Country rules used to be my favorite. I liked it much better than Cajun rules. I had one dog that country rules were just about the only way to match him. When he got hot he would scratch into a man as quick as he would a dog. When I let him go I didn't touch him again until the other dog was dead. That was always in the contract. No one can pick up a dog.
My old toothless dog I would always match Cajun rules. You could see the gleam in the eyes of the people when they found out my dog didn't have a tooth in his head. From the release up to the 30 minute mark we would get all kinds of odds. From 30 minutes on the odds changed the other way. Won 7, never lost. Match weight 51lbs.

No one I knew would match a game dog into a cur dog unless someone had some real money to back the cur dog. That is cruel.

I never saw a coon that could make the minute mark with any of my dogs. If it was a large old boar he might live long enough to make one squall. I put a bell on my dog's collar so I could hear them shaking out a coon when they caught it.

Yes, it was a figure of speech on cutting a dog in two pieces. They will usually get their intestines spilled all over the ground. Especially if the dog tries to catch the back of the neck.
Not anyone I knew would match into a non game dog.

[QUOTE

My husband had one that would kill any and all animals near it from two Rotties and a German shepherd and tore up several pitts. She would act all friendly to all animals and the minute they relaxed she killed. He went and tried to rehab her with training and everything esle including building the Fort Knox of outdoor kennels. When I married him, I had him out her down. She was good for people. Animals were goners. I would never trust a Akita again. Most are very dog aggressive. Very few including in the show ring were not.[/QUOTE]

Had the same sort of experience. But in my case, I raised my girl from a pup. Socialized her with cats and other dogs. She did great until one day..... she decided that anything on four feet was fair game. She lived the rest of her life on a runner INSIDE her kennel. I had to have her pts when we moved to NM.
Beautiful girl and great with people. Anything not human? Not so much.

__________________
" It's better to ride even if you get thrown, than to wind up just wishin' ya had."

Chris Ledoux

Can you describe Country rules and how they differ from Cajun?

You can do a search on Cajun rules and they will explain it much better than I can.
In Cajun rules the dogs are released. If a dog ever turns, acts like he wants to quit fighting, the next time they are out of holds each handler picks up their dogs. The dog who turned is released. He has a set time in seconds to make contact with the other dog, or scratch. If he doesn't he looses and the fight is over. If he makes contact in the time the next time they are out of holds the handelers pick up their dogs and it is the other dogs turn to scratch. Either dog can quit anytime they want to. They just loose the fight. Fighting ability is not as important as gameness.

Country rules are not really rules. The dogs are dropped and the fight is over when one handeler decides to pick up his dog or one dog can't fight anymore.
Country rules are what most of the novice dog fighters use. Some dogs are better suited at one or the other.
If you have a dog that is an awsome fighter but not really game Country rules are made for you. He has a chance of winning before gameness comes into play.
If you have a very game dog but not much of a fighter Cajun rules are for you. The game dog will keep trying even though he is loosing. If the other dog is not game, not conditioned, or not handeled properly you have a chance of winning with a dog that is loosing the fight.

i meant matching two akitas would give you a descent but short match, which is what the japanese in Akita prefecture wanted. just like the spanish cultures really like a couple of big dogs for relatively short messy matches. come to think of it most non anglo cultures like big dogs in short messy matches.

an average sized patterdale and coon half again bigger down a hole is a pretty even match. the smart dogs learn to lock jaws w/ them & drag them out of the hole so they're easier to kill.

I see. Cajun rules seem a bit more humane (if you can call anything about dog fighting humane), as the dog can quit anytime he wants, and is picked up if he looks like he's thinking about quitting. It seems to be a better way to test gameness.

The young thugs seem to use Country rules, if you can call them rules. Free-for-all until one dog runs away, dies, or is picked up.

I have heard that in other countries like Turkey, where LGDs are fought, the fight is over when one dog submits to the other. Sort of like Country rules I guess.

Yes, Cajun rules don't allow a dog to be fought that doesn't want to fight.
A match was a way to test gameness. Pit bulls were supposed to be a game breed but you can't tell by looking if a dog is game or not. Matching them was the only way to breed correct pit bulls. Sometimes a dog will win a match without even seeing the other dog. I can remember winning a match one time without my dog even knowing there was a match. Just as people breed racing greyhounds, the only way to see if the dog will run is to race him. You can't tell by looking at a dog what they are capable of doing. If a person decides to raise a breed of dogs especially bred for a trait they should test for that trait before they breed. Or go with another breed.

Every country has their fighting dogs. Different countries different breeds.
Years ago transportation wasn't like it is today so the fighting dogs were local dogs. Most were not bred for fighting. That didn't stop people from fighting them. Today with easy transportation a dog can come from different countries. Now it is possible to get a pit bull into countries that have never seen one. Dog fighting is changing. The local dogs are being replaced.
Just about every country now has pit bulls. It is much easier to get a fighting dog into another country than it is to get a tourist in.

