xgarrettxvx
Big Dog
(ever since i've realized my reg. apbt has american bulldog in him, i've done a lot of research, and even took care of one for a while, i really like this breed a lot, and i found this series of interviews. I found a guy named Ralph Gaston, we share a fairly uncommon last name so io was intrigued, who is apparently a big name in the AB world, here's a really informative interview with him and i didn't see any copyrights so here you go.)
This is the first in a series of online interviews with some of the more influential breeders within the American Bulldog community. The breeders will be given questions by a panel comprised of John Germeroth, Mark Jacobs, Tom Cain and Dave Putnam. It will start with six standard questions and move on to specific questions. Each panelist will provide two specific questions. Panelist questions will be given in the order listed above. The first breeder is Ralph Gaston of Screaming Eagle Kennels...
1) Q: What is the biggest challenge facing your yard?
A:..........right now-----cleaning up after another Alaskan winter.........(chuckle).........seriously...?.......hmmmmm let me see............deciding whether or not to continue with my desires in the dogs------or give them up for the time being to move south in pursuit of a professional archery career that I have an insatiable itch for before I have to sign up in the senior class-----especially after the State and record setting Regional scores that I had achieved as an amateur this winter/spring that rivaled all pro scores shot in the same venue during that time period around the country...........balancing all of my personal desires with those of my loving wife and 3 wonderful daughters.............
2) Q: Name the two or three most influential dogs in your scheme?
A: Without a doubt.......that would have to be Jack Frost and the Terminator dog for males.........and Annabelle for the females........it was the Dick the Bulldog/Annabelle breeding that threw my Willow female.......the combination of Jack Frost/Willow that threw the Point Blank dog in their first breeding-----and the Willie dog in their second breeding........ ............what can anyone say negative about Jack Frost--?--except for the fact that he carries just over 1% EB from the High Hopes dog in his background------as if that amounts to anything in his descendants at all.........Jack was a very forward, formidable and serious dog in his time......very WILLING to say the least.......and who's phenotype is rampant in my dogs today................. ...............the addition of the Terminator dog to my yard was something that people have had a bit of trouble coming to terms with-----mainly because they were not around him in person nor have seen the change that the addition of his blood had made for my yard when used in combination with what had already been going on............he was a definate asset, and would be used again without a second thought..........find and ask any person that has owned his progeny if they would trade what they had recieved, out for a different animal.............to this day, go to Mike Walz's yard and try to get him to sell his Rowdy bitch-----"aint gonna' happen"........
3) Q: What is the biggest mistake people make when they start their own yard?
A: I would have to say that my first impulse answer is to be in too big of a hurry to produce dogs for public sale and recognition.....grasping at straws in anyones yard simply to get started as a "breeder".......then being too quick to become involved in the marketing of pups............starting some kind of half assed line/inbreeding program and selling off to the public prior to gaining knowledge of what they might be uncovering and aligning in their blood......... ........if I had my last 15 years to do over again----we would not be having this conversation now, because no one would no me from Adam...............I would have never sold a single dog------and everything that was not utilized would have been culled............there were dogs that were sold out that I would've definately preferred to have raised for the future of my yard........but hindsight is always perfect............Point Blank would still be speaking English with the Alaskan accent(a head/body/frame to absolutely die for), all Terminator offspring would have remained up here, Bonnies sister Roxie(the fastest 70 pound dog that I have ever layed eyes on) would have never been sent to Chicago all those years ago to be bred, where she "mysteriously dissapeared"..........my good friend up here Paul Sturgeon would be owning a completely different dog rather than the awesome Comet male that he has out of Point Blank and Odessa(well---that one I would let slide....lol)......etc....etc..........on.......and on............and on...............I would be light years ahead of anything that I am remotely approaching-------if I would have known then, what I do know now.............
4) Q: What are the major challenges we face as breeders/owners of ABs?
