Another Newbie

What's up guys and gals. Newbie living in Southern California here. I'll preface by saying that I do not own a game bred APBT and never have. I've been around them though through friends and such and they are amazing animals. I have owned mixes and one UKC papered APBT from a nice kennel in Washington state, but learned years ago that he was more than likely a Staff and I was dooped.

It has always been a dream of mine to own a game bred dog to show and compete. I am finally in a position to do so as I own my own home and have a yard worthy of being able to properly take care of and work with the dog. I don't take this decision lightly and I am hoping to get some good insight from some of the folks on these boards.

This brings me to my next step...research research research. Before I even begin to think about purchasing a dog I want to fill my head with as much knowledge as possible. I'd like to attend some shows and meet some people (preferably in my area) to soak up as much as possible in terms of what I can expect from the whole experience if I choose to do it for real.

So I guess I am looking for some good literature that maybe Google is not privy to on the competition and training aspects of this venture, as well as where I should be looking to purchase a dog in the future. Where is the best place to look for shows to attend? Is there anybody in Socal that can point me in the right direction? I really want first hand knowledge of what this all entails. I've read some books and watched some videos and such but I am looking to kind of see the world and talk to actual people who do this. Hell, I may even decide that the whole venture would be biting off more than I can chew and decide not to do it. I just don't want to cheat myself out of a full filling lifestyle by not seeing first hand how it all works.

Hopefully this doesn't sound like the stupidest post you guys have ever read and if I'm vague on anything I'll definitely answer more questions. Long ass story short, I really THINK I want to be part of the game bred APBT community, but I don't want to cheat myself or some innocent dog by jumping in without educating myself properly.

 

Welcome to the site.