Making the Standard was one of the first duties that fell to the SBTC.
It was gone into thoroughly by a body of experts, men with years of experience and ownership in the breed. Two good current dogs were set up as excellent examples of the breed. They were Harry Pegg's Joe (Fearless Joe) and Mrs. J. Shaw's Jim (Jim the Dandy), the former a fawn, the latter a brindle. Their anatomy and structural points were examined, and a lot of old sketches, prints and photographs discussed.

It will be understood that in any breed, provided a number of examples are available, some features will be more or less uniform or common to the majority. Assuming that these characteristics are sound ones they can then be accepted as being typical of the breed. Some difficulties were at first experienced in the discussions, for a wide range of types and sizes existed in Staffords in those days. It was natural that those who owned the big bulldoggy types claimed theirs were the right type, while those with the long-muzzled lightweights supported theirs. It needed a lot of tact and discretion on the part of club officials to convince these enthusiasts who was right and who was wrong, while still retaining their interest, to say nothing of their memberships. Clearly, the Stafford as a fighting dog had natural physical attributes expected of a combatant canine. Where these were found common to a number of dogs they were accepted as desiderata in the breed, and eventually a Standard was formulated and passed to the Kennel Club for approval. For some time argument was rife in Staffordshire towns like Walsall, Darlaston, and Cradley Heath, each of which had different ideas as to what constituted a good Stafford. However, as their opinion in the main of a good Stafford was one that fought and won, they were hardly qualified to pass worthwhile comment of any kind on what constituted a good type for exhibition.