BULL TERRIER TIMES COMPILATION
Dog Men of Choice
I've been asked to write about a dogman of my choice, which is a hard thing to do, as I know a couple of good ones (bad ones too), But the names B V Hooten - Floyd Boudreaux and J. Zalesky are the first to come to mind right now. Also Ben of (STB), Ben is one of the best, if not the best breeder over here, and although he is out of the bulldogs he still has some very old stock around him. Dogs with exceptional blood, dogs that have Boyles Bobby + Dirty Mary in their second generation, which means their mommy was out of that famous breeding.
He owned Rebel Kennels Gr Ch Spooky - C Halls Ch Sugar and the famous Dylan dog. Ben never was a tight single sighted breeder, but used a very unorthodox way of breeding. In my eyes he liked loose line breeding, and tried to breed dogs that would do well in the hands of rookie dogmen just starting off a yard. As some bloodlines have been sent to certain breeders hands, which makes it difficult, or sometimes impossible, for other dogmen to work with the dogs or get the best out of them. Which happens often, and the dogs or the breeder gets the blame. Ben was able to breed dogs that even in the hands of a novice dogman, did a good job. And in the hands of a good dogman did a very good job - to say the least.
O K, Floyd Boudreaux. I only visited him once, but i was very impressed by the way his dogs looked. And the way the man himself was, he was really friendly and a real gentleman. His dogs and his bloodlines speak for themselves, he has been breeding dogs for forty years now and his daddy bred and showed dogs before him. Floyd was 12 years old when he showed his first dog, his dog was built on the Eli bloodline. Mostly Bullyson/Eli Jnr with a touch of Zebo. But also has dogs with lot of Boze blood, with no Bullyson or Eli Jnr blood, I am glad I spent some time with this legendary dogman, it was a privilege to meet him.
J Zalesky, although an oldtimer too, has modern thoughts about the bulldogs and breeds predominantly the Eli family of dogs, be it through several families based on blood like the Nigerino/Midnight Cowboy/Cardena's Shorty and Stompanato/Art's Missy true Bossefuss blood. He also carries some Alligator blood as well as some individuals bred out of other bloodlines. But top of the range which he uses as a possible catalyst when needed.
His mentor was J D Elliot, the silent force behind (yes) lots of the Boudreaux and Clemments dogs. (Clemments) Elliots Six Bits. Zalesky used to own dogs with J D Elliot. Zalesky bred a dog named Bro who in the eyes of Elliot was the best dog EVER, and he saw Zebo - Eli Jnr - Bullyson and Art. Zalesky's Bro was better than them all. Anyway he was a very smart breeder and one of the best in our book. He owned many great dogs that people are not aware of, like the Nigger/Toby dog the sire of Bro. There are many more dogmen/ breeders around who are very good at what they do, but these three pop in to my mind as my favourites today.And just to top it off, they are nice people too.