Intro to dogs

For the past two days, all the attention seems to be targeting Curious. I'm gonna try to lighten up the mood and talk about our own experiences into bulldogs. How did everyone get into dogs? Was it passed down from family members? Were you introduced into dogs by someone else? Picked up a book and was addicted to the breed? How was your first dog bred? Inbred, line, scatter, or backyard bred? Male or female? What was the dog like? How did you obtain the dog?

 

Edited-Please stay on topic-DryCreek

now for me, i owned my first dog in 1984. it was an unpapered dog i loved with all my heart. a brindle who was one beautiful dog. weighed about 38 pounds and was all bulldog. i got him from a some people who lived in the country and had i known then what i know now prbly could have learned as much or more from those people than anybody i have met to date. of course i had no idea then, my loss!

 

OK, let's do this then

I allways had a passion for raising dogs, for owning a dog , ever since I was a little kid. My first dog was a GSD that I got from the Police, she was a retired dog , and she would have died if me and my dad wouldn't take her in.
She stayed with us until she died off old age, and then whe got another GSD, a male this time and then a female. We got them for about 5 year, and then we had to give them away because we had to move and someone needed a good watch dog , so they where off to do they're duty. In the mean time , i was reading surfing the net and started searching about ABPT, very curious because i read 2 articles in a dog magazine from here , and was absolutlly fascinated about the breed. Even if a part of the article was negative, somehow I didn't think that those incidents are the true breed. So , i started searching the net , reading more , getting pictures, I could not affort Stratton books so I kept diggin' the net to find more info.

I wanted to get a dog , but at first my mom wouldn't let me . She said that these dogs where monster and so on , just from watching the news. Finnaly I got the dog I wanted, but it was a backyard breeding someone I knew, and the dogs didn't have any papers, but the parent's where GT.

So i got the little pup, and took it home , and my mom just fell in love with him, he managed to conquer my fathers heart and he grew up like you see in my gallery , the brindle one .
From that day , I continuoslly read about the breed, and I am still reading now because I feel like there is still more things to learn.

I had my first dog at about 8-9 years, and I got my apbt at 14. I know i was very young, but i was as responsible as any could be, and if you don't believe me, then read the next story ), and I want to keep on owning and raising this breed, but I do believe I have a lot more to learn , so i'm going to stick arroun d you guys and hopefully something off your wisdomn will rubb off

 

Take the personal stuff to p.m.'s please-DryCreek

 

Boogiemanblood and Curious, please take it to the pm's. I started this thread to find out how everyone got introduced to dogs. I appreciate you posting your story Boogieman and like you said, I wish I knew as much back then as I do now. I know its not exactly your week here Boogieman, your signature privilege was taken away and now Curious bickering with you. But seriously, can the both of you take it to pm's if you are going to bash on one another. Thanks.

 

jeff,


it's a good thread.....no problems here.

 

Thanks Boogieman. By the way, I love that picture of Nicodemus as a pup.

 

thanks! he really thought he was the man. lol

 

Breeding bulldogs it's like a tradition to the Klaus' family. My grandfather (R.I.P.) came to Brazil from Germany with his father during the 2nd World War in military service. When the war was over, they needed to hide to not be captured by the Brazilian Government (that invited their group), few years before, my grandfather, when falled in love to my grandmather, ask the German Army to bring some of his dogs (Bulldogs, called by him "Bullen Hounds" or "Bullen Beissers" and German Pointers) to Brazil. Several years later the father of my grandfater died (nobody never told me why) when my father was borning. My grandfather used his dogs to hunt (pointers) and for fighting and farm work (bulldogs). Two of their Pointers became famous in the doghunters circle, these dogs were called Duke and Gostoso. Some old people told me that these two dogs were the best hunters they ever saw.
The bulldog breed tradition was passed to my father when he got age, and the same happen to me, the problem was that we lost our blood when my father gave up to breed them, it happen when my grandfather died by cancer. Later my father told me what to do, I learn a lot with him, but with some brazilian dogmen as well. I was young (3-4 years old) when I had my first one (a male called Boca-Negra)... but of course that it was figurative...
...my first bulldog, REAL MINE... was a Bellon/Bullyson bitch, Dhara's dam and a few later Boudreaux' Turca, that gave me my first W... and the second too

I never was closed enough to Eddie (who bred Zeke and Goldie to take Bolio), to take his experiences in breeding the american dogs. Today I have no German blood in my yard, all are American or Mexican blood... but Diablo that is half "mexican Boudreaux" and half blood from Costa Rica (i don't know certainly, but he is a good performer...)

