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Hartl's Old Style Stafford's (Italy) A fantastic litter of pups have been born 24/02/2020 between Leonhard's Nikki & Peter Schotte Sonny. Four stunning females in total, all progressing very well. Leonhard has kept me regularly updated throughout with pictures and video's and informs me that Nikki has been a 1st class mother raising the pups to perfection, they are now nearly 7weeks old and at the final stages of the weaning process. I would like to congratulate Leonhard on his superb litter as i know he went to great lengths(travelling to Belgium) to make this breeding happen and has now been rewarded greatly for all his efforts. he now has the difficult task of choosing his keeper!! I personally have a strong interest in these pups being bred from a 7th generation Risky's female to a stud dog (Sonny) that is the litter brother to Phil Greens Sid, a dog we previously used at stud with Riskys Tazmin with exceptional results. I will surely be looking forwards to seeing these Sonny x Nikki pups progress to maturity over the coming months and years ahead. Please see a selection of pictures below. Regards Gary B.  Hartl's Socks  Hartl's Red Roisin  Hartl's Black Panther  Hartl's Boss Girl 
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Very pleased to announce the Staffordshire bull terrier pedigree database nl is now back up and running again, after having some issues with the previous web hosting server. The new hosted version is a free, user friendly site which requires registration to upload all pedigree information. Please click on the following link. www.sbtpedigrees.nl I got my first stafford in 2016, after a long and intense interest in the breed and its history. After seeing some pictures of different types of stafford and comparing lots of features of dogs of the past and modern show dogs I decided my dog had to be from a breeder who was aiming for a dog with the old time qualities. So after some research I got in touch with Gary and we had an agreement I would get my pup from a planned litter. I wanted to have the possibility to watch the pup grow and follow his maturing the best way possible so I wanted a pup in late autumn /beginning of winter so I could take it with me in the fields. Unfortunately the litter didn't work out and I was looking for another pup. I found an Italian breeder, by the name of Wild Staffy who currently had a nice black and tan male pup available and decided to take him. He was very small as I took him home but had good spirit and was a really playfull confident little pup, sometimes a real pain in the ass... I remember as he was 2,5 months old he found a dead mouse and swallowed it as a whole, it was nearly half of his size. He was spending the whole day with me in the field as I work in agriculture producing apples on our own farm. He always loved to come out with me. To my surprise he grew a normal size, he also was becoming a well proportioned little dog. As a young dog he developed a great instinct for hunting, at 8 months, as I was on a walk with him and our little guard dog, he grabbed a roedeer by the throat who was stuck in a fence, i managed to get him of the poor animal and Tied him to a nearby tree. Unfortunately, as I was freeing the beast from the fence, the knot I made in a hurry gave up and as soon as the deer was free Sammy catched it a few meters later and pinned it to the ground by the nose, again I was somehow able to get him of it and finally the poor animal fled. This wasn't his last encounter with wild game as he always was out with me but from there on all he was able to was chasing the deer or hares for a few meters as they were just to fast for a Stafford, that was until I was on a walk with him in a fenced vineyard where he saw a grown roedeer and decided to give it a try. I was expecting the normal procedure and expected him to be back in a few minutes with nothing happened, it came differently, suddenly I heard scary screaming, instantly i knew I had to go there, i was on my toes and after about 30 seconds I was there and saw Sammy pinning the roedeer to the fence, i managed to choke it off it but the deer was already heavily injured and had to be unfortunately PTS. If you saw the dog you could not imagine him catching anything as he is really lazy and easy going inside the house, but these dogs can switch gears instantly as I had to witness. He is a really good dog and I'm really pleased how he turned out to be. He's really good with people and is a real all purpose dog. He also gets along really well with Nikki, a lovely female i later on got from Riskys kennel. I'm really happy to say that I now have a great friendship with Gary as we share common ideas on the future of the breed and on the qualities of the breed. Regards LeonHard Klotz. Hartl's Old Style Staffords (Italy)  Sammy @ 11 weeks  Sammy @ 9 Months Protecting the Vine Yards..  Sammy @ 3years Looking focused Displaying Rock hard conditioning. Credits to Leonhard.  Sammy with the faithful watchdog Idefix . An exciting start to the New Year 2020 A breeding has recently taken place between Leonhard's Riskys Miss Timberfake (Nikki) & Peter Schotte's Jimmy's Boss Boy (Sonny). A combination of two very good strains. Pups are expected at the end of February. For all serious inquiries, please contact Leonhard on the Facebook link below Hartl's Old Style Staffords.  