Well quite a few people give me wide berth too with my Lab, and he's trotting along with a silly grin and a wagging tail. He's just a big dog and people get scared. I can understand it being a worry with dog care/walkers, maybe you could find out in advance some options that don't have a problem with Staffies.
Ditto here!!!!!!! My husband wanted a smiley dog that was stocky enough to tumble around with, and he'd had this experience with a staffie. My sister had a GR-lookalike - he was an amazing dog, which I put down to being a GR, so I wanted a GR. (Later discovered his dad was a Belgian Shepherd x Rottie - no GR!! But she let everyone think he was a GR otherwise she said they would've been afraid. His mother was a Lab tho!) My husband felt GRs were too soppy, not enough character. And I was concerned about dog on dog aggression - what I'd heard about staffies. Labs met both our criteria, which is how we settled on a Lab. Now we can't imagine any breed better than a Lab!
I think GR's are the dog that most likely to bite the vet. I remember a really lovely moderator we had who was a vet (Lochan) told us that, I was shocked but have since read about it.
I love pits and Staffies (very similar) and was lucky to share 8 years of my life with my pretty pittie foster fail, Mama Jodhi. A more people-loving, animal-loving, everyone-loving and smart dog would be really tough to find. She was a true lady. Except for her poo-eating "thing". My only caution with these breeds is nothing to do with their temperament and everything to do with thinking about how BSL (breed specific legislation) may affect you throughout the life of your dog. If you've only had "non-list" dogs, you cannot really begin to fathom how it seeps into every decision you have to make. Also people on the street WILL treat you differently. Not always bad, but definitely differently. It does help if you also have a "friendly" breed along with a list dog (i.e. Stanley!). People universally adored Brogan when I'd walk him with a chihuahua, for example. They must have figured, "Hey, he's not eaten the little dog yet, so he must be OK!". But if you can swallow the BSL side, in terms of a fun, smart, and affectionate companion, it is really hard to top a pittie.
Hmm yes good point Emily, when looking at places to rent, you'd really be in trouble if you had certain breeds (bull terriers, german shepherds, rottweilers, chows, huskies, among others). And that's funny about the chihuahua lol I can see that being a mitigating factor for sure I feel guilty about this but a very politely walking and sweet looking Staffie walked by me the other day and something inside me kind of tightened up seeing it approach :/ And this is pretty silly because I had a pit bull who was the gentlest dog you could ever imagine (was a stray). I guess it's because you never know what kind of owner it has, which is the real problem.
My friend has a Staffie - when younger he was the soppiest thing around. He's getting on a bit now and is a bit of a grumpy old man if his routine is upset, but he still welcomes with a smile and lick (and has to sit and hold your arm in his mouth for about 5 minutes each time I go and see them!). He's not brilliant with other dogs now, but was in his younger days, so we don't take Bailey with us when I go to see my friend, as I don't think its fair on Troy to invade his space with a young bouncy boy.
There are a lot of "breed selector" quizzes online where you can add in all of your information like if you have small children, how much exercise you can provide typically each day, if you have other pets in the home, if you have a yard or no yard, how much grooming/brushing you can handle, etc. that I have taken online and entered in that I already have a lab and will have small children in the house and strangers/visitors come over frequently and whatnot and it spits out breeds you should look into based off of compatibility from your answers - I found it really helpful to see the different characteristics and temperaments of the dogs I was looking into (which made me stop considering a few different types based on what I read and the low compatibility %) and also adding and finding out new breeds of dogs I hadn't considered before that now I really like! Obviously you must do other research besides this, but it is a fun way to see compatibility %s and for you to get a list of breeds to maybe look into based on your answers! 3 I really liked were https://www.selectadogbreed.com/ , https://www.purina.com/dogs/dog-breeds/dog-breed-selector , https://www.optimumpet.com.au/dog-advice/dog-selector/ I did 5-10 of these quizzes and the ones that I had to enter the most amount of information and answers on our lifestyle and environment were the best ones & they all said the same type of breeds which I liked because I was getting the same breed compatibility answers on the different quizzes and then when I looked into the breeds it seemed that they indeed would be a good fit for our lifestyle, house/yard area, small children in future, grooming preferences, etc. it was fun to get a list of compatible breeds and look into ones I handn't looked into further! Also, it helped me eliminate a couple breeds I really like and we were thinking about looking into because it listed characteristics of those breeds and that they weren't very compatible with our lifestyle and preferences (they were below 50% compatible and after looking into them I realize they would not be the best match for us!) Obviously these shouldn't be the only thing you look at and I didn't take the information as 100% -- but it gave me information to look into and think about and research about on my own!
