GR CH ROSS' RED DEVIL (8XW) X CH VISE-GRIP'S STORMBRINGER (4XW)

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VS

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INTERVIEW WITH DANNY BURTON

He looked at me while he was talking to some men who were standing around him. The conversation must have been about bulldogs as I recognized some of the guys as dogmen from the Texas, Oklahoma area. The first time I saw Danny was about 5 or 6 years ago but at the time I didn’t talk to him. This time I promised myself not to miss another chance of meeting and talking to who I consider a real top-notch dogman. When I walked up to him he just turned around and started to walk away from the small group of listeners that surrounded him. When I approached him he turned around and looked at me as if he were saying ‘What do you want?’ (For those of you that have never met Danny before and don’t know what he looks like, let me tell you that with a little suntan it would be hard to see the difference between Danny and Mike Tyson.) Danny invited me to come and talk to him at his place and so I did about four months later. Together with two friends of mine, in the middle of a hell of a snowstorm, we drove up to Duncan, Oklahoma. Danny, his wife Bernice and their two daughters Karen and Danna were all at home watching the television when we knocked on his front door. Before long we were swapping dog stories. My two companions were from England and Ireland, so here we were on a cold Sunday night discussing the qualities of good bulldogs, but mostly listening to what Danny was teaching us about his mentor, the famous Earl Tudor,

about his trip to the far east, and sharing his experience of the subject of conditioning with us. The first time I saw Danny I was impressed with his size and reputation, but when I left, I knew better. This guy wasn’t just big, but honest and knowledgeable too. On the next few pages you will find the interview I had with this man that told me before I started my tape recorder everything that I will tell you is the truth as I know it, and if I can’t tell you the truth as it really is I will tell you nothing. Turn the page and listen to Danny Burton…..

Danny, how did you get started in these dogs? When I was just a young boy I never even knew that something like a bulldog existed, not until I was about 14 years old. You have to remember that in those days you couldn’t even get a magazine on pitdogs unless a dog fancier recommended you. So back then it was real hard to get started in any way. The first picture I saw of a pitdog was Pete’s Sparks’ HUNKY dog. This is the dog he won with in Cuba. Sparks used to run an ad in the GAME COCK magazines at the time and when I saw that picture I said to myself that’s it. My uncle was in the game cocks like a thousand other guys in this state because it is legal here. This uncle of mine had a friend who was also a game cock man, but also owned a bulldog. His name was Darryl Tabot and he told me one time he knew a real bulldog man that lived in Hobart, Oklahoma. He told me that if I was interested h would take me there and so he did the next Sunday afternoon. That’s how I met Earl Tudor for the first time in my life. Earl lived on something like 23 acres and Earl was… well, it’s hard to explain but Earl was very cocky, he looked just like a bad dog. When I saw Earl that first time I remember I was really scared of him. He walked around me and didn’t say a word. Earl’s place was like heaven to me. He told me he was almost out of the dogs and that he had no more than 42 dogs left at his place. His dogs were vicious, not that they would bite you, but when a stranger came along they were all excited like you turned that switch that makes them go off! When Earl was younger he used to have more than 100 game dogs and a lot of game cocks. The next time I went back alone and finally after a lot of visits I started to get closer and closer to him. It was Earl who took me to my first show and that was in San Antonio, Tx. In those days it was just a misdemeanor and if I remember right they had five fights on Saturday and another five fights the following Sunday.

What dogs did Earl keep on his yard when you met him the first time? He had SPIKE, JEFF, NIG, LUCKY and that type of dogs, plus some of those old brood bitches. SPIKE was already old and retired and he told me one time that SPIKE made him $1700 in just one month because he bred him to 17 bitches in one month and his stud fee was $100. At that time, I thought that was all the money in the world.SPIKE was considered the hardest biting dog of the twentieth century. Only one dog that was ever fought with SPIKE lived after the fight and that was Mayfield’s OLD LIGHTNING was busted up pretty good in his chest. It probably lasted something like 15 minutes or so. Earl always told me that each time you put a scar on a dog you take so much out of him and he could spot a good dog real quick. Earl never rolled a dog very long so this was good enough for him. NEVER quit! I was so excited at the time and I can’t even remember what type of fighting dog he was but TIGER DAN was on top most of the time as he was a more talented dog. But . The LUCKY dog came from Howard Heinzl just like the DIBO dog, but the NIG dog was Earl’s favorite dog. Earl really liked NIG and used him as a stud dog just like LUCKY. NIG was a solid black dog, really good looking. Earl was already 76 years old when I met him the first time and eventually traded NIG to somebody in Witchita, Tx. At that time they changed his name to SMOKEY. There is a lot of controversy about the NIG dog but there were only two other people there when I rolled TIGER DAN against his sire NIG and that was Earl Tudor himself and Don Maloney. TIGER DAN was a brindle dog and a hard, punishing bulldog. I really can’t remember how long the roll took but it was real vicious and NIGNIGNIG did never, ever quit!

Where do you believe the rumor started? I believe Don Maloney spread the rumor because he was a jealous man and couldn’t accept the fact that Earl took a liking to me, and of course, I had TIGER DAN which was a son of NIG. Don Maloney was a friend of mine and a good dogman, but he could never accept that somebody else would have dogs as good as his. I personally don’t even breed dogs to sell and you will never see me run an ad in the mags trying to sell pups or whatever but the truth is that NIG never quit! NIG was a producing dog, and the best fighting dog that ever lived was his grandson on both sides of the pedigree. This was the PIT GENERAL dog. He was by far the best and most devastating bulldog I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.

Where did Earl get his dogs from? Did he ever tell you about what bloodline or type of dogs he liked the best? Yes, he did. Earl liked the Henry dogs the best. I don’t know where they come from but they were mostly black, big headed, red eyed and crazy to work. Also, I believe that his daddy had some bulldogs before they came to Oklahoma. Originally, they were from Kentucky. Back in Earl’s time, which was around the turn of the century, there were no airplanes and etc, and he told me this himself; if somebody would send him a bitch to bred to one of his males and he liked the bitch he wouldn’t send her back, but just keep her for himself. Most people were too afraid anyway to come pick her up because in those days that part of the world was pretty much outlaw territory. I’m sure that’s how he got some of his good dogs. He also bought a lot of dogs and bred some of his own when he got older. Earl was a very smart man, but also a strange man. For instance… he had no children because he didn’t want any and he once told me that the world was getting sorrier every day, and didn’t want to bring anybody in a world like this. When Bernice got pregnant, I was scared to tell him and I didn’t. Don Maloney told him.

