We must look behind the collar

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a unique and attractive breed of dog in many ways, in his home, and particularly his reputation as a ‘show’ dog in the show ring, a dog that you cannot trim or titivate to hide any faults or blemishes he might have, you can see everything warts and all. Some, even in 1998, cannot accept that he is a show dog and we often hear people state, quite categorically, that the breed is not really a show dog (and quite extraordinary) openly stating, to all, that the Stafford is still a fighting dog! Not a very wise remark in view of what has happened in Germany and what could happen in Spain!

The breed has become hugely popular (here, and overseas) over the last 25 years or so, and many owners of Stafford’s have become very keen exhibitors, regularly exhibiting their dogs all over the country. In the early days the breed was always considered to be a specialist one, but (sadly) not anymore. This popularity has caused, particularly at Championship Shows, large entries, giving judges quite a daunting task of ‘tackling’ sometimes over 30 dogs (or bitches) in a class! These very large classes can present difficulties to some judges, particularly those whose memories are not their strongest ‘forte.’ Their difficulty is not helped by the manner in which most Stafford exhibitors show their dogs, i.e. ‘front on,’ i.e. head towards the judge, added, is the fact that now many exhibitors are highly skilled in handling their exhibits, easily disguising poor toplines, and other various faults.

This article is about this serious problem in the breed that we, as breeders, and judges, should address very quickly, and I will attempt to explain, ever since I came ‘into’ this breed many years ago, in the early 60’s, the S.B.T. has always been exhibited (or presented) to the judge in this way and. I would assume that this way of presentation has always been the case, long before I arrived on the scene, (this method of exhibition of the Stafford, .is usually used in most of the overseas countries as well).

 Now this method of exhibiting a Stafford has certainly given this breed certain improvements, i.e. fronts have improved considerably over the years. One rarely sees the ‘Queen Anne’ fronts (or ‘Duck Fronts’) that us ‘veterans’ used to see quite regularly years ago, the heavily overloaded shoulders, or dogs well down on their pasterns, and other faults associated with the front of the dog, though we can still observe poor feet, splayed or too thin.

 In fact, I feel certain that one would not be able to win today, with a Stafford that had such a poor front and weak pasterns, particularly with our method of ‘showing front on.

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Heads have also improved considerably over the years, the long and snipey foreface, the shallow stop, and skull, and the unattractive foreign expression, usually caused by the eyes set too close together (not forgetting the undershot jaw! Although the misplaced canines, mistakenly described as ‘inverted canines’ seems, these days, to have replaced the popularity of the undershot jaw!) is rarely seen these days, (in the show ring, I am not sure of the extent of this problem in the non show world) a it would certainly be very difficult to win prizes in the ring with these types

Although the Breed Standard clearly asks for a short foreface, I do not believe it meant ‘ultra’ short, because after all, the Stafford is a Terrier breed, and the essential part of a Terrier (and a ‘fighting dog’) is to be able to breath easily and comfortably, particularly when engaged in their Terrier ‘activities’! Often dogs with an, ‘ultra short’ foreface can experience breathing difficulties, particularly in hot weather. Lack of clear breathing ability would be disastrous to a dog involved in a battle for his life.

 I am not the only person to have seen dogs breathing very heavily in the show ring, sometimes almost gasping for breath, even in a fairly comfortable temperature. This cannot be the right road for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier to travel down, I firmly believe that the ideal, and correct proportions of skull to foreface, should be two thirds to one third, and I am certain, the majority of Stafford Fanciers would agree with these proportions, and I am also certain that dogs with heads with these proportions would be less likely to suffer such breathing difficulties. Although, of course, we must always remember that it is possible for a S.B.T. with whatever shaped head, to suffer such problems.