A:...........how long do you have for an answer to this one.........?.......... ....my first thoughts tend to lead me in the direction of the preservation of the true to type Performance Bulldog into the future........people have different ideas on how to accomplish this, and it will be interesting 20-30 years from now to see the results that will come forth from the current seemingly conflicting schools of thought..........will we have a Bulldog that has it's noted utilitarianism still intact as a result of ALL of the modern influance.....?........or will we have 2 different breeds of dog emerge from the Performance Bulldog ranks "alone".........?.........one remaining semi-historically correct---in size and function------and the other replacing the more popular guarding dogs of the 20th century........... ...........but then, that thought is immediately followed up by preserving the privilage of ownership for those that will come after us.............Stewardship is a somewhat fickle thing to ponder..........and I think that for the most part, we are all too involved with our own click of people or holding fast to our own idea of what the Bulldog should be(a somewhat contradictory statement for me, of all people to say----but please hear me out)........and unfortunately for everyone, this inadvertantly starts to build walls between us.....so much so, that after a while---we no longer even bother to try to pear across them.........the wall becomes more important than the cause.................are we doing everything possible to insure that there will be a future for Bulldogs......?..........the sideline debates that we participate in on the boards from time to time have their place---I believe that iron sharpens iron.............but at some point in time, we have to realize that the non-Bulldog public views us ALL no differently from one another........ ...........so the future is up to us..........we have to gain some sort of perspective in the direction of comradery and brotherhood-------or the debates and arguments over breeding schemes/methods of testing/most influental studs/best hip scores/most titled dog/largest dog/most colored/least colored------will mean very little if we are only pointing at photos in an album to explain what a Bulldog------was......to our grandchildren someday..........
5) Q: What are the most frustrating and rewarding experiences you have had with the breed?
A:........frustration defined in it's simplest form is a rendering worthless of efforts towards some desired objective....... .....I have said many times to people that I have failed far more times than I have succeeded in this little hobby that I have called Bulldogs..... .....I have had my hopes dashed by an animal(s) that I, or more importantly, my daughters have loved-----only to watch it come down with one of the common maladies that strike our breed....... .....I have had to console people that have gotten dogs from me and then have something unforseen happen to it cutting its young life short----one of the more recent events of last fall with someone that you know-----still bothers me deeply to this day...... .....my heart breaks as I see Jack Frost aging the way that he is nowadays, and trying to only see him---as I remember him........ ......I spent two weeks in literal depression after I had to put Bolo down because I was ignorant enough to run him behind a wheeler all those years ago, not realizing that his heart had been severely weakened by parvo when he was a young pup...... ....I cried like a child at the vets office and hid my face from my family for over a week when my pit bull Bud had broken his back, and they told me that there was nothing that could be done for him short of severing his spinal cord and having him pull himself around in a cart for the remainder of his days-----nothing that I would ask a warrior to do, simply so that I could keep him around and prolong his valiant life........damn----this one still causes me to tear up even after 8 years passing................................ ..........I have had to deal with very personal yet definate feelings of regret in developing a switch within me to be able to do what I know has to be done to a puppy that was born with the wrong set of emotional/behavioral characteristics, while having my daughters struggle to understand what I am doing.........completely contrary to popular belief----I have never enjoyed looking into an innocent pups eyes and ending its life.....but I knew that as a breeder, I had bonded myself with certain criteria and conduct that I knew were beneficial to the distant goal of producing a superior animal than what I had found at first..........................................................
............I have enjoyed watching the ones grow that have made it through the testing and are fine representatives of my effort and the combined help of others that have helped me tirelessly in this pursuit who will----by and large----go completely unrecognized.......... ............I enjoy when someone that has one of my dogs cannot wait to be able to tell me of something that it has done that is nothing short of extraordinary in their eyes....... ...........I have enjoyed working with people to place a good dog in their hands regardless of whether or not they were in a position to afford it, because they were deserving of such consideration.......... ..........I have snickered time and again when someone who has gotten a dog from me----has come back when it was mature trying to convince me that I had sold them the BEST dog that I have produced------I cannot help but to reassure them, while thinking to myself----"No, you just own the best in comparison to your personal preconcieved standard of everything that you have ever owned---or had been exposed to before."....... ............I enjoy the e-mails from folks such as Dennie Welch nearly busting at the seams to be able to give me an update on his Comet sons latest advancement in training....... ............I enjoy watching my daughters when they don't realize that I am doing so-----coddling a puppy while the breeze is blowing gently in their hair....... ............I enjoy walking out on the little porch in the morning and having Newton meet me there still---after all of these years---every single day, to have me lay my hand on his wide head-----ears back-----staring deeply at me with those loving brown eyes............ ............I enjoy seeing fruition of effort after 15 years of heartbreak and limited joy.............
