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VAA: Who are Taylor, Barnett and Nations did they buy dogs from you?
JDJ: Well, there were a lot o f people that bought dogs form me, I've bred American Bulldogs for a lot of years.
Thirty years before Tim was born, 20 years before Joe Painter and Alan Scott were born. People would buy the
dogs and ask if they could put their name first instead of Johnson just as they do today and I've always said it's your dog call it as you want I would watch and if they bred something that I could use I would use it. That helped me down through the years and I still get dogs back that way. I got Tiny and Elrod from David Fametti I've got two Tuffie females form Ben Read down her right now. Tim's dogs carries his name, but you can look back one
generation on his dogs and he hasn't bred those dogs that doesn't mean they can't be called his. I did that with a
lot of people we worked with the Nations a lot and a lot of us did it that way. I tried to get Alan to work like that,
but he never listened he would just get a bunch of throw away dogs and breed them dogs that didn't show Bulldog at all. He did things different than I did. It's just like now, people are breeding good straight Bulldogs and some are using any dog they can pick up cheap, just to breed and sell dogs, it will catch up with them too, it takes more time and effort to do it right. The Nations they live down here at Cedar Town that's down below Rome Georgia, 35-40 mile form here. They would come up every weekend or two. They were always visiting and always with us. I knew them and their dogs, I knew what they had and they were just good friends.
VAA: Tim stated in his open letter to the Fancy that if you claim to have a 100% Johnson dog that you're a
village idiot. When I did some research and found Tim's dog has been advertised 100% Johnson. Note: Page 122
in the June, 1996 issue of Dog World "Great Whites Landshark-Duncan (100% Johnson X linebred Johns Hog
Head)" or page 112 September, 1996 issue of Dog World "I am not trying to create anything new, just preserve and improve upon the ONLY STRAIN of American Bulldogs that has withstood the test of time .... OLD TIME Johnson dogs", or page 113 May, 1996 issue of Dog World "100% Johnson GWK Duncan 27" head-108 lb." When do you believe you can start to identify a dog 100% one line after 3, 4, 5, 6 generations?
JDJ: I think if you have been breeding a line for 5 or 6 generations, it should be identified with your kennel
name, it doesn't matter if you didn't breed every dog in your line pedigree. After 5 generations it should be your
line you have maintained that line with your decisions to breed two given dogs. You have done all the work, made all the decisions, so a person ought to be able to call that line by their name. Just because 5 generations back someone else's name appears doesn't mean your line isn't pure. 100 years ago there were no Johnson dogs. 150 years ago there was no such thing as a Doberman does that mean they are not pure, even though they breed true to type. My dogs breed true to type, you won't wonder what you will have when they are grown, that's ' more than what I can say for any other line of American Bulldog. After all my years of breeding, I have bred them steady without ever stopping since I returned from W.W.II so I can't understand why someone would be upset if I called my dog Johnson.
VAA: Is there anything else you would like to say about the open letter?
JDJ: Yes. I would just like to say, Tim wants my dogs DNA tested. I know what is in my dogs he didn't need
to sneak around behind my back with a plastic bag pulling hairs off Tiny to send away and secretly have tested.
