My name is David Tippett. I am a small Kennel based in Lidcombe, New South Wales. My breeders Prefix is Immortalz. I draw on 10 years' prior experience breeding exhibition budgerigars. I now have five years experience in American Staffordshire Terriers. The challenge of dog breeding pales into insignificance when compared to the exhibition bird where many traits, mostly recessive, have to be combined to create the ideal bird using knowledge of feather structure. Infertitity, egg binding, feather diseases, viruses and other disease organisms can run rampant and, your best bird could be found dead on the aviary floor one day for no apparent reason. Hens feather pluck their young, ruining the best show prospects. A tail dropped on the morning of a show disqualifies the bird from competition. Through this process I have become quite genetically conversant. I have gleaned knowledge from many doyen of livestock breeding including John Scoble, undoubtedly Australias most knowledgeable budgerigar breeder, I have read the Frank Silva story. Frank is a sensation in budgerigars in the U.K. and has extensive knowledge in breeding other livestock. Also Dr Willard Hollander who has over 60 years experience pioneering pigeon genetics. One thing that is common to their thinking is that you must linebreed your stock to maintain your quality. In attempting to unravel the mystery of dog breeding, I discovered that most breeders do not really understand genetics. They base their breeding programs on the dog and the bitch they happen to have in the yard, the popular sire syndrome or use the little knowledge they have gleaned from fellow breeders to formulate their breeding programs. Dog breeding, like any other livestock breeding requires first the knowledge, then the desire and thirdly the wherewithal. and I can assure you that I have both the genetic knowledge, the desire to be successful and the genetic material to produce dogs which will be excellent examples of the breed.

My First American Staffordshire Terrier is Proamstafs Starlette "Starlette". I acquired her in December 2000. Starlette is the daughter of BISS Grand Champion Attomoy Cruise Control "Cruise"who is Australia's most highly decorated male Amstaff. Where better to start than with Australia's number one dog? She is warm and loving and has been that way since I first brought her home as a baby puppy. She sleeps on (and sometimes in) my bed. She is as loyal as any dog can be and has typical Amstaff temperament. Her litter sister BISS Ch Proamstafs Blazin Bomfire to whom she is similar, is also a specialty winner. My second Amstaff is Attomoy Another Goddess "Rhea" She is Starlette's half sister and also by BISS Grand Champion Attomoy Cruise Control out of Grand Ch Yanegua Royal Goddess, arguably Australia's finest bitch. She will be commencing her show career as a baby puppy in December 2002 and I expect big things from her. Starlette has taken her little sister under her wing from the moment she arrived. They play and wrestle (gently) and one only has to look to see they love each other to bits, yet Starlette, with true Amstaff temperament will quickly warn any other dog approaching her sister that they had better watch out with a stern growl.

The most common question I am asked is "How do they compare to Pit Bulls or, aren't they just Pit Bulls? They most certainly are not Pit Bulls! Whilst they have a common ancestry also shared by the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terriers have been bred for type and temperament for over 60 years. 1936 saw the American Kennel Club accept the breed standard for the first time. Our current Australian Standard describes the temperament as being keenly alive to his surroundings and his courage is "proverbial"