Riskys Miss Timberfake (Nikki)  Jimmy's Boss Boy (Sonny)  The Mating Jimmy's Boss Boy x Riskys Miss Timberfake. “Jock, Jock!” called my dad early one weekday morning (that’s not my name but he had nicknames for everyone). Charlie’s got a dog! I jumped out of bed and raced downstairs to find my dad trying to choke Charlie off a brown mongrel dog that made the mistake of straying into our garden whilst Sally (our other Stafford) was in season! In nothing but my pants, I dove into action in the dirt, under the hedge and got Charlie off the now screaming dog. Charlie was brought by my parents, for my good school results when I was 12. He was by Yankeestaff Bolivar, so carried a lot of the Rapparee, Hydiamond King breeding. On Sunday afternoon’s my friend Glen and I would take our dogs out and often we passed Patrick’s house and they had a Sheltie that would go nuts at the gate at us as we walked past. Sally and Charlie, our two staffords would ignore the dog and would often give a casual glance at him making all the noise. One day the gate was open and Glen and I blissfully unaware of this, were talking as we walked past. The Sheltie came from nowhere and before I knew it Charlie had it by the ear! I can still hear the screaming sound that poor dog made. I had been shown how to choke a Stafford off so this was my first go….problem was I wasn’t strong enough to hold my grip whilst my 30lbs of terror refused to let go! Glen jumped in and grabbed Charlie’s mouth and tried to prize it open, Charlie simply bit Glen’s thumb as he adjusted his grip. It was a nightmare, Patrick and his family were out, the neighbours were out and I remember looking at how somehow, Charlie still had hold of the dog and had dragged us all across the road? We eventually got Charlie off and when we got back to my house I remember when my mum asked Glen what had happened he looked at his bleeding thumb and got upset and began to cry. At the time I thought he was a bit wimpy for doing that, but as I look back now it was just the shock of it all coming home to him, not the pain of his thumb that made him cry. JT gave me Jodie and she would just not mate. I tried everything to get her bred but never was able. One day I took her out with Diesel into the fields whilst she was in season to let the dogs run naturally and let nature take its course! Well, after a good half hour or so, I could see Diesel needed help with her, so, on my knees over and over trying to calm her and get him positioned. Every time he hit the mark, she would go nuts and wriggle away. I stood up again to take a breather (and probably say a prayer) and I looked down and they were tied!!! YESSS!!! BINGO!!! I couldn’t believe it, I had tried so many times over numerous seasons to make a mating with her and here, I had cracked it! I knelt down and to my horror saw that they had tied alright…with him up her bum!! My heart sank, but not as much as it was about to. I stood up and as I did from over the hedge row I was stood next to, two rifles were pointed at me! “What are you playing at?” said the voice from behind one of the shotguns. Well to be honest, I thought that was Ironic as I was just asking myself that very same question! Lol. I gathered myself and said “Trying to breed these dogs, why what’s it got to do with you?” “We are the gamekeepers here, and we’ve been watching you mess about around the hedges, have you got any birds on you?” “No” I replied, and soon I was on my way and not a shot fired! A couple of months ago I was on the bike with Barclay and as we approached an all-weather 3G pitch I could hear the guys on the pitch starting to get angry with each other. I peddled past a small coppice and over to where they were playing. The guys were calling each other and trading insults. Whilst this was going on I heard a bark from the bushes, which I just didn’t register. Anyway, two of the guys start going for each other and are pulled apart by their friends. It was all handbags really. I then hear a deep growl and as I turn to see where Barclay was my heart sank, as I now know he has hold of something in that coppice. Bear in mind, this coppice is in the middle of a secondary school playing field, with a tram close by and roads. I know there are two vixens in the vicinity because I have seen them numerous times, but I have just been distracted. Now Barclay’s sire Hank would crush a fox easily and kill it in short order, so I knew what was going on over there and I quickly equated the time I had been watching the footballers, that the fox would be dead or nearly there by now. Barclay is one of the most driven dogs I have ever owned, he just does not stop….at anything! So I walked over to the Coppice, which was about 50m away, hoping he would just come out and I would not have to witness the horror taking place in there. Well he didn’t and as I got over there, again I heard the tussle taking place. I walked around to where the noise was coming from to take stock of whatever was about to face me. It was about 10.00pm, so was very dark. I got close but because of all the brambles I could not see. I had an idea, I got my phone out and popped the torch on. What a surprise I saw, as the light hit Barclay and his foe! A big male badger!! “A badger”? I said out loud, “How the hell does a badger get here”? I have never seen one there before and I have been walking these areas for 20 yrs!!! As I looked I could see that Barclay had him by the ear and was shaking him with his usual enthusiasm! The badger was trying to get away but Barclay was throwing him onto his back and shaking him hard. They then tumbled out of view down deeper into the Coppice where I could not see. I then walked around to another side