I Visited Maurice Carver's Home

I Visited Maurice Carver’s Home

Pat Patrick

In 1970 Maurice Carver was likely the most famous active dog man alive. Earl Tudor was a living legend but he was not active then. Maurice Carver was known as an all around dog man. He was considered one of the best breeders of Game dogs as well as a skillful Handler and Conditioner. Maurice was so famous that if you told a dog man he would be another Maurice Carver it was quite a compliment. If a dog man was acting like a know-it-all someone might say… “who does he think he is, Maurice Carver.”

In 1970 Maurice was not matching nearly as many dogs as he used to. For the past few years he had concentrated on breeding and selling dogs. These dogs he sold were winning like crazy all over the U.S.A. and in Mexico. No, they did not always win, but they did win over 80% of their matches against the best competition. In June of 1970 I matched my first dog. The dog I was matching was TATER, a 50lb Red red-nosed dog. I purchased TATER from Keith Allen when he got out of the dog Game. TATER was a great dog and I was very confident he could beat any dog. Arny Steinberg helped me buy TATER from Keith and we matched TATER together. The dog that TATER fought came from Maurice Carver and his name was RASTUS. TATER won the fight in two hours and 10 minutes.

It was a great fight between two Ace dogs. Later Arny and I talked about what a great dog this RASTUS was. We had seen TATER crush the biggest toughest dogs around in 15 minutes or less. TATER had to come from behind to beat RASTUS and the damage RASTUS did was amazing. I believe RASTUS would have beaten any 50lb dog in the world except TATER. We decided if Maurice was selling dogs of this quality then we should buy a dog from him. I was pretty nervous about calling Maurice Carver. He was so famous and I was still a beginner. He was very easy to talk to. He congratulated me on the win over RASTUS and invited me to visit his place. I stayed at his house for two days and he showed me at least 125 dogs including about 15 Game tested, Match ready dogs. He had many dogs on his Yard. And about 50 more yards nearby. This was 1970 and the price he wanted for Match dogs was $500. He told me the style and Pit weight of each Match dog as well as their breeding. We talked dogs of course. You could learn a lot from Maurice Carver even in a casual two day visit. Most of the dogs available were what is now sometimes referred to as old Carver dogs. I don’t think he had bred any bitches to BULLYSON at this time. These were dogs heavy in BLACK WIDOW, RASCAL (Trahan’s) ZEKE, PISTOL, RENO, SAD SAC, and IRONHEAD. I really believe I was visiting the best all around dog Yard in the world. I can tell the readers that Carver’s IRONHEAD was definitely Maurice Carver’s favorite living dog in 1970. He was very proud of IRONHEAD and he beamed with pride when he showed me this great old dog. Maurice won three times with IRONHEAD. He took IRONHEAD to California and won a long hard Match with him. I think he also won with him in Texas. IRONHEAD’S hardest Match was against a Bitch in Mexico. This Bitch kept a jaw hold on IRONHEAD for 50 minutes but he still won the fight. IRONHEAD is even more famous for his Offspring than his excellent Pit record.

Maurice had named all his Game tested Match dogs he called them by name. I saw Norman Hooten’s famous CH. BUTCHER BOY when he was there. He had one Match dog that was priced at $800 instead of $500. He was the strongest, most perfect built dog I have ever seen. He was the Terrier type of dog, but very wiry and muscular. He moved like a cat. This dog’s name was PRINCE. I ask Maurice why PRINCE was $300 more than the other dogs. He told me that all the Match dogs were good fighters, but PRINCE was better than any of them. He could go right into the other dog’s mouth and ruin him that way. He said PRINCE would also work the head and throat like a champ and he would not hesitate to go into the stomach or privates. So you can see PRINCE is a dangerous dog. To this day I regret not buying PRINCE. PRINCE ended up with a Florida dog man.

He won a Match in 18 minutes when the other dog was picked up Game. He was killed in a Yard fight or he most certainly would have become a Champion or Grand Champion. He was a 39lb Brindle dog, one of the best. Arny and I were going in together on this dog from Maurice Carver. When I phoned him and told him about the Match dogs for sale he wanted to get a son of RENO and MISS SPIKE called DIAMOND. I wanted to bring PRINCE back, but I went along with Arny’s choice of DIAMOND. If I could do it again I would have let Arny buy DIAMOND and I would have bought PRINCE for myself.

Hell, come to think of it, if I could do it over again I would have bought a number of dogs from Maurice, but hind sight is perfect. After a very fine weekend I flew home with DIAMOND, a short stocky 40lb black and white dog. A few weeks later we rolled DIAMOND and he performed the way Maurice said he would. We challenged Freddie Jones and his two winner MAJOR, the best 41lb dog on the West Coast. MAJOR was six years old so we thought he may have slowed down a step or two. Maurice knew MAJOR well and he told us to win a fight with a lesser dog first to get our money back and then fight MAJOR. DIAMOND was three years old and we decided to take the MAJOR fight since DIAMOND had youth on his side. I put DIAMOND in real good shape and he won in 1 hour and 50 minutes when Freddie picked MAJOR up game.

I sold my half of DIAMOND to Arny. Arny matched DIAMOND into Freddie Jones Bart and DIAMOND was picked up Game at two hours and died after the Match. DIAMOND had shown in these two matches to be a high class Match dog worth much more than $500 we paid for him. I remembered the names of the different Match dogs Maurice had offered me for sale.

Over the next year or so I read about the Match dogs I could have bought winning matches for other dog men. I believe any dog Maurice offered me as a Match dog would have been a good one. The good dogs Maurice Carver bred and sold all over the country in the late sixties and early seventies improved the overall quality of gamedogs nationwide. I am glad I visited him and I wish I had gone back for more visits and good dogs.