what do you think..?

So I bought a staffie about staffie about 1-2 months ago now, when we got him the ''owner'' said he was around 2 but I doubt he's two because he's rather small and doesn't have all of his teeth yet.
Here's a picture of him.

Picture taken today:


Picture taken a while ago, about 1 month ago:



Another thing he eats a lot but he doesn't seem to be getting ''fatter/bigger'' i walk him everyday pretty much, play with him all the time but his ribs stick out a little bit.

My question is how old do you reckon that staffie looks like?
Why doesn't he seem to be getting ''fatter/bigger'' when he eats a lot and does exercise quite a lot too.

Hi & welcome.

I'd say he's a pretty healthy looking lad! Hard to say with age, but he certainly could be around 2 years old. Which teeth are missing? Dogs get their adults teeth through by about the age of 5 or 6 months, so he should have a full set!

If your dog's getting a good amount of exercise then he won't put on weight unless you overfeed him & then he'll just get fat! He looks a good weight from the pics, so I wouldn't worry.

What's his name, by the way?

Hi and welcome to the forum from Rocky and me.

The weight gain, or lack of would probably depend on his diet. What type of food do you give him, how often and how much? He looks healthy enough to me.

hia from me and sasha
he's a gorgeous boy and looks in good shape to me,as long as he is eating a good food and is getting plenty of excerise he will be fine

I'm not quite sure which teeth are missing, I took him to my girlfriends and her mum said that he was quite young has he didn't have all his teeth.
Yes exercise is something that he does a lot since I have another dog (labrador) they both go to the back garden and run around and I walk him for about 2 hours, if not 2 hours then at least an hour a day. Then we get home and play a bit of fetch although he's not very good, this is another thing. When we got him 2 months ago he didn't eat much, he didn't know how to play, he knew nothing pretty much, I reckon he didn't have a very playful life before he came into our house, now I'm trying to get him to sit when asked and lay down to start with and also I'm trying to get him to get the ball (which he does) and then bring it back (which he doesn't do yet). That#s also one of the reasons I think he's very young since he didn't know about any toys or anything and even with treats, he hardly eats it because he doesn't know what they're, so makes the training hard since he won't want to eat the treat after doing something right.

His name is Dragon (my step dad named it in my opinion the name is silly lol).

Hi and welcome from us and Suki.

kathytake2 wrote:Hi and welcome to the forum from Rocky and me.

The weight gain, or lack of would probably depend on his diet. What type of food do you give him, how often and how much? He looks healthy enough to me.

He eats anything, he doesn't really have a diet. We give him normally some chicken and some dog food (not quite sure what food since I'm not the one feeding him) although I know for fact he eats a lot, I've got a massive labrador which is overweight and my staffie eats as much or even more than him, but then again the labrador is lazy and never goes out.

Thank you everyone.

Nothing silly about the name - it's original!

It sounds as though he had a pretty hard life before you got him. His not knowing how to play isn't because he's young, it's because probably nobody ever played with him before!

I'd hesitate to go against what your girlfriend's mum says because I haven't seen inside his mouth, but if he doesn't have all his teeth it isn't because he's young - maybe he lost them in an accident somehow? He's definitely older than 6 months, so all his adult teeth should be through.

If he doesn't like treats that much you could try tasty bits of cheese to train him or some baked liver - both normally go down very well!

I have pasted a list of recommended dry foods (kibble) below. Rocky has Barking Heads which he loves, I also use this a treat when out for walks:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dryfood.html

Thank you very much for the help Caryll.
I don't think he had an accident since the town I live in is rather small and I'd know about something like this and the old owner never mentioned anything like that and also he doesn't have any scars what so ever.
Also he's weird sometimes when I walk him, sometimes he lies down on the floor and won't move (I have a feeling he gets really scared), the first day I got him I took him out and this car when by and made a loud noise and he jumped on the floor and laid there.
He also hardly barks or anything he's really really really quite, I mean if I heard him bark about 10 times in the past 2 months that's a lot.
We meet up with a vet who said he's around 9 months old or so, but he wasn't to sure but the old owners said he was 2 years old, I just find him a bit to ''skinny'' and not as ''muscley'' as a older staffie if this makes sense.

It really sounds as though he's had a hard start to life. He's probably going to need a bit of tlc to build up his confidence.

If he seems scared when there's a loud noise, don't 'sympathise' with him & fuss him; just talk quietly & normally, wait for a few seconds, stand in front of him & call him to you in a happy, excited voice. That will reassure him that there's nothing wrong & get him happy to go to you when you call.

Maybe your vet's right (it's hard to tell from a photo) but even at 9 months he'll have all his teeth. Personally I'd have put him a bit older than that.

If he's between, say, 12 months & 18 months-2 years then he's still probably got some filling out to do. He does look a cracker, though!

Thank you very much for all the help.
I'll probably take a toy when I walk him in case he gets scared, I call him and give his toy so he gets all happy and excited to let him know that there's nothing there that he should be scared of.
Another question which might be stupid but my dog seems to be to friendly and I get scared one day he'll get hurt by another dog or even a cat, because the other day about 5 days ago I walked him and a cat attacked him out of no where, the cat went mental and my dog did nothing at all, I don't want him to be to to friendly, I want him to be friendly but kinda know when he needs to defend himself or even defend me if anything happens. Also another example I went to walk him a while a go and this man had his dog of the lead and back then I didn't know my dog to well, it was when I first got him, and I had a go at the man for that and it nearly turn out into a fight and my dog did nothing he just went down on the floor and stood there? Is this normal?

