Flashing, Ignorance and Snarling Dogs

Flashing, Ignorance and Snarling Dogs
by
Richard F. Stratton

As I recounted many years ago in my very first book on Bulldogs, This is the American Pit Bull Terrier, Pit Bulldogs are often not taken seriously--at least, it used to be that they were not. That was because the pit dogs were nearly always small as compared to the more common (in those days) German Shepherds and the like. Bulldogs, as often as not, had untrimmed, silky ears and were of a mild and playful disposition. In my story, which was absolutely true, Pete Cain, a plasterer by trade, in Denver, had brought his favorite dog, Dusty, to work. Pete's fellow workers liked Dusty, but they just couldn't believe that he was a fighting dog. You could talk about things like that in those days, and Pete had explained that these were the real fighting dogs, and not the Bull Terrier show dog that was usually proffered as the gladiator of the canine race. The fellow workers kidded Pete that a Cocker Spaniel had his dog backed up under the wagon where Pete had him tied. By happenstance, some mongrel dog got within Dusty"s reach, and Dusty got hold of him. The same guys who had been kidding Pete (a lot of whom honestly believed that little Dusty, with the friendly disposition, could not possibly be a fighting dog) then spoke of the dog as the most vicious thing that they had ever seen alive. The silent intensity of Dusty as he was trying to shake the life out of the bigger mongrel got to all the workers, but the thing that bothered them the most was that he actually enjoyed committing such mayhem! Pete explained that Dusty was used to other dogs that liked such contact, too. In spite of the horror, the guys took a special interest in Dusty, and some of them even got some of his pups.

Today, things are different. Everyone knows what a Pit Bull is now. At least, they think they do, and what they know isn't good. No wonder the public is willing to go along with any demagogue who advocates outlawing the breed! Because things are different, we have to make sure that no one sees a Bulldog get hold of some cur dog (just about any other breed). It used to be fun to let a Bulldog whip the town bully, but that is a luxury that can't be afforded any more. So I would urge all Bulldog enthusiasts to be responsible dog owners. Keep your dogs on a leash, and don't let them get hold of a cur dog. Usually, this is not a problem, as almost all dogs of other breeds will not approach a Bulldog that is locked onto them visually, as nearly all Bulldogs do. Most don"t bark or growl, and they certainly never snarl. And that brings me to another point.

There is an old Welsh prayer: "Lord, save me from my friends, and I will look out for my enemies myself." The reason I mention this is that some Bulldog people are doing things that are counterproductive to the welfare of our beloved breed. One of the things I have just mentioned, letting a Bulldog get hold of someone else"s dog. Just as bad, although more subtle, are the posed pictures of Bulldogs snarling. (These have been seen in all dog magazines, and I am not picking on any particular person or magazine.) To a pit dog man, such pictures are laughable. He knows that it is not in the nature of the Bulldog to snarl; in fact, the ones that do are usually the ones that are getting ready to quit. For that reason, a picture of a snarling Bulldog simply looks like a cur to a knowledgeable pit dog man. I know that the dog is not necessarily a cur; the picture was probably taken in a special way, with a dog just outside the camera's view, and the dog in the picture is in the midst of trying to grab him.

But the bad part is not that the picture makes the dog look like a cur. If that were the case, I would certainly say nothing about it. The really bad part is that such pictures reinforce the public's view of the breed, and you can be sure that its enemies, which are many, will make sure that they get wider distribution than just one magazine.

I have friends that I helped when they were neophytes that use such pictures for advertising. I hope that I have convinced them not to use such depictions, for they will bring the breed even more trouble. And, Lord knows, we don't need any more trouble! For that reason, I hope that I can convince my friends, and even those I have not yet met, not to even take such pictures, let alone publish them. And, while I have your attention, there is one more matter on which I would like to wield some influence, and that is "flashing."

Very few experienced pit dog men do this (as a matter of fact, I can only think of one!) but it is common among neophytes. It consists of letting a dog get a hold before taking him to a match. The idea, I guess, is that it gets the dog riled up, and he has the entire trip to build up pent up energy, which he will release upon his opponent. Even a novice should realize what nonsense such a strategy is. For one thing, one of the goals of a knowledgeable pit dog man is to keep his dog as quiet as possible. This can be a bit of a chore, especially if the dog knows the routine: the washing, the weighing, the waiting in the pit. If flashing really resulted in pent up energy, a lot of it would be wasted during that entire routine. Another theory is that flashing helps the dog to get off to a fast start. But the dog usually knows the best strategy for him, and part of the make up of any ace pit dog is that he knows when to rest and when to pour it on. In fact, a good dog knows that better than any handler. A further disadvantage to flashing is that the dog may get a bit of a nip on his jaw or nose that could be quite sore by weigh-in time. A good pit dog man doesn't want so much as a pinprick on his dog before any match.

Again, why is it my business if some ignoramus thinks that flashing is a good way to proceed? All he is doing is hurting his dog's chances. The problem is that the word about doing this has spread to all the young kids that don't have anyone to guide them with the dogs. They think that flashing consists of getting some lesser Bulldog and letting your dog whale on him for up to five minutes prior to a match. I am worried that the next step will be actual baiting. That is, I am concerned that the kids will start kidnapping people's dogs and letting their dogs kill it. There is absolutely no purpose in that, and the stories about that were never true. And I don't want them to become true for two reasons. First, I don't want anyone's pet dogs taken and then allowed to die in the iron jaws of some Bulldog. Second, I don't want the publicity of such a thing to be able to be documented. An added reason is that I don't want people who would do such things in the Bulldog fraternity. I'm not for kicking them out, but let's educate them and not give them any counterproductive ideas.

I have always defended the pit dog game, because I knew it as it really was from the time I was a youngster. I knew that people who criticized it didn't have any real basis for making a judgement. I am not one to make it seem a perfectly benign activity. Dogs do get hurt, and some of them die or are killed (albeit rarely). But racehorses, coonhounds, and Border Collies die, too. There is no absolutely safe path for any of us, or our dogs either. And the best Bulldogs come from pit stock. I know that no knowledgeable Bulldog person will argue with that statement. And I think that most will agree with the rest that I have said, too.

Finally, I would like to ask the reader to forgive me for getting on my soapbox. The only reason I do so is that I like Bulldogs a lot. And I am truly concerned about their future.

Richard F. Stratton. com

PBR print magazine
main page

back to the Homepage