I would defer to CYJ based on his knowledge and most of all his first hand experience. I think now the foremost expert now would be Mr. Mims. He has the first hand knowledge from years ago and then 30-40 years of breeding the strain. I'm not in either of those ballparks.

As a young kid I petted a couple off Red Boy. The first did not have a lot of mouth but he had one gear and it was all out. As some would say, he could breathe under water and he was coming all night. It seems like they killed him three or four times but as it was also said, there must have been three or four hairs on the tip of his tail still alive and that is all a Red Boy dog needs to make scratch.

I have heard it both ways from way back then but the other was a male that was either a litter mate to Yellow John or a repeat breeding. No idea which way. This one was called JR. He had pretty good mouth but not enough to write home about. He too had all night desire and not only knocked on death's door he kicked it and walked right in. It was said, 'he will die for your money'.

How Red Boy was bred and how Red Boy came about has been more lore than fact since the 80's. From the 80's on the number of people with first hand knowledge dwindled. That number now is maybe less than a handful and I am not one of the handful.

The guy that turned me onto the dogs was a funny guy and he was known to shoot curves. A good guy in the dogs but he could sure tell a story. His mom once told us that he would rather stand on top of a telephone pole on one foot in the high wind and tell a lie just so he did not have to stand on the ground to tell the truth. That was from his own mom.

He would tell us how Red Boy was bred. Then one of the Red Boy dogs would show a lot of mouth and he would say that is that Bullet blood I told you about. The next time a puppy would be born and there would be some white or brindle and he would say there is that Colby blood I told you about. Then a heavy red boy breeding would throw a black dog and he would say I told you those son of a bitches lied about how he was bred.

It was like Red Boy was bred differently every time one of his offspring showed a different trait.

Those days seem like a hundred years ago.

EWO