Although pit dog men vary in occupations, education, politics and even in our ideas about the dogs, I would venture to say that one thing we do have in common is the dream of some day owning an "Ace." Some of the lucky ones amongst us have already attained this dream. perhaps more than once. But generally speaking, an "ace" is a once-in-a-lifetime dog. He is a dog that can whip anything his own weight and make it look easy. In fact, some of the better ones didn't even have to be matched to weight.

The pattern of public reaction to an ace is a familiar one and fairly predictable. While most fanciers are quick with their acclaim, there is always a hardcore group of diehards and skeptics. The usual comment is that the dog is a cur (albeit a "stiff cur"), and that soon a dog will come along that will make him show his true colors. Eventually, credit is grudgingly given, although it may not be until long after the dog has died!

Actually, some of the old-timers have a right to be suspicious of the rough, devastating type of Bulldog that wins by rendering his opponent helpless in a matter of minutes. Experienced breeders are only too aware of how difficult it is to get all the desirable components-hard bite, gameness, good wrestling ability and pit intelligence-in one dog. More often than not, if we get a hard biting, rough dog, he turns out not to be game. If we get a deeply game dog, he seemingly can't bite through a paper bag! These qualities are not mutually exclusive, as used to be argued by some dog men, but they are statistically difficult to obtain in one dog.

However, an ace is more than just all the qualities of a good pit dog combined in one dog. Usually a phenomenal ability of some kind is also involved. Thus we have Owens Tanner, a dog that would shake so hard he banged his opponent's head on the ground, completely disorienting him. Or Wallaces Searcy Jeff, who would feed an opponent his right front leg, then practically bite his head right off' Or Tudors Black Jack, a Colby-bred dog who killed quality opponents that outweighed him by a considerable amount

Most of us have logged in considerable time mooning over pictures of such dogs, wishing we had a time machine to go back and get them! However, it only stands to reason that there is an ace or two in our midst right now especially if we take into account the theory of large numbers. There are more people now and more pit dog men hence, more pit dogs. We would therefore expect that there would be more good dogs, which, I think, there are. (A so. unfortunately, more bad ones!) I'm sure everybody has his idea of a dog that might be our generation's ace. My own candidate is Going Light Barney.

Barney is an eight-time winner, but, more than that, he is an eight-time winner that has been open to the world and has had run at him the finest dogs that were available. Because of his tremendous punishing power, many of Barney's matches have been short. But because of the quality of his opponents, Barney has gone the distance a number of times, and, on such occasions he has exhibited excellent ring generalship, pacing himself, coasting, waiting for the proper moment, then really pouring on the heat!

As for his fighting style, he is an ear dog par excellence, but he has tremendous adaptability. In fact, he is one of those rare dogs that have the uncanny ability to solve any dog's fighting style and turn it against him. His wrestling ability and biting power are nothing short of phenomenal. His scratches are spectacular, but they have not been frequent, as, again because of the quality of his opponents, there have been very few turns in any of his contests.
 

Richard Stratton & Going Light Barney
Barney was bred by Lawrence McCaw and his son Bruce, utilizing an old Corvino-bred stud dog owned by Morrie Rootberg and a bitch strong in the blood of Rascal and the fabulous Goofy (owned by Lou Johnston). In the seven years that they have owned Barney, Larry and Bruce have utilized hardnosed selectivity and saturation breeding techniques to found a bloodline based on Barney that they call the "Going Light" strain. Both men are completely committed to Bulldogs and are highly respected among pit dog men.

It may seem as though praise of Barney has been too lavish and overdrawn, but, remember, we are dealing with an ace here, and it is sometimes difficult to communicate just how much such a dog stands out. An incident involving Barney's schooling may make the point. Larry and Bruce were involved in game-testing Barney and wanted to be sure he could take it. The only hitch was that he had such uncanny ability to counter a dog's fighting style that Barney didn't have to take much-even when larger dogs were put on him. After trying a number of different dogs with different fighting styles on Barney, all to no avail, one of the handlers suddenly had an idea. "Maybe," he said, "if we tied Barney up, the other dogs could do something with him!"

The idea, of course, was dismissed as ridiculous. But the fact that it could even be suggested in earnest is an indication of just how complete was Barney's dominance!

 * Appeared in the July-August, 1975 issue of SDJ*