Game bred American pit bull terriers

I would respectfully attempt to clarify that "old family red nose" is not actually game bred at this point in the 21st century. The term "old family red nose" is a term that was used around the turn of the 20th century to describe a group/family/line of game bred bull & terriers brought to the US from mainly Irish immigrants. These dogs were apparently red/red nose and were known for their gameness. The term "old family" was basically referring to a family of Irish import red/red nose dogs from the "old country". The term was used "appropriately" through the first part of the 20th century, up through the 1950's, 60's and even into the 70's. There were a handful of breeders who could trace their dogs back to heavily influenced "old family red nose" stock. Breeders such as Jake Wilder, Bob Hemphill, Bob Wallace and Bill Lightner. These breeders often swapped dogs with each other, traded, bred to each others dogs, etc. Their dogs were mostly red/red nose/ red toenails/ etc. As the 1960's and 70's approached, the term "old family red nose" was really not even being used anymore by gamedog men. The dogs at that point were just referred to by the name of their respective breeders because they were so far removed from actual OLD FAMILY dogs by that time, example: Wallace dogs, Hemphill dogs, Lightner dogs etc. I feel I am uniquely qualified to verify this, because my mentor (the man who schooled me) was a protégé of Bob Wallace. Bob Wallace had two protégé young dogmen who he mentored during the 1950's-60's. One was my mentor /partner / friend of 30 years, and the other was Richard Stratton (that's right, the same Richard Stratton who writes all the books, as Mr Stratton was stationed at Jacksonville Air Force Base in Little Rock). When these men died, the reputation of their dogs died with them. Bob Wallace was from Little Rock, ARK and was a gameness fanatic. But you won't see a dog anywhere in 2015 that has Wallace blood running through it, and it most certainly will not be "gamebred". The same goes for Lightner, Hemphill, etc. While these dogs are beautiful animals, and will represent the traditional "look" of the old family red nose, they in all likelihood will not be game-bred. This is not to step on any toes, but most folks do not understand the meaning of the term "game-bred". I believe it would be a pretty fair assessment to argue that an "old family red nose" dog had not been seen, used, or bred by any SERIOUS GAMEDOG MAN since probably the 1980's. They are just not game-bred anymore, and they haven't been for decades. Now what does game-bred mean? Just because a bulldog had some game ancestors somewhere back in the 6th generation, this does not make them gamebred. Gameness is recessive, and it must be tested for, selected for, and held onto religiously. There are breeders out there who breed, raise, and catch with big red/red nose dogs. And they make great hog dogs in most cases, because they are NOT GAMEBRED. A lot of times, people will just call them "old family red nose" simply to describe any red/red nose pitbull. The truth, most all lines of pitbulls throw red nosed dogs, depending on what they are crossed with. And to go back far enough in a pedigree to find some dogs that were actually "old family red nose", you would have to be able to trace that back to the 1960's.

As for Chinaman blood. Chinaman was sired by Woods Trouble and out of Abernathy's Molly. Chinaman was basically an Eli bred dog, for the most part. A lot of people don't know that. Was Chinaman a great producer? Was he a piece of crap? Definitely NOT. He was a very good dog. His most famous son (I guess) was Garner's Frisco. I had a son of Frisco X Hollingsworth Polly. Decent dog, but nothing to write home about. Frisco threw a fairly high percentage of curs, but threw some good dogs also. That is the most difficult part of the equation that most folks have trouble understanding. It's not the bloodline that makes the dog good . . . it's the dog that makes the bloodline good. Chinaman blood, Eli blood, Jeep blood, or Old Family blood . . . its not the blood you need, it's a GOOD DOG from the bloodline that's important. Most Chinaman blood you see now will be down from Frisco. Nothing wrong with Chinaman blood, it's just WHICH CHINAMAN dog specifically is the blood coming from. The blood running through the dogs veins from years back will not make the dog a good dog. One dog that plays a major role in the Chinaman blood that's out there and available to the public now is Garner's Ch. Simba. Simba quit (curred out) against GR CH Spanky. And then he was taken home and bred to lots of females and lots of puppies were sold.

I guess the moral of the story is, a bloodline is only as good as the man who buys its feeds and culls it.