Wow, looks like a book of history

This is a good topic to know each other.

 

Being from the city pit bulls and mixes were abouty the only dogs around so you get a "trial by fire" when dealing with pit bulls. I always wanted a dog, but wasnt allowed to have one due to small living space. Since I couldnt own a dog, i used to hang out with local street fighters that had BYB dogs and no idea about bloodlines. When I moved out I got my first game-dog and would accept nothing less from that day forward.

 

I had cats all my life...yup love the little feline creatures. I got divorced and swore never again until I met my current husband LOL. He was just about the perfect guy but he had this mean lookin, child eating, viscous APBT. I just knew the dog was bad news - all the papers said so. So my man introduced me to this HUGE, BAD ASS DOG...my first comment was, why is he so little? This dog then proceeded to walk right up to me turn around and plant his ass on both my feet. Well it was love at first sight. I dug into my analysis, learned the true nature of the breed. My first encounter with this breed was with this magnificent dog we call Buddy...he is a 45 lb, 11 yr old male APBT, Mountain Man/St. Bennidicts cross. He is a solid dog from head to toe - and my two daughters and I can't remember a time before him. Of course then we hosed everything up and rescued a little female Am Staff (show bred)...she is a 32 lb, seed of the devil She is nothing like our male, but with lots of leadership and training she has come to be a good dog...I gotta say the little bitch challanges me everyday to see if I have conceded the pack leader role....a PB thing or a woman thing....hmmmmmmmmmmm

 

Growing up we always had APBT's, the dogs were there before I was born. The 2 I remember the most were female "Tippy " and male "spider man" ( the kids named him ) before them we had one named Barny Goo Goo I really don't remeber him excpet family photo's. My unlce had many,they didn't last long on his yard, when I got older I figured out why.

At 14 y/o my parents let me have my very own his name was "Conan" . I had to do alot of chores over at my uncles farm to earn him. Conan was probably the best damn dog I ever owned. Not exaclty sure what bloodline he was but my unlce ran mostly with Colby dogs so im pretty sure thats what he was. Any ways , my dog was the greatest pal a young boy could have growing up on the farm.

 

I can relate to Jeeperino's story. I got into the breed while I was living in CA. I grew up in a low-income, high crime-rate neighborhood. The neighborhood dogs were ethier "pit bulls," Rottweilers or Dobermans. We had a GSD at the time, strictly for guard work. Anyhow, I attended many street fights starting at about 6 or 7 year old. However, these were short lived because the older street thugs would use any of three breeds that I mentioned. I was young and I am ashamed of it to this day for being a spectator. However, my uncle brought home two little pied colored pups one day and I was sold. He named them Buffy and Spotty. They were backyard bred, but grew up to be handsome dogs. No HA or DA in them. Got my first book by R. Stratton when I was 11 and have been a fan since.

 

Nice try Curious, you fancy penmenship give ya away. Time for you to go bye bye.

 

I have been dog obsessed since I was wee little. Some girls are doll or horse obsessed, I was dog obsessed. I ran around on all fours barking until I was like 6 years old, quite embarrased lol. Anyways, I grew up with american showline german shepherd dogs. Had 2 westies at one time and liked terriers. I began liking working dogs in general because I grew up seeing the deterioration of so many of the breeds in the show ring. I will never again own a showline GSD, only working lines please. Amazing dogs.
How I first began to like put bulls is another story. I was about eight years old. For a few years previously, pit bull attacks became the daily thing. There were pit bulls everywhere and we lived in a not so nice end of town where the idiots that owned all these pit bulls were. Luck has it, idiot around the corner is so wasted he watches his dog jump off of his balcony and wander the neighboorhood for an hour, jumping into peoples backyards over their privacy fences. The owner did nothing. I saw the dog running around, but stayed in my backyard/house. Well my cat (who grew up around westies, gsds, grooming dogs, and a property full of coyotes and foxes) was sleeping on our front porch and thought nothing of the dog approching. Long story short, the dog killed my cat on my front lawn, in front of the whole neighboorhood. At this point, with all the media coverage, my mother not liking pit bulls (she was a big influence at that point) and never having been introduced to one, I did not like the breed. But after the whole scene, I thought about it. The dog was kicked, hit, beaten with various items, had things thrown at it, screamed at and finally choked off by my uncle until it went purple (white dog) and let go. There was easily 15-20 people, including children all around while this was going on. The dog never once tried to bite anyone or acted aggressively (except to my cat). I knew the owners were idiots, they walked the dog with weights on its back, sicked it after animals in the neighboorhood, rumour had it they bred rats to train it on or something, typical stuff. And they watched it roam the neighboorhood.
Anyways, animal control came and seized the dog. The dog had rabies tags and city tags, and the owners were notified. They never tried to claim their dog. This hit me hard. I had watched my cat die to this dog, but the dog harmed no person. And even though I was young, I understood this dog was only doing it's job, what it had been trained and encouraged to do. And he died for doing his job. I am getting teary eyed writing it.
All of this slowly grew into a great respect for the breed I have today. I waited 10 years after that incident until I was in the proper place to own an apbt, and I don't regret it for a minute. I got exactly what I wanted.