What made Earl so bitter, so disappointed in life? I don’t know. Everybody respected Earl as a dogman but he would say the stangest things. His philosophy was to treat everybody like a son-of-a-bitch until they proved themselves differently. I remember I was really scared of Earl when I first met him. He had been breeding and raising these dogs for so long that he picked up some of that courage. And the older he got the worse it got. One time he told me he wanted to go out guns blazing, that’s what he said, ‘I want to go out in style.’ I remember Earl and his brother Bert got into an argument once over some dog magazines and when Bert was real sick and laying on his deathbed his last request was to see his brother Earl. But Earl didn’t go and he didn’t go to his funeral as well. That was his way of life. To me Earl was a special man and he taught me so much about dogs, conditioning and that kind of stuff. For instance, he told me that heat will stop a dog quicker than anything, pain won’t stop a bulldog, but heat will. Earl most times wouldn’t roll a dog until he was 18 or 20 months old and then he would roll them for only a few minutes. To me, he was the best dogman that ever lived and it’s hard to disagree on his methods of schooling and conditioning a combat dog.

Do you believe the old time breeders were better than the modern breeders? I don’t know, but let me give you an example. Earl would usually take all the females out of a litter when they were born and kill them. He didn’t want anybody to be able to breed to his stuff and didn’t sell many dogs. Earl was never in the dogs for money. He was a true dogfighter and there are not many people like that around these days. If I have a bad bitch and a bad male I just breed them to each other. I’m not really interested in pedigrees and that stuff. I like the conditioning. Maybe someday I will get interested in the breeding, but not right now. I don’t think there is any specific bloodline or family of dogs that has got a monopoly on anything. There is good and bad in every type of breeding. I personally like the Boudreaux bred dogs. You could say that most of the dogs today come from Tudor, Maloney, Boudreaux, and Mayfield bloodlines.

Did Earl like Maurice Carver pretty good? I’m going to tell you exactly what Earl told me. He said he didn’t like Maurice. Earl could sit down with somebody for five minutes and figure somebody out pretty good. He was blessed with that gift. Earl was like a mind reader and thought Maurice was a bullshitter. I really didn’t understand the relationship they had at the time, but he never spoke too bad about him or spoke highly of him either. Maurice was the kind of man that could tell a story and you knew it was a lie, but it was so damn good that it really didn’t matter if it was true or not.

Do you believe that it was pretty much accepted in those days to steal a dog from somebody else? Well,…..yes, maybe so! Earl told me that if you want to be good at anything the first thing you need to learn is how to cheat; because if you know that, then nobody can cheat you. He taught me how to cheat first, but I have never done anything like that in my life, my pride won’t let me.

What more can you tell me about the NIG dog? Well, NIG ended up with Don Mayfield. He paid something like $300 or $500 for the dog to Sam Kennedy and in those days that was a lot of money. NIG was a producing dog. I had the Plumber’s ALLIGATOR dog and worked him for 2 or 3 fights. He was a big black dog, and I won his champion fight with him. You could spot a NIG bred dog a mile away. Their characteristics are that when you walk up to them they would piss all over themselves, 9 out of 10 will. They were some kind of shy and would roll over on their back when you touched them. I bought my TIGER DAN from Earl and he was out of NIG and Womack’s MERT. He was a brindle. Earl gave Bernice a puppy that is registered as Mayfield’s SPOOKIE but that really is my SPOOKIE. I don’t really care because like I said before, I’m not in the business of selling dogs and Don can do that as far as I’m concerned. But anyway, Earl gave that puppy to Bernice when she was four years old, she was solid black. Later we bred her to TIGER DAN and this breeding produced the best dog to ever walk the earth. His name was PIT GENERAL. This dog was a true super dog, I have never seen anything like him again in my life after he got stolen.TIGER DAN won two fights for me but SPOOKIE would never fight. She was a cold bitch. We had two males and seven females. The females were all cold, wouldn’t hit a lick. But the males….oh boy! They were something special. PIT GENERAL had a brother that I liked better than him, his name was SATAN. One time when I was at Sam Kennedy’s place, SATAN got off the chain and killed three hogs and then jumped on a dog called KILLER that had won four fights. They killed each other. PIT GENERAL was a 42 to 44 pound dog and at this weight he was unbeatable. He was absolutely awesome, an ACE in every way. He was one of the hardest biting dogs in the history of fighting dogs. At one time, I had some good dogs. There was RANGER, a four time winner I got from Earl. This dog was a full bellymate brother to JIMMIE BOOTS. He was a 52-54 pound dog. Also I had VICK, GATLIN, and another one called BOBBYSON. I put GENERAL on all four at the same time and he just literally murdered them all as fast as I could go and get the next one. The next day Don and Phyllis Mayfield came up here and all the dogs were in the house except GENERAL. He was the only one standing on his chain. Don said “What did you do Danny?” I told him I rolled some dogs yesterday and he said, “Why did you roll them all into each other and not into this black dog?” I said I rolled them all against that black dog and he said “What! How much do you want for him?” I sold him the whole lot, and that’s how he got GENERAL.

What happened to GENERAL after Don Mayfield got him? He matched him against this guy from Oklahoma. His name was Billy or something. The dog he used was a good head dog called DUKE. GENERAL couldn’t get him for a long time, but when he did, he bit him in two. GENERAL was then matched into Freddie Jones’ BLACK BART. In fact, Pat Patrick wrote Don a letter at the time saying that this BART dog would take meat away from a bear and that he wouldn’t even roll a dog into that BART dog. Don ask me at the time what I thought about it and I told him it wouldn’t be a problem as I tried to hurt GENERAL with all I had but I couldn’t. This fight was much talked about just like the Tyson-Spinks fight, dogmen came from all over the country just to see this one. GENERAL killed BART in 52 minutes and then after the fight he was stolen. I got a letter from Roland Fontenot with some pictures of GENERAL and in the letter he said that he knew the fight was over in seven minutes, because he had broken both shoulders on BART and later on in the fight he literally took off BART’s leg. GENERAL was a freak of nature, he would eat a dog, literally rip them apart and start eating them. He was so aggressive that he wouldn’t even breed a bitch. One time while Don went to town to do some shopping, a bitch that was in heat got loose off the chain and ran up to GENERAL. He killed her while she was in full blossom. Jimmy Wimberly found the bitch and he told me he saw how GENERAL was standing over her and just tearing her muscles out of her. I know now who stole GENERAL and several told me this was true, but I don’t want to tell who it was because it would do no good now.

