About us
ME
I was born in Havelock North, New Zealand at AnimalCare, delivered by a pretty Vet from England. She still remembers delivering me by Ceasarean and says I caused my mother a lot of pain as a breech-birth.
I stayed with my biological parents until I was 7 weeks old, then I was adopted by my dad, Craig, in the neighbouring city of Napier. My dad named me Rumble after my biological dad as he loved his name, type & temperament. When I am round my dad I am called RJ or Rumble Jr. Now I am following in his footsteps and have become a New Zealand Champion.
I had planned to go to England with dad but the flight is too long.
The only way around is by a french shipping company but it takes 42 days and dad has to make sure I don't leave the ship so he is changing his life plans for me & returned to NZ.
My Food
Dad is very fussy about what I eat. I am fed a high protein diet which has changed a lot since I was a pup. I am still fed twice a day as once a day feeding causes the body to store engergy as fat, just like with humans.
See various sugested feeding clycles under the "Caring For Your Staff" tab..
Or buy Orijen on line at www.orijen.co.nz
My Excercise & Training
I go for at least three walks a day.
My morning walk is only about 30 minutes.
My afternoon walk is usually 1 hour and can include towing my dad on a bicycle or board to build my muscles up so I look like a thouroughbred racehorse.
Also on Park Island where my dad throws my ball up and down hills although this must be done only after 14 months as our bones are quite soft even up to about 2 years.
At night I go for a quick run and a pee.. ha ha..too much info. In winter my buddy glow ball gets charged up before I go out as there are no seagulls around to chase and get my excercise up.
I take my friends with me walking whenever I can!
Trainging time is serious stuff, but not too serious. I get board if something is not fun for too long and I do not respond at all to anger and frustration, I just get upset and feel stink. For most commands I learn both voice commands and hand signals such as Stand, Heal, Front, Up, Off, Over, Under, Find-it, Stay, Go-get-it(fetch), bring here(if I found something), leave (don't meet another dog or chase rabbit), Stop(roadside) , and my favourite On-Ye-Go (my time, freedom)
At your command
My Dad's staffy chronicles
I am the latest and greatest of dad's Staffs, says me. He fell in love with my breed in Benoni near Johannesburg, South Africa in April 1990. South African staffs tend to be very bulky compared with UK and many NZ staffs.
His first staffs were Tancreds Barbarossa "Skipper" a typically large, very muscular Black & white scarfed dog with four perfect white socks & white neck scarf AND Lubell Contessa "Tessa", a classically english short and stocky black brindle bitch. Both, especially Tessa, had lots of english blood in their lines although dad had more of a soft spot for skipper because of his soft nature which was commented on by all. He was so taken with the compassion and emotional presence of these dogs that he declared staffordshire bull terriers the ONLY recognised breed of dog by himself.
The fist pups were adorable, the male "Wowser" totally white with a black nose and black rimmed eyes. Luckily most of his skin was black as our garden got a major dose of the HighVelt sun each day. The female "Brandy" was totally black, not a smidgeon of white. Both were sold to teacher's at Craig's school who had been very lenient on him for being late because of Skipper scaling a 6 foot wall and following his scent to school on one occassion. One time Skipper showed up at Craig class room 3Km from home. He had to take him all the way back and had no choice but to chain him up that day. Skipper learned quick and soon grew out of this although he did jump over one other time to tackle some burglars in the front garden trying to pry open the burglar bars. He was stabbed at the shoulders and neck but happily panting at the front door having defended his families home. Craig carried him 4 km (ripped, musclebound 20KG staff) to the vet where they stitched him up. This same dog would play with local kids and even babies who would tug at his ears and stuff and never snap, a happystaff just like me.
Next, Craig was bought a Brown Brindle staffy "Max" by his father (My Grampa). He was a very smart staff but not KC registered. He learned so much in agility that he advanced to learning Guard and Offensive Police Training through a friend Vincent, a local Jo-burg cop who came and trained his dog at the same 2 city parks. He was the person that suggested teaching Max in Polish so other people could not tell him what to do (especially attack). Attack training is very hard to tech a Staff, and living in Johannesburg it was not long before this training was put to the test where he twarted a mugging in our local park.
My dad was very heartbroken having to leave Max in S.A. but did not want to put him through travel & lengthy, multi-quarantine. Max was adopted to my dad's best friend Ian McMillan when he was 2.5 years old who raised him until he was killed defending his property from burglars in 2001.
Luckily these cowards faced justice (which is a whole other story).
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Dad says I am lucky to live in a country that is safe
and he has no plans to teach me offensive training,
I think I'm too soft anyway :-)