Non registered Dogs

First of all Hello, i am new to the forum although i have been lurking for a few weeks. I took on a 3 year old bitch (Marley) last Friday as the owner's other half has MS and things were getting too much to look after both. Despite a few teething problems things are getting better and better each day and there are only a few areas to work on which i will leave for another post.

I have Taken Marley out on lots of walks and she has met lots of other dogs and on the whole she is great. She dosn't really seem interested in playing with them but at the same time shows no aggression towards them. I was told by the previous owners that she can be aggressive towards little dogs as she was attacked by one as a puppy. The only time i have seen her react is when a little dog starts yapping at her THEN she will start barking at it but on the whole she seems really good. Because of the warning from the owner and because she is new to me i have kept her on the lead all the time which is keeping me very fit running with her!!

I was reading steve bradders "your staffordshire bull terrier" yesterday and there was something that worried me. She is not KC registered and the book said that if ANYONE were to report her as a "pitbull type" she would be impounded untill i could prove her breed and without a KC certificate then it wouldnt be possible and she would be destroyed!! Peoples reactions on the street are beyond me, moving kids out of the way, picking up dogs and crossing the street are not uncommon and she is so nicely natured there really is no need. My question is what can i do to protect her from one of these misinformed pedestrians reporting her as a dangerous dog. Can a vet help prove a breed? is there any other way other than KC registration? Thanks in advance for you help and sorry for the war and peace length post!

Hi &

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You no what try not to worry about it to much......The best thing u can do is to train her as best as u can. After all why would anyone report a well behaved dog? I would say the two main things to concerntrate on is "leave it" and recall. You are doing the right thing by keeping her onlead untill u both get to no eachother better then invest in a long training lead

Hi welcome! Don't worry about your dog being taken, the new law is that the dog stays with you until it is a proven pitbull type and the experts are getting better at spotting them now so a staffy won't really be picked out as a type unless shes a l ot larger than a normal staff but i bet she is just perfectly normal.

Enjoy her!

They could only come and take your dog if they had good reason so don't worry, and its only if she looks like she could be "type" . In this case the dog would be assessed and only then would anyone take action. If there were no reasons then I think the worst case scenario would be to have to keep on lead and a muzzle. HOWEVER, this is a very extreme situation if your dog looks like a Staffy you have nothing to worry about unless your dog attacked someone and then they are subject to the same routine as any other dog that attacked someone regardless of whether its a staff, jack russel or labrador. It is not possible to get KC registration unless the dog is already registered and then you are just paying for the papers to be redone. There are thousands of unregistered staffys in the UK maionly due to Back Yard Breeders ((Tilly has no papers)

and by the way welcome to the Forum from me and Tilly

Hi and welcome from us and Suki

Hi and welcome

Unfortunately there isn't anything you can do so don't worry about it DNA tests aren't that reliable and even if parentage can be proven a dog can still be deemed of type. It really is down to just looks.

See http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/dogs-guide-enforcers.pdf many, many dogs including some Labradors will meet most of the criteria. It really is daft.

There are proposals to change the law so dogs that are reported that pose no threat can be kept at home until a decision is made on them but it isn't law yet. To have your say on the proposals go to http://www.defra.gov.uk/consult/2012/04/23/dangerous-dogs-1204/

You can complete the survey or send an email. I did both as the survey doesn't really give you any option to express a request for BSL to be completely scrapped which I wanted to do.

Really don't worry, if your dog is well behaved then the chances she will be reported are very small. Even if she is, the police seem to be getting more sensible. I know someone who had their staff x mastiff seized (who could easily have been deemed of type) but he was soon returned by the police who said he was such a soft lovely dog!

Thanks, that puts my mind at ease a bit. She couldn't look more like a staffy to be honest. Luckily she was already trained how to sit, down, come and leave aswell as high five lol. I need to work on her recall when we are out and about so will buy a long line.

I will definately have a look at those links and get involved. It seems some people see a muscley dog with a big panting mouth and think "dangerous dog" without paying attention to how the dog is behaving. It irritates me but i just smile and walk on.