A Staffordshire Bull Terrier's head is his or her defining feature, having said that it must be remembered that the Stafford isn't a head breed, balance and agility must be maintained and both can be compromised if fancy which often results in exaggeration is allowed to over rule good judgment .
The Breed Standard doesn't ask for a dog with a large head, sure it says short, deep through, with broad skull, with pronounced cheek muscles etc, but deep and broad compared to what the" Terrier" or the "Bull" I would say deep and broad compared to the average breed of dog.
What "the Standard" is actually asking for is a hard bite and to achieve this an increase in skull and jaw size is necessary to facilitate strong jaw muscles and also a shorter muzzle to increase leverage but the need to maintain balance and agility puts a limit on any increases in head size and likewise we must not shorten muzzles to much or breathing could be restricted.
Breeds such as Pug's, Bulldogs and Pekinese etc have brachycephalic heads and can have Brachycephalic syndrome which affects various areas of the respiratory tract such as elongated soft palate.The soft tissues of a canine mouth are difficult too fit in a short fore face and as a result the soft palate that separates the nasal passage from the oral cavity can flap down into the throat creating snorting sounds, not what we want in a performance breed.Also a Brachycephalic's wind pipe may be narrow in places (tracheal stenosis) and they may have narrowed nostrils (stenotic nares) all this makes them prone to heat stress because all the respiratory obstructions makes them inefficient panters, as a hot dog needs to pass air over it's tongue quickly and efficiently to cool it's blood and so regulate body temperature.
At some shows we have witnessed such Staffordshire's struggling to cope and we never want to saddle any of our dogs with such an affliction, dogs should be able to run and play even on a warm day without keeling over after 5 min's . A proper Staffordshire Bull terrier is an active animal and should be equipped to be active.
So as we have said nearly all breed standards are based in original purpose and as the Staffordshire was developed for the purpose of fighting a Stafford's most important weapons were the power of biting hard and holding on and to achieve this a rather special head evolved.
The Stafford muzzle should be of a length that exerts maximum leverage from the jaw muscles but does not restrict breathing as discussed above and has room for a complete set of teeth with a scissor bite. It is generally accepted that a muzzle to head length ratio ranging from 3 to 5 to 1 to 2 is correct, so if your dogs head is 5 inches long (measured from stop to occupit bone at the back of the skull) a muzzle of 2 and 1/2 inches to 3 inches is about right and 2 and 1/4 inches being very short and 3 and 1/2 inches is Houndish.
The muzzle should be strong and broad but clean cut. It should appear correct in it's proportions to the skull what ever angle it is viewed from and should taper slightly without any foxiness .
A muzzle top line that slopes down from the stop is called down face and one that tilts up is dish faced and we all should be aiming for a level top line though slight down face is very reminiscent of old breeding which I quite like but dish faced is very alien.
A dogs ability to bite is very much affected by the fill in before the eyes. The maxillary bone on each side of the bridge of the nose backs up the molars and a snippy muzzle will not have molars set in a strong foundation. Terriers, Hounds and retrievers are all examples of breeds that should have a well developed Maxillary bone.
A Staffordshire's under jaw should be strong as well as what would be the point of good fill in before the eyes and possessing a weak under jaw. We need a strong under jaw to house large strong teeth and the repandus or chin should be squarish and give a bold determined impression.
The eyes should be round, of medium size and set to look straight ahead. A true Staffordshire Bull Terrier expressioncan only be achieved if the eyes are correct in colour size and position. Eyes that are close together tend to give a mean expression and eyes that are wide apart tend to give an air of intelligence.
Bulbous or protruding eyes are not wanted on a Bull terrier for they are prone to injury and they look more like a French Bulldog than a Stafford, nothing wrong with a "frenchie" but our breed was bred for the pit and should have eyes of medium size slightly in from the corners of the face looking straight ahead and give a determined expression.
The Staffordshire bull terrier's eyes preferably should be dark but may bear some relation to coat colour though I personally see no reason why they can't be brown or hazel, some people say that Stafford's with light eyes tend to be shrewd in nature rather than intelligent but we have owned dogs with a range of eye shades and have not noticed different characters related to eye colour and the light eyes can see just as well as the dark one's, having said that as long as the Standard asks for dark then we should breed for dark and personally I think a good dark eye does look better.
Ears just like eyes are very important if the correct expression is to be produced, they should be rose or half pricked and not large but nowadays only small rose ears cut the mustard, the best ears are small, thin and neatly folded exposing part of the inner burr.
The position of the ears on the head is also important, just small differences in position make a big difference to the expression, the ears should be towards the rear of the head and high enough to give an alert expression but not so high that they start to go upright.