Was it an Oklahoma or Texas dogman? I really don’t want to say anything about this because you could pinpoint it. It’s out of respect that I don’t want to bring this out in the open. But the thing is, that GENERAL was a double bred NIG dog, and this, plus the fact that NIG never quit, makes me believe he was a good individual plus a hell of a producer!

What is the second best dog you have seen, Danny? Well, years ago I matched into Raymond Holt’s JEREMIAH, and Stinson’s ART. They were both very good dogs, but I’ve seen so many good ones that it is kind of hard to just pick one or two out. Another fight that was real interesting to me was when Ralph Greenwood matched into Jim Stinson. Stinson used a black dog called CANNON. This dog was a punishing dog that I had seen kill dogs before in 20 minutes. Greenwood used CRAZY DUGGAN, and he won the fight eventually because he was the gamest dog. A real classic match.

What about your grand champion HANK dog? HANK was a turning dog. He would give you heart failure every time you watched him, and I always tried to sell him after each fight but nobody that saw him was impressed with him enough to buy him. He won over Carver, Louis Cheeck, Fontenot and Chicken Sam. He beat some pretty good people. HANK was definitely a game dog. You had to kill every hair on the dog to stop him, but he never did. He would always turn real early in the fight, shut his mouth completely and turn away from his opponent 100%, but he always scratched. I finally sold HANK to Pat Patrick for $1500. HANK had two brothers SMITH and JESSE and they, just like HANK, were very game dogs too. I have never been good at selling dogs perhaps because I was never interested enough doing do, but I’ll tell you something about another dog I had. His name was PETERBUILT. He was out of the O’BRIAN dog and a bitch named BABE. I bred this dog myself and later Doyle Reddick ended up with him. I don’t know if it’s true about the dog quitting, but when he was at my place, he never quit. I didn’t like the dog because one time he would look outstanding, and then the next time he would look like a plug. So one time I had a bunch of dogmen at my place and we were rolling some dogs. I rolled this dog, too. He was doing pretty good and I said anybody that wants this dog can have him for free, but everybody turned around and walked away. He was about 20 months old at the time. He was no good and nobody wanted him, but what I’m saying is, that I couldn’t sell a dog if I wanted to. The same with HANK, each time I would offer him for sale nobody was interested in him. Later, I believe, I traded PETERBUILT for some other dogs, and I believe Reddick made something like $35,000 with the dog. I thought I couldn’t win with him because it’s like when I go to the rodeo they always give me the baddest horse in the bunch and every time I go to a dogfight I get the baddest dog, too. I guess it’s like what a friend told me once… “Son, you’re hard to beat and they know it, that’s why they come with the best they got.” I don’t care really, because it’s like what Earl told me, “if you’re going to be beat, be beat by a good one.” So, in other words, it’s not a disgrace to lose. It’s all part of the same game! I know I’m not going to have any easy spots and I don’t want too anyway. But it sure would help to get some bread on the table once in a while.

What about the TONKA dog? I won him in a bet from a guy named Lou Lewis from California. Bobby Smith picked up the pup in his truck and I kept him until he was about 11 months old. Then, Ronnie Anderson bought the dog. I had a lot of dogs at the time, plus I wasn’t really sure how he was bred. He was out of TOMBSTONE and RED BABY. Ronnie made a fortune with the dog and he was a good caliber dog. I’ve seen TONKA fight and I liked the dog. Also, I’ve seen TOMBSTONE against BULLYSON JR. and that was a classic fight. Don really brought TOMBSTONE in thin. He looked like a skeleton, just like a bag of bones, but BULLY just couldn’t kill him. BULLYSON JR. was a bad dog and was all over that red nose dog. TOMBSTONE was a good one, but his gameness was the key, he just kept coming, no matter what BULLY would do to him. Don was a real good conditioner and he could pull one down to that fine line and still have them strong. Don is responsible for some of the training techniques they use today, like the drying out methods for instance. Of course, a dog needs some moisture in his system, but you don’t want him to be too wet and Mayfield really knew how to dry one out. He also introduced the catmill keep and perfected it in a way like many people are using today. Me and Don had been friends for a long time and always remained the best of friends. Don is not really the same Don Mayfield that I met when I was younger, but time changes people. Some people don’t understand and maybe these people didn’t go through what Don went through. And maybe they will do something worse when they get older. I want to remember him like I want to remember him, one of the greatest dogmen ever in my era and if he would come back in the game today, he would prove it to you people, too. He was really a good dogman.

What about that ALVIN dog? Was it really true what Earl said, that ALVIN was the gamest dog he had seen in more than 40 years? Yes. That was true. Earl was serious when he said that, he wasn’t joking. Randy Fox had a dog called ALVIN THE DOG and he was a black and white Lightning bred dog. I matched into him with a dog I found in the park one time. They had four or five fights that day and Don Maloney put that one together. I remember it was snowing that day just like now, and Don charged money for all the fights except for our fight which was the last fight as he thought me and Randy couldn’t come up with dogs that were good enough to look at. I really liked Don a lot, but he was a very jealous person and he had already given away the best dog of show trophy before our fight started. I believe we matched at 39lbs and the fight went two hours and twenty-three minutes. It was a very close fight all the way. ALVIN won the fight and mine died right on the scratchline. It was very good, even match and ALVIN produced some pretty good dogs, too.

What if you had a choice between a deadgame bulldog that would still try to scratch with all his legs broken never taking his eyes off his opponent, but short on talent; or that awesome fighting dog that would practically kill everything you would put him down with in short order and start to eat him up right there in the pit. But if you put a little pressure on him, watch out! Because he might quit! Wow…. That’s a hard question! I don’t really know. I like a fighting dog, one that can win with plenty of ability to take one out quick, but a game dog will probably be a better producer, throwing a higher percentage of game dogs. Talented dogs don’t breed true, game dogs do. But like I said I like a dog with plenty of both, gameness plus ability because you are going to need both when you are going into the good ones.

What about a particular fighting style? I like a fast, hard punishing dog that goes to the stifles and stomach. Earl always said that the best dog is a head dog, because he would keep himself out of trouble. Probably the best head fighting dog I’ve ever seen was the TORNADO bitch. But I like the bad dog best. What I mean is an offensive fighting dog that will take the initiative and never stops trying to kill his opponent.

Do you believe there is such a thing as an offensive head fighting dog? I haven’t seen too many of them. Most of these head dogs are just trying to stay out of trouble. Earl told me you can’t beat a head dog, but it has to be a good one. PIT GENERAL was a real bad gut eating dog and I can’t believe that anything could have kept him out for any length of time.

