Well people it that time of year again Xmas just a month away then the new year how fast was that year then wow 2011 is nearly at a end.

Ive not been able to up date the site as no one has sent in any photos of there dogs and it seem to have gone all stale on the history and info on the Irish Stafford witch is a shame.

As that is my passion finding out what i can about the dogs of old. and letting people read about it on the history page. Alot has gone on over 2011 we lost our Keetchs Tinker Bell to a brain tumor back in May very sad day for the Keetchs family people that i know loosing there loved ones loosing there jobs due to the cuts that our country have made and money has been very tight for every one through out the country lets hope that 2012 is a much better year for every one, Steve & Tracy & Dogs

You would believe how many times we get asked is there such a dog or dogs called an Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier. We personally I don’t like the term Irish Stafford. looking back on all the history its just a guide line name for there blood lines

( pedigrees that is ) Ive been doing a pedigree tree for our dogs lines and found loads of dogs from back in the day, from the UK and from Ireland. So im putting this article up that I found many years ago is there an Irish Stafford ?

Is There An Irish Stafford Breed?
There's alot of confusion, what is an Irish Stafford and does such a dog exist

To clear up statements as to believers and the non believers of Irish Stafford’s it's really plain and very simple, if your born in the UK, you’re from the united kingdom and if your born in Ireland, your simply Irish and that goes very much in to the many debates on the internet as to whether there is an Irish Stafford.... and the answer would be absolutely yes, but in saying that, if the question asked was, is the Stafford breed itself from Ireland and the answer would be no, ALL the Staffordshire bull terriers, in show, hunt and field, including the game bred lines all of them either came down from Stafford’s brought into Ireland from the UK or dogs bred down from the imports.. but there is no mistaken that the breed is 100% UK, I just feel that the Irish lads used them a little bit more to prove to themselves that what they were feeding and had on the other end of the lead was the real macoy, they could do what they were bred for and at the time the badger was the test.

There are so many different stories out there over the internet on the Irish dogs but only the folk that were there when all of this took place can verify what I am saying is the truth, I've been around and seen some of the best show, field and game Stafford's in the world, as a young boy I would be sitting in the back of my uncles car, which was an Austin A30, he also had a Mini Estate and I would be in the back seat of the car holding onto many of the great Stafford's of that time while we were taking them out to exercise, I would be in the middle of them all being bumped around.

Many great Stafford's were bred in Ireland and many great terrier men tested them on the badger....there were a very few that dabbled in the fighting end of things but a majority of the terrier men ran the dogs on the badger, well in those days, and at that point in time Ireland was plagued with the Badger and was in the Irish eyes a major concern for the disease TB... so the IKC (Irish Kennel Club) came up with the game cert, for terriers that could pull of hold a badger and was rewarded points on how good they did.... many of the terrier men saw this a great opportunity to make their dogs up, (Title Champion) so they traveled the length of the country for badger digs which were sponsored by the IKC, appointed noted IKC terrier men to judge the events, so came terrier men from all over Ireland to test their dogs, one of those men was my uncle William Delaney who produced so many great dogs, these same dogs were out badgering bright and early on the Saturday morning and trying to make it to the dog shows by the afternoon or they would look for shows held on the Sunday giving them enough time on the Saturday to go badgering, one has to remember that the badgers were many at this point in time and gave life to a network of terrier men all over Ireland looked forward in playing the game on the weekends... that was it... great dogs and great terrier men.

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Article by
Ray Delaney

Over the past 5 years of running this web site

Ive become a bit of a nut on the history side of it. How they came about from the wolf, to what dogs are today. Mainly the history on the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, the working dogs of today. For what they was really used for, right up to the family pet. Where do the dogs originate from who’s done the breeding who was bred with who, how long did they live for. So if any of you older breeders out there want to ad you dogs of the past on to the history page your most welcome. Click here for the history page.

In the top right hand corner of our web site is our Keetch’s Flint the main reason we made the web site and as a tribute to our Blue boy who died on the 3rd of May 2006 in a very bad accident in our back garden Click here for the story

R.I.P our Blue boy.

As you can see we’ve now made a newer web site, as the old one was getting to untidy and pages all over the place. So ive put this site together and put every thing in order, i think !. Ive put names instead of photos of the dogs heads. As it was taking most of my free time keeping it all up to date, don’t get me wrong i love updating our site but ive got to make space for every one who wants there dogs put on the site.

We have a new addition to the --> family for 2008, she called Keetch’s Chyna White Click here for Chyna.

We named the site Keetch as It was our Mothers maiden name who passed over a few years back. And we thought it would be appropriate to name the site Keetch’s as our mother was of Irish blood. Keetch’s Irish Stafford’s Have been going now for 5 years down here in sunny Devon.

We specialize in Blue Stafford’s mainly, but as you can see we did own a lovely Red bitch called Ruby. Ruby now lives with our neighbor Debbie & Hope two doors down from us and Ruby is well settled down, ( at last ! ) Ruby  has also been spade and that has calmed her down so much, We can honestly say that Ruby is at peace now with her self. We are still updating Ruby’s puppy’s so please do send in any photos that need up dating Many thanks.

In addition to our web site over the past few yeas we have made friend’s with people that have had a puppy off us. Just meet us at a show or thorough our web site, from all over the the UK. Me and Tracy feel very proud of what we have achieved. We are here to answer any questions you may have about our dogs or our web site. Or if you want to Build your own web site

When taking a photograph its best if you take the photo from as low as possible at the dogs level, that way you   can take a full photo shot of your dog.

Click Here to sign our guest book thank you