 

Please take it to p.m.'s-DryCreek

 

Well, I had several different breeds, but when I got my first bulldog, it was on! My dad was into them, but we did not live with him, so I wasnt around his yard as much as my kids are. I never read books, internet research, but I learned the same way I suggested to cuious, I started by shoveling poop for another man's yard. Then he let me have the priveledge of cleaning the water bowls and keeping them clean, then feeding, then hand walking them, then...(get my point?). But through doing all the crap work, I learned how to properly contain, and maintain a bulldog. And not just one, a whole yard. This man had on average 180 bulldogs, so you can just imagine how much work it was, and I started at age 16. And for all my work guess how much I got paid. Go ahead guess. One year later I got a pup. But the real payment was in the learning. It is one thing to get head knowledge, and quite another to have working knowledge. Now adays folks dont want to do it that way, it's all about "what do I get out of it".
Did that make me have no problems? No, but you better bet it prevented many. One thing is for sure, had I not had the priveledge to help that dogman out on his yard, I might could have winged having 1, maybe 2 non-gamebred dogs, but I have had as many as 82 high strung atheletes, and once you get up to 6 or more, the whole situation changes, then 12 is a different situation, etc. And if you add to the situation by conditioning these animals, you have just compounded the responsibility 100 fold. One slip having conditioned dogs on the yard can wipe the yard out! Trust me, I have had it happen to myself! Now I go overboard on containment, some laugh about it, but I just dont have the problems.
Also learned how to keep the yard parasite free, dog parasite free, proper feeding, use of chemicals on dogs and yard, emergancy care of animals, I could go on for days what an apprenticship can teach an up anc coming dogman/woman.
I havent even mentioned learning how to condition the dogs. There's much to learn there that no book can teach you. I have much respect for the great conditioners.
I have said enough for the moment.
Cheers!

 

.....................................................EDIT oops that was off topic

 

This thread has the potential to be very informative and interesting if we can keep it on track. Thanks for starting it Searcy Jeff

I married into the breed quite a few years ago. My husband has been around/owned them since he was a little gaffer. It was love at first encounter though. I had never read any bad press about them before my first meeting so I was open to meeting the dogs with no bias one way or the other. I've always been a dog lover and this breed for me is the best I've ever dealt with. Intelligent, clownish, affectionate and so much more.

Since my first experience I've dealt with many more APBT's through my work at the SPCA and at the Animal Hospitals I've worked at.

I was fortunate in that my learning about the breed was done by talking to many people who had much experience with them. I also spent a lot of time on the internet searching through all the crap trying to find out everything I could about them.

I seem to have become somewhat obsessive about the breed and BSL but I wouldn't have it any other way. :p

 

My PeaPaw had a black and white catch weight dog named "Bones" when I was growing up and ALL my friends had APBTs. My mother was terrified of them so I wasnt allowed to have on until I moved out of the house. That was the 2nd thing I bought after leaving home. The first was a tattoo. I didnt get into Game Dogs until I was a little older and my half brother enlightened me. He had a BULLDOG named "Dusty" that was a bad gyp. After running into TripleJ a few years ago it rekindled my fire and I had to get back in the saddle. He gave me the best bred dog Ive ever had, Duke Jr. Tight bred Bullyson. I cant wait to show him off. I have a few pics of him in my gallery but he looks TOTALLY different now.. I'll post some fresh ones as soon as I can. YIS, D.