American Staffordshire Terriers have been a part of my life since
I was a child. I was fortunate enough to have found a stray when I
was about 10 years old. She (Shadow)
became a very influential part of our family. My mother had always
had a liking for this type of dog but had not previously owned one.
We lived with my grandfather who was a practicing veterinarian. It
was not hard to convince the two of them to keep her, but from my
grandfathers perspective pets were for the kennel and the stable, not
the house. I was previously able to convince him to allow my two
Siamese cats in the house and I think it was only a matter of days
before Shadow found residency there as well. She really was a special
dog! My mother and grandfather both took a liking to her, to be
honest there really was no way you could not like this dog. She was
indeed my shadow. Over the next few years my mom actually acquired a
few more Am Staff types who were in need of homes. She followed this
with the purchase of a Colby
American Pit Bull. Once she was entirely addicted to the breed
she chose to breed her first Pit Bull litter. After that litter she
then made the "change" to the AKC breed (American Staffordshire
Terrier). My first show quality American staffordshire Terrier (
foundation bitch ) is one of the offspring from my Mother's (Fairlawn
Farms Inc.) first Am Staff litters, so really we are two people
working together with the same breeding lines. (Thanks Mom for
letting me take that lovely little blue girl (Ch
Fairlawn's Balistic / Peggy) home with me that November day back
in 1994). Some of the other dogs that had living with me from time to
time during college were loaners from my Mother. When I was off
campus and someplace that allowed dogs I took Shadow ( My Mother and
grandfather had her when I could not ) and sometimes somebody of my
mothers. Buddy ( an all
white Am Staff cross ) and Tootsie
( a pure bred English Bull Terrier) were my favorites of my mothers
gang of that era and were the ones that came to live with me for
short stints.
I have only raised one litter of puppies myself, yet I have
experienced several litters first hand at my mothers kennel. She was
actually a Co-Breeder on my litter as we Co-owned Peggy at that time.
From this litter of four puppies three are AKC Champions ( the fourth
was only a major away from being finished before he was killed in a
tragic accident ). The two females of the litter have both been in
the top 20 for the breed over the years. One finishing in the top 20
for the entire year in 2001 . I was the one who handled Peggy to
become Fairlawn's first AKC champion! There have been many since this
historic day. I have a second litter planned for the summer of 2003.
I acquired on a CO-Ownership a bitch (Lula). She arrived here at 4
months old. With me she has earned her AKC Championship and her CGC.
She is also certified to do therapy work for Pets
and People . Lula (CH
Amsteria's Southern Bell CGC) was bred by Sara Welch & Kathy
Johnson-Feroglia and is now owned by Sara Welch (Amsteria)
and myself. As you can see we all have dogs from the Wood Forrest
Kennel and work directly with Marcia Wood on our breeding
programs.
I pride myself on breeding and owning only spectacular breed
representatives. Although all of great importance, I think I would
have to rank temperament as my top concern. This being followed
equally by health and breed type. If a dog is not a good member of
the community at large in which it lives, to me health and breed type
make very little difference............... I breed to the AKC
standard . As you probably know our standard leaves a lot of room
for personal interpretation. The section for general appearance
The American Staffordshire Terrier should give the impression
of great strength for his size, a well put-together dog,
muscular, but agile and graceful, keenly alive to his
surroundings.
He should be stocky, not long-legged or racy in outline. His
courage is proverbial.
is where I derive a great deal of my mental photograph. Some may
say my dogs are to stalky or bully. I do not think my dogs are over
done in this area, yet they do differ from the more terrier types. As
you look into this breed you will begin to see lots of types and
unless over done they are all correct to the standard as it is
written. As time progresses you can expect to see a litter once every
couple of years. The main reason for this is that I only breed when a
cross is going to produce something that I want to keep as an
addition to my breeding program ( remember a breeding program should
be bringing you closer to that Perfect breed representative ). It
then follows that my breeding quickly become limited by the time and
space I have available for my dogs. Any dog that is going to live
with me is going to be first and foremost a house companion. My
puppies are raised in my home and are thoroughly socialized by 8
weeks of age. I also limit my breeding to match the # of qualified
homes I have.
