Hello Everyone from a West Australian Staffie's mum

I'm pleased to have found this site and hope to take part in discussions about my favourite subject........STAFFIES !!

I've been the proud and lucky owner of staffs since 1990. Along the way I've moved to the Northern Territory and back; then to the country. My kids are grown up and my life has changed. The one constant is staffies. Every day at sunup and sundown we go for a walk. Jessie can tell the time to the minute. At 5.29am this morning she let me know it was time to go. Jack, my son's staffie, comes too. If he stops to look at anything Jessie pulls him back into line by his collar, then for good measure chews his ear, and off we go again. They consider daytime as just the interval between walks and mostly spend it snoozing with their ears on.

Hi &

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Hey and welcome! Look forward to some pics from across the sea

Hiya and welcome to the forum

Hi Rosanne & Jessie x

Hello and welcome

Hello, welcome to the forum.

Hi Rosanne & Jessie, welcome to the forum.

Can you share some pics with us?

Hi & welcome to the forum

hiya x

Hi and welcome to the forum

Hi and welcome

Hello and welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum, I was brought up in Perth WA, but now live in England. My mother is still in Mandurah, which is why your thread title caught my attention. When we were in Perth we had English Bull Terriers and I now have my first staffie. I sure do miss those good ice coffees but at least we can open a bottle of wine from Margaret River tomorrow

Hello!! "Snoozing with thier ears on" that is exactly what they do!! Good discription!!

ashleyk wrote:Welcome to the forum, I was brought up in Perth WA, but now live in England. My mother is still in Mandurah, which is why your thread title caught my attention. When we were in Perth we had English Bull Terriers and I now have my first staffie. I sure do miss those good ice coffees but at least we can open a bottle of wine from Margaret River tomorrow

Oooh, just saw this - any pics of the bullies?

Hello

Caryll wrote:

Oooh, just saw this - any pics of the bullies?

I can check here but I think all the old photos will be with my father. When I was born my father had five bullies that were all pure whites and it must have been quite a sight with them altogether but I've never actually seen a picture of the whole group. My grandfather had a bullie back in the 1930's called Tiger, so this has really become a generational thing and I am the first one to own a staffie.

Previously my daughter was a bit frightened of big dogs, so having a staffie felt like sneaking a bull terrier through the back door while nobody was looking. Now she has met a very big male bullie several times who plays with Bailey and he has a wonderfully placid nature, so now she tells me she would quite like the idea of a big bullie. I know a couple people around town with bullies that are all extremely calm and amiable. Bailey is always good natured but much higher energy.

hi there and welcome ,
gereat to see another Aussie on here xx

ashleyk wrote: I know a couple people around town with bullies that are all extremely calm and amiable.

Wish Dempsey was!!

Caryll wrote:

ashleyk wrote: I know a couple people around town with bullies that are all extremely calm and amiable.

Wish Dempsey was!!

Give him some time. These are all males but also 5+ years old and Dempsey may well calm down a bit in a year or so. Going back 30 years ago it seemed like 95% of bullies were completely certifiable but every one I have seen over the last couple of years has been very easy going and relaxed. These dogs bare almost no resemblance to the fiery types I remember as a youngster.

No, they're definitely not as fiery. But they also identified 'bully rage' a while ago, and it's thought that it may have been a form of epilepsy. So the dogs that were like this were not bred from.

I actually thought much of it could all be traced back to Oppenheimer who was so omnipresent in the breeding of bullies many years ago and seemed to like his dogs with a feisty temperament. For an awful long time there was also an exaggerated emphasis on producing certain characteristics like the egg shaped head and breeding for all white dogs was heavily favoured at times to the detriment of more useful traits.

Many years ago I remember some good breeding names like Lenster and Romany as well. Bar Sinister was special though... Personally I believe many modern bullies have become too big and slow, but on the plus side they seem to be improving in temperament and the head shape is becoming healthier.

The white dogs actually go back to Hincks. He was the one who developed the white strain to the exclusion of all else and started to breed out the 'stop'.

Hinks of Birmingham, Hinks of Brum,
Found the bull terrier, a tattered old bum,
Made him the right un, made him the white un,
Made him the dog for a gentlemans chum

His dogs were all 'game' and used for fighting/baiting.

It was years later when people started to realise that the all-whites had brought deafness into the breed big time. That's when they introduced colour again.

Yes I know Hinks introduced the Bull Terrier as a white dog, though it was more intended as a gentleman's dog with finer lines that alluded to a fighting past, which is why it did so well as shows. Your poem above basically says as much.

If Hinks was interested in pure gameness though, colour would have been the least of his concerns and he certainly wouldn't have introduced the Dalmatian as part of the line. He was incidentally also the creator of the Boston Terrier and when the bullies started becoming deaf they were actually forced to cross breed with coloured staffies for a short period.

Oppenheimer dominated for a long time and he loved his white bullies. For many years the coloured dogs were considered by many to be less desirable, which I think is profoundly wrong. BTW Hinks was originally of Irish origin.

Although the Hincks dogs were principally companion dogs they all came from fighters/baiters. The dalmation was used to get a 'racier' line & increase the size in general. Unfortunately it's believed that the dalmation also introduced the deafness!

Oppenheimer was a great name in the breed, and produced some good dogs, but he didn't pay much attention to deafness & resisted the introduction of coloured staffs (and a cross-breed which was probably Jock of the Bushveldt!).

The Romany kennel brought the coloureds into line with the whites & bred some superb dogs.

Unfortunately even today there is still a little prejudice against 'colour-bred' whites!

Yes one point about Hinks is that he drew inspiration from his father's dogs which he said were the gamest he had ever seen. These were undoubtedly the early "bull and terrier" that was bred with little concern for looks where the only point that counted was ability and a willingness to fight.

Hinks was clever enough to insist that his dogs, which came along later were called the English Bull Terrier, forcing the other dogs to be renamed as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. It's no great surprise that both breeds originated around the Birmingham area.

I must admit that I still find a good looking all white bullie quite striking, but I also realise that breeding purely for colour is a mistake with any breed. I also believe that the introduction of Dalmatians is where the deafness came from. I think you would find this link of great interest http://www.bullterrier.dk/thebullterrier/neverfight/kevin-kane-gb.htm

The bit I find interesting is that Jock of the Bushveldt is considered to be either a stafford or a stafford cross by most people, and yet he was actually a first generation cross between a bull dog & a manchester terrier (the manchester terriers being a fair bit bigger then)!

Interesting article - I think I've seen it before, it rings a bell, anyway.

ANYWAY, sorry for hi-jacking the topic, back to you Rosanne!

The bulldog was also quite a bit different at the time. Rosanne seems to have disappeared since her initial post five days ago.