.........yes.........my frustrations and experiences of reward can be catagorized somewhat differently I assume than most-------but they are mine nonetheless....................
6) Q: What are your goals for the next 24 months? 60 months?
A:.............I am afraid that I would have a bit of trouble addressing a set of such short sighted goals...........with much introspection on my part about 6 months or so ago now, I had come to the conclusion that I wanted to break my yard in half and start to line breed dealing with specific dogs on either side............both sides having a degree of Jack Frost in it because his blood in my yard is fairly inescapable at the current time..........one side dealing with the Terminator blood---the other side dealing specifically with animals that owe their lineage to the Dick and Annabelle dogs to which Point Blank and Willie trace their recent roots.............after several years of doing this I plan on taking select PROVEN specimans from the ranks of each side, and cross them over one another to begin to funnel the two into one linebreeding program consisting of the very best of the bloods that I have had at my disposal...........I am not saying that at the end of 10-15 years from now that I will finally end up with that ONE SUPERDOG prize as a result of such a lengthy or painstaking effort.........to the contrary, the best dog to be produced could pop up at any given time on either side of the proposed equation..............but what I am after in this concerted effort would be to perfect the OVERALL litter as a whole to the point where the cull rate would be reduced to a bare minimum, with fine typed specimans of Bulldogs growing out of their ranks............I am also in no way kidding myself to feel that I will be on top of the Bulldog world in my pursuit as I have just described it..........I believe that there are many others in a similar quest within their own yard and scheme that will rival anything that I can concieve in my own corner of the world up here------but it is a good thing, I believe---to set some form of distant goal and attempt to map out how to get there..............
........all of this is completely contingent upon whether or not I give up the dogs within a year or so completely, to pursue a burgeoning Archery career.........at which time the animals will be placed within specific homes where my wishes for them will continue on and I will retain somewhat of a control over them...........but this remains to be seen............
7) Q: Knowing that the APBT is and has always been the "king of the ring," why would one breed for game tested and proven ABs, and how could this come into play as far as man work goes?
A:..........hmmmmmmm.......do I ever get the feeling that this was a question specifically designed for me.........I can only imagine how John would answer this..........lol......... ........it is no great secret within the Bulldog community among those who know of me how I feel about the desire/ability to pass on an animal into the future that has, by definition of the historical context of the word----earned the right and privilege to be called a Bulldog........I have said many times that "Bulldog is an ability"----I would consider it a verb----a word denoting action and that alone..........a word that carries with it the weight of hundreds of generations of predecessors that were physically and mentally equipped to handle the most daunting of tasks..........the most noble of canine titles in near 500 years.........the fires that forged this name and ability, if let to fade into simple glowing embers and smolder into memory and antiquity-----will be a travesty to the name and title itself.........and will take with it the Bulldog as it has been known and understood......this is what I believe..... ..........I simply cannot concieve that the ability will continue into the future, for the sake of the name and title alone...........without the diligent fueling and forging of the flame............. ........I am of the belief that the qualities that attracted everyone to the Bulldog in the first place---are a direct result of it being bred on the extreme of what I have just said..........we as owners feel that there is very little that a properly weighted and structurally sound Bulldog cannot do..........we call this particular quality " utilitarian versatility".........this quality is not inherent within every working class canine breed........so there has had to have been something different about a Bulldogs historic past and development that sufficently and undeniably seperates it from the rest..........that difference, I believe----is the fires fueled by the blood of their ancestors that I have mentioned above.........only in the pressure/heat of the Refiners Fire-----is Gold brought to purity......... .........on the other hand I am more of a realist than a dreamer-----and recognize the fact that "no change--is change".........we are not living in those days of old-----and time will tell whether or not there is room in the future for the type of dog that I love.............. ..........as I have already said-------it remains to be seen whether or not the qualities that attract us to the Bulldog in the true Performance ranks of today, will be retained 30 or more years into the future, given that amount of time being bred on modern theoretical guard dog criteria........let's not even talk about the Showing of them right now............
