Walk a staffie down the street and you are bound to be asked.. ´is that a pit bull?´
Most owners are quick to answer no and then repeat the breed over and over, slowly and clearly to make sure there´s no misunderstanding. Then go on to ty and explain that pit bull´s are actually quite differant.
However, the correct answer would be ´not anymore.´ At one time the Staffie was a so-called pit bull..... a dog bred and conditioned to fight in a ´pit.´ In fact, the Staffie was the original pit fighting dog, from which others have descended. But that was over a hundred years ago. Today, the Staffie is a much loved family pet.
In England in the early 1800s an inhumane spectator sport called bullbaiting was in vogue. This bloody spectacle called for a tethered bull to be roused to a fury by tormenting humans and then attacked by a group of large aggressive dogs. In combating the bull, the dog would try to attach itself to the bull´s nose and hold on despite the bulls efforts to shake and toss it off.
Then in 1835, bullbaiting became illegal. This left promoters and others of the ´blood sport´ to come up with something to take its place. The new spectacle was dog fighting!
At first the Bulldogs were pitted against one another, but it soon became obvious to dog fighters that a smaller and more agile dog would be better for the dog-to-dog combat. They crossed the Bulldog with a English terrier to create a type of dog that would combine the courag and strength of the bulldog with the agility and fire of the terrier. The plan worked, and a fighting dog was the result. The new breed went by many names:
BULL and TERRIER, HALF and HALF, PIT DOG, PIT BULLTERRIER and... for the region where it originated... STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER.
