what became of ozzie stephens yard after he passed?

There were not a ton of dogs by then. As he said, "he was a little long in the tooth" at the time of his death.

This is a personal opinion, nothing more than nothing less.

He may have been the best conditioner of all time. Granted he had an awful lot of good dogs but he was the very best at peaking the particular individual dog he was working.

No one was ever better at saying, "that's enough for today". I'm not sure anyone could ever read a dog better.

With that said, a lot of his dogs were really good dogs but a lot of his dogs were really good dogs because he was the one standing on top of them.

In turn, it was hard for another person to breed his dogs and then duplicate/replicate his efforts.

There was a guy near here that bought a dog doubled on Cholly Boy and Red Ape. He himself was a game plug with average to above average mouth. He threw the same when bred to some Buck/Mayday type dogs.

The guy that helped me the most with working dogs was good friends with Mr. Stevens and Mr. Stevens dropped a boat load of knowledge on him. He did not mind giving out information as he was very self confident. He was also very confident the next guy would not put the amount of work and effort he did. He knew that and that knowledge was sometimes perceived as being conceited or self centered or even ego driven.

Sorry for the length. I started to answer the question and the babbling began.

S

 

The dogs were really good. I don't want the above post to sound like he worked miracles with sub-par dogs. That would be the furthest from the truth.

There were a lot of nights where he simply had the better dog. There were also nights where his keep set a pace the other could not maintain. In the end the better conditioned dog came out on top, but a good dog still the same.

He was one of the best.

S

 

This is very, very true. Not many at all.

Most of my dealings with him were second hand. The guy that helped me most with working the dogs was good friends and they talked often. When they met way back when Mr. Stevens was awfully impressed with the condition, strength, power and pace at a Saturday night get together. At first they compared notes and then in time they traded 'secrets'. The biggest secret they traded is that there are no secrets just hard work and commitment.

There was a show many years ago in the mountains of Virginia. Both were in attendance. There was a big to do over someone using steroids on their dog and that was the difference between the winner and the loser. One guy told the losing side that he did use steroids and he used a triple stack every day. The first steroid was called knowledge. The second was called effort and the third was called commitment. They should look into those supplements first. (in so many words, not a direct quote)

And one of my favorite quotes in these dogs is attributed to Mr. Stevens. "No on can tell you what a dog will do next time. But I can tell you what he did last time. And by what he did last time is why I will bet on him next time".

That's big time.

S