Do you believe it’s a bad sign if a dog makes a turn during a contest? No I don’t. Sometimes it’s just their style. HANK was the best proof of that. He would start turning after two minutes, yet he was extremely game. I’ve seen a few like that as long as they keep scratching I don’t care if they turn or not.

What is your experience with dogs that start at a real young age. Do you believe in the saying ‘early to start…early to quit’?Yes, I sure do and I’m going to tell you why…. Most people don’t have patience or the common sense to wait until these young starters get older. They start to roll them too hard at a young age, and most people will stop a 12 or 14 month old pup just because he wants to fight. I like early starters, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just as careful with them as with the ones that will start after they are two years old.

HISTORY ON BOUDREAUX DOGS

Here is some history on Boudreaux dogs if it helps. It was printed in the Canine Preformance Journal & recently

re-printed here by Mrs. Mickey:

Floyd Boudreaux’ ace new dog Blind Billy wasn’t always blind. He would lose his sight when he got hot. In his second

match, he lost his sight when he became overheated. OJ Thibodeaux & his black & white nose dog were highly regarded

at 39lbs. Floyd believed if Billy could get his mouth on him, it wouldn’t take long to determine a winner. Billy could

bite as hard as any dog Floyd has ever seen & even harder than most of the best. He could disable one in short order.

Just as Floyd figured, Blind Billy was able to get to Thibodeaux’ dog several times. The longer they fought, the more

he punished the black & white nose dog. Blind Billy had the black & white dog quitting. Floyd handled when Blind Billy

was released & on Blind Billy’s scratch. He was counted out searching for his opponent.

Although it was clear the black & white wanted no more, Billy lost the contest. Perhaps he could have won several more

matches afterwards, who knows, but thanks to the gifted foresight of Floyd Boudreaux, he bred Blind Billy instead.

Floyd bred Billy to a good daughter, Gypsy, to produce Red (a full sister to Elias’s “Pistol”). Floyd bred Blind Billy

to Red to produce Lena & bred Blind Billy to Lena to produce Scrub, who was 15/16ths inbred on the old Blind Billy dog.

Let us back up a minute. SP Clavelle owned a spotted dog back in them times that Gaboon Trahan used to breed to his

bitches. Gaboon used the one time & found him to be an average dog, but very game. Gaboon called the dog ‘Rascal’ & had

permission to breed to him any time, but Gaboon never owned the red & white dog he called Rascal. Floyd bought Rascal

from SP Clavelle & Floyd Boudreaux was the only man to ever register Rascal & only did so through the UKC several years

after Floyd had him on his yard Floyd bred Rascal to Lena (Scrub’s mama) to produce Rascal Jr. Rascal Jr. was the sire

of many good dogs one of which Jerome Hernandez called ‘Nigger.’ Nigger won 5 times for Jerome & one of them over Scrub.

Scrub was matched his first match at 40lbs. by Floyd Boudreaux & lost this one to Nigger in 40 minutes.

Don Mayfield liked Scrub & used him to go into JT Kitches & his son of Tudor’s “Ch.” Spike.” Scrub won this contest in

1 hour & 8 minutes. Floyd Boudreaux again had gifted foresight & bred Scrub to some good bitches & I’m glad he did.

Scrub sired some great dogs & phenomenal producers! Scrub was bred to his half sister Candy to produce the famous Eli

dog. Floyd also bred Scrub to a good daughter of Rascal Jr. to produce the great Boze dog! Boze was the most inbred

Dibo dog of his time & was a great representative of his genetic pool! No Dibo dog could stay with Boze!

One day a few of some great dogmen were at Floyd’s after a convention held in Layfayette, Lousiana held by Gaboon

Trahan. Among the gatherin were Bob Wallace, Leo Kinard, Maurice Carver, Roland Boutte & JD Elliott. Floyd got out

Boze & Boze Jr. (a brother to Bullyson & Eli Jr.’s mother) & rolled them together for just a short roll. Leo said

this roll was better than all the matches he had just seen! JD said that it was blur! Both of these dogs made a mess

of each other in short order. Just the look on Maurice’s face! Maurice was speechless as, his jaw dropped, his mouth’

fell open & his eyes bulged out. Later, Maurice said he had never seen a sight like that in all his life!

Floyd Boudreaux became known as the breeder of Eli dogs & this is true, but we need to look at the whole picture.

Folks, Floyd Boudreaux is the breeder of Blind Billy dogs! The best of the Dibo stuff!! Bullyson was a line bred

Blind Billy dog!

Floyd Boudreaux owned Blind Billy & Rascal at the same time. Gypsy was a good daughter of Billy & when she came into

heat, Floyd bred her as a repeat breeding back to her sire Blind Billy. Floyd also bred her a week later but this time

to Rascal, as Billy was getting old & Floyd wanted pups out of the aging Gypsy. Well, Gypsy had the pups & Ray Charles

could see that they were from Billy. Raymond Elias got one of the pups from this mating & named him Pistol.

Cont …

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Pistol was a very good dog that was shown only once. He was matched above his weight & won impressively anyway. I dont

know how Maurice was able to breed him, or if he even did at all, but the ADBA pedigrees have him as the grandsire of

Art’s “Missy,” Davis’ “Gr. Ch” Boomerang” & Clayton’s “Java” (the dam of Gr.Ch. Art). By the way, Don Devine got a

bitch from Bennett Clayton named “Patty.” Don registered her as off Eli Jr. & Java. When Don got the bitch, all Bennett

told him was that she was a sister to Art, but Bennett did not say she was a littermate. Patty was indeed of Eli Jr.,

but her dam was a quarter Staffordshire; a bitch off Indian Bolio & a half Staff bitch! But I would not mind if my

dogs had Patty in their make-up because Patty’s dam was a bitch name Ginger. This is the same Ginger was the dam to

Stinson’s “Ch.” Tuffy” & Stinsori & Glover’s “Ch.” Dolemite.” Imagine that. Dolemite’s mama a quarter Staff! It must

have been some good Staff blood!

So, Patty was a half sister to Ironhead. Maurice also said Bullyson was a son of Ironhead & he did that with the man

who raised Bullyson sitting in the same room with him. Just ask Jerry Clemmons if I am telling the facts. Anyways folks

no matter what Maurice’s papaers say, Ironhead was a son of Blind Billy. Perhaps now you will understand why Bullyson

crossed wo well with Ray Long’s two bitches Baby & Tuffy & Art Riley’s Missy, why Eli Jr. crossed well with Bennett

Clayton’s Java & why Ronnie Hyde’s Satchmo Bully went so well with his Bloody Sunday.

