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.

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​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.

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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.

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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