Floyd Boudreaux, A History

[christySYK]

Disclaimer: This is for historical purposes. Floyd Boudreaux was recently found not guilty of dog fighting since it was made illegal in 1982. This is a man I personally have great respect for and applaud him for all he has done for the breed.

Floyd Boudreaux
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-The following article can be found in the book entitled “American Pitbull” by Steidl

Floyd Boudreaux has been involved with American Pit Bull Terriers from the time of his. A perfect southern gentleman and devoted family man, he has been raising dogs from the Boudreaux bloodline that has been his hallmark since the late 1930’s.

The Interview: Mr. Boudreaux speaking;

I’ve been working with the breed over half a century.I also have chickens. My dad had ‘em before I did, and then I had ‘em before I went to grade school.My son too. It’s always been a family affair. We do it on a shoestring, keep all the dogs on the same yard.But this is just a hobby. I’m a stone setter by trade, and my son does the same. Custom work is what I do, and I’ve been at it for a long time. My next birthday I’m going to be seventy.

I’m located in the “hub city”-Lafayette, Louisiana. It’s a bit warm, but I got it pretty nice for the dogs. I have a kennel for them, plus I have what we call a “lean-t” that they can get under when it gets warm or cool or whatever. I don’t have many dogs, and I don’t breed many either-I don’t mass produce. Every now and again, when I need a litter, I just kinda breed one. I’d say I have twenty dogs right now, counting puppies.I don’t have any favorites, I sure don’t. In terms of working with these animals, good old common sense will carry you a long way-I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist. ‘Course I’ve been very fortunate to succeed with the dogs and the chickens. And no, they’re not ferocious. I wouldn’t keep nothing that’s ill-tempered in the chickens or the dogs. I got neighbor’s kids and grandkids…Hell, they all play here. So I have no use for that. It’s not my cup of tea.

And the dogs don’t take as much work as people think. First thing in the morning I’ll pick up all the waste and make sure they have water before I ride off for the day. Then I do the same when I get back in the evening. Before we even have any supper, we’ll just clean up with the dogs and make sure everything is secured and everybody’s got water. The grown dogs, we feed once in the evening.We feed the young ones twice a day.And the little bitty ones, all their kennels and brood pens have self feeders, so they can eat all want at any given time.With the birds, you show both males and females, but mostly the males. They’re just dominant-in all walks of life it’s the same. You show the more outgoing animals. ‘Course you can get to where they get spoiled, the dogs and the birds. My grandkids have one dog that they call by the name of Girlfriend. She’s a national champion puller dog, but she’s only twenty-nine pounds-and she’s a house dog.These dogs sure enjoy the weight pulling. They pull on command. In other words, you can’t touch them, you can’t force them, you can’t threaten them. They all do this on their own, and if they choose not to do it they just don’t . I would never force an animal to do anything that he wouldn’t do on his own.

When I was a younger fella we had some bird dogs, some champion dogs, sure did.Pointers and Irish Setters. But I wasn’t much in the sport of killing birds, so I just stuck to the Bulldogs instead. They’re sharp, they’re smart,they’re loyal…They’re the All-American dog.

-The following are parts taken from Interview with Floyd Boudreaux taken From Fat Bill’s “Book Of Interviews”

How many of us can say that his daddy had Bulldogs for more than 40 years? How many of us can say without exaggeration that he played an important role in developing a line of dogs that have stood the test of time and become the backbone of some of the best performing bloodlines around these days? One of the very few that can answer these questions with a positive “Yes!” is Floyd Boudreaux from Lafayette, Louisiana. We sat down and talked to Mr. Boudreaux about his most famous dogs, like the Blind Billy dog, Boze, Eli, Ox and many more. For the first time, Mr. Boudreaux is without any doubt a very
knowledgeable Dogman and has bred, raised and handled some of the best ever to cross a pit. Stay with us read about the living legend

Mr. Floyd Boudreaux.

What was your first dog and when was the first time for you to leave Louisiana with these dogs to fight into something other than local competition?

I remember my first dog was a brindle female, her name was Flossie. I started at a very young age, but the first time for me to fight a dog in the fast lane must have been when I took Stagger Lee to San Antonio to one of Maurice Carver’s shows. I went into a guy named Steen and he had a dog called Roho. We had that dog beat, but he kept pushing his dog in the corner with his knees each time when it was his time to scratch. Maurice was the referee and I said ‘Gentlemen, be sure not to push that dog anymore, you have pushed him for the last time’. If I wouldn’t have said anything that time, who knows what might have happened!

What was the Best dog you ever owned?

They ask me that all the time, it’s tough to answer but I think I’m partial to my Boze dog. I probably had a few that were as good, but I always like him a lot. He won twenty seven rolls for me and he was always the smaller dog but they couldn’t beat him. He also won one contracted fight. One time, Jerry Clemmons and Douglas Nirider brought a dog that was nineteen pounds bigger than Boze, and that big dog would bite through car tires. When we put them down, it was a joke, Boze was a fast hard mouthed dog; he would fight high in the shoulder and destroy a dog quick. During the day time he would usually sleep with the puppies around the house and I always thought he was a little shy, just like Blind Billy. One time he won a fight in just six minutes, that was in New Orleans. We had ten matches that day and he beat a dog of Jerome Hernadez’ , he just wrecked the dog, it was no contest. Boze was out of Scrub and Candy, after that fight they claimed that their dog wasn’t conditioned. I don’t know, but mine was ready to fight. I matched against Jerome three time and won twice, Jerome was a Dogman and hard to beat.

