The Truth of a Match.

16 Match Overview In order to understand what happens in one of these contests one must first understand the origin of the dog and individuals who originally pit one dog against another. There is a lot of speculation on this issue but the overal consensus among 'professional' dog fighters is that it was a way to find out which dog was the toughest.

Through out history, men have fought one another in caged contests, with gloves,without gloves, with rules, without rules, etc...the tough man was worshiped and to be emulated in the days when it was more accepted by society. So, how did they define tough? One aspect of being tough was gameness. Two men would duke it out and if one of them quit the dual was over. Even if the man who quit was physically stronger he was not considered to be tougher.In other instances it was not only who was stronger physically but who was smarter and in yet others it was physical. So, we now havethree components of a fight, physical, mental and gameness, or heart!The heart is that intangible men worshiped back then, the gameness to never quit until there was nothing left. These men also expected the same of their dogs. The dog that would quit in a fight was no longer kept for breeding. As a result there was an evolution that took place where the dogs would continue to fight even while taking a beating. Now, gameness is not sufficient when faced with a stronger and larger opponent so other things began to evolve such as strength of bite, agility, and various other things like fighting style, yes, style. As men learned more and more they began to selectively breed for one characteristic over another to the point that only game, athletic, hard biting winnerswere bred. These dogs tended to be small since they were typicallymatched in buildings, basements etc...most ranged from as littleas 15 pounds all the way up to 45 or 50 pounds. The reason for this was simple. It's easier to physically pick up a small dogin the heat of battle than a large one. So, what prevents the person who is handling the dog from being bitten? Well, that ispart of the evolution and something else that I will explain ina moment. First let's examine being in a 16 by 16 foot square pit trying to grab a dog that is the middle of a major battle. Whatprevents the dog from biting the handler? Well, it's because overthe many many years breeders selectively bred only those dogs thatwould NOT bite the handler. But, there was something else theywere doing and didn't know it. It had to do with the most fundamentalinstinct of all. The survival instinct.

The old timers believed that a mean, vicious dog was never really game! Period! A man biter was put to death immediately. That is how strong their feelings were.To better understand this we need to examine the survival instinct as it applies to Wolves in the wild, and in order for that to happen we need a scenario that commonly occurs in the wild. Let's say that a pack of wolves has just killed a deer and is in the process of eating. Since the dogs are very hungry they just start tearing away at the carcass and eventually there will be a piece of meat that two males, (just for argument sake), will want. Well of course there will be a conflict when that happens, right? The first thing onewolf will do is to start something called "threat display", byshowing his teeth and raising the hair on his back to appear larger than he is. He might even growl to sound mean. This type of behavior is used so that he does not have to fight. The idea is intimidation first, then and only then will he actually fight. The reason for this is the ever present survival instincts. Being physically injured could potentially risk life itself, hence "threat display" You'll also notice that the fights the do happen are very short and almostnever result in debilitating injuries. Again in the interest of surviving. All the slashing teeth, rearing up on the hind legs and so forth are variations on a theme. The aggressiveness is therefore considered threat display and as such is not, I repeat not a desirable trait when crafting a combat dog. Therefore,gameness and aggressiveness are not the same. I game dog does * NOT show his teeth* NOT raise up on his hind legs* NOT growl or make any noise other than maybe screaming orwhimpering due to the intense desire for physical contact* NOT show aggressiveness towards humans as this is yet again a manifestation of THREAT display.So, for people to say that these dogs are people aggressive simply because they have seen action in the pit is not because they are stupid, just uninformed.

THE PIT CONTEST: Now we're ready for what really happens in the pit. Let's examine the dimensions first. A pit is typically 16 feet by 16 feet squareand about 2 1/2 to 3 feet high. The floor is usually a thick carpetand the walls are made of wood. In the real world of TOP dog fighters there are only a handful of individuals at one of these matches. There is a referee, a second for each dog, a handler for each dog and a timekeeper. there is a "scratch" line drawn diagonally from one neutralcorner of the pit to the other. A dog must cross that line to complete his scratch. There is normally a ten second time limit from the time a dog is released until it crosses the scratch line. If he does not cross the line in the alotted time then the other dog is declared the winner.

HOW A MATCH BEGINS:At the beginning of the match, both dogs are faced into their respective corners by their handlers until the referee, also in the pit asks the contestants to face their dogs. At that time the two handlers turn 180 degrees and face each other. When that happens the dogs get sight of one another and start to get pretty excited.they both usually start trying to get away in order to go after the other dog. The referee asks the handlers to release their dogs and the match has begun. To the uninitiated it's a bit strange because once the dogs make contact in the middle of the pit there is almost not noise at all. No growling, no raised hair, no snapping. Just each dog trying to get a hold on the other. One might grab an ear or a shoulder and try to wrestle the opponent to the ground. Then,the dominant dog will shake his head to try and punish the otherdog. As the match progresses, with only the sounds of breathing,the dogs will swap holds, (i.e., take turns grabbing each other).

THE TURN: At some point in the match one of the dogs might have second thoughts about wanting to be there so will show some signs of this by doing certain things. One of those things that we lookfor is the tail tucking. A sure fire sign that a dog is thinking of not continuing. The most subtle sign but more reliable is when a dog physically turns his head and shoulders away from his opponent during combat. This is called a turn. It is up to the handler of the other dog to point it out to the referee. When that has been done the referee announces to the handlers thata turn has been called and that they should handle their dogs at the first opportunity. This opportunity comes when both dogs are not in hold, (i.e., biting each other). This is when each handler in unison will grab his dog by the nap of the neck and put a hand under the stifle area to pick his dog up. Each handler then returns to their respective corners, much like boxing.they must each face their dogs into the corner for 25 seconds and then upon hearing the referee say face your dogs, turn and face their dogs. The dog that turns first, must scratch first. So,the handler of the dog that was called for the turn must then release his dog first.

THE SCRATCH: Okay, the dog that turned first must now go across the scratchline to prove that he still wants to dominate. If he doesn't cross the line in 10 seconds then he loses and the opponent is declared the winner. This is more often than not. Or, the losing dog will be too tired to complete the scratch on time. Again, this terminates the match. If a handler were to try to physically make his dog cross the line then again the match is over and the handleris called for a foul.

 

This was a great read but just not something everyone needed to know...the cajun rules is more than enough for the gp to know...still a great read though

 

Is this your writing Bobby Rooster, or did you get this from another source?.

 

I got this off another site. I 'think' it was off of dawnrest (they some some really good reads) but not exactly sure.

 

Good read thanks....

 

back to the top.....

 

awsome read i thought a pit was 14 by 14?? could be wrong

 

Another oldy but goody. Thank you for posting Bobby Rooster

 

NMWAPBT - The Standard was 16x16sq

 

thanx for the correction man

 

great read man

 

Actually a pit can be just about any size. But the scratch lines must be 16' apart.