Essentials of Puppy Rearing 

These are our general puppy instructions. This is the basic stuff and is not intended to be all-inclusive. If you have a question that is not covered here, please feel free to e-mail or call us.

Feeding: 

We feed a biologically appropriate dog food from fresh regional Canadian ingredients called Orijen, produced by Champion Petfoods Canada. We choose this label because of their supreme quality. Their Biologically Appropriate philosophy represents a new class of foods designed to nourish dogs in keeping with their evolutionary adaptation to fresh meat and protein-rich diets. Their ingredients are different too. They don’t buy the bulk commodity ingredients in conventional pet foods, and instead focus on ingredients that are sustainably raised within their region by people they know and trust and then delivered to their kitchens fresh each day and bursting with goodness. Contact us for advice before buying anything other than Orijen if you cannot locate it. Remember that if you switch your puppy’s food, you should do it gradually, blending the old food with the new. This will help enable your puppy to continue to utilize the nutrients he is ingesting. Read the labels: do not buy food that contains fillers, chemical preservatives, or cereal grains. Expect to switch to Adult formula at approx. 6 months of age.

The time the puppies leave our home we feed them three meals a day. Usually around six months of age you can increase to two meals, which is the final stage. The amount of food will need to be adjusted at least once a week. A good thing to do this is by looking fairly to the condition of your pup. He should be nice round fed. Not to thick as if he is going to burst. Not to skinny. A perfect fed adult dog looks like this: You cannot see any rib but you can feel them easily if you touch the ribcage with your flat hand. 

Inoculation: 

Try not to give more than one inoculation during any visit to the veterinarian. We know that your vet will tell you that your puppy must be inoculated for rabies, but please hold out until the puppy is a little bit older. Unless you live in an area where he may come into contact with rabid animals, he can wait. You need to have your vet check your puppy thoroughly during the first week you have him. The reason for this strange request is simple: a puppy’s immune system is immature. Inoculations stress a puppy’s immune system to the max. Therefor never give more than one shot at a time. We have seen terrible reactions to inoculations, ranging from hallucinations to light sensitivity to aggression. It’s not worth the risk, just to save yourself an extra visit to the vet.

Socialization: 

Your puppy has been socialized with people (young and old), dogs and other puppies. However, he needs to be exposed repeatedly to situations he won’t necessarily encounter in your home: children, stairs, other dogs (of all breeds and sizes), autos, bicycles, mailmen. To neglect this aspect of your puppy’s development is to condemn him to a life as a fearful, social misfit. If you can’t get to a puppy class or puppy play group, try a walk at a playground or shopping area. Most pet shops will let you bring your puppy inside. Do something at least two to three times a week to put forth a good effort. The time invested now will pay off in the future in a well-adjusted dog who is welcome everywhere. 

Toys and Play: 

Your puppy may have hard rubber toys. Do not buy anything with a squeaker or anything that can be ripped apart. You will be amazed at how resourceful AmStaff’s can be. Anything that can be eaten, will be eaten! Do not play tug of war with your puppy. You will misalign his bite. An AmStaff’s jaws grow throughout his lifetime, and your puppy’s bite can become “level” or “undershot” at some point in his life. This is a natural process and doesn’t need your help! Also, your puppy doesn’t need hard exercise: his bones are soft and his joints are too immature. Too much activity will cause lameness. Please do not let your puppy run down steps. 

Housebreaking: 

Your puppy is intelligent and wants to be clean. However, he is a baby and will get excited easily. Teach him which door to go to by using the same exit consistently every time you take him out. Take him outside every one to two hours while he is awake. Crate training is a must for an AmStaff. Most of all, be patient. He’s only a baby. Using a special treat (cheese, hotdog, etc) that you don’t use for anything else is very helpful. After a month, he should be able to go four hours in his crate without “going”.

Schedule: 

Put your puppy on a schedule and stick to it! Dogs are creatures of habit, just like people, and do best when they know what to expect. Give your puppy lots of quiet time in his crate with a Nylabone, in between periods of activity. Always take him out after a meal and then let him take a nap. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon are good times for crate rest.

Grooming:

American Staffordshire Terriers do not need frequent baths to be clean. If your puppy should get dirty, a good rub with a warm, wet towel should be sufficient to have him looking clean again. A couple of things that you should do routinely are: ear cleaning and nail cutting. To clean ears, wet a cotton ball with a little baby oil (squeezing out any excess) and swab out the portion of the ear that you can reach. This should be all that is required. If you notice an unclean odor coming from your puppy’s ears, please do not stick q-tips down his ear canals! That is a job for your vet. Nail cutting is an area that must be attended to on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. AmStaff’s are supposed to have “cat feet”, meaning strong arched toes. Their toes should not splay apart when they are standing. To help keep their feet in good condition, you should trim their nails on a regular basis. Nails should be kept short and rounded. Check the pads of your pup’s feet. They should be kept smooth. If you notice callous growing unevenly on his pads, you can trim that back with a nail clipper. If the pads of his feet are dry and cracked, you can put a little moisturizer on them. Anything containing beeswax should be fine. To trim your puppy’s nails, sit on the floor with the puppy lying on his side between your legs. You may need to put one of your legs over the puppy to keep him in place. Starting with his back feet, trim across the nail, then trim each side, then trim the front – at least four cuts per nail. This will create a rounded effect, so that your puppy won’t scratch you. Always keep your Quick Stop handy for any bloody accidents. Most of all, stay calm. If you get all excited, your puppy will get whipped up, too. If you cut to much nail and draw blood, just calmly press a paper towel on the place to blot and push a pinch of Quick Stop into the area. Remember: there are no nerve endings in toenails – you are not hurting your puppy.

With great pride and years of hard work we accomplished to create our own bloodline. Parastone’S AmStaff’s are world wide well known and respected for their great and correct temperaments, supreme health and superb beauty. We breed on a very small scale and believe in quality instead of quantity. All our dogs are home-raised and unconditioned loved.

We breed very selectively for the next generations show AmStaff’s. All though this is our goal not all dogs are destined for the show ring. Therefor we have both show- and pet puppies for sale. Keeping in mind that we breed for supreme health, temperament and conformation, all puppies, regardless of show and pet designation, are raised with the same love and care. We expose our puppies to the same conditions that they would experience in your home. They are familiar to all day living sounds like vacuum cleaners, radios, televisions and rides in the car. To us it’s very important to find for each and every puppy bred by us a permanent and loving home.

Our puppy’s will be sold with an official Raad van Beheer (FCI licensed) pedigree and animal passport.

Your puppy will be multiple temperament tested, vaccinated, dewormed, chipped, vet checked and comes with proper health and DNA records. You will be provided with an advice/care leaflet and how to take care of your puppy in the best way. After a puppy is placed in his new home, we’re here 24/7 to help you and welcome questions with friendly support.

At date of sale the pups are 8 weeks old before they go to their new homes. We do not believe that it is possible to predict the outcome of a puppy future in the show ring at the age of 8 weeks. Therefore at the age of 8 weeks we do not sell show puppies but puppies with show potential and family pets.

A puppy has to be fed and exercised in a correct way to become a good example of the breed not just in the first 8 weeks they live here with us but for the rest of his life. So no matter how good the breeding, the outcome rests with the owner of the puppy.

We’re strict that you never would return your dog into rescue or to a shelter if your circumstances warranted your dog’s surrender. We expect that any dog can be returned to us at any time in its life, regardless of the reason. 

Thank you for your interest in our dogs and kennel/bloodline. Hopefully, we will have an appropriate puppy for you! If not, we will try to help you with referrals.

We appreciate the initial contact via e-mail or telephone call, we will accordingly respond to you inquiry.

Please introduce yourself in a courteous manner. When you contact us please tell us about yourself, your home life, your working arrangements, if there are other pets, any children you may have now or plans for in the future.

Please take time and in your e-mail or phone call include answers to following questions:

-        What would be the main purpose for this dog?

-        Daytime care, and your working arrangements.

-        Have you ever own an American Staffordshire Terrier?

-        Have you researched the American Staffordshire Terrier breed?

-        Dogs have you owned in the past ten years? If you have a dog at the present please state the breed.

-        Do you have children?

Serious enquiries only please, thank you.

Paul Marks

Health and Genetic Testing in our American Staffordshire Terriers

Before we start, Parastone’S American Staffordshire Terriers wishes to thank our vet, Drs. Dré Koolen of Animal Hospital Ell for all his help and support through the years. Dr. Koolen is an innovative diagnostician and a skilled surgeon. His expertise and common sense has brought us through some tough situations with seeming ease. Dré is a wonderful, compassionate vet and all the AmStaff’s love him. We do, too. Many thanks to Dré and his terrific staff.

Many people who call us looking for a puppy are concerned with how long the dogs live. We tell them that there is no way to know ahead of time, but that by doing a comprehensive battery of tests for genetically linked health problems we can hedge our bets and hopefully help our dogs live longer and happier lives.

Here at Parastone’S we test for a number of items:

Heart Defects:

We test our whole breeding stock for heart defects by echocardiogram. This is costly and time consuming, as echoes are not readily available from most veterinary facilities. We have been fortunate to find a Board Certified Cardiologist who we can work with. The “accepted standard” of testing is that listening (auscultation) to the heart is enough. We go one step further and do echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart. This way, we can be absolutely certain that there are no defects of the heart chambers, valves, vessels, etc.

Kidney Function Defects:

Our dogs have a urine protein/creatinine ratio done every year. This shows whether or not their kidneys are functioning properly.