A lot of Staffords are very friendly dogs, with humans and other dogs. Some are a bit fiesty, but not all. I'd much rather have a dog like yours that you can trust not to get into a fight than have to worry all the time whether he's going to have a go!

I think at the moment his confidence is pretty low but as he settles down with you he'll start to come out of his shell & maybe assert himself a little.

I'm sure if he needed to he would defend you, but at the moment I think you're going to have to stick up for him until his self confidence rises a bit. Just take things a bit at a time, don't push him into situations you don't think he can handle & he'll start to blossom!

He'll be a grand companion if you give him time, patience & plenty of tender loving care!

He's lovely but the weight gain i personally wouldn't want any more weight on him as it is!

I see, I don't really know much about dogs since I was rather afraid of them for ages because I had bad experience with dogs but since I got my labrador i started to not be so afraid of dogs and now with this staffie it gave me that boost to care more about dogs and I can say this dog is like a second ''girlfriend'' to me, i love him to bits and I do try to give him a lot of attention.

Hopefully he will stop being so scared, I also noticed his tail is always down, I mean under his bum, touching is penis if that makes sense... doesn't that mean he's scared?

I thought he looked about 18 months old from what little I can see in those photos.
He looks great.

I seriously never thought he'd be that old as he's so small, sometimes he reminds me of my old jack russell just abit bigger lol.

DragonTheStaffie wrote:I see, I don't really know much about dogs since I was rather afraid of them for ages because I had bad experience with dogs but since I got my labrador i started to not be so afraid of dogs and now with this staffie it gave me that boost to care more about dogs and I can say this dog is like a second ''girlfriend'' to me, i love him to bits and I do try to give him a lot of attention.

Hopefully he will stop being so scared, I also noticed his tail is always down, I mean under his bum, touching is penis if that makes sense... doesn't that mean he's scared?

Yes, unfortunately it does - scared/uncertain/anxious. Any or all of those. It sounds as though he's had a few beatings to be honest. Keep doing what you're doing & he'll improve no end! Glad he's found you - he should have a nice life, now.

And he really isn't that small - Staffords aren't huge dogs, heightwise. If he's still under two years old then he'll fill out more & muscle up with the exercise he's getting (and plenty of good food!).

My boy was big for a staffie until he died recently.
Since then, I've fostered several staffies and one of them was really small though essentially fully grown.
My brother's staff is tall.
My mum's staff was short.
Seeing the huge number of staffies in the rescue regularly, they really do come in all shapes and sizes.
Maybe your lad is a bit younger than that. Hard to tell.

The important bits though are that you know he's fit, happy and healthy.
The rest is just a bit of icing on the cake.

Alright I guess I understand more about my own dog now.
I been watching videos on how to take care of staffie and train them about a week now, so I can get Dragon all trained and really obedient, although he is not naughty he doesn't do what I say sometimes, for example when I tell him to sit before he eats and stuff, still working on all of that, but with time and effort I'm sure he'll become a very nice dog because he has never shown too be a bad dog.

Working dog wrote:My boy was big for a staffie until he died recently.
Since then, I've fostered several staffies and one of them was really small though essentially fully grown.
My brother's staff is tall.
My mum's staff was short.
Seeing the huge number of staffies in the rescue regularly, they really do come in all shapes and sizes.
Maybe your lad is a bit younger than that. Hard to tell.

The important bits though are that you know he's fit, happy and healthy.
The rest is just a bit of icing on the cake.

Thank you very much, yes any dog can be bigger or taller than his own breed, i know staffies are quite short and that there are some rather tall, but not really tall just taller than a normal staffie.
Yea i'll never know for sure how old he is, I guess I'd say to people if they ask around 1 to 2 years old.

You certainly have the right mindset to do very well for your dog.
Keep at it, with lots of praise and positivity.

My puppy, Loki, is four months old and is nothing like how your dog sounds, so it doesn't sound at all like his age, it sounds like he's had a pretty crap life, to be honest. Just take it slow with him, introduce him to new things at a slow pace, keep up the training and I think he'll be great I reckon dogs bounce back very quickly from bad experiences with the right people, and if you're willing to put the effort in, I think he'll be a fantastic pet.

I just fostered a staffy who'd had pups.
She was grey around the muzzle and in other areas, but had almost perfect teeth.
Some aspects of her appearance suggested she was around six years of age. Others suggested she was about three.
I think we put down four on her medical records in the end - the vet couldn't decide.

He looks fine and it seems you are doing everything right , though geting him on a decent food as a regular diet won't do him any harm at all

Forgot to say on the age bit my Harv is 2 next January and is already greying on his muzzle and chin very noticeably

size is awkward from what i've seen with staffies. Alot of people mention busters height and ask what he's crossed wit but we don't know because he was a rescue dog but i've also met and spoke to people who used to show staffie's and they say he is kc standard so you might find he's as big as he'll get. weight to height i'd say ur boy looks perfect from the photos.