Folks, it’s the Blind Billy blood doing what it’s done, biting hard & winning. While the world is searching for Eli dogs,

the few who really understand are searching for Boze dogs. It took a daughter of Boze to create Bullyson. When Boze

was 11 years old & weighed 18 lbs. less than his grandson Bullyson, Floyd held Boze’s back legs & let Bullyson get a

good hold on him. Floyd let go & Boze got up & downed Bullyson & kept him down for 10 minutes, doing what he wanted with

him. When you realize how good Bullyson was, then consider how great Boze was! Eli & Eli Jr. were good dogs too, but

none of them were in the same class as Boze.

Floyd Boudreaux bred Boze to Penny, who was out of Young Rock, out of Peggy. Penny was a good bitch out of an all-good

litter. Boze & Penny produced Spook (Sissy). Spook’s whole litter killed each other except for her & another little

bitch pup Floyd gave to Maurice Coin, another friend of Floyd’s. Spook was given to Jerry Clemmons, a chicken man &

when she came into heat, he brought her back to Floyd’s to breed her to Eli & she had 4 good pups. All 4 pups were

good dogs. Another all good litter bred by Floyd Boudreaux! Bullyson, Eli Jr. Brendy & Lady, a litter of dogs that

changed the game itself! The litter changed the future of how we were to breed our dogs. Gameness alone wasn’t good

enough anymore. Eli dogs would & could kill them. This was the beginning of what was to be know as the Eli line of dogs.

Jerry sold Spook to Doug Nightrider. Doug was like a kid with a new toy. Doug rolled Spook for the better part of a

week until she finally stopped, but she was a good one. She was a Boze daughter. Boze was bred to Brendy to produce

Wilkenson’s “Tina.” Tina was bred to Bullyson to produce Ch. Bullyson Jr. & the only dog capable of dethroning his

great sire, Benny Bob. Boze bred bitches produce very well. Boze was a great dog. He was very fast & bit very hard.

To top it off, he was very strong. Boze won only one contract match in just under 5 minutes. All totaled, Boze

stopped 27 dogs.

All the old timers used to come up with truckloads to try to stop the Boze dog, but Boze would sen them all home

disappointed, one after the other. Hell, Roland Fontenot used to come every weekend & try, but never could carry

enough dogs with him to do it. Boze would make short work of them!

Fred Williamson has a son of Boze he called Pistol who was raised as a house pet. Word was that Pistol was a pet

& a cur & that Don Mayfield & George had a dog at 49lbs. that would prove it. Well, after enough talk, ol Fred

said put up or shut up. The match was made. Mayfield had George’s blessing to shape up their Ch. Gomer dog, a winner

of several high dollar contests. Ch. Gomer was a littermate to Ch. 400, another multi-time winner. Both dogs came

in on the weight & at 2:45 Ch. Gomer cleared the wall & jumped right into the arms of Don’s wife, Phyllis Mayfield.

Now who was the cur?

A paid advertisement was published in Raymond Holt’s magazine ‘Pit Dog Report’ shorly after the contest. The ad

stated “Boudreaux’ Pistol: Just an average Boudreaux dog!” The ad wasn’t to peddle pups or for stud service, it was

simply a statement. And it was true; Pistol was an average of Floyd’s dogs.

Ch. Midnight Cowboy was good son of Bullyson. Linus was a Boze bred bitch. Midnight Cowboy & Linus produce Reddick’s

“Herman,” a winner of 5 contract matches. Herman was just one of an all-good litter. Floyd sent Liza to Doyle & had

her bred to Herman. This mating produced another good littter with just one cold bitch. Maverick was off this litter.

Maverick produced whole litters of match dogs. Ask anyone who owns Maverick dog!

Eli did his share of producing well. Floyd bred him to a Corvino bitch named Glory B to produce Daniel’s “Ch.” Tom,”

who was the sire of Barefield’s “Ch.” Saloon.” Ch. Saloon was the sire of Allen’s “Ch.” Butch” ROM. Ch. Saloon was

also the sire of Allen’s “Stripper.” Butch & Stripper produced Allen’s “Double Gr. Ch.” Tornado,” a winner of 10 matches.

Of course, Eli was the best known for producing Eli Jr. & Bullyson, but only because they were bred more & therefore

became more popular.

Now, Don Mayfield says Floyd stole Eli from him by saying all Cry Baby’s pups died. Friends, Cry Baby’s pups all did die.

Don & Floyd wer good friend & believe me, Floyd values his friends. I would think that if Cry Baby’s pups wer valuable

enough to betray a friend, I wouldn’t give them away. Floyd gave Eli to JR Bush because Floyd knew he could breed more

like him or better. To Floyd, a dog is just a dog, but a friend is a priceless value! Don Mayfield is just jealous.

Floyd Boudreaux created Eli from Blind Billy blood. Elli was stolen from JR Bush after his 3rd match (a match that was

raided). There is no telling how many good ones Eli produce. Ever wonder why Eli blood crossed so well with Gr. Ch. Zebo

blood? Who knows? Boy, these are the facts, not fiction! You can do your homework believe me I have.

INTERVIEW WITH GARY HAMMONDS

When talking to somebody who owns a Pit Bull Terrier, it is unavoidable that the subject of pedigrees comes up. Pedigrees make up a very important aspect of breeding any type of animal, but especially so with high performance animals such as Pit Bull Terriers.

When it comes to breeding and raising puppies into full grown healthy dogs some people seem to have more success than others. Anyone who has experience in the field will tell you that it takes a lot if time, money and patience along with plenty of common sense before any good results will come off.

Unmistakably, Gary J. Hammonds from Texas is one of the very few that can look back at a very successful career, breeding a high percentage of good dogs. Some of the better known dogs that he bred are such as Frits Jansen’s Champion SPIKE, which turned out to be one of the best producing dogs in Europe. Ronnie Anderson’s Champion SPADE, Champion SMILEY and Champion GOOSE. But the dog that Gary gained most fame with is, without any doubt, the RUFUS dog who proved to be one of the best producing male dogs in the World.