However, accepting the fact that fronts and heads have generally improved overall (apart from the ‘ultra’ short forefaces,) this is, I feel, almost certainly mainly due to our unique method of presenting our exhibits ‘front on’ to the judge, and of course, accepting the popular view that we are a ‘head breed’

Unfortunately, we have to seriously consider the resulting disastrous problems that our method of presentation may have encouraged, or be partly responsible for, i.e. far too many exhibits carry poor toplines, which usually are either Roached Backed’ or ‘Sway Backed’. Either condition, in my view, certainly spoils the look of the exhibit, and particularly disappointing when seen on an otherwise excellent specimen. The Breed Standard clearly asks for a level topline, not necessarily a ‘billiard table’ level, but a reasonably level

We have to allow for the very slight rise of muscular development, over the loins, which can give added strength to the back, but we very often see an exaggerated Roached Back, (or an Arched Back) which is caused by vertebral contour of the spine, it looks ugly and it is quite easy to understand why the original authors of our Breed Standard wanted the level topline on their Staffordshire Bull Terriers.

The other unattractive condition, the Sway back, (the back sloping down to the shoulders) which not only totally spoils the outline of the dog, but gives the dog a serious weakness in the back area, the cause of this condition is undue length of the back, and/or an inadequate muscular support, or loose ligmentation. Both of these conditions are highly undesirable, and, in my view, caused by too much attention paid to the front of the dog, and not enough attention paid to the side, and the overall dog.

Another very serious problem that has developed over the years in the breed, again in my view, by this over attention to the front, is the poor and weak hindquarters. We can regularly see, on the modern day, dog an almost complete lack of bend of Stifle (the joint in the hind leg, formed by the articulation of upper and lower thighs), sometimes with hardly any hock showing, and, a complete lack of hind leg muscle, i.e. the Biceps Femoris Muscle and the Gluteal Muscle.

 It seems quite obvious to me, that it is essential that the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, originally bred as a fighting dog, should have that powerful drive from the hind quarters, which the good bend of stifle, and muscles would give, and again, obvious why the original authors included this essential requirement in the Breed Standard, and we ignore their ‘know how’ and wishes at our peril

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Many years ago it would have been quite unusual (although it did happen on occasions, but always caused comment) for a dog with very ‘straight stifles’ to win high honors, yet today it is commonplace, as it is with the poor toplines, and very few comment about this matter. I feel quite certain that these serious problems could well have been caused, and developed, over the years, by the common practice of exhibiting our dogs ‘front on’, and, by judging the dogs only from the front, and neglecting the most important, the overall dog.

The only way that we can improve this unsatisfactory situation is to pay much more attention to all of the dog, front, side, rear, and every part of the exhibit, and, even turn the dogs sideways?

So one may well ask, what are the advantages of exhibiting one’s dog ‘sideways on’? If we compare the two methods,’ Front on’ and ‘ Side on,’ there can be no doubt that when examining from the ‘front on ’ we can easily and accurately assess the full face, the eyes, the skull, the ears, the expression and all the details associated with the head. etc.

Then we can observe the front, the width of the front, the feet, etc. after looking at the front, the judge can walk around the dog, which, of course, all judges do, and assess the overall dog then move the dog across the ring, but this is the important point, although the judge has examined the exhibit overall, he/she does not have an clear opportunity to compare the outline of a dog with the all the other dogs in the class, when they are all standing facing the judge.

The situation is entirely different when a judge is presented with a line of dogs ‘ side on’, far more significant details of the dogs can be observed, the topline, the neck, the shoulders, the balance, the tailset, the hindquarters, the hocks, the muscle on the hindquarters, the ‘cut up’ (although this particular point is not included in the current Breed Standard, many people believe that it is a very important part of a dog that is supposed to be Active and Agile, and I fully agree) and of course the outline of the dog, a clean and attractive outline will always give a dog, whatever breed, that extra bit of class.

Unfortunately there are very often good reasons why our dogs are shown in this manner, (‘front on’) how many times have we seen show rings that are far too small for the size of the usual high entry of Stafford’s, particularly at Championship shows, with classes of over 30 or so. So it is quite obvious that on many occasions it would be virtually impossible to show one’s dog ‘side on’, which is, I feel, not beneficial to our breed

Nevertheless we must not use this excuse to attempt to explain the deterioration of Toplines and the Hindquarters; it is a serious problem that affects this wonderful breed, and can only be rectified by the breeder and, indirectly, the judge.

Alec Waters