GOLDEN

This was taken from the Hardcore Kennels Interview ( http://www.thepitbullbible.com/forum/content.php?203 )in the Articles section :

My ultimate goal is to establish and keep a family of dogs for as long as I physically can and retain their excellent quality. I want to remain underground and not get commercial. That is why I am really particular about who gets my dogs. Once a bloodline gets popular, it gets overbred and watered down, and eventually it gets weakened. Strictly underground is the way the game should be. I'm in it for the long haul, not to expose myself, get my dogs killed, and then get arrested. I want to be known as a true dogman from the Old School. A true dogman can do it all. He is a breeder, a conditioner, a handler, and a craftsman.

I know a lot of dogfighters; they match a lot of dogs but they could take two aces and breed them together and never get a good pup out of them. They can't stand breeding, or puppies, and have no idea how to establish a bloodline. They're not a true dogman. I know a lot of breeders; they can put a couple of dogs in the brood pen that will have you scratching your head as to "Why?" - but yet they'll produce an all-game litter. Yet this same breeder can't take one of his own game dogs and go out there and win with it - they have to rely on someone else to win for them. They're not a true dogman. I know plenty of people who like the dogs, who study the game, but none of them is a true dogman.

Very few people can take their own pup from a plan in their head, to a developing dog, through schooling, through game-testing, and then condition it, handle it, and then match it for broke all the way � until it either wins or it crashes and burns.

A true dogman can do it all. He can take a bitch, choose the right stud to breed her with, raise the litter, cull them out, take the ones who make it, condition them, and win with them. And then he can breed them effectively and perpetuate the line. If a dogman needs a pen, he can make one. If he needs a harness, he can make one. He can make his own collars, houses, whatever. If you can't make your own swivels, you're not a true dogman. If you can't make your own collars, you're not a true dogman. Anything a dog requires you should be able to make it. Few people can do it all and that's why so few people are true dogmen in the game today.

Too many people who want to match a dog, just buy one from a breeder. That's not a true dog man. Too many people roll out a good one and want to show it, so they pay a dogfighter to condition it. That's not a true dog man. A true dogman should be able to do it all. Look at the history of this breed. The foundation of all these dogs was men who did it all. Carver, Tudor, Feeley - they were Jacks of All Trades. I am not a craftsman but I made the collar that was on CH Doogie when he was cover dog for the Journal as Dog of the Year. Same with CH Bozak. I am not a carpenter, all I took was woodshop in high school like everybody else, but I was interested enough in my dogs to develop plans to make whelping pens, and keep cages, when they needed them. I am not a welder but I can make chains & swivels for my dogs whenever they need them.

True dogmen today are becoming fewer and fewer, and the rest are ruining it for us by getting too commercial and being in the limelight too much.