[christySYK]

Blind Billy Dog?

Blind Billy was born in 1952 and I bought him 1953.  My uncle had 4 ace roosters and we traded them with Earl Tudor for Blind Billy. He was a son of Dibo, and he wouldn’t fight until he was two and a half years old. He really was not blind. His eyes had always been a little weak, and in his last contest he was blind, yes. I won a real good match with him in :26 or :28. Then the second time, I was very young them, they tried to fool me. It was pretty dark in the place where the pit was set up and it was my turn to scratch Billy. Earl Tudor jumped up out joy when Billy was scratching towards the other dog. He was about halfway when he turned around to look at Earl and hit the pit wall. He never stopped looking for the other dog, but was counted out and lost that fight. We didn’t get the trophy that day but Billy was the best dog in the show and from then on they called him Blind Billy. Like I said before, his sire was the Dibo dog and I believe Howard Heinzl had something to do with that dog, Dibo was stolen when he was young and sold to a black man who owned a restaurant. Dibo’s real name was Runt and when he started at the age of 4 they picked him up again and matched him.

What about your dog named Ox?

Ox was a very smart dog; he was a superb ear dog and also very game. When I turned him loose he never missed that ear. A long time ago we matched him in Mexico. He was matched for $16,000, which in those days was a lot of money. I was matched into District Attorney of Mexico City, he had a good little dog and he told me that his dog would break legs and said that it was going to happen to Ox too. The only comment I had to make was that if Ox would turn him loose he wasn’t going to break anything. Ox was smart and I am convinced that he would have stayed out of trouble, the only thing Ox couldn’t do was talk. That’s how smart he was. But the show never came off because of a couple of punks from California who were involved in other activities and had been followed by the authorities. This was just not another convention; it was going to be the one of the greatest get togethers in a long time. There were two or three super dogs to be matched. The trophy alone for the winner cost $2000 and was made by Larry McCaw from California. Plus the fact that nobody brings a dog that far when they are not satisfied with the dog at home. After that, we sold Ox because we needed money to buy a new place. He went to a man from Florida named Bob Johnson. One week after he took him, he called to tell me he put 3 dogs on Ox. He said he stopped the first dog in 20 minutes, the next one went a little over half an hour and the third one Ox fought like he just started, so they picked him up. He told me Ox was a very game dog, I told him I assumed he was game but didn’t realize he was that game. People don’t seem to understand that even the very best will often quit if you stress them hard enough, it’s just a matter of how much you put on them. There is no sense in killing them while testing them because there is something like a breaking point. Some dogs that have never been used because they quit at home might have been great dogs in the pit under the right circumstances. Lack of knowledge, that’s what it is! Ox was a polished ear dog and could keep himself out of trouble, but most other cogs couldn’t stand this kind of abuse. These dogs are just flesh and bone like anything else; most men don’t even recognize an Ace dog when they see one. A lot of fellows will take all the good out of a dog when he is still young, and then later condemn him for not being a good one. They try to condition a dog on a treadmill when they are half drunk and watching TV. Now that I’m back on the subject of schooling, I took the Devil Dog of Oklahoma and rolled him no more than 9 minutes and later I used him to whip Chicken Sam, he used a dog that I saw fight for three hours. Sometimes when you see an all beaten up dog, people say that’s a bad one! I say, No sir! That’s a bad one that passed on him. That’s the way it goes.

Could you tell us the full story on the Eli dog?