Gary is known to be a very scientific breeder and is most famous for his ALLIGATOR line of dogs which are still playing an important role in the breeding program of many serious breeders around the world. During my trip through North Texas, I decided to look him up and ask him about his experience on the subject of breeding dogs. Upon arriving he spontaneously agreed on doing an interview. While Gary was finishing his last preparations for the weight pull of the following day, I started to ask him the next question:

Gary, why have you chosen to bred the ALLIGATOR bloodline?Years ago I had access to a bunch of dogs and I had mainly BRUNO/HEINZL dogs. I could have taken good BULLYSON and good CORVINO bred dogs, but I’ve seen the ALLIGATOR stuff and really liked what I saw. The main thing that I liked so much about these dogs; SOKO, RENEE and ALLIGATOR was that they were smart dogs, they were hard to hurt, and they were real game dogs. This was 10 or 15 years ago. The mom and daddy to these dogs were not really impressive, they were NIG and SATIN LADY, but together they certainly produced some good dogs. I didn’t like either of them as individuals, but they sure produced. At this moment I have about one hundred and ten dogs and most are bred from this bloodline.

Some people that I have spoken to told me that NIG was a cur. What do you think about this? I’ve heard the same thing. I don’t know if it was true. But, too many people tell the same story that it had to be true. See NIG was one of the last of the Tudor stuff. NIG was heavy JEFF and BABY breeding, so when you got down to that end and you wanted to breed to that stuff you were pretty much limited and NIG was, I suppose, the best producer of them all.

How did you get started with these dogs? When I was 3 years old I had a Bulldog that saved my life. He pulled me out of a bar ditch that was flooding and without that dog I would have drowned. He was not a full blooded top line Pit Bull, but he was ¾ Pit and ¼ farm dog. He thought he was 100% Bulldog and looked like it too. He would jump on anything. His name was TIPP. That’s how I got started with Pit Bulls and I have had a love affair with them ever since.

How do you feel about heavy inbreeding? I sure like inbreeding. It’s a tool that if you take it a generation or two far you will lose what you are inbreeding for. Those types, those characteristics, that are linked with inbreeding, many times, are lost due to too heavy inbreeding.

What do you do to prevent this from happening? With every generation you take a hard look at what you’ve got and you decide if the individuals from that generation are good enough to breed back to the previous generation, like; father to daughter, mother to son, or whatever and if you can’t justify it then you don’t need to carry it on any further. Although you could very easily cutcross in that generation, or even introduce a catalyst blood to that family of dogs to keep it vigorous. Some times that’s the only thing you can do.

What’s the catalyst factor in your breeding program? I’ve used BULLYSON and BRUNO/HEINZL as the catalyst and with good results. Right now I’ve got a little stud dog that is out of the NIGERINO type stuff. JOLIE BLOND bred to MITZIE and I think that’s going to be a good catalyst along with the RALPH dog I have. He is down from PEDRO. I think either of these can be good catalyst blood. PEDRO is from that RASCAL type breeding and he was owned by GARNER.

What is the main quality you are looking for in a stud dog? An ability to reproduce. The qualities that a dog has to have in today’s environment, whether it’s Pit environment, Catch dog, Weight pull dog or whatever. The qualities I breed for are GAMENESS and INTELLIGENCE, a good example is GARY and CHRISTI ATHANS SAIGON. SAIGON is a tremendous weight pull dog and comes from a good family of dogs, he is straight out of my stuff. But you don’t see many of my dogs that are good weight pull dogs.

There is a lot of growing interest in breeding dogs for weight pulls and etc…. It seems that most of these people are not interested in gameness and other traditional qualities. No they aren’t. But of course there are a lot that are just Pulling dogs. For instance, a lot of weight pull dogs are straight stifled UKC type dogs that would have a hard time with the more fighting type dog whether it be a good fighting dog or not. At the APBA Nationals, I see more and more of the Pull dogs that look like the old fighting dogs with the roached back and long legs.

Do you make a distinction between a fighting dog and a stud dog? In my opinion what you need in a stud dog, whether he is a fighting dog or not is a dog that can reproduce. Sound genetic structure both between the ears and in the heart, and also, the body has to be sound. Too many times people lose track of this and they breed to Champion so and so or Grand Champion etc… but because of their title it doesn’t mean they will be able to produce that type of dog. So what I look for in a stud dog is a relatively tight genetic pool, and a family rather than two or three good individuals.

But that means you have to by pedigrees and you know as well as I do there are a lot of dogs out there with fake pedigrees on them! Yes, I use pedigrees a great deal, but it’s not just what you see on paper…. Like the dogs I’ve messed with, I’ve seen their grand-parents first hand, as well as the parents and other similar bred individuals and I’ve used those dogs instead of the dogs from another part of the country that I was not sure about the pedigree.

About pedigrees. Practically all of your dogs go back to Maurice Carver stuff. There are a lot of rumors about him mixing up pedigrees when he was still alive. Since you work a great deal with pedigrees do you believe to know the true ancestry of your dogs when it goes back to SATIN LADY for instance? I believe so and I’ll tell you why. It was too screwed up of a breeding, as far as on paper, not to be the truth. If you look at SATIN LADY , she was a scatter bred bitch out of IRONHEAD and BLACK BEAUTY. She was a big black bitch and I asked Maurice about it on one of my visits to his place. I asked him; “Maurice why did you make a breeding like that?” And he said, “Well son, I tell you, I thought it be good.” Maurice had a way of mixing blood on papers and pedigrees and whatever it took to make it work. I think that part of the reason for Maurice putting out bogus pedigrees was to keep the secret to himself. I sincerely believe that the pedigrees on the dogs that I use to be right. If they’re not, it’s too late to worry about it anyway because I’m 3 or 4 generations away from what Maurice owned or sold to old man Williams, like the SATIN LADY bitch and others, but I will say this, in the seventies Maurice Carver was the BEST breeder in the country. He bred more dogs in those years, first class dogs, than any other 5 top breeders in the country. But the pedigree thing I really sincerely believe it’s no more than Maurice’s way of keeping his secrets secret. He would sell you the cake, but keep the recipe.

What about your Howard Heinzl dogs? They were certainly good dogs but…. And I hate to say this, they lost a lot of what they were famous for in the sixties and seventies. It is no fault of Howard because he bred with some real good genetic back ground and put it together the way it was suppose to be. I think he lived bred those dogs just too tight and they played out. It would click if you would cross it, but Heinzl kept it pure. The stuff he used before and what I liked so much was line bred; 50/50 Colby/Dibo. That combination was hard to beat. My TAFFY bitch was one of those combinations. She was a hell of a dog and I saw some more that were bred the same way, that would make the owner proud. She was a double MUSTY bred dog off BAT and TWIGGY.

