About us

We had our first ever dog in 1986. A Weimaraner called Jake.
We thought this was the right time to introduce a dog to our family

as our two young sons were of school age. We now had the time to spend on training a puppy.
We knew nothing about the breed, just thought they were beautiful looking dogs.
Although Jake was a real handful, he was also a lovable rouge!!









We were first introduced to Staffords by a friend who had kept them for years.





Jack (one of the dogs pictured above) had sired a litter. Most of the litter were black & white, apart from two
which our friend wanted to keep himself. He asked us if we could look after them for a short while, untill he
moved into a new home that was suitable for the dogs. It was a big favour to ask, but being soft where animals are
concerened, we agreed.





This is Bridie. She was with us from 7 weeks old until her owner moved into his new home,7 months latter. We prayed this day would never come, as we fell for her completely.


This is Tyler, Bridie's litter brother. Such a lovable dog.





Jake loved them too!





If we had know from the start we were to have the puppies for months, we would have never agreed to it. However, thanks to them we were hooked on Staffords.
The pups settled in fine to their new home as their owner had regular contact with them the whole time we cared for them.
We were, however, devistated when they left us.
It was all to much for us when Jake started to lose so much weight. Our vet couldn't find a problem, but suggested he may be pining.
As we all missed the puppies so much, we decided to get a Stafford of our own.


This is Honey our first very own Stafford.




Honey was a lovely bitch, a real pleasure to live with. She was very easy to train compared to Jake, despite the fact we put alot more effort into Jake's training, attending puppy training classes (and winning first prize!) We never got the same results as you can so easily with a Stafford.
However things didn't get better for Jake. He wasn't pining. He had a very serious problem. He couldn't absorb his food. The vet tried everything she could to help him, but we lost him at the age of four.
When Honey was two, we had our first litter because we wanted to keep a dog & bitch ourselves.









So now we had three lovely Staffords. Our friends thought we were mad, but we loved them all.
We only had one litter from Honey, her daughter never had a litter as our time was spent with our children & the 3 dogs. Life was busy.


This is Otis from honey's litter ,he had a wounderful life in a rural part of somerset with our brother and sister in-law





As the boys grew and we had more time, we introduced Charlie, a Bulldog puppy.





Honey out lived both pups. She was 14 when we lost her.
At this point we only had Charlie! It was now 2002 and we were Staffless again, but not for long!

After a few months, and much discusion on what we wanted from our lives. A drawback of living with a pack of dogs was we had not had a holiday for many years. We didn't like the idea of kenneling our dogs, just to take a break.
We are both probably too soft where the dogs are concerned, but we wouldn't enjoy ourselves without our dogs!
Another concern was that Staffords had become very popular and we saw many people walking Stafford type dogs that were very tall and had long faces. They looked nothing like a Staffords, but we're sure they were lovely dogs. But where could we look to get a breed standard pup?
We found out there was a Stafford dog show on, and went along to see if we could see a Stafford more to our taste.
We saw lots of lovely dogs there, quite a few different types. Some very short with good strong heads. We both now agreed on what we were looking for in our next Stafford.


This is Jess.





Our advise to anybody is to first decide what type of Stafford you are looking for. See both parents, if possible. We got Jess from an Adtrader advert, something frowned upon in the show world.
If you know what you are looking for, this doesn't matter. We took Jess to the stafford show. She came second in the puppy class against some of the best Stafford breeders around.
We took Jess back to the show at 18 months old. Again she did very well in her classes. This time we got a 2nd & 3rd place. We were told if we took her to lots of shows and she continued to get placed, we could gain enough points to quaify for crufts. However, we knew she was a good example of the breed. That was good enough for us, Jess enjoyed her walks in the woods at the weekends much better than the shows.
We found a stud for Jess at the show,took contact details & booked her with him at her next season.


Jess had a litter of 5 lovely pups when she was two years old.





We feel it's most important to socialise and introduce them to children at an early age.





This is Harry. picked by a family member. He is a lovely dog. See Harry's stud page.





This is Frankie. She now lives within the family as we rehomed her due to a family split.





This is Frankie now. She has settled in very well to her new home.





When I was younger, all the dogs enjoyed a long walk, often twice a day, I'm now unable to do this, due to a bad break to one of my legs, so having more than two dogs was out of the question.


Having alot of time on my hands, as I was unable to work, we found raising a litter such a lovely experience. If only we could find a way to have another bitch to join our family and possibly breed from. Although the house was a large 4 bed, it only had a small garden. We wished for enough space for the dogs to excercise at home.
This was just a dream at this point, but it was something we both would have loved. Were we prepared to sell up and downsize our home in exchange for extra land, and was this possible?


We were in a good position, having moved up the property ladder several times. Why not put the house on the market, and see if we could find a suitable place to suit our dreams? We wanted enough space to grow fruit and veg, and to keep a few chickens. In an ideal world, we would have space for a few flowers in a dog free space, but the dogs would have plenty of space to play. Jess was ball mad, so as long as there was room for her to play, this would be a solution to make our dreams come true.

It must of been meant to be. We sold the house and found a very suitable place for us and the dogs.
The next step was putting our name on a waiting list for a puppy. We were very impressed with the Crossguns dogs, but really wanted a pied. Much to our surprise, we were contacted to say there was a pied pup if we were still interested.


We accepted the offer. We couldn't believe our luck, so we called her Magic.

Jess, Charlie & Magic (Crossguns Kiss Me Quick) enjoying the new garden.



We fenced of part of the garden, Built some raised beds and planted our vegtables.






We produced more than enough fruit,salad and vegtables for our family. The chicken's helped eat the rest.



We had a broody hen so we raised some chicks.




.

Magic at 6 month's old.



Jess was mated again, so this time we would keep a pup. To our disappointment, the scan showed no pups. We were very disapointed. It was at this point we decided to try to find a blue male. This was a hard task. There were many blue pups around for sale, but not breed standard. Could we find a solid blue that was bred for true Stafford type as well as colour?

We chose Levi . He was the best pup we had seen. We had high hopes for him. If he turned into a good representative of a Stafford, we would get a blue bitch. Only time would tell.



After all, Jess was having a litter. She only had two. Sadly we lost one,leaving us with Archie (Solo Surprise). See Archie's stud page.
Sadly Jess had to be spayed, due to two complicated whelps. However, we do have Archie and Harry to carry on her line. Both dogs are owned by family members.


Magics 1st litter of 7. 2 dogs and 5 bitches.









continued in about us 2 inc the start of blue stafford