SOMETIMES painted as this decade's answer to the pit bull, Staffordshire bull terriers are often in the news for all the wrong reasons.
But one woman in Essex is trying to change that.
Charley Nathan, 53, who runs AA Dog Rescue in Latchingdon with business partner Karen James, has teamed up with Battersea Dogs Home to re-brand the breed.
The campaign, Staffies: softer than you think, aims to raise awareness about the breed and change public perceptions of the animal, which used to be known as "nanny dogs" because of their propensity to care for children.
"One in six dogs in the country is a Staffie," said Ms Nathan, who has 11 dogs of her own, including several Staffies.
"They have been over-bred and as a result around 400 a week nationwide are being put down. We want to change people's perception of them."
But it seems Chronicle readers don't need convincing. We asked our readers what they thought of the breed, almost 2,000 took part in our survey overwhelmingly giving Staffies a big thumbs up! "They are absolute cuddle monsters, they just want to sit on your lap and lick you to death," Ms Nathan said.
"Of all the dog breeds, Staffies are the only one recommended for children by the RSPCA, The Kennel Club, Battersea Dogs Home and the Dogs' Trust."
But such is the bad reputation of the breed, that Ms Nathan said people often come to the centre stating they want a rescue dog, just not a Staffie.
"The people who come in saying they won't have one often walk out two or three hours later with a Staffie, saying that they didn't realise what they were actually like," she added.
"But we also have Staffie owners who say that people cross the street when they see them coming with their dog, Staffies have that look, and people are scared of them, they believe they are killer dangerous dogs, but we need to change that perception."
Although the majority of our readers came down on the side of the Staffie, 68 per cent said they thought the breed's bad reputation was down to some irresponsible owners training them to be aggressive, while 16 per cent thought this was due to hearing about dog attacks in the news.
Another 14 per cent said it was down to people misunderstanding their nature, and two per cent said it was their size and look.
"If another dog bites someone, it's just reported as a dog bite, but if it's a Staffie, it makes headlines," said Ms Nathan.
"Of course there are a few that bite, but with something like that there is usually a reason. It's not the dog, it's the owner."
As well as re-branding the Staffie, Ms Nathan, a former police officer, will also be working with local youth offending teams, encouraging young people who have fallen into bad situations to work with the dogs in order to teach them about responsibility.
"Everything I'm doing now is coming to fruition," Ms Nathan explained. "If I died now, I'd die happy."
For more information on the campaign and adopting a dog, visit: www.aadogrescue.org.uk
