The Roman empire

First some background going back to the time when the Romans conquered Britain.

Romans built a lot of things , like roads aqueducts , laid the basis for the language we know today as English and brought a sport  that dated back to Minos in Crete- the sport of bullbaiting. This sport was developed from the cult worship of a warior god "Mithras" whose devotees signified his might as a young whit bullock  the form assumed to give courage to his followers in battle.

In those early days there were many ferocious dogs , usually wild that were caught and used for the soldiers sport. Through the years the Romans were assimilated into the tribes they had conquered or moved on to other campaigns , but there civilization and there sport lived on and continued to flourish along their descendants the landholders and royalty. Through those same years the dogs became more typified due to selective breeding for the roman sport , and also due to the fact that only the strongest and most intelligent dogs survived the sport.

Let us now take a look at the canine world of that time most common were Terriers Cattle dogs shepherds and a large dog called bulldog for obvious reasons. In the early 1700īs  there were two big dogīs that were the dominant figures in bull fighting , the Blue poll from Scotland and the Alunt from Ireland. These two dogs were bred with the great dogs of England by the middle class at this time and their offspring  were  used to bait bulls.

Bull baiting was a cruel sport in which a tethered bull, brought to market for slaughter would be attacked by bulldogs with the notion that the meat would be tenderized, prior to slaughter, by the bulldog’s attacks. The contention that the meat was tenderized during these brutal bouts was not based on any fact and indeed served no real purpose other than to line the pockets of the men who trained their dogs to participate in these sadistic blood-matches.

During these matches the dog would assault the bull, avoid the stomping hooves and slashing horns, grab on to a nose or ear, and hang on until the bull collapsed from exhaustion or lack of oxygen. Many of the dogs were crushed by stomping hooves, disemboweled by slashing horns, and tossed through the air causing broken legs, backs, and skulls when they hit the ground. On the whole, both the dogs and the bulls suffered greatly. Every class of person from commoners to royalty enjoyed these spectacles as a means to divert themselves from the violence and diseases of their day to day lives

Here a bull got loose at a bullfight. The painting is from "Inbekantler Kunstler" London 1821.

By 1800 the result of this breeding was a large long legged dog weighting 80-90 pounds. In many ways that dog looked a lot like the American bulldog of today. But The early 1800īs were poor years for the middle class and they could no longer afford the bulls for this sport and itīs popularity slowly  died . Not everyone was allowed to own this kind of dogs in the early days. The Statue of 1789  prohibited families with an income of less than 40 shilling per year from owning a sporting dog. In 1835 bull baiting was officially banned. A few followers of the sport defied the law and surreptiously continued it for several years . But law-abiding men in the lower classes of society developed a new sport , not quite as costly. This was the start of RATTING.

The lower class kept small fast agile dogs called TERRIERS of different breeds, to hold back the rats which was a big trouble in these days. Ratīs were caught and placed in cages , a pit was dug , bets were placed and the rats and terriers were released in the pit. The dog catching and killing the most ratīs was declared the winner and his owner went home a bit richer then when he came there.

The ratting were held as shown on the picture above , and the dogs fought one by one , under a certain amount of time ( usually 1-5 min). The absolute record were 180 rats killed inside that time.

Many types of terriers were developed and two of the significant breeds were:

Black & Tan Terrier (also known as Manchester Terrier) and English White Terrier.

B&T- Old painting / B&T Later show version / E-W Old painting

Staffordshire

No one knows who started to breed the huge Bull-Dog with the agile terriers. But apparently it started in Staffordshire in mid England, by coal miners and iron workers. They called the dog The Stafford Bull-and-terrier. An early bull and terrier named Trusty was so famous in England that an article and picture of him appeared in an 1806 edition of The sporting magazine - This picture is the first known of a Bull and Terrier cross.

Trusty - won 104 straight pitfights.

Trusty was eventually bought by Lord Camelford and became known as lord camelfordīs dog. He fought 104 battles and was never beaten. Later he changed the name to"Belcher" after Jim belcher , a boxing champion of England.

Pitting / Dogfighting

In the early days the sport took place in the old bull arenas, street corners, barns and sheds. The middle class took a fancy to the new sport and the Bull-and-terrier dog. Soon every pub and inn had a small arena in a room to the side, or in the main room. These arenas became known as PITS , taken from the lower class sport of "ratting" and soon of course fighting was called PITTING.

