Meet the PASLR pooches – Bella, Shelby and Willow

As a family owned and operated business, when you work at PASLR we embrace the whole family and that includes our team’s furry friends.

Bella, Shelby and Willow belong to Sam Barker, our Customer Services Administrator. These Purebred Blue American Staffies live with Sam and her family on a lifestyle block in Kaukapakapa and share their home with a menagerie of goldfish, cats, chickens and ducks.

“We have owned American Staffies for about twelve years,” explains Sam. “They have a reputation much like the pit bull of being aggressive dogs, but I can assure you they are softer than a Golden Retriever and are very well known as a ‘nanny dog’ – amazing with children and very loyal – you just can’t help but fall in love.”

Bella (4 ½) joined Sam’s family after one of their dogs passed away from cancer. They loved her temperament so much they decided to breed from her, and in October 2023 Bellas’s daughters Willow and Shelby joined the family.

Being a dog behaviourist, Sam says the American Staffie is one of the easiest breeds to work with – so intelligent, and all three of her girls have a list of tricks they are all very good at.

“Bella is the sweetest and just loves everybody. She wiggles her way into everyone’s heart with her tap dance she performs for every new visitor. The wiggle is so intense she slaps herself in the face with her own tail while looking straight at you, while very daintily lifting her front feet like a dressage pony.”

“Willow is your goof ball, always making us laugh with her playful personality she always has a trick or a flip to show you. Shelby is the shy girl, very sweet but timid, she will stand back and observe when first meeting new people. But once she knows you, she will be your (giant) lap dog for the entire visit and also ‘smiles’, rolling her top lip up to show her teeth when she is happy.”

But like any good dog story, there has been mischief. “In 2022 my brother-in-law was getting married in England, and my mother-in-law had ordered two beautiful dresses to wear to the wedding. The dresses arrived four days before my mother-in-law was due to fly to England. Bella found the package, tore the box up into confetti, then proceeded to dig a hole in the freshly mowed lawn to hide the evidence. Well, these dresses looked like they had been dragged behind a truck through the farmers market. Thankfully, the dry cleaners where able to get the mud and grass stains out and all was well,” she says.

Sam says Shelby and Willow are much better behaved but are certainly characters.