I will tell you the full story on the Old Eli Dog, how he was bred, his parents, his pups and so on? I will tell you the true story as it is, and I have witnesses that that can tell you this is the truth. If this not right I’m the brother of Martin Luther King. It makes me mad that they got the story of him and his sons Bullyson and Eli Jr. turned around. Not for myself, I know better. I lived; but the future generation that is coming behind us doesn’t know anything about the truth and have to rely on what they are reading. That’s why I am so glad I can do this interview in the Times. It takes a small man to to lie and change a story, I am telling the truth about how them dogs are bred just like I always told before. Eli was a pretty good individual and after his match against Jack Smith in Cleveland I brought him home. We doctored him up and then a sheriff from Mississippi tried to buy him, but I wouldn’t sell him. Then, the next day, Raymond Holt of Texas and his wife Sharon came by to buy him, but I gave Eli to my friend Jr. Bush from Alabama. He loaned Eli to John Cotton from Chattanooga, Tennessee; they were friends at the time and that’s where somebody stole Eli. I gave Eli to Jr. because he is a real high class dogman, a good example for a lot of other so called Dogmen. When Eli got stolen, Cotton gave Jr. $1,000 and told him to go and buy another dog. He said that if there was a dog he liked that cost more, he would make up the difference. There are a lot of stories about what happened after this, when Eli got stolen from Chattanooga. I think he went from Chattanooga to Memphis, and from there on, I just don’t know for sure; but I feel that some of that bunch in Memphis had something to do with it. I just don’t know what happened with Eli but I feel very strong about this. And I wouldn’t’ say it if I didn’t believe it myself. I truly believe that Eli was the sire of that Grand Champion Zebo dog. They were too much alike not to be true. At one time I gave a nice red puppy to Jerry Clemmons; he is a friend of mine a I still think a lot of the man. He took the pup, kept him for six weeks and then sold the pups. He came here and I gave him another pup that I had here in the Blacksmith shop, I called that pup Spook. She was out a litter that killed each other when they were still very young. He kept her for about two months at the most, when she came in season for the first time he brought her back and I bred her to Eli. They had four pups; three black and one brindle, two males and two females. One of the males was Bullyson, the other was Eli Jr, and the bridle was Brendy. She bit the hardest of them all and she was the biggest; she could break a dog down in less than 3 minutes. Brendy was awesome, a Bulldog! As bad as a man has ever seen. She beat a dog one time like she was having breakfast; I’ve never seen anything like her again. The other female in the litter out of Spook and Eli was a black bitch named Lady. She was my kind of dog and I think the best in the litter. Both Bullyson and his brother Eli Jr. , was a much better producer. He was just not bred to good selected bitches, but he was definitely a better dog than Bullyson. He didn’t care if he was getting bit because he was going to bite you. Red Wallings was the owner of Bullyson when he was matched into his son, Benny Bob. Maurice conditioned him, but he was not fit ot fight, this is what happened; Maurice had Bullyson and bred him to a bitch named Beth at his place. A few weeks after that, Bullyson got bit by a rattlesnake and his head was as big as a Texas hat. Also, there was this big old dog at Maurice’s place that got off the chain, and Bullyson, who was in a kennel, was fighting with this dog through the fence and messed up his teeth and gums. Just before the fight with Benny Bob we checked his blood count and it was down to 33. Benny Bob was a bridle dog and Bullyson a black dog, the match was at 52 lbs. but Bullyson was only a 48 or 49 lb dog. The fight was reported in Pete Sparks’ Magazine and also in the book that Mayfield put out at the time; but it was not until Mayfield wrote that little book called “Rednecks” that he came out with all that nonsense about a black dog against a white dog. I think he was confused by another match between Danny Burton who had a black 54lb dog and Raymond Holt, who had a white dog called Lightening IV, who was owned by a black man named Chris. Eli Jr. was sold to Douglas Nirider when he was 17 months old for $400; he won his first match on a broken leg in Oklahoma. If Bullyson would have been in good shape against Benny Bob I think that would have been a hell of a fight. One time, I had a dog called Napoleon and I rolled him with Bullyson when he was at my place. Bullyson was an 18 lb bigger dog but Napoleon held his own for a little while. It didn’t go very long because Bullyson was coming on hard. Later I won with Napoleon in the same show when Bullyson won over that Sir dog that was handled by Bert Clouse. I remember one incident with Bullyson when he was at my place; Jerry Clemmons brought the dog to me to be tested and one day while I was cleaning up around his chain, he tried to bite me. Before he could put his mouth on me I hit him hard with a shovel and knocked him out. After this happened, he never, at my place, tried to bite anyone again. If a dog is a man biting dog, I don’t like them and if they try to bite me or my family, it’s a dead dog. Jerry had Bullyson when he was a young dog and he was sort of hyper.

[christySYK]

Floyd Boudreaux written by James Crenshaw from “My Life and Times
with the American Pit Bull Terrier”

This gentleman should need no introduction to anyone who has ever known anything about a bulldog.Floyd is a third generation dog man (the only one I have ever known of ever, and quite possibly another generation after him in Guy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Adam carries on.

I have known Floyd for over 30 years.Needless to say, he has bred more good foundation dogs, as well as good performers than anyone living today and probably in the history of the breed.He is certainly a man of the old school where one’s word meant something. This family has sacrificed more than most ever have to keep these dogs. I remember Floyd’s son was injured on the job, his wife or daughter had an auto accident and the other became ill at the same time. When everyone was well and home, the family took a vote to see if they would keep the dogs. With huge hospital bills to pay, most would have declared bankruptcy and started over.But not the Boudreaux Family.They elected to keep the dogs and to work overtime or whatever it took to keep them and survive. This vote took place in the early 1970’s and Floyd had been paying the medical bills ever since.I was visiting with the Boudreaux’ in the spring of 1997 and Floyd told me, “My friend, I will have the hospital and doctor bills paid in May”.This was over 20 years since he started paying off this debt.How many men do you think would have done this? Not many, I will bet. And still some have the nerve to question this man’s honesty and character.So you can see, I think of this man like he is family. And I consider it an honor to have known him.

[LiiL_L0cz]

omg this is beautiful! i cant wait for more from u!

[sw_df27]

Straight awesome!!!!!!