This picture shows the pit at westminister - one of the most famous dog fighting pitīs at this time ( from a painting 1820 )

And winning dogs were known as "Pit Dogs". In this time the bull and terrierīs from Staffordshire had gained a sizeable reputation for there gameness and performance , but it took till 1935 for the EKC (English Kennel Club) recognized it as a pure bred.  Here is the Staff standard

As i said earlier , these were poor years and the bullfighting were banned , so some men started to use these dogs that were kept for its old "bullsport" in dogfighting. And it gained more popularity than ever before ( an old sport having its re-birth ). The old bulldogs were not fast and agile enough to make the sport exiting .

But when the dogs were breed with terriers they became a lot more easy to handle then its ancestors... the "game breeding " had started ...(meaning special and different lines were developing) and still manbiters were put to sleep. The fights got more exiting/fast. Soon the Stafford Bull & Terrier were the dominant figure in the ring. It was smaller then the old bulldogs (easy to handle) it ate less food and were a lot more agile , it started to gain the trait called gameness during this period of time.

Back in history again....

This time to Western Hampshire and the colonization of America and Canada. Wherever a man goes , he brings his dogs, and terriers were as much needed in the new land as in the old. Trough the years a type of the English Bull-and-terrier was developed larger-boned heavier dog then itīs English cousin. Before the civil war the STAFF were brought to America and English dogs were breaded with American. And the Dog fighting flourished in the port towns.

Many of , or nearly all of Americas fighting dogs in that early days were imports from either England or Ireland all bred in generations to be fighting dogs "par excellence".

Some of these dogs  were :

Lloydīs Pilot owned by "Cockney Charlie" and Crib owned byLouis Krieger. These two dogs met in a fight in Loisville in 1881 , referee was William Harding editor of The Police Gazette . The fight went for 1 hour and twenty-five minutes before Pilot won the fight.  Other famous imports were Lloydīs Paddy , Pat & Rafferty.  Still traceable in some pitbull pedigrees of today. Especially in strains such as:

Corvino. Deihant . Farmer . Feeley and Tudor from England.

Irish traceable strains are Colby , Corcoran , Gas House , Lightener and Semmes .

The designation "Old Family" still in use today , referrers to the Irish dogs.

Americanization of the breed

Pilot and Crib both weighted around 28 pounds , yet today the weight of a Pitbull ranges from 40-70 pounds. Maybe because the Americans seem to think "bigger is better" and thereby used bigger dogs for breeding and created a larger animal. All though there is more to the story , these dogs were often used as dogs to protect the family stock , and bigger dogs were preferred to maintain that job.

In America the dogs were called "Pitbull Terriers"  Pit from the arena that were used , Bull from its background in bull fighting , and Terrier as u might guess but they also went by these names:

Pitbulldog , Bulldog , American pitbulldog , fighting bulldog , Pit terrier , Pit bull...

An example of the Americanizationīs result is The Redboy dogs & here is a link showing the well known Eli line.

In early 1900īs in America , Mr. Chauncy B Bennett , a renowned sports man and fancier, as well as a breeder, organized a stud book and registering office in 1898 That he called UKC . He designated the name to be AMERICAN PIT BULL TERRIER.

The first dog to register was his own:  Bennetīs Ring . He also set up the official breed standard as it stands today. The name of the registration office was: THE UNITED KENNEL CLUB and it is the second largest reg. office to day in the states.

The breed gained popularity fast and soon Pitbulls were used in comercials. Buster Brown shoes put it's mascot in every shoe with the image of Tige, an American Pit Bull Terrier, to enhance it's image as a sturdy, dependable shoe. RCA used Nipper, a pit bull of unknown ancestry, to illustrate the clarity of sound emulating from it's phonograph bye showing the pit bull being fooled into thinking he was actually hearing his master's voice and not a recording. The breed was also used to illustrate American neutrality without fear in 1914, the toughness of Levi jeans, and as a "defender of Old Glory". Then in 1917 came Sgt. Stubby a

pit bull of unknown descent, who became a war hero for saving several soldiers live's, and capturing a German spy, while serving in the trenches of France with the 26th Yankee Division. About two decades later came a sturdy white pooch with a patch over one eye named Petey, who played alongside a lovable bunch of kids called 'The Little Rascals'. The American Pit Bull Terrier was now an international icon representing America to the world. The dogs popularity was at it's highest and people recognized the American Pit Bull Terrier as the sturdy, strong, and lovable animal that it is

AKC

Did not recognize the American pitbull terrier until 1936 and under a different name . They changed the name of the breed to be "Staffordshire terrier" so that there dogs wouldn't be mixed up with itīs fighting background.

