious if anyone else has had this problem?

Moved your post to staffy chat   

Unfortunately Staffies get a bad press and some people believe everything they read   

Some people are unfortunately plain ignorant. Hold your head high, and try your best to educate! I must admit I've become a lot more thick skinned since getting Darcy xx

i don't really have that problem where i live because being in the black country it's staffie central but yesterday we went to the lichfield bower and took tessa with us and i have to admit for the first time i was a bit apprehensive. lichfield is about 10 miles from us and quite middle class and there were loads of spaniels and labs and a few husky types but only us with a REAL dog and i thought peolpe would avoid us like the plague but no. tessa had loads of attention with people asking if they could stroke her and actually bringing their children over to her. it was a great couple of hours but it started to get too busy for dogs with her being trodden on couple of times so we left and took her for a run in sutton park on the way home.

thanks everyone! makes me feel better knowing this tends to happen with staffys. My boy Marley is big and strong but hes a sweetheart!

Had a few people avoid us when walking but maybe they are like that with all dogs and that is mostly tourists visiting. The people who live in my village have been so friendly towards her and me and i think i have been accepted in this village now   just moved here 6 months ago.

Yup had this sort of thing quiet a few times. I love to show how well behaved and under control my Flo is and educate those that only believe what's written in the press. It also never ceases to amaze me that other less well behaved dogs run up to my girl and pester her and somehow it's her fault that THEIR dog is misbehaving   

There is no bad dog just bad owners and me and Flo are on a mission to change Staff perception one person at a time  

I grew up in Lichfield and agree you don't see a lot of if any staffs there I live in walsall now and it is staffy central. I walk nel (or should that be she walks me) round the arbo in walsall and I.get nothing but complements about her friendly approachable nature from other dog walkers. The press have wrongfully got a picture in there heads about the breed and it does disgust me when I have seen people pull there kids to there other sides when me and nel walk past, nel.has taken to looking behind herself now at me as if to say "what's there problem?"

It seems some people would like to do this when they someone with a Staffy!

https://youtu.be/_lPJ9J-6vDw

When we got Gordon all of a sudden a lot of people became a staffy expert and they were the ones who didn't own dogs!!, apparently they were unpredictable, and could turn at any moment. We have had people walk around cars on the roads ect to avoid us but on the whole when we walk in the park most ( not all ) dog owners have been really positive towards him. Now at 10 mths when we meet new people they can see how playful and loving he is and the biggest injury you will get is death by licking