The Story Of Rivergreen's Captain Barclay

The Story of Rivergreen’s Captain Barclay.
Gary was able to produce three bitches from an inbred mating from Rocco. These females were very pure of the red strain family.  I was able to breed my Springview’s Hank Snows dog whom I got from JT to two of these females. I mention these guys straight away in order to give credit to them for putting these dogs my way. I will always be very grateful for this.
Hank Snows was double bred Springview’s Victor, a dog down from Red, Sinbad, Jim etc. He also had some Trap breeding in him, Trap coming down through the Blue Wolf dog.  Seamus McNutt, before he sadly passed, told me he thought Hank was a cracking looking dog, when I sent him pictures of him. The resultant pups were very much an outcross within the same family of dogs.  Dogs bred down through Lally’s Paddy, and those coming down through Sinbad, but  all going back to Red Warrior, Hopcrofts Bess, Jim, Joe etc with a little of the Blue Wolf in there too.
Tess was the first of the bitches to be bred to Hank and this produced 5 pups with three surviving.

Here they are just a couple of weeks old and with Tess and Hank just out of shot. Not the best pic, but you can clearly see the strength in these pups.
Here is Albert a male I kept back from this litter.

As you can see, he is a very pure looking dog and one I really rated.  
The next mating was with Peppi, the sister to Tess who was owned by K, and he sent her to me to breed. She was a hard little bitch in her outlook, but was easy enough to breed. Here they are tied.

Barclay was born on the morning of 30.01.2014 by C- Section. He was one of a pair as the first one got stuck and died but we managed to get Barclay out, so he was the only one. The vet said she thought they were Ridgeback’s with the size of them!
At this point I wish you to look at the different body builds in these two dogs. When folk scratch their head about the demise of the character of the Stafford, I feel there are two reasons for this. One, is scatter breeding, and not breeding within a tight family and the second is breeding to a standard, or a type. Family breeding means you breed close relatives to each other that display only the best characteristics of their family and the breed.
Here is an example of what I mean…

Lad, is double bred dog on the female Goldwyn. Now look at Lad, what a strong looking dog he is. To me this is a great way to breed really strong looking dogs. But, you can go much closer, father to daughter for example, this was how Hank was bred. For me, you should see clearly which line the dog came from. 
I feel that type, is the death knell of any active breed, as breeding similar dogs to similar dogs just gives average similar looking dogs. Anyone reading this who has owned and bred their own line will know exactly what I am saying. Or maybe you might read this and think “Oh yeh, I hadn’t thought of it like that”? In my opinion, you have to change the shift in the genes. I think the idea of the bull and terrier meant just that…those breeders bred the terrier looking ones, with the undershot bulldog type of dogs. This way at some point you get those super active dogs with that strong muzzle! They have it all. Breed leggy dogs to leggy dogs and they become weak, and lack drive, have you ever noticed this? Or think of the Staffords of the 80’s, big bully type of dogs with big heads, were they agile, speedy and quick? Nothing wrong with dogs who are undershot, it has its advantages, trust me, and Barclay is this way.  It may seem radical to some but for me, the breed standard was the biggest lie devised by folk who I think knew very little about dogs. Think about how breeding to a standard has just took everything away from all active breeds of dog, it’s backwards to how Staffords and active dogs in general, should be bred. That is just my opinion and you are entitled to yours and I am not writing this to pick arguments, just to share my experiences and my thoughts. Now back to the story…

Here is Barclay with his dam. 
Having read the story of Captain Barclay, who was one of the Fancy in the 19th century, I decided to name the pup after him. Here is a pic and the link to his story and how Robert Barclay Allardice of Ury  won 1000 Guineas for walking  a 1000 miles in a 1000 hours! He looks a tough bugger and that  was serious money in those days!!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/aug/23/highereducation.extract
The deal was Barclay was to be sent back with his dam back to their owner K. This I duly did and once home he was registered as Inch Island Gaiscioch. I believe this means Inch Island Warrior.
Soon after sending Barclay, or Rebel as he was called in his new home, disaster struck.  Hank was diagnosed with cancer and within three weeks he was dead! It started with a Hack cough, then before we knew it X-Rays showed cancerous growths around his heart and lungs! There was nothing the vet could do. He was only 7yrs at the time. Myself and my youngest son buried him under our old apple tree. We were gutted, such a proud animal and to go so quick, left me feeling a bit lost to be honest. At least he didn’t suffer long.
I told this to K, who soon after informed me that his uncle, who I believe looked after Rebel, had also passed and so if I wanted, he would send me Rebel back!!! I was made up over this and to this day am very grateful to K for keeping his word on this matter and sending me the dog back.
The family really took to him again and he has made a super little dog. He will do everything asked of him with lots of gusto, just as it should be with this breed. Here he is playing tug of war…..

In 2018 we moved house, the one we were moving to needed quite a bit of TLC you might say, and Gary offered to put Barclay up whilst we got everything sorted. Whilst at Gary’s he was bred to two females and the pups from these matings  look to be  showing really good. He is now also a grandsire and it is great to see them all being placed in good homes with responsible owners.
Here is a picture of his daughter Ruby, by the first mating to Maggie.  Gary owns this female and I really like the look of her.

As you can see, she is very strong-headed  for a female and yet still has that athleticism in there. I feel the breed needs more females like this, Mandy and her daughter Ginger were like this and we all know Ginger produced very well indeed!
So as I look to the future, I am really optimistic that a number of readers will take on board some of my scribblings and go to really thinking hard about the breed and in what direction it goes.
I understand that the red dogs are not everyone’s cup of tea and I am not here to say they are the best out there. No line is.  I feel all lines can produce really good and really bad, I should know I have owned both!! Lol. All I can say is that they have brought me a lot of pleasure down the years ….. and heartache too, but that is another story….or book! Lol.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this article about this red dog and how he has come about. If you have dogs from him, well you can be proud to own a cracking dog with some of the best dogs in the breed in their pedigree. I wish you all the best with your dogs, however they are bred, enjoy them whilst you have them, you will miss them when they are gone.
Rivergreen
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