King, the sook.

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Hi all my names Alex, I live in South Australia and this is my intro to your forum.

Im the proud owner of a gorgeous 7 month old Staffy named King. He's brindle in colour with a tiny little white stripe on his chest and a little white goatie under his chin.
King has been an absolute joy to own and raise. From the day i brought him home to today he has only ever gone to the toilet inside twice (And thats only because he had no way of getting outside when he needed to go). Like all Staffies I have met he is 100% a people dog. I cant go anywhere in the house without him following me like a shadow. He lies in the bathroom when i shower, sleeps at the foot of my bed and even when he's pre-occupied with playing in the yard or chewing a bone / toy he still takes the time every 10 minutes or so to come up to me wherever i am, hop up on my lap, give me a lick and run back off to whatever he was up to. I take him to dog parks and friends houses daily, he's an angel around children, strangers and other dogs both known and stranger to him.
He is intact at the moment as he is purebred and I am considering studding him. As for any temprament issues he is still young but I havent noticed any negatives in his attitude. Despite their undeserved reputation and being intact he is always the first to roll over even to smaller younger dogs. All he ever wants to do is bound around and play with them all.

I bought him from a reputable breeder in SA. He was the second to last pup in the litter and was only available to me because the original buyers backed out of the sale. He was 8 weeks old when i bought him and was slightly larger than his only sibling who the breeder was keeping for herself (the smaller sibling was a female).

There is one thing that baffles me about him though. He is a purebred Staffy, ive met both his parents and have pedigree papers from the breeder. (Unless I was ripped off and lied to but as the breeder was an elderly lady with many award winning Staffies of her own i dont see this being the case) He did not appear to be the runt as he was larger than the sister BUT at about 5 months of age his tail curled up over his back into a full circle. It almost looks like a pugs tail. He has met a few other English Staffs in his life who were much older than him, but for 7 months old and probably only 1/2 grown he appears to be a good size and height, almost standing as high as some full grown Staffs.
He has a great build and great muscular definition, although his head hasnt started packing on size yet (Ive read that this doesnt commonly happen until about 9 months of age.)
He did have an incident at about 4 months of age involving him climbing up somewhere he shouldnt have and having a bit of a fall and hurting his his leg, although it wasnt a serious injury that needed serious medical attention, he did refrain from putting weight on it for about 1.5 - 2 weeks (More out of fear I imagine because he showed no signs of pain when I physically inspected his leg and it's range of motion.)

Does anyone know what could cause his tail defect? I dont imagine I was ripped off and that he is not 100% purebred. I can only come to 4 assumptions. 1. He is the runt of the litter and it's just a birth defect. 2. The fall might have damaged a vertebrate in his tail and in healing it has curled. 3. He spent the early stages of his life with my parents Maltese Shi' tzu cross and may have 'copied' his curly tail to fit in (The maltese quickly established dominance as they do so perhaps King looked up to him as a role model and wanted to be just like him ). Or 4. He's such a charismatic character that he just decided he wanted to be different to everyone else and did it for the laughs (I somewhat doubt this is the case, but dogs take after their owners so I would like to imagine it was the case )

All in all I love him to bits and wouldnt change a thing about him. I ask about his tail out of curiosity more than anything as i frequently get asked by interested dog owners about it and would love to actually be able to answer their question difinitavely haha.

Alex.

welcome and nice dog

Had a look at some pics of Bella She is very cute, I never got to see king that young .
Haha the biting, that was a fun stage for him /: But I got it out of him pretty quickly which was good. He's very well behaved now I cant believe how fast they learn what to do and what not to do. I'm sure Bella is just as cluey as King.

Small world indeed Dave, and you raise a good point. But im glad I found king and decided to take him home. Cant imagine being without him now

Riverhaven Bella wrote: We could always just tell people they are a new exotic breed of Staffy (tails).

Funny you should say that! I was thinking about that just yesterday hahaha, tell people its a rare new breed.
But then if it catches on everyone will want curly tailed staffies and they wont be unique D: Hahah.

And king didnt develope an alergy to beef from the mix I was given, but he did turn off of it pretty quickly. He much preferred vegemite toast haha. Probably because it was my toast >

davemck3834 wrote:Ther are both great looking dogs and I think the tails give them an air of mystique Small world for you guys though. My firs concern would have been the breeder offering you both of the pups (assuming you meant together and not choice of either) as they should know it's not a good mix to have brother and sister growing up together as housemates

Yes She offered both to me to take and I said i wouldnt cause if I wanted to breed them id have to find another male. Just so glad King got a good loving home and yes its a small world and i was so stunned when I saw the pics of King and that curly tail

We got Izzy through a guy in Prospect SA, she is from another breeder in Blanchetown (Kennel name Jadestone).
This guy also has a female staff over 3 yrs old now (bred from Riverhaven and Jadestone) who unfortunately is affected with L-2-HGA. Both parents were desexed following this.
Izzy was the replacement dog given by Jadestone once it was discovered in his dog. She is bred from another dam and a sire from Waurstafford.
It's funny sitting over here in Perth seeing your pictures of Adelaide.

Thought you might like some pics of their Mum & Dad

Jay


Sandy

Wow handsome parents too, they can do no wrong

Gorgeous parents, I love the dam

Cant believe how much of a small world it is..!
Another lady I have met bought a staffy pup who's sire was bought from riverhaven and he's got a curly tail too..

They have very good looking parents. Kings got perfect breed standard besides the tail, so its unmistakable that he's a staffy which is good. People that know him well and know his nature say he's still an intimidating looking dog, especially considering how muscular he is for his age.
I was always after a dog that looked mean and tough as nails but wouldnt hurt a fly. King is just that

MMM then the Breeder would have know that the pups from various litters have had curly tails and we were told that it was a one of and had only happened once before.

They may have a beautiful loving nature but I would not recommend the Breeder to anyone else after knowing that they continue to Breed the dogs with the fault.

Also meet another Breeder at training and she told me shes met a few from our Breeder and they have the curly tail too