Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone reccomend any particular book/publication/website to start research on owning an APBT? I'm about a year and a half out from making the dive. I'm from a reptile background and I will do my homework long before I jump into something. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Adam

i don't have any book suggestions, but a few of my favorite websites are

http://www.apbtconformation.com

http://www.purebredpuppy.com

and the AmStaff network, which i don't have a link to

Good luck, and i'm sure that other people will have some great suggestions too!

There are many books out there that basically tell you about just the typical "history, origin, development, breed standards" and then tell you what any dog book could tell you. Such as feeding, getting aquanted with family members, housebreaking etc. Especially in Staff books. These books don't cover the other side of the tracks and give you a wholesome idea as to what is what and why. They simply just don't know. They don't own a APBT as they are in my view very different from the Staff. Looks similar but very diverse in other aspects. OK, anyways if you really want to get a clear picture and give you masses of information then I would get these books written by Richard F.Stratton. The books I recommend offhand are "The World of the American Pit Bull Terrier" and "The Book of the American Pit Bull Terrier"......Two good books that give you a straight forward approach to the dogs. It wil cover the normal food and those sort of questions along with a myriad of useful information. There are a few other books out therew by him which shopuld be equally as good but these are the only two I have read completely.
Hope this helps.
LATER

Anyone reccomend any particular book/publication/website to start research on owning an APBT? I'm about a year and a half out from making the dive. I'm from a reptile background and I will do my homework long before I jump into something. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Adam

Adam, I can't recommend any books, but I can recommend that you talk to bully owners. Try to find a UKC show near you and go chat up people in the breed. Don't do it just before an event, naturally. Or if you do, make it short, like "I'd like to get an APBT in the future. When could I talk to you about your dog(s) and what you know about the breed?" You may get rebuffed by some, but if you are polite and courteous and don't interfere with someone working their dog, you should get some good people to talk to.

Tasha

All of the Stratton books are a good place to start. If pedigrees and bloodlinws are an interest try the books by Wayne Brown. They give pedigrees from the dogs brought over fron Ireland and England to some of the modern day dogs.

Wayne Brown? I haven't heard about him. I am going to look into those books myself. ALot of folks I have spoken to and researched back far enough to hit a wall. Some of the dogs just had no record beyond some of the older stuff with a few saying like Irish stock, etc. I have a question for you. Have you ever used the pedigree site where Garners Chinaman on the home page? It is supposed to be the new and improved version. It is actually is better than the old one and has a lot more pedigrees entered in.....What do you think about it if you have check out the site?...
LATER

I am not sure what site you are talking about. I looked at a few. I haven't talked to Wayne for several years but he was in the process of publishing a book with a lot more info and pedigrees than his first one.
His book is mostly pedigrees. The first book had info about the dogs brought over from Ireland and England, the early matches, and info about the owners. It was possible to trace some well bred dogs back through the generations the only trouble being the pedigree would be over 100 pages long and take a very long time to research.
In A.D.B.A. there are such things as "pure bred but unregistered" in many dogs pedigrees added to the fact many of the A.D.B.A. dogs have fake pedigrees. U.K.C. took a little better care of their pedigrees and have less of this so their pedigrees are easier to research, and more believeable.
When researching some old pedigrees you will find the sire and dam will not be the same dogs in some pedigrees. Many of the old time breeders didn't want anyone knowing how their dog was bred and some of the dogs were stolen and fake papers made up. That has continued until today in A.D.B.A. Some of their pedigrees are totally useless. There are even cases of dogs breeding when they are 20 or more years old. Wayne's book will tell of a few of these cases. One word of warning, when researching pedigrees sometimes a person will find the pedigree on their dog in totally false.