For a couple of hundred years the U.S. had the best fighting dogs in the world. It is beginning to change. Many of the best in the U.S. have been exported to other countries. Laws are different there. Some people are even leaving the U.S. and taking their dogs with them. The quality of pit bulls in the U.S. is getting lower each year. It won't be long until the pit bull in the U.S. is just another cur dog.

Yes, big dogs are not something that the people in the U.S. use. Just not enough action. My largest dog's match weight was 51-53lbs. and he was considered a large dog. You want the largest dog at the least weight.
It is a fine line between a dog at the top of his strength without an ounce of fat and a dog that is drawn down a little too far or a dog that is a little too heavy. Not a lot of people are a good judge at conditioning a dog. Those who are good at it usually win.

warning thread drift
Pancho do you remember any blue dogs after 1970? i was under the impression blue was extinct in the breed by then. i know the hippos bred in the 1990s came from neapolitan crosses.

There were a couple of people in Texas that had a few blue dogs that were the real thing.
I think they had about 25% Staff blood, Expert or Ruffian I think. That was back when some of the staffs had some degree of gameness. They were exceptional dogs. I can remember one ADBA Ch. and a couple that were fairly good pit dogs.
These were not the fat, short, wide blues you see today. These were tall, slim, deep chested dogs.
By the mid 1980s the blues and red nose were becoming a fad. The red nose especially. By the mid 1990s the re nose had dimmed and the blues were the most popular color. Some of the new type of owners even thought red nose and blue dogs were a seperate breed.

Today a blue pit bull is not considered a pit bull. 99% are the result of crossbreeding.

I forgot about the Watchdog pit bulls. Back years ago they were a pretty good dogs, not great but above average, and many were blue. Then Courtier sold out to blue pit breeders and now they are considered trash.

Thread drift all ya like fellas...Talking dogs should be fun...Let the conversation go where it goes...As I said, I was interested in dogs, other than pits, but it's still good to learn about all breeds.

BTW, anyone else wanna jump in and throw out another breed, feel free...Pancho and Pops are dog men of old and can really provide good info.

__________________
I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

Thanks, sometimes people don't like thread drift. For me it is just like a conservation. A person says something and that starts a slightly different conservation.

This drives me crazy. Every day I see ads on Craigslist like this:

"Pitt bull puppys for sell. mother is blue nose and father is red nose. 5 weeks old and eating solid puppy chow. will make grate family dogs. 150$"

or

"ABPT pups, 50% American, 25% Red Nose, 25% Brindle. $100 each to good homes. Both parents on site. NOT FOR FIGHTING!"

As though "Red Nose", "Blue Nose", "American", and "Brindle" are different breeds.

And then you have the ads that say "Blue Nose Pit" and the dog pictured is not blue, or "Red Nose Pit" and the dog pictured has a black nose.

People are amazingly stupid, so stupid it makes my brain hurt.

I see more blue pit bulls for sale nowdays. All of them are the short fat hog looking dogs.
They will always give a bloodline but don't know enough about the breed to know the bloodline they are so proud of is a cross breed dog.
Most of the dogs can't walk across the street without stopping to rest.

Pancho do you know anything about Boudreaux dogs? Boudreaux's Skull ROM produced blue puppies when bred to a black boudreaux/garner female.

Yes, know him and his son. Their dogs never really impressed me. I tried a few of them but never found what I would call a good one. I would never have a Garner dog on my property.

It wasn't that unusual to get a blue dog every once in a while. It was unusual to get a good blue dog. Same thing can be said of the white, liver, todays merle dogs. Many people would cull a blue pup before anyone found out their bloodline produced it. Today that is much more likely to happen except those who breed for color only. Which is the reason most pit bulls are bred today.

When a person breeds a dog because of it's color only they usually give up quite a few other more valuable traits. Especially a dog bred for any job. Color does not make a dog better at any job. When breeding dogs for a job using any other scale besides the ability of doing that job will result with poor quality dogs.

I had heard that they are known more for their mouth and not so much their gameness. Boudreaux's Skull ROM appears to me to have become a ROM because he was repeatedly used as a stud to anyone. He has hundreds of pups out of him but few appear to be any quality. Insomnia had me looking at pedigrees last night.

Lots of people will breed to a stud just because he is well known. Don't matter what he is know for. If you breed one enough sooner or later you will come up with a good one. If you pick and choose your competition you are much more likely to win.

There is a good book with a lot of history and pedigrees that was put out by a man with the last name Brown. If you can get one is it very interesting.