This is the first in a series of online interviews with some of the more influential breeders within the American Bulldog community. The breeders will be given questions by a panel comprised of John Germeroth, Mark Jacobs, Tom Cain and Dave Putnam. It will start with six standard questions and move on to specific questions. Each panelist will provide two specific questions. Panelist questions will be given in the order listed above. The first breeder is Ralph Gaston of Screaming Eagle Kennels...
1) Q: What is the biggest challenge facing your yard?
A:..........right now-----cleaning up after another Alaskan winter.........(chuckle).........seriously...?.......hmmmmm let me see............deciding whether or not to continue with my desires in the dogs------or give them up for the time being to move south in pursuit of a professional archery career that I have an insatiable itch for before I have to sign up in the senior class-----especially after the State and record setting Regional scores that I had achieved as an amateur this winter/spring that rivaled all pro scores shot in the same venue during that time period around the country...........balancing all of my personal desires with those of my loving wife and 3 wonderful daughters.............
2) Q: Name the two or three most influential dogs in your scheme?
A: Without a doubt.......that would have to be Jack Frost and the Terminator dog for males.........and Annabelle for the females........it was the Dick the Bulldog/Annabelle breeding that threw my Willow female.......the combination of Jack Frost/Willow that threw the Point Blank dog in their first breeding-----and the Willie dog in their second breeding........ ............what can anyone say negative about Jack Frost--?--except for the fact that he carries just over 1% EB from the High Hopes dog in his background------as if that amounts to anything in his descendants at all.........Jack was a very forward, formidable and serious dog in his time......very WILLING to say the least.......and who's phenotype is rampant in my dogs today................. ...............the addition of the Terminator dog to my yard was something that people have had a bit of trouble coming to terms with-----mainly because they were not around him in person nor have seen the change that the addition of his blood had made for my yard when used in combination with what had already been going on............he was a definate asset, and would be used again without a second thought..........find and ask any person that has owned his progeny if they would trade what they had recieved, out for a different animal.............to this day, go to Mike Walz's yard and try to get him to sell his Rowdy bitch-----"aint gonna' happen"........
3) Q: What is the biggest mistake people make when they start their own yard?
A: I would have to say that my first impulse answer is to be in too big of a hurry to produce dogs for public sale and recognition.....grasping at straws in anyones yard simply to get started as a "breeder".......then being too quick to become involved in the marketing of pups............starting some kind of half assed line/inbreeding program and selling off to the public prior to gaining knowledge of what they might be uncovering and aligning in their blood......... ........if I had my last 15 years to do over again----we would not be having this conversation now, because no one would no me from Adam...............I would have never sold a single dog------and everything that was not utilized would have been culled............there were dogs that were sold out that I would've definately preferred to have raised for the future of my yard........but hindsight is always perfect............Point Blank would still be speaking English with the Alaskan accent(a head/body/frame to absolutely die for), all Terminator offspring would have remained up here, Bonnies sister Roxie(the fastest 70 pound dog that I have ever layed eyes on) would have never been sent to Chicago all those years ago to be bred, where she "mysteriously dissapeared"..........my good friend up here Paul Sturgeon would be owning a completely different dog rather than the awesome Comet male that he has out of Point Blank and Odessa(well---that one I would let slide....lol)......etc....etc..........on.......and on............and on...............I would be light years ahead of anything that I am remotely approaching-------if I would have known then, what I do know now.............
4) Q: What are the major challenges we face as breeders/owners of ABs?
