Some bear-baiting was done inside a circular above-ground fenced area.
Bear- and bull-baiting also involved fastening the animal by one leg or the neck to a post.
This is an American Bully or American Bully Pit. It grows up to 70 pounds and 21 inches high.
This is the American Pit Bull Terrier, which grows up to 60 pounds and 21 inches high. I consider the American Bully Pit and the Amertican Pit Bull to be dangerous breeds.
This is the Staffordshire Terrier, which tops out at 35 pounds and about 17 inches high. A little over half the weight of a Pit Bull and smaller in height. It hasn't been bred to be a guard or protection dog for over 200 years. The breed standards and most guides state it does not make a good guard or protection dog.
I don't think it should be lumped in with the American Pit Bull Terrier and the American Bully Pit, but it is under pit bull laws.
In 1936, the American Kennel Club (AKC) formally recognized the pit bull breed, but only under the name Staffordshire terrier. This was done to distance the breed from its continued use in dogfighting. Thus, the dog breed that descended from bull baiting and dogfighting, the pit bull terrier, began being registered under two names.2
By 1936, the United Kennel Club (UKC) had already recognized the American pit bull terrier for nearly 40-years. Hence, the original AKC registered Staffordshire terriers all came from UKC stock including champion fighting bloodlines.3 Cross-registering pit bulls at both registries under different names continues today.4
Prior to the UKC’s formal recognition of the breed in 1898,5 and in some regions until decades after, the pit bull breed was called a variety names including: pit dog, bull terrier, bull pit terrier, pit terrier, pit bull terrier, simply “bulldog,” and according to the AKC’s American Staffordshire page, American bull terrier and Yankee terrier.
In 1972, the AKC renamed the breed to American Staffordshire terrier to distinguish it from the Staffordshire bull terrier — a dog breed also included in the pit bull class of dogs. Today, shelters often use the American Staffordshire name when adopting out pit bulls to the public to mask the breed’s less palatable name, pit bull terrier.6