General Appearance & Fitness in the Stafford
“The Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a smooth-coated dog. It should be of great strength for its size and, although muscular, should be active and agile.”
— AKC Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed Standard
There are not many words in the opening sentence of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Standard.
There don’t need to be.
Smooth-coated. Great strength for size. Muscular. Active. Agile.
Those few words establish something enormously important about breed type: the Stafford is not simply supposed to look powerful. He should possess power in a body that remains capable of using it.
That distinction matters.
Great Strength — For His Size
The words “for its size” should never become an afterthought.
The Stafford is not intended to achieve an impression of strength by simply becoming larger, heavier or more exaggerated. The Standard gives us a relatively small dog—14 to 16 inches at the shoulder—with considerable substance and muscular development packed into that frame.
A good Stafford can feel surprisingly substantial when you put your hands on one.
But substance is not the same thing as bulk.
Neither is weight the same thing as strength.
The impression should be of a compact, powerful athlete: strong for his size while remaining balanced enough to move freely and efficiently.
Muscular — But Active and Agile
The word “although” may be one of the most important words in the entire sentence.
The Stafford should be muscular and yet remain active and agile.
Muscle is therefore not an end in itself.
A dog so heavy, overdone or exaggerated that he loses agility may possess impressive mass, but he has lost something specifically required by the Standard.
Likewise, a light, narrow dog without sufficient substance may be agile but lacks the strength and muscularity equally fundamental to Stafford type.
Neither extreme completes the picture.
The Stafford should be capable of accelerating, turning, jumping, climbing, swimming, pulling, running and changing direction with surprising ease. Anyone who has lived with a fit Stafford has probably watched one launch itself in a completely unreasonable direction, twist in midair and somehow land ready to do it again.
That combination of power and nimbleness is very much part of the breed.
Fitness Is Part of the Picture
Condition and breed type are not the same thing, but condition affects our ability to evaluate breed type.
A properly conditioned Stafford allows us to see the dog more honestly.
Muscle should be apparent. There should be a discernible waist and appropriate tuck-up. The dog should feel firm rather than soft, and should carry enough condition to look healthy and powerful without unnecessary covering over the body.
Fitness does not mean making a Stafford excessively thin.
It also does not mean trying to create the greatest possible amount of visible muscle.
The goal is functional condition.
A well-conditioned Stafford should look as though he could comfortably go out and do something.
Because he should be able to.
When Weight Changes the Picture
Extra body fat can change the appearance of a Stafford considerably.
It can broaden outlines, fill depressions, disguise transitions between parts of the body and make a dog appear more substantial than its underlying structure actually is.
That can be particularly misleading in a breed in which substance is desirable.
Fat is not substance, and bulk is not necessarily strength.
At the other extreme, bringing a Stafford down excessively in weight in pursuit of dramatic muscular definition is no improvement. Extreme conditioning can distort the picture just as surely as excess weight can.
The Standard asks for balance.
We should, too.
The best condition is the one that allows the dog’s natural construction, musculature and proportions to be seen while leaving him healthy, energetic and capable of sustained activity.
Fitness Is More Than Appearance
A Stafford’s condition should not exist simply for the show ring or a photograph.
These are intelligent, active dogs, and physical activity is only part of keeping one fit.
Depending upon age, health and individual ability, Staffords can enjoy walking and hiking, swimming, retrieving, flirt pole work, appropriately conditioned running, lure sports, scent work, obedience, rally, agility, weight pull and many other activities.
Different exercises develop different abilities.
Just as importantly, training and exploration exercise the mind.
We prefer variety rather than endlessly repeating one activity simply to produce muscle. Walking somewhere new, climbing over natural terrain, learning a new behavior, swimming, playing tug or participating in a dog sport all ask something slightly different of the dog.
And that matters because the Stafford should be mentally engaged as well as physically capable.
The Coat
The current AKC Standard describes the Stafford’s coat as:
“Smooth, short and close to the skin, not to be trimmed or de-whiskered.”
It sounds simple because it is.
There can certainly be natural variation in coat density and texture among individual Staffords, and even different colored areas of a pied dog can sometimes feel somewhat different.
But the overall impression should remain the same: a naturally short, smooth, close coat.