History

This is a small conclusion on stafford history the way i see it after reading and listening.

Stafford History

The stafford began as the Bulldog.
The Bulldog was a big dog wich fought with the romans on the battlefield aswell as guarded the camp at night against intruders. I think this is how the Bulldog type skattered across Europe with the Roman invasion and so came for instance the german bullenbeisser. In England this dog was the base for the royal blood sport of bull-baiting. At the time in the docks they used little terriers in the Rat Pit it was a sport and a gambling game, there were at that time loads of rats in the docks.
After a while the bloodsports became illegal and the bulldog breeders wanted to continue theyre breed. they started scratching theyre dogs in a dog pit and because of this the search for gameness started.
The Bulldog wasn't agressive by nature and also not the swiftest but it excelled in power and courage, seeing as though the pit wasn't very big they needed a downsize on the breed, also they wanted theyre dogs faster and more fierce.
The breed was then crossed with the terriers from those days, the exact terrier breeds are discutable, i've heard and read about theories ranging from the know extinct english white terrier to the majestic airedale terrier. I think both are right, every breeder might have had a different favorite terrier to cross with and i think this is also the reason behind the diversity in type. Also i came to notice that some might have used some whippet or greyhound in theyre breeding.
This is how the bull & terrier came together.
After decades of this in my eyes cowardly sport they had developed a breed wich could rip apart a dog while wagging its tail.
The characterproperty wich the breeders were looking for: Gameness, stands for the will to continue beyond health. Experienced breeders could see in an instance if a dog had it or not and if it had it then they would continue breeding with it. The financial side of the sport was i think the cause for the mineworkers and factoryworkers to start a lucrative hobby. After few years this sport became illegal.
The irish kennel club maintained for a long while the Teastas Mor for theyre breeds because in theyre opinion functionality is worth more then looks. The Teastas Mor was different for each breed and for the Bull and Terriers is consisted out of badger trials. simply said, this was a hunting prestation performed under controlled circumstances.
By now we are some years futher on the Stafford time line and by know the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is recognized by the Kennel Club.
This meant from here on the Stafford would be a show dog but i dont think it will ever be just a show dog. but the breed did get showed from here on and with showing comes judging and for judging they needed a standard.
And that didnt turn out to be as easy as that sounds, our breed is maybe the most diverse breed out there. so how can you put a standard to that.
They have discussed this for days maybe months and eventually they agreed.
Then they picked 2 examples of staffords wich they all thought were the best representatives of the breed at that point in time known to them. These were Fearless Joe and Jim the Dandy.