All this happend after the big "Pitbull BOOM" caused by the program "Little Rascals" or "Our Gang. One of its  characters - PETEY was a purebred Pitbull. His UKC name was Lucenaryīs Peter. Petey was born Sept 6:Th 1929  owned and trained by Harry Lucenay , and bred by A.A Keller.

Petey - the dog from "Little rascals" ,  was later used as one of AKCīs foundation dogīs brought in to AKCīs registery.

The breed base for AKC was hand picked , and about 50 dogs were chosen as foundationstock. Some of them came from the famous Colby strain... ( here is Pincher and Galtie that are two of his wellknown dogs & Petey).

J.P Colby was also involved in the intitial work of starting up ADBA , more about that in a section below

The years passed by , and the staffordshire terrier slowly turned to be a "show version" of the Pitbull. In 1972 the name was changed again , and now to: American Staffordshire terrier this was done after the English Kennel Club claimed that the name belonged to their breed. So AKC Added "American" to the name to separate the two breeds. In 1974 - AKC recognized the Staffordshire from england as a breed.

Since acceptance into the AKC, the American Staffordshire Terrier breed of dog has been bred separately from the UKC’s American Pit Bull Terrier. This has resulted in two separate breeds. This can get confusing, so let me explain. The AKC does not recognize the American Pit Bull terrier as a pure bred dog. The only bull terrier breeds recognized by the AKC are the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and the American Staffordshire Terrier. On the other hand, the UKC does recognize the AKC’s American Staffordshire Terrier as an American Pit Bull Terrier and allows them to be registered with the UKC. Confusing? Yes. This subject is the source of much dispute, but as much as I try in this web page to avoid controversy about which breed is which, I guarantee you that I will offend someone.

Aso check this link to my history page of the Am Staff:  The true American Staffordshire history on this page i show some dogs that formed the breed.

ADBA - American Dog Breeders Association

Mr. Guy McCord was the founder of ADBA . 

The clubs  main goal was to keep the Pitbullīs old standard , and preserve the cornerstone of the APBT , meaning its Gameness....

The American Dog Breeders Association, Inc. was started in September, l909 as an exclusive association of American Pit Bull Terrier breeders. The residing president, Mr. Guy McCord, was an avid fancier and breeder of the dogs, and was a close friend of Mr. John P. Colby. Mr. Colby was the mainstay of the ADBA which prompted the boast of being the "home" registration office of the Colby dogs. All members, in good standing, could register their dogs and litters with the registration department upon the yearly payment of $2.50 dues fee. It seems that the exclusive members idea gradually was replaced into an open registry to all owners and breeders of purebred American Pit Bull Terriers, to act as an exclusive registry of the breed and insure the accuracy of this type of records keeping.

The paper issued at that time, was a one page, pink paper which on the top listed the description of the dog and other pertinent information necessary to serve as a title of ownership on the dog. On the bottom, it listed the pedigree, owner and breeder. We thought it interesting to note that on the reverse side of this paper it read, in part: "The American Pit Bull Terrier is now recognized as a standard breed, where a few years ago, it was un-recognized as a breed. The majority of the American public carried the impression that the American Pit Bull Terrier was synonymous with dogs used for fighting purposes only. This idea has been dispelled by persistent efforts of the breeders who compose this association. Presently, classes for American Pit Bull Terriers can be found at almost every local dog show being held. With concerted effort, our faithful friend will in time be classed as the leading American dog, who will give his life if necessary in defense of his master/mistress. We trust that you will unite with us in our efforts to bring this dog to the destiny he deserves. "The Standard dog of the U.S.A."

The ADBA passed from the hands of Mr. McCord to Mr. Frank Ferris, in l951. He, along with his wife, Florence Colby, the wife of the late John P. Colby, continued to run the ADBA on a limited scale, but with ever increasing emphasis on the registration of the breed, exclusively. In 1973, through the recommendation of Howard Heinzl, Ralph Greenwood and his family received the ADBA from Mr. Ferris, whose advancing age prompted his retirement. Mr. Heinzl was a personal friend of Frank Ferris and a staunch supporter of the ADBA, as he registered his dogs exclusively with ADBA. We often wish Frank could have lived to witness the growth of the present association. He would have been pleased. In 1976, the ADBA was petitioned by the owners of the breed, who possessed a very competitive spirit, to develop a standard on the breed by which conformation dog shows could be held. They did not want a standard that copied those of the UKC or AKC, but a standard for those dogs that they owned and continued to breed for the traits of intelligence, character, loyalty, and the athletic prowess that the breed was originally bred for hundreds of years ago. Thereby, they could continue competition, in a legal endeavor. Thus, the formation of the ADBA conformation standard.