Meanwhile he acts like my good buddy. I thought carpet baggers were long gone. If Tim really wants to know
he can pay my vet to pull the hairs and send them off an have them tested. Then Tim will know what I do that
my dogs are pure bulldog. There's a friend of mine that lives about 25-26 miles away from me here, he's a friend
of sorts he comes here like Tim and he tries to get me to give him dogs, give him two puppies, give him this, give
him that, for some reason or another these two remind me of each other. The thing is now he told me that at 14
years old, he blew his mind on drugs, what's your excuse Tim. You two act like brothers both begging. Tim if
I lived in a glass house, I certainly wouldn!t throw rocks. Because Tim ... I'm going to burst your bubble, your big
Jake dog according to the man that owned, him said his grandmother was half Neapolitan Mastiff and half Pit Bull
she was bought at a dog fight. Later James Elerby bought her because she was black and he told me himself that
he wanted a black bulldog, he bred Champaign to Muscals who was Johnson and got Muscals Jr. who looked like
a Pitbull to me. Muscals Jr. had a black brother that they kept. So Tim your still breeding Pitbulls and even
Mastiffs. Your Big Daddy Cool dog that you kept telling me he's got a 1 1/2 inch undershot bite, well Tim that's
nothing to be bragging about, that is to much especially on a small round headed dog like him. Your Duncan dog
has a crippled leg or hip, he's been like that since the show in Oklahoma two years ago, when you blamed it on Bob Baxter for pulling him out of his crate to quick. If its just his knee, why don't you get it operated on, I think its
because he is inbred so close his grandmothers are the same dog and his grandfathers are litter mate brothers. I
know John Blackwell used my two males as grand sires, but I never would have let him breed to either one if I
knew he was going to inbreed that close. Your Sharky dog is very cow-hocked, he is throwing that in his puppies
as I've heard. So who are you to throw rocks at people, look at your own dogs. I looked over all your dog last
time I was at your mother's house with Mike Farley picking up those old females and I can't understand why you
accused so many good Bulldog people of stealing one. You didn't have a dog there that you could give me. The
only buzzards I see flying around me is you and my friend from Rome GA. You two are the only ones begging
me to give you something. Other people have paid for their dogs. I understand now that that's just part of your
character. But Tim you can still come down here I will still try and be just as nice as I've always been to you,
unless you start mouthing off, then I'll ask you to leave and if you don't want to leave, then I will get one of my
Rebel Rouisers out and they will teach you what kind of Bulldog they are. So good buddy let me give you some
advice, because I've been at this a long time, way longer than you've been born, if you want to sell your dogs start breeding great dogs take your time and you will have no trouble. But if people aren't buying your dogs don't start spreading lies about your competition, people aren't that dumb they will figure you out, I did.
VAA: How did you come to know Alan Scott?
JDJ: Some of his kinfolk came here with his daddy's sister and her husband they came here way back when Alan
was a small boy still in school. They became good friend of ours they had Angus cows and we had Angus cows,
they bought a bull form us and they got to coming and visiting and they kept wanting us to come over there and
visit so we did. That's when I met Alan's grandmother and granddaddy, Martin's wife Mary Jane they were
wonderful people all of them were real fine Christian people we loved them. We met Alan's first wife's parents they were also good Christian people. When Alan graduated from high school, we brought him a present and got to know him. You could say we watched him grow up say from the age of 17 on up. Then he decided he wanted
some bulldogs, he was talking to Warren Martin his uncle, he called him uncle Jr. and aunt Jane, he found out from Warren how to get over here he wanted to get some Bulldogs. We knew him and his family so I thought he would be a good one and all to have American Bulldogs, so we let him have some. We wanted him to breed them and to have them right and we needed more breeders. It was different then, we needed more breeders and so different people we tried to help, it just didn't always work out. We helped a lot of people that way some got tired of breeding and some just tried shortcuts just breeding whatever. Alan had different ideas about breeding, I couldn't ever convince him that just because it had cropped ears and a docked tail didn't make it a bulldog. He bought a lot of dogs much later, cheap give away dogs or dogs he would get for free. He liked doing things different than I did. He liked Dixie Man or Buster he was from my dog Dick The Bruiser and his Dixie female. He said that was a once in a lifetime dog, he said he was his best, but except for him being small he was very much like my dogs not like what they call a Scott dog nowadays.
VAA: Did you and Alan Scott write a standard together?
JDJ: No. I wrote a standard but not with Alan Scott.
VAA: Did Alan Scott have any other Bulldogs before he got some from you?
JDJ: I think he had two females from somebody. I didn't know were he got those two, I never paid much
attention to them because they didn't look that well. We gave him some dogs more than I care to ever admit
because we wanted to help him get started.
VAA: Was J.M. Ashley, a catch man for hire-did people actually make a living catching hogs or cattle?
