Strange thing happened

[Officially Retired]

Well, sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. I think back on how stupid we were with Machobuck. Hell, he traveled 24 hours, won in 28 min, 8 weeke later traveled another 24 and won in 31, then 6 weeks later in 1:27. If Machobuck would have packed it in, it would have been our fault for stretching him so thin. As it was..he was just a bad enough son of a bitch that he beat both the dogs and our stupidity. But everything else being equal.. Yeah, you gotta give your animal the best possible shot, and letting him chew out of a crate wasn't good. You always have to leave someone monitoring the crate!

It is amazing to look back at some of the things we did in the past, the stupidity of which is clear as day to us now, and yet was utterly invisible to our eyes back then.

And, wow, 24 hours is a long, LONG time for a dog to travel, and yet still win in short order. Makes you wonder how quick it would have been if he would have been done in his own backyard



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Thanks for this site jack and this site is well worth the thirty dollar with all this valuable info that jack and others are sharing I agree that jack is a very very knowledgeable dogman thanks once again

You're welcome and thank you very much for joining. There are a lot of knowledgeable dogmen here, all of whom have unique perspectives and tons of great information to share. Even us old-timers can still learn from each other, and for the folks still learning, hearing several different valid perspectives can only mean seeing questionable situations from all possible angles.



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I probably should have included a disclaimer in my initial post on this subject. That would have been right in line with what Jack stated, which is basically that there no absolutes in this business. Some game dogs are lazy, and plenty of curs are working fools. Plenty of less than game dogs that looked really good at home were ruined by a keep though, and that is what I was offering as a possibility to the original post. Now, that could lead us down a new path of how the work is applied. Plenty of great dogs were ruined by a lousy keep too. The difficulty of putting all of the variables together correctly presents such a challenge, that when success is achieved it is deeply satisfying. And that my friends, is how the bulldog addiction works!

Another great post.

People expect the one-liner answer for "all possible situations," and there just is no such thing. Part of the "badge of honor" that comes with experience and success is emerging from the trial-and-error phase of being a dogman as someone who can successfully-navigate through all of the possible options and come out of it having made the right selections ... whereas the beginner/inexperienced dogman will zig when he should have zagged, and will wind up making a mistake. And, you're right again, it is the very process of learning to successfully-navigate through these challenges that creates the self-reward that these dogs can bring us ... while the deluge of challenges we forever face brings us more opportunities to troubleshoot through.

PS: The statement, "There are no absolutes" always makes me chuckle, because it is itself an absolute statement My brother and I used to use this statement on each other all the time, when either of us made an "absolute" statement to the other. For example, if I ever said, "X will never happen," he would say back to me, "There are no absolutes." The irony is just too funny, for it is true there are no absolutes, and yet the statement itself is an absolute statement--and is true! Thus is the paradox of truth



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I had the question before but never found a satisfying answer ( or didn't dig deep enough ) to what are the things used to rub a dog with ? ( except for the already mentioned bitch in heat )
Great thread as always, and thnx for sharing the story TFX.

As for me, I honestly don't know. I have heard around the grapevine that there is "some" kind of rub out there that will make a dog look like shit and not mouth another dog, but as for what it is (or what is the antidote for it), I haven't a clue.

Jack