Texas is a very big state with an awful lot of Bulldogs and a great number of dog men. Some claim the best dogs and breeders are in Texas. Do you agree with this? I think we have a tremendous base in Texas because there have been a great deal of breedings between the top dog men from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana and to a lesser degree in Mexico. When you have a situation like this and the competition of the last 40 or 50 years right here in Texas between top dog men it’s only logical that you come up with some top notch bulldogs and dog men. Also, another thing that has made the Texas dogs so good is that several breeders from here went out to buy dogs from Corvino, Heinzl, Tudor, Kinard and Boudreaux. All these very good bloodlines were put together so it’s just the situation that arose. I’m sure at some time in history, there will be another spot in the world the dogs will be just as good as the dogs in Texas are right now, but they really have to do their work to get there.

PART TWO: GARY J. HAMMONDS

If you were to breed a bitch outside your own yard, which male would you pick? Right now I’m picking the MACHO dog from Gary. He comes from Rick Burns and he is a Thibodeaux bred dog. This man bred some very good dogs down from the CLINT stuff and that STOMPANATO blood he had. I sure like what MACHO produces. There are several good stud dogs around the country that I sure wouldn’t be afraid to breed to. One of them is a little dog here in Dallas; the JAP dog. He is a Grand Champion and goes back to some of my blood I used several years ago. He should be a good producer. Two other good ones are the WINO dog in the North East, and Greenwood’s OSCAR in the North West. PATCH EYED PETE would be worth a gamble too. There are a few others I would like to try, but I probably will not for the simple fact that I’ve got several dogs on my yard that I like very much.

Who would you describe as being the best breeders in the country? I can think of a few that I consider very good breeders. Pat Patrick would of course be one of the better breeders. He is a real scientific breeder and has proven himself in the fact that he probably produced as many good dogs as anybody. There are a hundred people who breed some good dogs and especially in Texas you have a great number of good breeders. (I hate to name one for overlooking the others) but Jim Uselton is an awful good breeder. I don’t know if he is still breeding it, but the RED BILL line has been real good for him. Also someone else I have a tremendous amount of faith in is Wendell Trussels. Through the years I’ve seen Trussels’ bred dogs that were not suppose to be good, but they were sure good dogs. Also from what I understand Sorrels and Girley Crum breed some good ones.

What was your relation with Ronnie Anderson? Ronnie was a real competitor. Ronnie was a good friend of mine and as tough as ever come down the path. One of the reasons why I think Ronnie was so good was that he had a tremendous eye for a Bulldog. He could spot a good one and tried them very hard. In his days he was probably one of the very best conditioners in the country. He started out with some dogs that he got from me. I believe the second dog he ever owned was the SPADE dog and of course he made Champion with him. He was into some tough, tough competition in those days.

What about Ronnie’s Champion GOOSE and Champion SMILEY? Yes. GOOSE was off of RUFUS and that bitch from Trussels called MIDGET. There were two Champions in that litter, SMILEY and GOOSE and there was another dog in the same litter that won two and got killed the third time out. His name was GATOR. When we bred RUFUS to MIDGET it produced all first class dogs, except one. The one that lost was 16 months old, so that happens. The best dog in that litter, and Ronnie might disagree with me, was a little dog I called REGINALD. PJ ended up with him and, as far as I know, never did anything with him. REGINALD was head and shoulders above the rest of that litter. The reason why I liked him so much was because he was a very smart dog and used the head to his advantage. He was a very defensive dog, plus he was a dog that could take you out.

George Gillman! God bless George, he and Mac were good friends of mine. He was a very good person deep down. I lived just down the road from him. George started out by buying any and every dog in the country and was just going to get there by maxi-mizing the quality instead of minimizing. George made tremendous impact on the Bulldogs here in Dallas/Fort Worth area. He sure would keep things stirred up. He used and liked the NIG-ALLIGATOR stuff.

Don Mayfield! He was a top conditioner and handler. I guess I heard about him before I heard about anyone else. I had a good friend that helped me more than anybody else in getting my first dog, his name is John Langham and he told me about Mayfield. What a tremendous conditioner he was and a top competitor. I saw Mayfield match several dogs and that was pretty good. He was a hell of a conditioner. The first dog I saw him match that I was really impressed with was the SWIG dog of Weldon Stockton. All of this was before there was a law against fighting dogs, somewhere in the late sixties. I saw SWIG go into a little dog that Jimmie Jobe had, a dog called RUSTY. Well RUSTY was an odds-on favorite. He was a hell of a ear dog and was hard to get to. I remember that Mayfield brought in SWIG and he was 5lbs lighter that I would have brought the dog in and perhaps about 2lbs lighter than Ronnie Anderson would have brought him in. Razor thin and one of the strongest malnourished looking dogs I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s when I developed a great amount of respect for Mayfield as a conditioner. The dogs Mayfield had at that time were probably pretty good dogs, but he often used dogs that belonged to other people like Weldon and a lot of George’s dogs. Mayfield and George made a team that were real hard to beat. I never had much dog dealings with George or Mayfield. I bought the old BUD dog from Mayfield, which was a pure Heinzl dog. He was bred like Greenwood’s GENTLE BEN.

Do you believe the breed has improved over the years?Tremendously so. I think the dogs we have today are 20 or 30% better than the dogs back in the sixties, and perhaps 5% better than the dogs in the seventies. I look for the dogs to get better if the standards are kept and if the people are responsible in how they breed dogs. Because the genetic pool of good dogs is bigger than it has ever been before. The thing that I’ve seen happen with Bulldogs is that the popularity has grown immensely and a lot of people get Bulldogs that don’t need them. We have seen a lot of bad media on the dogs with the result that the general public doesn’t look at Bulldogs as any other breed, but see them almost like a white shark. A wild animal that is looking for something to mouth, something to kill. If we can change that image in the public eye, for what reason, and if the breed continues to exist, we have to do that. The main thing that I think is a problem and probably will be until the dogs are gone is indiscriminatebreeding. What started out with a genetic pool of very, very few dogs that were man aggressive has changed into a situation where we’ve now got several first class dogs that are very man aggressive, that’s a trait the old timers surely wouldn’t have carried on. I don’t know if it is all that bad a trait, but when it is in an uncontrollable man aggressive trait it sure can cause serious problems. Man eaters in the wrong hands, are also bad for the breed.