A:...........how long do you have for an answer to this one.........?.......... ....my first thoughts tend to lead me in the direction of the preservation of the true to type Performance Bulldog into the future........people have different ideas on how to accomplish this, and it will be interesting 20-30 years from now to see the results that will come forth from the current seemingly conflicting schools of thought..........will we have a Bulldog that has it's noted utilitarianism still intact as a result of ALL of the modern influance.....?........or will we have 2 different breeds of dog emerge from the Performance Bulldog ranks "alone".........?.........one remaining semi-historically correct---in size and function------and the other replacing the more popular guarding dogs of the 20th century........... ...........but then, that thought is immediately followed up by preserving the privilage of ownership for those that will come after us.............Stewardship is a somewhat fickle thing to ponder..........and I think that for the most part, we are all too involved with our own click of people or holding fast to our own idea of what the Bulldog should be(a somewhat contradictory statement for me, of all people to say----but please hear me out)........and unfortunately for everyone, this inadvertantly starts to build walls between us.....so much so, that after a while---we no longer even bother to try to pear across them.........the wall becomes more important than the cause.................are we doing everything possible to insure that there will be a future for Bulldogs......?..........the sideline debates that we participate in on the boards from time to time have their place---I believe that iron sharpens iron.............but at some point in time, we have to realize that the non-Bulldog public views us ALL no differently from one another........ ...........so the future is up to us..........we have to gain some sort of perspective in the direction of comradery and brotherhood-------or the debates and arguments over breeding schemes/methods of testing/most influental studs/best hip scores/most titled dog/largest dog/most colored/least colored------will mean very little if we are only pointing at photos in an album to explain what a Bulldog------was......to our grandchildren someday..........
5) Q: What are the most frustrating and rewarding experiences you have had with the breed?
A:........frustration defined in it's simplest form is a rendering worthless of efforts towards some desired objective....... .....I have said many times to people that I have failed far more times than I have succeeded in this little hobby that I have called Bulldogs..... .....I have had my hopes dashed by an animal(s) that I, or more importantly, my daughters have loved-----only to watch it come down with one of the common maladies that strike our breed....... .....I have had to console people that have gotten dogs from me and then have something unforseen happen to it cutting its young life short----one of the more recent events of last fall with someone that you know-----still bothers me deeply to this day...... .....my heart breaks as I see Jack Frost aging the way that he is nowadays, and trying to only see him---as I remember him........ ......I spent two weeks in literal depression after I had to put Bolo down because I was ignorant enough to run him behind a wheeler all those years ago, not realizing that his heart had been severely weakened by parvo when he was a young pup...... ....I cried like a child at the vets office and hid my face from my family for over a week when my pit bull Bud had broken his back, and they told me that there was nothing that could be done for him short of severing his spinal cord and having him pull himself around in a cart for the remainder of his days-----nothing that I would ask a warrior to do, simply so that I could keep him around and prolong his valiant life........damn----this one still causes me to tear up even after 8 years passing................................ ..........I have had to deal with very personal yet definate feelings of regret in developing a switch within me to be able to do what I know has to be done to a puppy that was born with the wrong set of emotional/behavioral characteristics, while having my daughters struggle to understand what I am doing.........completely contrary to popular belief----I have never enjoyed looking into an innocent pups eyes and ending its life.....but I knew that as a breeder, I had bonded myself with certain criteria and conduct that I knew were beneficial to the distant goal of producing a superior animal than what I had found at first..........................................................
............I have enjoyed watching the ones grow that have made it through the testing and are fine representatives of my effort and the combined help of others that have helped me tirelessly in this pursuit who will----by and large----go completely unrecognized.......... ............I enjoy when someone that has one of my dogs cannot wait to be able to tell me of something that it has done that is nothing short of extraordinary in their eyes....... ...........I have enjoyed working with people to place a good dog in their hands regardless of whether or not they were in a position to afford it, because they were deserving of such consideration.......... ..........I have snickered time and again when someone who has gotten a dog from me----has come back when it was mature trying to convince me that I had sold them the BEST dog that I have produced------I cannot help but to reassure them, while thinking to myself----"No, you just own the best in comparison to your personal preconcieved standard of everything that you have ever owned---or had been exposed to before."....... ............I enjoy the e-mails from folks such as Dennie Welch nearly busting at the seams to be able to give me an update on his Comet sons latest advancement in training....... ............I enjoy watching my daughters when they don't realize that I am doing so-----coddling a puppy while the breeze is blowing gently in their hair....... ............I enjoy walking out on the little porch in the morning and having Newton meet me there still---after all of these years---every single day, to have me lay my hand on his wide head-----ears back-----staring deeply at me with those loving brown eyes............ ............I enjoy seeing fruition of effort after 15 years of heartbreak and limited joy.............