where they went. This time as I shone the torch I could see Barclay had him by the snout and was completely dominating the badger who was just trying to snap at him to get him off. They were just out of reach now, and I must admit, I did not fancy getting my hands in the way of a snapping badger, but to break this thing up, I would have to take that risk. After a couple of minutes they came close enough and I simply grabbed Barclay by his collar and lifted him up and twisted to choke him off. This he soon did and the poor badger disappeared quickly. I reckon they were at this for a good 10 minutes, maybe more. I clipped Barclay on his lead, he was going mad to get back at the now long gone badger. We rode back home, Barclay as usual, full canter, as if nothing had happened, no dog trots for him! When I got home I examined him to see that the inside of his lip had been split. I gave him a full wash, fed him and put him back in his kennel. I hasten to add, Barclay has not been off the lead in that area since, and will never do again! I’m sure the reader/owner of staffords will no doubt read the above and will fully understand how such unfortunate situations come about. But it is at times like these I have often wondered why on earth would I be involved with a breed of dog that gets one into all these crazy situations? After all, surely owning a springer or Labrador would be much easier?? Well for one I love the look of a good Stafford, especially if he is in good nick. There is just something about a strong head and neck, rippling athletic body and a whip tail that I like. My dogs are always in good shape and that leads me to the next point. I just love getting out and about with them. They are great fun to walk and out in the fields and this is also great for the mind and soul. Don’t you think? And that leads me to my final point and this is deep, so grab your snorkel and flippers, we’re going under! Another reason I like them is because they are as hard as nails and will defend me or mine with everything they have got. When they stand to attention when something catches their eye, I just know that whatever it is, best not tangle with this dog here as it will likely to get messy! It’s not like I think I am hard for having them, it’s just an appreciation of that trait. But at this time of year, it is important to remember the man who gave his all for us too…and that my friend’s is Jesus! I told you it was going deep, you were warned. I believe all creation was made by God, the resilience in the dogs reflects something of God’s character (as all things do), kind of like an arrow pointing the way saying something like “You think that dog is tough, look what Jesus went through for you”. And the story of the prodigal son, the story of God’s love for his people and even Jesus life, show’s us, if you believe it, how much more God will not give up on us and love us no matter what! Amazing!! Enjoy your staffords folks, breed them into families using only the very best ones you can find and look after them well. Happy Christmas! There’s a few tenuous links in the song to the story, I hope you enjoy it? Rivergreen. Diesel was born October 1995 and was bred by my old friend JT Ellison from his Sinbad dog bred to a female called Elsa. At that time my sister had moved into a new place and was looking for a new Stafford, and with me living in a one bedroom flat with my girlfriend, knew just the place to find her one! My friend at the time KK and I went over to pick up the pups (he was having one too). We met JT and then drove onto a little estate, knocked on the door and were greeted by a pleasant women who was very nice but you could see had lived a bit. We went in to find Elsa with her pups under the stairs. Else was a strongly built female, rather low to the ground and long in the body. This is a common body type in this family, I saw this body style in others too. She jumped out the bed and made a fuss of everyone. I remember asking JT which one he would pick and he said “Any, they are all bred the same”. KK picked his, a rather small male and I picked my sisters male, we paid the lady our money and we were on our way. JT never sold dogs, but was happy for others to sell his dogs. This happened again when I bought Hank from his nephew. I went home to the flat first and my girlfriend at the time, my wife now, thought he was really cute. The next day I dropped him off at my sisters who lived about a mile away from me. He had the whole house and the run of the huge garden. He grew up into a lovely young dog who, typical of this family, would run all day, swim, hang on tree branches and would play tug of war all day long! A proper Stafford! Most days I would cycle to my sisters to take Diesel (My sister named him this) out by the bike. We would go for miles. On a hot day in about June, when Diesel was about a year old, on returning from a good 4/5 mile ride, we were cooling down and walking home, we were nearly there, only to be confronted by a huge German Shepherd! You see, along the street lived ‘Metal Mickey’ the scrap metal man. For those who are not familiar with this term, a ‘scrap man’ is a guy that owns a truck who drives around all day picking up any metal object from folk to load his truck with and weigh it in for money. The guys I know who are into this are lets say, colourful characters to say the least, and Mickey was one of these. He owned one of the old red staffords, bred from the dog Red, who I wrote about in a previous article. When his Stafford was getting on, he then brought the