# part of my paper for school Colby interview



## TejReider (May 11, 2010)

So I have a paper to do for one of my classes in school and it was on a breed of canine or feline, and breeding, so I have managed to hunt down some of the old dog men, and some new breeders and interview them for ths paper to get some overall insight, this is the first part of my interview process and it is with Mr. Louis Colby, its not very long but i figured you all would appreciate this......



thank you so much for your help, it is something that can be done thru email, or phone, i perfer email due to the fact that it is just easier for me to re-read and copy into my report, but if its ok with you i would like to follow up with a phone call. I would love to do this in person and take some pictures but unfortunatly i am currently in florida, i moved here from south boston, which isnt so far from you compared to here.

let me start off by just saying it is such an honor to be able to interview one of the greatest dogmen there is, especially with the number of years behind your lines.

Me:carrying on over 100years of breeding, passed down threw your family, what has been the biggest atribute you have looked for in he breeding pair? what qualites do you look for over all? 
Mr. Colby: Gameness above all.!! That is the trait that separates this breed from all others...After that, temperament (no human aggression) conformation, and attitude.

Me:now i understand that you still look for the "game" qualities in your dogs, how is this quality used today, without dog fighting? 

Mr. Colby: Weight-pulling and springpole hanging time. Both call for gameness. 

Me: over the 100year span of your family name, what has been the biggest drive to keep breeding?....

Mr. Colby: LOve for the breed and to produce
dogs that can win over the competitor regardless of the task.

Me: can you please explain your breeding process without giving away and secrets, i know alot of breeders now breed there dogs differently. 
Mr. Colby: I take the pedigree of the sire and dam and compare them for unique and/or common ancestors. Unique means a name only appear once. Common means a name can be in both sire and dam breeding. I total the names and stay above a fifty percent ratio. In fact the more unique names the better. !!! It takes a number of dogs to do this, if you wish to maintain a strain for decades as we have done.

Me: what is your input on this new breed called bullys? and how would you say your dogs stack up against them? 
Mr. Colby: Bullies are ridculous. They are not a breed. Whoever started this is nor a bonefide dogman, just looking to make a fast buck from some uninformed person who is looking for the "macho" look. APBTs are supposed to be athletes. A Colby dog, pound for pound, will whip them. You choose the sport.!!!

Me: temperment is the biggest thing we hear when it comes to breeding, what is the temperment set you look for in the bitch and sire? 
Mr. Colby: Dogs are like people : some you like to be around, others not so.. We want a dog that likes everyone, especially children

Me: can you tell me what your biggest draw was to this breed, or you families biggest draw to the breed? I am born and raised in Ireland, and this was a dog that came over to the U.S. with us, is this how your kennel all started? 
Mr. Colby: These dogs came from England and Ireland and no other country. My father started our strain from English and Irish dog brought here by imigrants who settled in Boston and neighboring towns before 1900.

Me: now there are the crenshaw, gator, cowboy, redboy, lets just say many lines out there, and with the research I have found your dogs to be the starting roots for many of these lines, how do your dogs compare to these lines, i.e. the differences? 
Mr. Colby: The two most famous lines today are Jeep and Redboy. Both are approx half Colby if you trace their pedigree. We still prefer using the breeders name such as Tudor, Corvino, Crenshaw etc, rather then a dogs name like Eli, gator, cowboy etc. I do not see often, specimens of the other lines today to make a valid comment other than color. No Colby dogs have red noses, black was prefered 100 years ago and we never changed. 

Me: In my research I have noticed that your lines are the oldest in the u.s. to date, since the kennel has been passed down to you, has the standard in which you follow for the breedings changed at all, and if so, how? 
Mr. Colby: Nothing has changed, except that on the average my dogs are a little bigger /heavier.,not all of them .This was not my intent. It happened unconciously. Probably because we neverkept the runts?? for brood stock. Note...People today are taller/bigger than 100 years ago too!!!

those are all the questions i have, thank you so much, and like i said i would love to follow up with a phone call at some point soon, once again thank you so much for taking the time to help me it is very much appreciated!!


----------



## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

Pretty cool.

Have you read Colby's book?


----------



## pitbullmamanatl (Jun 1, 2010)

Very cool!!! What class is this for, TeJ?


----------



## Saint Francis (Jun 2, 2010)

Very nice read, and it was kind of Mr. Colby to respond. He seemed to have one foot in the past and one foot in the present evolution of the breed, which is pretty cool. Although, I do like the Old Family Red Nose strain in addition to the black nosed APBT


----------



## BittersweetEmbrace (Feb 24, 2010)

Sweeeeet, i bet you're gonna ace this. and if not then shame on the grader


----------



## Aireal (Jul 2, 2010)

wow to cool!!! let us know how you do


----------



## TejReider (May 11, 2010)

its for a biology course, its alot harder than it looks to be honest, but yes, very cool of him, and it was an honor to be able to talk to him for over an hour, very nice man, once i get it typed up i will copy and paste it for you all to read if you like, I am also interviewing the founders of razorsedge bloodlines, and a few surprise others to help my paper over the next few days. This is something i have taken a big interest in, and was also asked to stud out hadies because of his ped by someone that you will read about later, thank yo all for reading, ill be sure to post more!


----------



## coppermare (Jun 25, 2010)

Hmmm I see a book in the making for you...LOL


----------



## Lvis (Mar 4, 2010)

TejReider said:


> its for a biology course, its alot harder than it looks to be honest, but yes, very cool of him, and it was an honor to be able to talk to him for over an hour, very nice man, once i get it typed up i will copy and paste it for you all to read if you like, I am also interviewing the founders of razorsedge bloodlines, and a few surprise others to help my paper over the next few days. This is something i have taken a big interest in, and was also asked to stud out hadies because of his ped by someone that you will read about later, thank yo all for reading, ill be sure to post more!


subscribed!!


----------



## aus_staffy (Nov 10, 2009)

Good read. Thanks for posting, Tej.


----------



## ThaLadyPit (Oct 12, 2008)

TJ.. I read this yesterday upon your request but didn't have time to respond. My apologies for that... but, AWESOME!! I can't wait to read the rest!! I'm so hooked right now!


----------