.........yes.........my frustrations and experiences of reward can be catagorized somewhat differently I assume than most-------but they are mine nonetheless....................
6) Q: What are your goals for the next 24 months? 60 months?
A:.............I am afraid that I would have a bit of trouble addressing a set of such short sighted goals...........with much introspection on my part about 6 months or so ago now, I had come to the conclusion that I wanted to break my yard in half and start to line breed dealing with specific dogs on either side............both sides having a degree of Jack Frost in it because his blood in my yard is fairly inescapable at the current time..........one side dealing with the Terminator blood---the other side dealing specifically with animals that owe their lineage to the Dick and Annabelle dogs to which Point Blank and Willie trace their recent roots.............after several years of doing this I plan on taking select PROVEN specimans from the ranks of each side, and cross them over one another to begin to funnel the two into one linebreeding program consisting of the very best of the bloods that I have had at my disposal...........I am not saying that at the end of 10-15 years from now that I will finally end up with that ONE SUPERDOG prize as a result of such a lengthy or painstaking effort.........to the contrary, the best dog to be produced could pop up at any given time on either side of the proposed equation..............but what I am after in this concerted effort would be to perfect the OVERALL litter as a whole to the point where the cull rate would be reduced to a bare minimum, with fine typed specimans of Bulldogs growing out of their ranks............I am also in no way kidding myself to feel that I will be on top of the Bulldog world in my pursuit as I have just described it..........I believe that there are many others in a similar quest within their own yard and scheme that will rival anything that I can concieve in my own corner of the world up here------but it is a good thing, I believe---to set some form of distant goal and attempt to map out how to get there..............
........all of this is completely contingent upon whether or not I give up the dogs within a year or so completely, to pursue a burgeoning Archery career.........at which time the animals will be placed within specific homes where my wishes for them will continue on and I will retain somewhat of a control over them...........but this remains to be seen............
7) Q: Knowing that the APBT is and has always been the "king of the ring," why would one breed for game tested and proven ABs, and how could this come into play as far as man work goes?
A:..........hmmmmmmm.......do I ever get the feeling that this was a question specifically designed for me.........I can only imagine how John would answer this..........lol......... ........it is no great secret within the Bulldog community among those who know of me how I feel about the desire/ability to pass on an animal into the future that has, by definition of the historical context of the word----earned the right and privilege to be called a Bulldog........I have said many times that "Bulldog is an ability"----I would consider it a verb----a word denoting action and that alone..........a word that carries with it the weight of hundreds of generations of predecessors that were physically and mentally equipped to handle the most daunting of tasks..........the most noble of canine titles in near 500 years.........the fires that forged this name and ability, if let to fade into simple glowing embers and smolder into memory and antiquity-----will be a travesty to the name and title itself.........and will take with it the Bulldog as it has been known and understood......this is what I believe..... ..........I simply cannot concieve that the ability will continue into the future, for the sake of the name and title alone...........without the diligent fueling and forging of the flame............. ........I am of the belief that the qualities that attracted everyone to the Bulldog in the first place---are a direct result of it being bred on the extreme of what I have just said..........we as owners feel that there is very little that a properly weighted and structurally sound Bulldog cannot do..........we call this particular quality " utilitarian versatility".........this quality is not inherent within every working class canine breed........so there has had to have been something different about a Bulldogs historic past and development that sufficently and undeniably seperates it from the rest..........that difference, I believe----is the fires fueled by the blood of their ancestors that I have mentioned above.........only in the pressure/heat of the Refiners Fire-----is Gold brought to purity......... .........on the other hand I am more of a realist than a dreamer-----and recognize the fact that "no change--is change".........we are not living in those days of old-----and time will tell whether or not there is room in the future for the type of dog that I love.............. ..........as I have already said-------it remains to be seen whether or not the qualities that attract us to the Bulldog in the true Performance ranks of today, will be retained 30 or more years into the future, given that amount of time being bred on modern theoretical guard dog criteria........let's not even talk about the Showing of them right now............