Being a President of the Long Star State Pit Bull Club… what’s that all about? The club was formed years ago by Perry Reneau to create a better understanding of the breed, to sort of fight the laws that were being enacted at the time. At that same time I became affiliated with the club. I went to Austin and spoke against the felony law, in other words, like spokesman for the club. Next time when the election came up, I was elected President and have been ever since, which has been 4 or 5 years now. We had 70 or 80 active members and about 20 or 30 workers. Most members are from this area, but also from Louisiana and Oklahoma and several other places. We can use everybody we can get, but this number of members is pitiful when you start thinking about the large group of Pit Bull owners in this Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Where did you get RUFUS? I got him from some people in Ft. Worth that are named Burnett. They had him as a pet, just a backyard dog. The reason why I liked him was because he was double up on that SATIN LADY side of the pedigree and I figured that was the strength. I knew that if you tighten the NIG stuff you seem to lose something because I’ve seen the tight NIG dogs and didn’t particularly like them. Some of them were good, but most were not. The SATIN LADY stuff was a gamble. I didn’t bred RUFUS a whole lot because I didn’t get him until he was 7 years old. I had RUFUS for a long time before I figured out he was deaf. The only deaf dogs from the ALLIGATOR line comes from RUFUS, but most of these deaf dogs are pretty Game dogs. I do think it is a disadvantage for a dog to be deaf and I certainly wouldn’t like to breed a line of deaf dogs, but I get one in every fifty or so dogs down from RUFUS that is deaf, but they are almost all those dogs and their littermates are always Game dogs.

What were the most successful combinations you have made?Well, I was very reluctant to use the BULLYSON line of dogs back years ago and one of the first people to encourage me and told me it would do good with the ALLIGATOR blood was Carver. I remember I thought he had good luck with it and I probably would fall on my face trying, but I’ve had good results with it, even better than with the ALLIGATOR/BRUNO cross. RUFUS bred to BLACK SISTER produced MICHELLE and Champion SPIKE of Frits Jansen, who proved to be as good a dog and also produced a good percentage of top Bulldogs in Europe. BLACK SISTER was from STOMPER and BONNIE BOOTS, that’s BULLYSON and ELI JR. STOMPER was a very good dog, a rough mean crazy Bulldog. I don’t know if he would have been my type of dog, but I sure was impressed with him. We bred RUFUS to LUCELLE, which was a STOMPER kind of bitch and we got Champion BRUTUS which is registered as SIMBA. Also, we got Champion TAR, ALLYEYSON, and several other good ones. Then I bred RUFUS to MAURICE and we got Jay Howard’s Champion JACK. MAURICE was out of Carver’s yard. And of course the breeding to MIDGET produced a bunch of good ones. MIDGET went back to GR. CH. ART and BLACK GEORGIA, so you are talking about a tremendous genetic pool and it is hard to go wrong when you breed such a bitch to a producer like RUFUS.

What is your ANDY L. dog out of? He is out of RUFUS bred back to MICHELLE, she is one of RUFUS daughters. MICHELLE was stolen after her first match where she did pretty good. ANDY L. is a pretty good dog. He is 8 years old. Andy Leteff had a brother to him called ROOSTER that was a good dog too.

What about your BRUNO dog from some years ago? He was a good one. I sure liked him. Everybody thought he was a cur, but he gave me 1 hour and 56 minutes against George’s COMER in Louisiana. I got him from some people in Arlington that had him as a pet. He was a little over 1 year old when I got him. He was a super dog. Intelligent and rough, and just a real good dog. The minute the fight was over with, BENNY BOB and BULLYSON, the Plumbers went up to Rick Halliburton to match BRUNO into BENNY BOB. Halliburton said he didn’t think he was interested. That shows you the quality of dog BRUNO was, BENNY BOB was a very good 50lb dog. BRUNO lost to GOMER which was a Champion dog, GOMER was a NIG bred dog. I believe GOMER was the first NIG cross bred dog that George used that came from Salty McKnight.

Can you tell a little bit about your VITO dog, and about the brindle male called PIG? VITO is the ugliest dog in Texas. I won several ugly dog awards with him. He is right out of RUFUS and SUE. He is a pure ALLIGATOR bred dog. He is producing some pretty good dogs. The man that has most of these dogs is Billy Haynes from Louisiana. He uses them as weight pull dogs. They are not suppose to be pulling dogs, but they don’t know that and they pull pretty good. Billy bred them even tighter than I would have and he had some good results doing it….so…the VITO dog is getting so old that part of the year he is not having good sperm anymore, so I have to check his sperm before I bred him. So far he has turned out to be a very good producer for me. The PIG dog is out of RUFUS and MAURICE. He is a straight cross, but comes from a good family and has produced some pretty good dogs too. His sister HARRY is the dam of that Champion EVIL dog and RUFIN, so I look for that to be a good foundation family of dogs for the future. I use PIG quite a bit and like what I’m getting from him. He is a smaller type of dog although he goes back to STOMPANATO on bottom and ALLIGATOR on the top. Both real big dogs.

What is the best weight pull dog you’ve seen? I’ve seen a couple I really like. But up until I saw BIG HEAD I thought weight pulls were for the other guy, I wasn’t really excited about it, but when I saw BIG HEAD come to the track I sat down and watched him pull, I was impressed. When his owner, John Bettes, dropped the pull lead and said, “pull BIG HEAD,” he would drop his head and here he comes. It gave me the chills to see him pull. He was strictly a command pull dog and the best I’ve seen.

What is the best fighting dog you’ve ever seen? That would be a very hard question to answer. I was involved with the Plumbers quite a bit. They had ALLIGATOR, SOKO and other good dogs. I got to handle ALLIGATOR in some pretty hard rolls. He was a rough “go and get them” kind of dog. He didn’t have a defensive bone in his body which would probably get him killed in today’s competition, but still I think there is not a whole lot of big dogs around that could compete with ALLIGATOR. He did take the bottom to win a couple of times, went uphill and went into some dogs that would have killed him if they had been more game. I’ve seen a bunch of dogs I liked pretty good, but even though he is a controversial dog, I have to say that GR. CH. ART was an awfully good dog. I refereed, I believe, two of his fights, one for sure. Also, JEREMIAH was a tremendous dog. I saw him win his last fight with no more than 2 teeth and he whipped a dog that Gene Ridley had that was a good one.

What is the best stud dog you’ve ever seen? I don’t know, there a lot of good stud dogs, but even the best stud dog can miss and produce nothing once in a while.

If you could make a choice between BIG HEAD, GR. CH. ART, or that famous stud of your dreams, which one would you pick? The stud dog for sure. The one that could produce the good ones. Breeding Pit Bulls is probably the hardest animal to breed in the world. I feel certain that dogs from Game stock make better protection animals, better catch dogs, and better pets than the scatter bred stuff in somebody’s back yard. The real dogs are just better dogs. I like to think that I’m a breeder of good dogs and some of them can fight a lick.