GSD and reared him with the Stafford… and this could plainly be seen in this encounter! As we rounded the corner, Mickey’s dog (who was not on the lead) just launched into Diesel, I saw this and dropped Diesel’s lead so he could take on this huge brute! The GSD grabbed him by the ear and proceeded to shake him like a used shammy! Knowing how Diesel was bred, I being confident , slowly laid my bike down, and slowly asked Mickey to take his dog when I told him the time was right. The problem was, the GSD was shaking him around like he was an 80lbs Stafford, not a snapping snarling GSD as you would expect. It was clear that the GSD had been raised by another Stafford. I have to admit I was disappointed in Diesel’s response. Not an ounce of fight in him. It wasn’t that he was scared or was trying to get away, moreover, a little curious and shell shocked. We got the GSD off him and as I walked away with Diesel, I must admit to feeling a little disappointed as by then I had been around staffords for 13yrs or more and none of those who I had, even the little ones, would ever take that kind of ragging from any dog without a response! Soon after this, I went to live about 40 miles away for 6 months and my sister allowed me to take Diesel with me as a companion. He was a joy to own, and I would look forward to coming home every night and getting out in the fresh air with him. He would chase rabbits unendingly, but if I remember correctly, had to put him on the lead for horses and cattle. His brother also grew into a lovely little dog, built like his mother, he was very bouncy and proved himself to be a good example of the breed. I have footage of both dogs on video, deep red with black masks. Well after my six months away, I returned Diesel home to my sisters where he matured into a fine dog with quite a serious look about him. Diesel lived the good life and I did tried to breed him a couple of times with the female Jody. One such time I ended up being held up at gunpoint by gamekeepers as they thought all my messing about, was me poaching pheasants, but that;s another story. Suffice to say there were never any pups from these brothers. When Diesel was about 3 yrs old I got a call from my sister to say that there had been an ‘accident’ with him. At first I thought he may have been run over or choked on a bone or something, y’know the usual emergency type of things that crop up when owning staffords! But to my surprise my sister began to tell me the story. Apparently, since his return, Diesel took an instant dislike to Metal Mickey’s GSD! He was constantly looking to push past legs, get out of the gate to get to him. When on walks past his house, the GSD, who had a kennel and lived mostly outdoors there, would invariably bark and Diesel would become very excited to get to him! Well, this day he managed to get out and the gate to Mickey’s yard was open! Diesel wasted no time in running down the street, into the yard and flying straight into the GSD. They could hear the GSD from their house and on realising there was no Diesel, knew what was going on. My sister reported that he shook the unfortunate animal very hard and after about 10mins dragged him into his own kennel. Try as they might, Mickey or my sister could not get Diesel as he had dragged the GSD to the rear of the large kennel and proceeded to try to finish him. In fact, the GSD did go very quiet in there and my sister reported that they both thought he had killed it? Fortunately, Mickey was able to reach Diesel, pull him out and choke him of the now very limp and almost unconscious dog. The whole thing lasted 20mins as my sister kept an eye on the time. The GSD was taken to the vets and over the coming weeks recovered from the ordeal. Diesel, hardly had a mark on him and continued to strain to get back at the GSD whenever possible! He lived until he was 10 and had to be PTS due to cancer. He was a grand old dog whom I think of fondly when I reminisce. For readers reading this rather gruesome tale of canine revenge, I’m sure there will be many of you with such tales? But for me, the biggest lesson it taught me was patience with your dog, especially if they are family bred which he definitely was! You see, the purer that you breed them, often, not always but often, they take much longer to mature. Never write off a young dog for his temperament, when he has not yet fully developed his character into maturity. It’s a wise lesson! Another lesson is to keep your dog’s secure! This story may bring a wry smile to some, but for the GSD this was no laughing matter. No-one in their right mind would wish something like that on an animal. One of these dogs has the ability to get someone into a lot of trouble should they not keep them secure on their property and so on both counts, I would urge anyone to do this. This breed has had its fair share of bad publicity, let’s not add to it. This family of staffords I am describing will, in the main, take on anything ( as I am sure many staffords would too) so you have to be very responsible in how you rear and keep them. Accompanying this article will be a couple of pictures of Diesel, along with his pedigree that was written by JT himself. I hope you have enjoyed reading this article. Rivergreen..  