I am interested to know what the difference is so i thought i would ask you experts. I have had staffies for many years now and trust the breed very much so especially with the right training. Why is a pit a dangerous breed? Can you not train it in the same way as its cousins? Would you have a pit if they weren't illegal to own?

I too have staffy's.I am no expert either but I think it is down to the owners of the dogs that are irresponsible.Pit's are strong dogs and need to be trained properly like staffy's.They are also abused and egged on to be nasty.I don't think it is the 'dog'.Any dog can be trained to be nasty.
My mil has a chihwawa [bad spelling:hihi:]and it is really nasty but you can pick that up to get it away from you can't do that with pit's or staffs. Also the media add to the image you dn't see headlines of ''Attack by jack russell''
I wouldn't know looking at a dog if it was a pit as some staffy's look so different from each other.I don't think most people would know what one looks like.

There are several breeds considered to be pit bulls. Staffordshire Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, American Pit Bull terriers, American Bulldogs... list goes on and on.
Full-blooded Staffordshire Terriers are usually very compact dogs. Short and stocky, but not large.
AmStaffs are usually bigger and can get up to fairly large weights. They are usually stocky and big headed.
American Pit Bull Terriers don't get over 65lbs and are tall, lanky, proportioned dogs. If you see/hear of one of those 110 lb., big headed, stocky giant pit bulls it is not a full blooded APBT.
There really is no way of telling what type of pit bull breed a mixed dog has in it (some are assumed to be pit bulls but don't have a drop of any type of pit bull blood in them).

i feel there is no such thhings as bad dogs juat bad dog owners!

i aslo feel that alot of people claim to own irish staffies i belive the are pit bulls they are generally the blue colour that is undesired in staffs.

i did a lot of research before getting my staffy and come across a site that said pitbulls have that name because they are a bull terrier cross and are very difficult to identify the true breed that made them,,please tell me if im wrong,,as for the temperement i think it is definately all down to the owners,,if they are not taught ground rules and disciplined in the correct way and are taught to be territorial then they will most definately be agressive towards something else at some point,,on the very rare occassion that a dog is naturally agressive, then its upto the owner to take all the necessary precautions to prevent something bad happening,,hope this makes sense,,this goes for any dog not just those that are classed as dangerous dog

in my opinion there are no differences, they can be both as lovely but if either one is bred to fight then this is what they will do

a staffy is a breed the pitbull is a type that fits certain criteria such as size and...these are loose and means that staffy crosses and even boxer crosses have been seized

I think possibly the problem is that the bad guys who use pit bulls for fighting or for their own special brand of security work tend to use the dogs that show aggressive traits for breeding, whereas any responsible dog breeder would discount dogs with that sort of temprement from their breeding programme. A similar thing happened with cockers where the gene pool became too small and cocker rage emerged, the breeders have sucessfully reduced this problem by choosing to breed from individual dogs that have the happy cocker temprement.
As far as I am aware the staffie is a short legged compact dog whereas the pit bull is a taller muscular dog, I am unsure what it is crossed with but will have a look round sites and report back if I find anything interesting

There is a breed standard for the Pit Bull- Roger Mugford (tv vet and dog trainer) did a talk at work recently and he is often called in by the police to id pit bulls and possible pit bulls- he brought a couple of hefty books with him that go into great detail about the breed. Not all are as dangerous as their reputation but so many have been bred to fight that temperament is seen as unreliable, hence they're on the dangerous dogs list.

I couldn't help but think that the lovely pit bulls that I knew at the time that the Dangerous Dogs Act was rushed through so pointlessly were as much victims of the act as the people who had been bitten by dogs.

Almost any breed can be bred for fighting and brought up to be an aggressive dog (although few people would be scared by a shihtzu!)- I couldn't even imagine the crisp monster that one of my friends had at the time that the act came in hurting anyone, yet I knew a number of terriers, a border collie, a standard poodle and an Old English Sheepdog who had a very questionable temperament.

I think that the 'witch hunt' that happens these days where it appears that any dog which has bull breed features can be accused of being a pit bull must be really quite scary for responsible owners of bull breeds.

Totally agree - its the dog not the breed that is important. And the filthy scum who train these dogs for their own devious purposes are the villians not the dogs

American Pit Bull Terrier was the first dog to recieve an award whilst in service. Many states in the US still use pit bulls as service dogs for police, mountain rescue, drug, etc. This is because of their determination to reach a goal, once a pit bull has made its mind up that it wants 'something' or 'someone' it will not stop to get it, quite similar to Staffy's, BUT this can be a curse. For instance if the pit bull decides it wants YOU it wont stop till it gets you. On the other hand they wont stop until they have found some one, took down a criminal on the run, sniffed out narcotics etc.

Personally i have nothing against pit bulls, have known many that were loyal, loving and caring family dogs and still are. I also own a staffordshire with same temperament. I blame the press and the idiots who are determined to ruin the breed through fighting and training to be all round evil dogs. A similar situation is occuring with the staffordshire breed.

As above its the dog as an individual that should be looked at not the breed. My Staffordshire and myself have been attacked for no reason by labradors, poodles, westy's, yorkies - but this is not read in the press?!?!?!?!

Can you imagine if the media ran a story about killer Yorkies im sure you would see groups of lads stood on street corners.
I have two beautiful staffs who adore people and its a shame when people go out of their way to cross the road because they are walking down the street. Especially as we live across from a school :confused:

yeah similar thing happens to me. i pick my nephew up from primary school and often take our staff with me, he's mad about her and vica versa. But all the parents drag their kids away from her lol. Once a young boy aged about ten, was stamping his foot in front of my staff to provoke her and i asked him to stop but he didnt, so she barked at him and all the parents looked at me like it was my dog who was the bad one!!!!! how does that work??? if someone stamped their feet in front of me for long enough i'd probably bark at them!!!

Totally agree.We get funny looks when out with our staffy,people cross the road or hold on tight to their kids:loopy:.A few of our elderly neighbours stroke our dogs which suprises me and often say they get such a bad press and they are little darlings.My staff was attacked by a jack russell of the lead.Santino just whimpered.The owner said it is funny that her dog went for a big bruiser like mine:mad:If it had been the other way around she would probably have reported my dog though.

It's such a shame that people are like that with staffies I like them and always found them to be nice natured and friendly, and it can't be good for their trust of humans if people treat them like that.
I'm a bit ashamed to say that I tend to give them a bit of a wide birth if I'm out with the dogs though :blush:.
we have had several nasty experiences with mine being attacked like that, it's such a shame.
Mind you we did bump into a lovely playful and friendly staffy boy in the park on Monday, my little girlies loved him :D