JDJ: He was a farmer up there on Big Sand Mountain. He caught with his dogs as a side line no one ever made
a living catching hogs or cattle, there wasn't enough work to keep you working steady. I caught with my dogs also for years. I remember a dog Alan got, I don't remember what he called him, but he was beautiful, he was small,
but when he brought him over to show me I noticed that all four of his canine Tushes were broken off. He was
smooth mouthed. I told Alan his canines were broken and his mouth looked sore. He said he was supposed to be
a real good catch dog and I bet he was. Alan had told me he was hired to catch a domestic hog, the man told him
the hog was about 200 lb. and when Alan got there he said the hog was 300 or 350 lb. and had short Tushes on
it. He said that dog would catch that hog and he would get slung loose and finally caught him and held him. Alan
told me himself that when it came time to get paid he told the guy that he would charge him one dollar per cut on
his dog, his dog had eleven cuts so he got $11.00. Later he told people that, that dog died holding on to a wild hog. That dog died jumping over a fence with his chain on and hung himself. I was over there just after it happened, Alan was crying about it and the dog was still warm, he had him chained next to a fence and he jumped the fence trying to get to another dog and there wasn't a wild hog anywhere around.
VAA: How long did Alan Scott have Mac the Masher and was he bred a lot?
JDJ: He bred him to big Dixie and those puppies had long slim heads, they were real big pups but the heads
didn't look like a Bulldog head. That combination just wasn't good. I can't think of but 3 or 4 more that he bred
to him, because he was so old when he got him it wasn't that long till he died.
VAA: Did you work together with Alan Scott, Louis Hedgewood, George Lee Williams, WC Bailey trading
breedings back and forth?
JDJ: No, Louis Hedgewood kept my dogs. I didn't trade dogs with any of those fellas there. Alan breed several
times to Dick The Bruiser that's where he got Dixie Man and he bred to him again later and kept a brother to him
also. And he had some females he kept from him. I didn't trade dogs with any of them, because they didn't have
anything I wanted.
VAA: Did Alan Scott test all of your stock for you?
JDJ: (Mr. Johnson laughs) He never tested any of my dogs and very few of his. He did catch some cows and a
hog or two but he didn't make a living at it, no one did. He was just like the rest of us back then, in debt or needing money, he worked for a man on the mountain on his cattle farm, he lost that job, then he worked for some golf club out fit over there I forget what they called that place. Then he worked for the bakery there in Fort Payne and what he's doing now I don't know. But there was just not enough catch work for a man to make a living...
VAA: How many times did you breed your females to Mac the Masher?
JDJ: One time, Louis Hedgewood in Layfette was keeping a dog for me and he wanted to breed her to Mac,
and he bred another female of mine to a dog, I thought they called him Bob, he had a bobbed tail and was killed
by Bruiser Rhoe Ho.
VAA: Dixie Man was out of Dick the Bruiser and what bitch?
JDJ: He used to call her Big Dixie but I think she was registered Scott's Dixie or maybe Dixie Bell I'm not sure.
VAA: Would you say Dixie Man looked a lot like a Johnson dog, undershot, with a wide chest?
JDJ: Yes. He was a good dog he wasn't as big as I would have liked, what caused him to be so small I don't
know. But he was a good Bulldog he looked 100% pure American Bulldog. I was supposed to have bred to him
when ever I wanted, but I never did, I don't know how long he lived but he was nice.
VAA: Why do you think Scott dogs today look so little like the Johnson dogs he started with or his dog Dixie
Man, they seem thinner boned longer muzzled and are often scissors bite?
JDJ: Well, I know that most of the dogs that are registered as Scott dogs are just mixed up cur Bulldog that
people got from up in the hills and registered with some made up Scott pedigree. It was easy, you just send it away to the NKC and you would get papers. They don't care I have been hearing for years now that my dogs are in the back in some NKC pedigrees that I know for a fact are not true. A person sent me a copy of their so called Scott dog and one quarter Kings Aristocrat, well that dog was born, lived, and died here and he was never bred to anything but Johnson females so if that is in your pedigree it is a lie. Alan didn't breed nearly as many dogs as
people think he was not in it that long. The dogs he did buy were cheap or give away dogs. Some were okay,
some were good and some were just mongrels. Alan had a red Pitbull bitch he called an American Bulldog and
he also had some Catahoula's running loose. He also bred Catahoula's to Bulldogs with a fella I think his name was Howard Camathan.
