Choice of avatar

I've decided it's about time I attached an avatar to my name. I'm sure that nobody wants to look at my ugly mug & as yet nothing in my workshop is worthy of public consumption.

Bearing that in mind, I could go with Jess, our late & much-missed Staffie (can't have NJH's Staffie being the only one on the forum ) :-

or I could choose this little fellow who reflects one of my other interests, church architecture :-

On the other hand, I could pick something that ties in with my day job.

Oh, decisions decisions....

Brian

You can't beat a good Staffie.

You can, but they bite,

Worse - they can out-fart any other breed of dog.

Bodger here's my faithful Labrador Bramble 😊

Luna Ludrow

Not so sure about that Neil, my female scottie can clear a room of all life including my male scottie in 30 seconds flat

Well Brian

My avatar, Chloe, is the latest in the line of Staffies we've owned

Many years ago I went round to my local ( those were the days!) and came across a Staffie for the first time - I was instantly hooked! Our old Labrador (cross donkey!) was on his last legs and, when he finally departed, we determined to find a Staffie. We contacted the breed council and they put us in touch with a breeder and, when her bitch had her next litter, we selected a bitch - Tess - our first Staffie. In time we had a litter from her and she produced 5 pups - 4 bitches and one dog! [ A warning here to anyone thinking of taking up dog breeding. In preparation I had laid a new vinyl sheet flooring in the kitchen, where it was warm, and placed the mum and whelping box there. It was fine to start with but, as the pups grew, they managed to pull up all the vinyl and rip it into small pieces!] We kept one bitch and sold the other 4 pups.

So we had two Staffies together - they kept each other exercised! We had a long garden and a favourite game was to rush out - one hide in the bushes and wait until the other ran past then leap out and bowl them over. This would be repeated over and over! In time they both went to the celestial land of lamp posts and we were dog-less!

We couldn't bear to be dog-free for long and found that the breeder of our original bitch had some more pups for sale. In the meantime we had moved to deepest Devon so we invited her down for the weekend and she came with two pups. Chloe took one look and decided that this is where she wanted to stay... so she chose us!

I'm sure that Chloe is quite relaxed about another "Dogavtar" ( In fact she is pretty relaxed most of the time - except when a walk or food is mentioned!)

Norman

Neil

On the "out farting" problem its a matter of "input" influencing "output" - you may have found a similar situation yourself with baked beans. Careful choice of diet solves the problem!

Edited By NJH on 02/08/2017 12:04:34

My wife always used to have rescue dogs & said that she'd never have a pedigree but Jess was the exception. Now she says she'll never have a rescue - two reasons being that you're never 100% sure of their history (& what they've been through) and you miss out on the early puppy years & the fun that provides.

It's unfortunate that Staffies have such a bad press. Generally speaking, they're gentle, eager to please & very loyal - they once had the nickname of Nanny Dogs for good reason. Unfortunately they're very easy to train to be nasty if that's what the owner wants.

Brian

My wife originally had no intention of getting a Staffie. Her two kids & then husband wanted one & heard of a litter of pups just round the corner. When they went for a look, she initially thought they were collies, due to the black & white markings. She struck lucky as Jess was one of the last two from the litter & being well over the normal time that pups are taken from their mothers, had already been house trained.

We eventually had to have her put down 18 months ago after providing nearly 14 years of fun, laughter & companionship. We would like another dog - a Staffie of course - but it's not practical at the moment as we both work & it would be unfair to leave a dog on it's own all day long.

Brian

I've decided to go with Jess for my avatar, but....

I've found that I can't choose a picture from my albums (which is where I'd put my potential avatars) but have to upload it all over again. Is this right or am I missing something obvious?

Brian

I just found out we can't have a rescue dog 'cos I'm to old !!.. Fully agree tho' - never buy one.

No, that's right.

" I'd NEVER buy from a breader as they make things worse

Battersey dogs home currently say they have 82% of staffies out of all other breeds "

Well John there is an old saying that:-

"There are no bad dogs only bad owners"

The problem for Staffies is that they are seen as "Macho" and some folk get them for the wrong reasons. I can assure you that they are the best of family dogs - friendly, good with children and all that I've had have made me laugh every day! They are not a bit aggressive - but they WILL respond to any challenge from another dog. ( Mine is not too keen on cats - and our neighbour has about 12- they don't come into our garden!) As with all dogs though they need training and they need human company. As far as "breeders" go there are breeders and breeders. There are those who go in for it professionally, set up kennels, and are in the business of breeding dogs to make money. There are those who think that they can make a quick buck by having a bitch and breeding as often as possible and then there are those who have a bitch, have the odd litter from her and rear the pups at home - this last was the situation I bought from ( and indeed sold into when we had a litter from our first bitch)

I do think that some folk are unrealistic about dog ownership - or fail to do their research before buying a pup. Dogs need companionship and it is unrealistic to buy a pup, shut it up all day whilst the owners are out at work etc. and then expect to have a well behaved animal. As they say "If the dog is bad don't blame the dog - blame the idiot on the other end of the lead!"

As far as buying or not though .... well I don't expect to be GIVEN anything of value. Yes there are the "puppy farmers" and I would certainly avoid these and it is possible to do so. A call to the kennel club will give contact details for the secretary of each breed society and they in turn will have details of litters their members ( bitches!) are having.

Norman