Uneducated guy looking for advice - neighbour has two staffs

Hi all,

First i want to make it clear I'm coming here 99% uneducated on staffs and want to be taught, not coming here thinking I know what I'm talking about and suggesting staff owners are taking risks with my family.

We own our semi detatched property and have neighbours who own theirs connected to us who have a cat - a small footpath ( basically split into 2, enough to take a bin down) to the other side seperates us from the other side which is a rental.

A new family have moved in last week and 3 days ago brought in their dogs - Im pretty sure they are American staff bull terriers.

We have an old cat who.sometimes fails to even make it up 4 foot fences and thats with a 2-3 second bum wiggle - we also have 3 year old and 6 year old children who play in our garden unattended (well..bordeline unnattended- we're in ear shot / pop our head round etc - just not fully with them sometimes)

I havent confirmed this part but... Im pretty sure the owner/new tenant leaves the dogs in the garden (directly connected to us in the garden) unnattended.

The fence between us is at best 5 foot, might even be 4.


I have two major concerns
1: his staffs look very powerful young things who'd have me for breakfast, never mind my children - im worried they can ger over the fence and hurt my children (even kill them... but ...i get a strong feeling my near zero knowledge is whats making me think.of these dogs as high risk animals / a serious threat to my kids (more than other breeds))

2: my cat used to wander next door a lot when the old tenants were there - i think id be nervous if i had a strong healthy 3 year old cat going near/in there - but im very nervous about my 13 year old cat because i think even i could catch him in a sprint because he would take too long / fail to jump a relativley short fence.
So since we've seen the dogs im anxiously thinking well thats that...hes a house cat now...

So as direct questions:

1: should.the land lord be erecting minimum 6 foot fences? (Is that enough or do we want a trellis taking it up to 7+ ?)

2: am I right with my old cat? Is that it now? Indoor only because like 10% chance on any given day he enters that garden with those incredibly fast powerful animals?


Any other kind of education you want to give me to reduce my anxiety of them is welcome - im doing some research myself too and Im going to try catch the owner next time i see him for similar questions - again though, same vibe with you guys, will make sure i talk to him for advice and information, not to say "you best cage those dogs so my kids dont die!"

Thanks in advance

Hello & welcome.

Honestly, I understand your worries. It's easy for us to say "don't worry, they'll be fine", but we don't know the dogs or the owners.

Firstly, they won't be American Staffordshire Terriers (they're banned in the UK - I'm assuming, of course, that you live in the UK?). Most Staffordshire Bull Terriers are human friendly and pose no risk whatsoever to people.

If I were you, I would introduce myself to the neighbours & say something like "I know nothing about Staffords, but are they friendly, can I meet them?". Explain your concerns about your children. If they're decent people they will be happy to introduce you & calm your fears. If that goes well, ask if you can introduce them to your children.

Yes, a staff can jump a 5 foot fence. Whether they would be bothered, though, is another matter!

As far as cats go, I can't honestly answer your fears. Some staffs will chase cats, some won't. BUT. All dogs may chase cats, and all dogs have the ability to harm them. Would you be asking the same questions if the dogs were, say, labradors? Believe me, a Labrador could easily scale a 6 or 7 foot fence!

If it were me, I would make sure my kids were supervised at all times in the garden, at least until I was sure the dogs won't scale the fence.

If you're a little unsure still, try adding a trellis to the top of the fence - the holes in the trellis can help to deter a jumper. Assuming of course that the fence is yours to add to!

Hopefully you'll have no problems at all, especially as landlords are generally very strict on what tenants can or can't do with dogs in the property.

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

Thanks - i just happened to see him at his car before so i asked for a chat.

They are "American bully XL"

He said they are great as far as he is concerned and has his girlfriends kids with them and has so far not had a blip out of them being aggressive even with other dogs on walks.

He confirmed he does let them out unnattended for toilet breaks but supervises them for anything beyond that. He said he doesnt think they would make it over the fence but understands if we want to make it higher (its kind of essentially 100% our fence - the previous owner tried to get the landlord to go half even when fitting it all himself - but landlord wanted the cheapest panels possible and previous owners refused to have shite flimsy ones that fall apart in the winter) - so yea think we going to make it 6-7 foot using a trellis.

I might even show my cat the dogs over the fence (not hang him over like a cruel joke - just let him know whats in there so he doesnt just drop in there and see them for the first time) to hopefully ward him away from there.

So a technically 7 foot fence for the kids (and as say the cat is old/crap at jumping - 7 foot should put him off too) and showing the dogs to the cat - hopefully that will do it.

Oh PS you are right about the kind of judgememt on these dogs vs a lab - but i like to think im humble enough to know its probably unfounded (the bias that is - not that spme dogs would be a danger to a cat) - hopefully my cat has the brains to see the dogs in the garden and stay well clear.

Hello and welcome.

I can understand your concerns for your family and despite what the owners say, I would also stay wary.

You might want to research what an american bully is, it’s a recently created breed based on the pit bulls. So even though they have sought to breed in/out certain traits, alot depends on the breeding and education …

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against pitbulls but when I see what is happening the other side of the pond with badly educated/appreciated APBT creating real damage, I do remain cautious.

As american bullys tend to be rather heavy/stocky dogs, I would suggest that you make sure your fence is as strong as it can be high. I get the impression they’d be as likely to flatten a fence as to jump it.
Maybe add an overhang on your side to discourage your older cat from trying to get over the fence there ?

Then I’d say to stay on good terms with your neighbours and just stay very cautious.
I hope that these are really family companion dogs, as the breed wants, but it does remain a very young breed.

Yea its a fairly solid fence the previous owners of the property put in last year and fits snug in the posts so should be good - depends how committed they are to knock it down I guess - not heard them jump up or bump into it so far so lack of interest is probably the ideal situation.

Ive been doing some reading / youtubing and it seems the breed just attracts some dick heads / wannabe gangsters - any time ive seen videos with sensible owners they seem to have really nice temprements - maybe slightly on the medium/advanced end in terms of training requirements and of course they are obscenely strong - but im feeling less like if they got across the first thing they would do is maul my kids - thats not to say i wont be taking major precautions to stop them being able to get over - im just less of a nervous wreck.

I let my cat out the front three times now and kept an eye on where he goes - he seems to be sticking to the front of our row of houses (though he does dissapear after about house #3 due to us all having quite shrub type plants in our fronts)


Just need to get a tazer now and a medieval suit of plate armor to supervise the kids now when they go out back

Just wondered how things were going?