MY BREEDING PRACTICES
Like I cover in the home page, I don't produce a large amount of litters, typically 2 per year. I can produce more, but it isn't common as it is very demanding. Every single litter I breed, I do with the intent of furthering my own breeding program and the breed as a whole, I don't breed litters just to have puppies to sell, when I breed two dogs, I am looking to get something out of it that moves my family of dogs towards the future, so the intent is always to improve some qualities and preserve others. A lot of thought goes into every pairing.
My females will have between 1-5 litters in their lifetime, 5 being the absolute most, and something I reserve to outstanding individuals with outstanding prepotency of desirable traits. 2-3 is the average. Males can have more litters as it comes without any demand for their bodies, so there is no set limit, but 2-4 is the average.
STAFFORD HEALTH & OTHER QUIRKS
Staffords are by nature a very sturdy, robust and vigorous breed, their bodies are resilient. There are no characteristic conditions in Staffords (like hip dysplasia in German Shepherds, or early onset cancers like in some lines of Golden Retrievers, Boxers, etc.) Although articular conditions can sometimes occur in the breed, it is uncommon, and they are for better or worse, often asymptomatic to articular health conditions when compared to most other breeds, which makes the chances of having a stafford that actively suffers from one of these conditions somewhat rare.
This is also not a breed known to have any food sensitivities, on the contrary, they should be able to thrive on the basics. They are also very sound in the mind despite having very high drive, and are ideally able to shut down when not in a work / sport setting, there is low incidence of neurotic or compulsive behaviors in the breed (chasing light reflections, pacing in circles, biting their own tails, and so on.)
A newly emerging issue in staffords is BOAs and other breathing difficulties, as well as issues with temperature control and a tendency to overheat. This is most often seen in dogs with muzzles too short and no selection on physical aptitude.
As I cover in the home page, I test my dogs for articular conditions, and through sports, I test their breathing and thermal control capabilities as well as their overall physical durability, and strongly select for healthier, sounder dogs, aiming to have a high % of dogs that are free of these conditions, however, as these are polygenic conditions, controlled by multiple testable genes that cannot be tested in a lab, it is therefore impossible for any other (honest) breeder, myself included, to provide 100% guarantee that no dog I produce will ever be affected, I can only guarantee that I am doing what is in my power to avoid it. All my breeding dog's health testing is available in their individual profiles for public viewing.
• LIFE EXPECTANCY - Typically, a good, well bred stafford that's lived a healthy active life has a life expectancy of 12-16 years, with causes of death quite often being tumors somewhere in the body. It is very typical for them to be asymptomatic to these tumors until the situation is severe, either that or the tumors themselves will develop very rapidly. It's not something that tends to drag on for long, so (on average) they are not the type of dog that will have a slow and gradual, years-long decline in quality of life, but rather an abrupt decline, which spares them and their people of a lot of stress and suffering.
• DEMODICOSIS - All dogs have the microscopic mites that causes demodicosis, called Demodex Canis, just like humans have their own demodex mites that live in our eyebrows and eyelashes, so if you look for them, you might just find them. In a healthy dog, these mites will cause no harm, however, in dogs with a weak immune system, they can become over populated and cause hair loss, red and scaly skin and secondary bacterial infections. Unfortunately, this can happen in Staffordshire Bull Terriers occasionally, some families and lines more than others. It often happens in young dogs with an under developed immune system, old dogs, or dogs that have their immunity compromised due to other environmental factors and is easy to treat with immune boosters and mite control medications or creams. My breeding dogs do not display this, but it impossible to guarantee that no dog I breed ever will.
• COPROPHAGY - Coprophagy is the behavior of eating feces, sadly, this is common in the breed, but thankfully, it is not in itself indicative of any health issues in staffords, but is instead a behavioral tendency that exists in the breed and is genetic, probably goes together with their usually very high food drive. The behavior is not harmful to the dog, but it is disgusting for us, thankfully it can be easily managed and / or trained out. Yes, this behavior is somewhat common for my dogs.
• MISSING TEETH - A somewhat common occurrence in staffords is missing teeth, particularly, the P4 premolar. It is unknown what gene is responsible for this, although it is heritable, it's difficult to predict when it's going to appear. Although not ideal, it causes no harm or limitation whatsoever to the dog.
A simple overview on
Some notes on
BREED TEMPERAMENT
WIP
A deep dive on
As the breed is quite diverse genetically, some families and lines may have different trends, but I will speak on my observations with my own family of dogs as well as unrelated dogs I know and watched develop over the years.
Starting at around 5-6 months, puppies will begin to shed their deciduous teeth, as well as begin to enter what I call, "the ugly duckling" stage, in which males are typically more affected than females. This is when their bodies start looking a little all over the place and their limbs almost look loosely attached, this is normal as they're in a state of rapid growth. Usually between 7 months to 1 year (for females) and 8 months to 1 and a half years (for males) this becomes even more pronounced, toplines may look funny since often their back legs will grow faster than their front legs and throw them a bit out of whack. they might also look lanky, they're also typically a bit spicier and more impulsive, like any teenager, before they start to fill out and their structure and temperament begins to stabilize and mature.
After 1 and a half years, physical changes will become quite minor and hard to notice. Females will typically come into heat between 10-14 months, but some do as early as 6 months. During the heat cycles they will tend to be either more mellow and needy or spicy and irritable, sometimes all of that, with their first heat typically being the worst one as far as behavioral fluctuations go. Temperament continues to mature into what they'll settle in to as full adults.
Stafford's bodies will undergo minor developments up until the age of 2.5 to 3 years, and so will their minds, reaching full mental maturity at roughly that same age window, at which point they enter their prime years for performance, which will last to about 6 years. At that point they may no longer be at their prime, but they should still be healthy, happy and capable to keep up in activities as usual until the age of 10, when they may begin to slow down a bit.
Usually they'll remain mentally active and willing to participate in all activities, and physical decline will occur but it's not drastic, more noticiable in sport or competition dogs, but not something that will affect pet life too much.
When they're nearing their time to go, decline will happen abruptly and quite rapidly - on average, of course. Check "life expectancy" section above for more on late life tendencies.
Stages of
DEVELOPMENT