VAA: In Casey's interview with Alan Scott in the American Bulldog Review, he asked why John D. doesn't want
to admit he ever got a dog from you or you ever got one from him, Alan Scott answered I don't know?
JDJ: Alan Scott got a lot of puppies from me some he shipped and all. He had a female he bought in
Gunnersville Alabama, she was a nice bulldog she was just real poor with mange and it was real cold out. I asked
Alan to let me take her for the winter and fix her up so she won't die. He said I'll sell her to you. I said what do
you want for her? He said $36.00. So I bought her. That is the only one I ever bought from Alan. She died, but
she wasn't out of his breeding, he rarely ever raised anything of his own he liked just picking up cheap or give away dogs. I got a pair of female puppies out of Dick The Bruiser and Big Dixie I gave one to Mildred and she sold it and I kept one. That is the truth and it is a lie that I got a lot of dogs from Alan Scott.
VAA: In an issue of the American Bulldog review, Casey published a historic photo from Alan Scott's personal
collection of a dog called Bruisers' Rhoe Ho. He looks exactly like some of your dogs today and with a name like
Bruiser I figured he was a Johnson dog. Did you breed him and what was he out of?
JDJ: Yes, I bred him. He was out of Dick the Bruiser and Lady Tuffie. My neighbor out here wanted him and
raised him, he had a couple of my Bulldogs, he also had some horses behind his house and Rhoe Ho got kicked
by one as a puppy and it messed up his back. But he would get in there and fight wild dogs, but on big dogs he
couldn't stay on his feet, so he'd get on his back and cut like a coon, he could lay on his back and fight up a storm. I heard one day that Bill Pursly had given him to Alan Scott so that's how he got Rhoe Ho and Rhoe Hoe is the one that killed Alan's daddy's male and he was a Johnson dog not a Scott dog.
VAA: Did Mr. Ashley ever say what Mac The Masher was out of?.
JDJ: No, he didn't know the pedigree on Mac the Masher, it's just made up.
VAA: Did Alan ever bring Mr. Ashley down to see your dogs?
JDJ: No, he never did.
VAA: Why do you think Alan Scott stopped breeding American Bulldogs?
JDJ: Well, he got to where he couldn't sell his dogs. He kept picking up these throw away dogs and cheap
females. He kept breeding these dogs that didn't show Bulldogs at all. We would run across some dogs he bred
growing up and he would tell me himself they were the ugliest things he'd ever seen. People quit buying them and
he started taking them to the flea market to sell them and he couldn't make dog feed that way. Later when the
American Bulldog got more popular and would bring a better price he started loving them again. I don't know what he's breeding now.
VAA: I purchased a video from a breeder down in Texas in 1993 and on his video he said Alan Scott was old
plantation man that has long been dead now and that he had the money to enjoy the things he liked and he liked
Bulldogs that could perform, if a dog wouldn't catch the hog Alan Scott would kill it and bury it out behind the
barn. Where did this story come from?
JDJ: I don't know, Alan never owned a plantation and he is maybe 47 or so now.
VAA: It has been said by many people that like cross dogs that Symmes Rip-N-Woody was the greatest
contributor to the breed and the best Johnson dog ever. Woody was out of Red Machine (Who is 1/8 West Champs High Hopes) and Tosh who was out of Kings Bruiser Bo the 4th your biggest American Bulldog ever. Kyle Symmes has even said he could put the bite into a beagle if bred to one. I would also have to say he produces some great dogs Like, Mountain Gator Red, Watch dogs White Fang and Freddie Kreuger of all those dogs favored a Johnson type dog. What did you think of Rip-N-Woody?
JDJ: He was a good dog, most people don't know he was a Johnson dog and came from here. I sold Kyle
Woody because he called me complaining about Bulldog Drummond who was a dog I got from Joe Painter for a
stud fee. I knew Kyle was telling me the truth because I had two females that I also got from that breeding and
I gave them away because they looked like stright Pit Bull. Kyle was disappointed with him and said he only got
to 80 lb. So I sold him Woody who was out of Red Machine and my Tosh female and he grew up to be 115 lb.
just skin and bones. Kyle said he's never seen a big 125 or 130 lb. American Bulldog well he had one Woody,
he just kept him real poor if he would have fed him better he would have been 125 or 130 lb. Rip-N-Woody was
a good dog, but he wasn't the best I've ever produced. He was as good as the Red Machine but he wasn't my best But I guess he was a good producer because he did produce some good Bulldogs even though he was bred to some terrible mixed up mongrel bitches. Gator, White Fang and Freddie Kreugger and some of his grand-kids looked good to, they are nice Bulldogs.