Diesel  The following article was written by Ian Jensen for the Stafford Review magazine in 1996. This is a remarkable story about his old dog Barney and I felt needed to be recirculated again for those who may of missed the article 1st time round. Many thanks goes out to Ian Jensen for allowing me to publish this for all my Stafford enthusiasts around the world to read. When thinking of a breed of dog for the job of following a scent the Stafford is not the obvious choice. This article by Ian Jensen goes to show that what a Stafford wants Stafford usually gets.... Thought I would drop a line to tell you of an incident involving my eight year old Staff Barney. Under Ed Reids I.K.C Barney was a weight pull champion, the most weight he ever shifted was 2,495lbs to beat all comers. He came second in a high jump competition clearing 6ft 3.. and best of all won a tug of war taking on all comers including Pit Bulls weighing 15lb's more than him. with all this behind him I felt he could not surprise me and he certainly had nothing more to prove, but on Monday the 9th September 1996 he did. A friend had rescued a Jack Russell Terrier about six months ago, a real working type who took every opportunity to go to ground and seek out rabbits and on Saturday the 7th September he did just that, whilst being walked at 8.00am he ran into some brambles and never came out, the owner obviously scared searched all she could but after 4 hours of searching decided to come back at night when it would be quieter and she would know which hole Buster had run down, despite extensive searches he could not be located. Everyone in the village took their mutts to the area but none would mark his location, come Monday morning I decided I would give Barney a try, I was not confident, he'd had a tussle with the lost dog and Barney did not have much hunting instinct but Buster had been in the hole for three days and things were getting desperate. After we had been in the area for about twenty minutes Barney began to show great interest in one rabbit hole in particular, he began to dig and bark and gradually started to disappear into the hole, when all I could see was his tail I decided to pull him out and have a listen, I could hear the faint yapping of a terrier emanating from the hole, Barney had marked his location for definite. It was getting dark so I ran to the pub for reinforcements, spades and torches were collected and digging commenced, after two hours we had dug down about six feet and along about eight feet the sound of Buster's barking was getting louder but as the warren branched out in three directions we could not tell which one to follow, momentarily halting our progress, I decided Barney should be able to indicate which tunnel to follow and lifted into the hole we had excavated, as his feet touched the ground his hackles went up obviously sensing his old enemy, he dived for one hole and began digging and growling furiously, I grabbed his tail just as we were about to lose sight of him, from Barney's reaction we knew Buster was close, we followed the tunnel Barney had marked and within five feet found Buster lying on his side exhausted, dehydrated and very weak, Barney was hailed a hero and Buster is recovering, he may lose the sight in one eye but he is eternally grateful to the dog who once almost tore off his ear during a Staff type difference of opinion. The whole village hailed Barney as the hero of the moment, the local landlord inviting him down to the pub for as much ham as he could eat, this incident has led me to believe that after my dog showing his ''search and recue'' skills the Bull Terrier is truly the greatest all round dog. Ian Jensen.  ''I,K,C'' Ch ''Iron Head Barney'' in his younger years. Displaying the classic Staffy smile.  Powerhouse weight pulling Champion. "Iron Head Barney".  Risky's Royal Albert (Jim) has just passed his 1st birthday, he is from a mating combination between Rivergreens Captain Barclay x Risky's Roxy Miss. Jim is owned by my good friend Andrew from Sunderland who keeps me regularly updated on his progress, he informs me that Jim is a well rounded dog that loves his exercise and takes everything in his stride. He is a great family dog who loves Andrews young grandson George, apparently never to far away from baby George looking for food that he drops.. Jim gets along fine with all his other family members dogs, Molly another Staffordshire Bull Terrier and Oscar the Patterdale. In my opinion Jim is a fantastic representation of the Riskys Staffords bloodline and I look forward to seeing him at full maturity.. I would like to thank Andrew and his wife Pam for giving Jim a wonderful caring home. Please see below a selection of pictures. Regards Gary B  Riskys Royal Albert ( Jim )  A lovely side profile picture of Jim  Jim Posing on Hadrian's Wall  Best pals baby George and Jim..  Jim and Molly with Oscar the Patterdale stopping for a tin of Mackerel..  Jim solid as a rock !!  Jim enjoying his exercise routine  Fast approaching the prestigious Staffordtimes dog show/ sports events in the Netherlands. Online booking forms are now open for entries to both days. Please click on links below. Keurmeesters / Judges: Staffordshire Bull Terriers: Kevin Titley (Garwstaff) American Staffordshire Terriers: Claudia van Essen Dufornee (House of Ancients) Athletic Staffords: Yorgos Kakamanoli Please complete the form to enter for the conformation show at StaffordTimes 2019. Online show entry form link Please complete the form to enter for the sportsday at StaffordTimes 2019. Online sports entry form link For more information please click on the Facebook page link below. Staffordtimes   |
AuthorWelcome to the new Riskys Staffordshire Bull Terrier Blog page.. Owners/ Founders/ Breeders Gary Bater & Chris Brand.. Archives
February 2021
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