If ever there was a 'let's not beat a dead horse' conversation in the dogs then Red Boy has to be the one. But for entertainment and the occasional informational purposes I will kick that dead horse first.....

This topic will go all over the place from 'how he was bred' to 'Red Boy traits' to what different people consider a 'Red Boy' dog.

As posted before I grew up on the Red Boy train and his breeding was pretty close to 'as advertised' to me for a lot of years. Over time I moved from the heavier on the Bullet bred dogs to maybe a little more of the Hemphill type dogs. (always taking into account these dogs were way before my time and mostly it is opinion based on conversation with an occasional fact tossed in to keep things grounded, so take it with a grain of salt).

A bit of history. One of the first pit bulls I ever touched was a son of Red Boy called JR. I was maybe 10-11-12 years old. My best friend's dad was in the dogs and he had befriended Katie Marlowe and Ronnie Bass. He was the first in our area to get on what he called the "Red Boy train'. Our job was to walk his dogs around two huge tobacco/bean fields. He sat on a bucket and ran the dog on a slat mill or an electric mill and I would take a dog for a 30 minutes or so walk. Being 11-12 it was more like a 30 minute drag. When I got back the next dog came off one of the mills and his son would take off with him. It was affectionately called the '5 gallon bucket' keep.

From there I was hooked on the performance of these dogs. Hooked soon turned to obsession. (or so my wife says)

JR was a heavy dog, low 50's on the chain, upper 40's conditioned. He had a lot of bone up front, thick thru the chest area and had a well muscled rear end (naturally). The odd thing was the lower part of his rear legs looked spindly. These were big headed dogs with a thick hide, really durable. He was a deep, deep game dog but he had zero mouth. He simply could not shut it down enough to defend himself. He had littermates (Yellow John) that could bite well above average and there was female that was more freak mouthed in comparison.

These Red Boy dogs back then were what a friend of mine called 'singularly focused no matter'. Once they locked onto something, or had something in mind, they simply did not stop. He always joked he did not know if these Red Boy dogs were game or just to dumb to stop. Once focused, even if being mauled, they simply continued. No matter.

So with that history in mind I have a picture (a personal picture) in my head of what a Red Boy dog should be, should look like, should act like, etc. etc.

Over the years I have seen Red Boy dogs from a lot of different strains. I have seen some that carry a lot of the same traits and similar to that picture in my head. (I am not much into pedigrees as far as defining a dog or breeding a dog as I am the furthest thing from a breeder. I like what I like, and when I bred/breed dogs I am chasing that picture in my head vs. using a pedigree as a tool. That leaves me short a lot of the times but so it goes)

I have seen dogs where that picture in my head pushed thru when the pedigree said it should have been not the same. At the same time I have seen pure Red Boy dogs that are absolutely ZERO Red Boy dogs in my opinion. I think that is due to them being selected for different reasons and bred for different reasons. Totally different topic altogether.

I never try to offend people but I believe there are certain lines of Red Boy dog are more Red Boy than others based on papers being fake/hung before the current owners had these dogs, so much so, they own something even better than they think. This is a touchy topic because it puts some people's character in question and after 20-30-20 years there is no real purpose nor gain in going down that path. But at the same time I will offer it up as my opinion and apologize upfront and then again if called out. Maybe then someone can change my mind.

But here we go.

EWO