Talking about head size is a present day bone of contention for us, we feel many exhibits at shows are very exaggerated in size and shortness. If you measure around a SBT's skull just in front of his ears a girth of about 17 to 18 inches on a 37 to 39 lb dog or 16 to 17 inches on a 34 to 37 lb bitch is about right to maintain a balance between speed, agility and strength, a 19 inch head on a 16/17 inch dog is out of proportion except on large heavy dogs.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed Standard our version
I know that when I first got into dog breeding and read the breed standard it seemed a bit vague to me, ok if i had a picture of a Staffordshire Bull terrier to hand then I could fit the two together and all was well and that was about all I thought about it, didn't need to look at the standard again now I knew what a Stafford looked like.
You could do the same but what would happen if we all took this approach when dog breeding and just had a quick read of The breed Standard, well i think fancy would take over as has happened with many breeds and can be witnessed at dog shows and a few generations down the road we wouldn't have true Staffordshires any more.
A breed Standard is a touch stone it takes us back to the origin of the breed for most breed standards are based in original purpose. Obviously original purpose for our breed in the bad old days was to battle for his life in the pit, thankfully those days have long since been made illegal and the modern Staffordshire is a delightful companion who is loyal to his owners and family.
We totally condemn dog fighting and any body who gets involved in such activity today is a cruel disreputable criminal. we don't need to see a dog fight to understand the conformation and construction of our breed after all most of the breed standard is just describing a well made dog.
I watch our dogs move everyday running, jumping , play fighting and battling over a tug. As breeders we accept the KC standard as an accurate representation of the true SBT type and do our best to understand what the breed standard requires and produce such stock.
Strength and agility are fundamental characteristics of the Stafford neither of which can be achieved unless the animal possesses soundness and balance these four attributes we consider to be the four corner stones of a quality Staffordshire this should be kept in mind when reading the breed standard.
To many with terms like deep, wide and broad with no definition of the terms "The Standard" is hard to understand but it is specific in height and weight i.e. 14 to 16 inches and 28 to 38lbs 4lbs lighter for bitches, though if you go to a dog show for Staffordshire Bull Terriers you will see many out side this, some people just think bigger is better. Anyway if we construct a dog of 16 inches and 38lbs with balance strength and agility then "The Standard" is not so vague after all.
If a dog is 16 inches and 38lbs and balanced then the fact that he is balanced dictates the size of his head and body how much bone he has the width of his front the length of his back, add strength and agility and this dictates the size and type of musculature he possesses. also the standard gives descriptions of the conformation of the fore and rear quarters which also need to be balanced front and with correct hock and pastern then all he needs is a good set of feet the right ears and tail and you have a SBT.
You could do the same but what would happen if we all took this approach when dog breeding and just had a quick read of The breed Standard, well i think fancy would take over as has happened with many breeds and can be witnessed at dog shows and a few generations down the road we wouldn't have true Staffordshires any more.
A breed Standard is a touch stone it takes us back to the origin of the breed for most breed standards are based in original purpose. Obviously original purpose for our breed in the bad old days was to battle for his life in the pit, thankfully those days have long since been made illegal and the modern Staffordshire is a delightful companion who is loyal to his owners and family.
We totally condemn dog fighting and any body who gets involved in such activity today is a cruel disreputable criminal. we don't need to see a dog fight to understand the conformation and construction of our breed after all most of the breed standard is just describing a well made dog.
I watch our dogs move everyday running, jumping , play fighting and battling over a tug. As breeders we accept the KC standard as an accurate representation of the true SBT type and do our best to understand what the breed standard requires and produce such stock.
Strength and agility are fundamental characteristics of the Stafford neither of which can be achieved unless the animal possesses soundness and balance these four attributes we consider to be the four corner stones of a quality Staffordshire this should be kept in mind when reading the breed standard.
To many with terms like deep, wide and broad with no definition of the terms "The Standard" is hard to understand but it is specific in height and weight i.e. 14 to 16 inches and 28 to 38lbs 4lbs lighter for bitches, though if you go to a dog show for Staffordshire Bull Terriers you will see many out side this, some people just think bigger is better. Anyway if we construct a dog of 16 inches and 38lbs with balance strength and agility then "The Standard" is not so vague after all.
If a dog is 16 inches and 38lbs and balanced then the fact that he is balanced dictates the size of his head and body how much bone he has the width of his front the length of his back, add strength and agility and this dictates the size and type of musculature he possesses. also the standard gives descriptions of the conformation of the fore and rear quarters which also need to be balanced front and with correct hock and pastern then all he needs is a good set of feet the right ears and tail and you have a SBT.
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