The risk of a Vaccine Administered Adverse Event (VAAE) increases when multiple vaccines are given simultaneously. Canine vaccinations play an important role in protecting dogs from contagious and lethal disease. However, they are not without cost. Despite increased publicity in recent years about the adverse effects of vaccinations, many people still assume annual vaccines for…
L-2-HGA affects the central nervous system, with clinical signs usually apparent between 6 months and one year (although they can appear later). Symptoms include epileptic seizures, “wobbly” gait, tremors, muscle stiffness as a result of exercise or excitement and altered behaviour. The mutation, or change to the structure of the gene, probably occurred spontaneously in…
All the dogs are introduced to the public and then the public are invited into the ring to fuss the dogs. Saffy has always been impeccably behaved on these occasions and never once let herself, the breed or me down. I have for several years taken her to Crufts to wander around in her PAT…
Most show fanciers these days simply wont admit that the breed has changed quite a bit from the original types, and such an attitude isnt hard to understand when one realizes the very people who are supposed to give them guidance encourage the breeding and perpetuation of the trendy, exaggerated type. Usually these are the…
On the Saturday morning I was a bit concerned that Dot wasnt settling and one of the puppies wasnt suckling so well. The vet advised that I bring them along for a check up. Having been thoroughly checked Dot was pronounced well but given a calcium shot, an antibiotic shot and an oxytocin shot as…
Trilby was the oldest Stafford I have ever had in the thirty six years that I have been lucky enough to own the breed. She was the last of my dogs to be directly descended from Staffords I bred and showed years ago but she was never destined for the show ring, although, on the…
The aim of any control measures must be simply to prevent any clinically affected animals being born and eventually to eliminate the defective ‘x’ from the breeding population. With the development of laboratory tests for the recessive genes that cause the two conditions (tests of L-2-HGA are already available) the first step must be not…
…of recording Staffordshire Bull terrier strains and pedigrees based on the Line and Family method has been exhaustively covered by Mr. H.N. Beilby, of Bromsgrove, whose outstanding services to our breed I have referred to in Chapter II. His findings are published in great detail in the second (1948) edition of The Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Every year hundreds of puppies are mass produced to supply the demand that pet stores have. Hundreds of poorly bred, poorly treated unsuspecting innocent animals are crowded into unfit conditions and shipped all across the country. Puppy mills are at their highest production rate and unscrupulous breeders start planning their litters just at that time…
Frequently breeders and judges are asked by various publications to write about their favourite Staffords, of course with the show ring in mind. Funnily enough when I go on a nostalgia spree, especially at Christmas with a few hot punches inside me, it is not the show winning Staffords, which bring tears to my eyes,…