Patella Luxation:

Our regular veterinarian checks all the dog’s patella’s once a year when they have their check-ups. However, we have started using a Board Certified Orthopedic Veterinarian to palpate our patella’s. There seem to be a wide range of techniques employed by the various vets we have seen check patella’s, so since we would rather be safe than sorry, we are using an orthopedic vet. This affords a consistent testing program and a uniformity of data.

Hip- & Elbow Dysplasia

The hips and elbows of our dogs are x-rayed and formally assessed and certified by the commission Welfare of the Dutch Kennel Club (Raad van Beheer). This is an essential part of our approach for a sustainable breeding program.

Cerebellar Ataxia:

Cerebellar Ataxia is a neurological disorder. This disease is also called Cerebellar Cortical Degeneration or Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (NCL). The first signs of the disease usually appear between 3 and 5 years of age in affected dogs. More rarely, early or late-onset symptoms can appear between 1.5-3 years or after 5 years. Symptoms are loss of balance, difficulty cornering, and falling when shaking their head. When they become unable to walk without falling repeatedly, owners usually make the difficult choice to euthanize. The clinical diagnosis is realized by excluding others diseases and confirmed by a MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). We do a DNA test that is reliable, easy to do from a cheek swab (Cytobrush®) that can be done at any age as soon as the animal is identified (by chip). Once validated by the test, the genetic status of the dog will not change throughout his/her life. Here at Parastone’S we only breed with dogs, which are tested and proven Ataxia clear (normal homozygous). This guarantees that the disease will not develop and there will be no transmission of the genetic anomaly.

The Temperament and Tests of our American Staffordshire Terriers

Before mating a bitch we off course temperament test both the dame and the sire. Not only because Dutch breeders have to (because of government rules), but mainly because we want to know the temperament of this particular individual. This temperament test is according the rules of the Dutch Kennel Club (Raad van Beheer) and the National Breed Club (A.S.T.C.H.). The test is called M.A.G.-test and the results will be registered and certificated.

At three, five and seven weeks of age, we temperament test also our babies, using a mix of numerous methods. This involves putting the puppies through a series of exercises to determine their reaction to various stimuli. The exercises are done in a certain order and are performed in a strange place by a person never before encountered by the puppies. A second person records and grades the puppies’ reactions to the stimuli. By the time our puppies reach seven weeks old, we are very familiar with their temperaments, but we are always interested to see how they do with the temperament testing. You can always catch a tendency that you might not have picked up before because of the puppy’s mental development. We use these results when matching our puppies to their prospective homes.

After all you have read on this site already, we’re sure you’re more than aware of how important we believe temperament is. We just thought we’d say – one more time – that a dog who cannot live loose in the house and socialize with the family is of no use to anyone.

Our goal is to breed a sweet, happy temperament – one without aggressive tendencies – so that our dogs can be loose with children, cats, other dogs and the odd ferret that might come along. A stable temperament is one that will stand a dog in good stead through any situation, be it a child screaming and running by or a broken leg with the accompanying pain.

Stable temperaments come from breeding for them. They do not come from environment, although certainly we recognize that the way in which an animal is raised plays a large part in the way they are conditioned to react to certain stimuli. We strive to achieve a lovely, sweet temperament in every puppy we breed. No exceptions. A dog with great conformation that wins in the show ring, but is miserable to live with is not something with which we want to be involved.

Parastone’S wants to thank several persons:

In the first place our kennel-handler Rudi Stiphout. Rudi handles already for years exclusively Parastone’S American Staffordshire Terriers. His qualities are unmistakable. During his youth Rudi became Dutch Champion Junior-Handler en represented both the Netherlands and Monaco at the Crufts. Impressing results, but we respect Rudi even more because of his personality and the way he works with our dogs. Rudi brings the best in our Parastone’S AmStaff’s. His love for them is enormous, in the ring and outside the ring. All our dogs feel comfortable nearby Rudi. They know exactly what he wants. This is called a real handler with all meaning. During the years Rudi also became a real friend. He supported us during good and bad times. All of this makes Rudi the best handler a kennel can wish for. Thanks Rudi for your expertise and friendship.

In the second place we want to thank Martijn van Lankveld for his realization of this web-site. Martijn spend quit some hours and had to face a lot of comments (grin) to make this site to this spectacular presentation of the Parastone’S Kennel. Thanks Martijn, we hope you enjoyed making it despite the lots of work. We think your result is super.

In the third place we want to thank all the judges, both conformation as temperament, who during the years appreciated the qualities of our Parastone’S AmStaff’s. Among others they made it possible that our passion evolved to the national and international profile we are today.

Last but not least we want to thank all the people who gave us their trust during the years to extend their family situation with a suitable AmStaff. For us it’s a pleasure to see both human and animal having fun and living together. Thanks for all the love and care which you all overload our Parastone’S AmStaff’s. You’re all true ambassadors of our breed.