VAA: Have you ever seen the movie Homeward Bound?
JDJ: Yes, I liked it well, but the Golden Retriever was the star that was a bit far fetched.
VAA: I recently came across a five generation pedigree on the dog that starred in that movie Chance or Rattler
and I was shocked to find out that he is 15/16 Johnson the only ancestor in five generations that wasn't Johnson was Mabelle. Did you know that?
JDJ: No, that surprises me because Kyle has told so many people that pure Johnson is not good. That dog
looked good but he could use some more bone. It's funny Kyle brags on him and he is mainly Johnson!
VAA: There are a lot of people that do protection work with American Bulldogs that are now saying that if your
dog doesn't have a good deal of Johnson blood in him they don't make a good protection dog. What do you think of that?
JDJ: Well, I've said it before my dogs are naturally protective, a true Bulldog is protective they love their people
and will even make a fuss over a stranger but they will defend you. But there is a difference between protection
and attacking. If you don't teach these dogs right, you will create a man killer. The Bulldog has always been the
most courageous dog in the world. It was developed to work automatically, to think on its own in a fight. I just
worry how that will transfer to attacking people. As far as needing Johnson blood its not the Johnson blood, it's
the pure bulldog blood and even if it is mixed with other blood it can still give it courage. But a impure dog with
let's say hound or Catahoula cur or cattle dog they are not like Bulldogs they will act like a herding dog nervous,
skittish, or shy. I would just like to say please be careful and don't make a man killer out of your Bulldog, I've seen
it done time and time again.
VAA: In researching this breed I've found that down South the American Bulldogs have been being bred to the
Catahoula and other cattle dogs to make a Catahoula Bulldog for years. When I asked why, I've been told that when the two are crossed it creates a better dog. They say that is called high bred vigor. What is high bred vigor?
JDJ: Well, high bred vigor is a term used by ranchers. They believe that when you cross different types of cattle
they will mature faster and bigger. The only reason people crossed Bulldogs to Catahoula's was to make a cattle
dog with courage to catch when it needed. Also, many people felt that they were easier to train to let go than a pure Bulldog. It probably was easier to get a 1/2 Bulldog to let go. I never had that trouble, it just took time to train them right. Dick the Bruiser would catch and let go on my command no problem, lots of my old dogs did. Of course if you need to mess with a big cow or bull you need a dog that can hold on as long as you need or you will be in big trouble. In the old days no one would ever think of making that cross but as the numbers of good Bulldogs came way down after the war, people crossed American Bulldogs with whatever. The Bulldog has been crossed for years to give courage to other breeds. My daddy told me that they were used to cross to hunting dogs. They also bred to cattle dogs, Greyhounds and several other breeds to give them grit, courage, stamina and determination. I guess people were trying to do the same for cattle dogs such as the Catahoula. The bad thing is many people came along and thought that the crossed Bulldogs were pure. Alan Scott and many others did.
VAA: I have seen old advertisements from Alan Scott from 1978: Owl Hollow Kennels, American Bulldog,
Southern Cur, Australian Cattle dog and Catahoula Bulldogs. Did he have a big kennel to keep stock on all of
those different breeds?
JDJ: No, not unless he expanded after I quit messing with him. He just kept most of his dogs chained out.
I guess if it didn't look like a Bulldog he had something else to call it. It wasn't much longer after that, that he went
out of business.
VAA: Years from now what do you hope will be your legacy?
JDJ: I hope they say great things about my dogs, but I don't care a thing in the world of them saying anything
about me. The only thing I want people to say about me after I die is that I was a good Christian that's the main
thing. I would love for the Johnson dog to live just as long as the earth goes on. Because my wife and I have spent our lives preserving the true type old time Southern Bulldog and I would like them to go on. Because I know they are the greatest dogs on earth!
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