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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…
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.
The only really effective way to attack the problem of genetic disease is to actively select against the defective genes, rather than trying to select for the most normal dogs you can find. Its a way a thinking about breeding that seems counter-intuitive, until you realize that if you know who the affected and …
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,…
Externally the herbal form has great healing properties for contusions with bruising. It should never be applied to open wounds or broken skin. The roots contain thymol which is a fungicide and preservative and has an anti-inflammatory agent. When used in a gel it can have the same effects as an NSAID for osteoarthritis ….
Misfortune is something that befalls others. At least in our own selfish way, we like to think so. However we know from experience that we do suffer misfortune, and sadly even tragedy, at times during our lives. For those in dogs one of the worst things is literally losing a dog! And I know now…