23/10/2023
The Blue Paul Terrier
Recently I read an excerpt from a very interesting article shared by PIT BULL CLUB and originally published in the Buffalo Evening News on November 16, 1885.
The title of the article is "Dogs for the Pit - How they are trained and worked for a fight." and was written by a Philadelphia reporter in an interview with Pat Carroll, a veteran of dog fighting sports in Southwark.
In the first few paragraphs Pat Carroll says,
"I have trained fighting dogs for nearly 40 years.. ..and the best fighters I ever saw were of a breed called 'Blue Pauls.' They were a mixture of bull terrier and greyhound. The purest dog of the stock was owned by an old man in Ireland, called 'Blind Paul.' and from him they took their name of 'Blue Pauls.' Dogs of that breed were the longest stayers and best punishers I ever saw. Most of the dogs used nowadays are straight bull terriers, but they are sometimes crossed with pointers and greyhounds, the mixture of these bloods resulting generally in terrible punishers and good fighters."
It's an interesting find, congratulations to whoever found it. It describes a very different story from what is commonly known about the Blue Paul Terrier and only adds more mystery and curiosity about this extinct breed.
However this report goes against the article written by S.C.S.B.T.S. (Southern Counties Staffordshire Bull Terrier Society) in its Newsletter in May 1968, where it shows the origin of the breed in Scotland.
They were known in Scotland as Red Smuts and were mostly bred by gypsy tribes in the Kirkintilloch district who used them for dog fighting, reports state that the breed originally arrived on the coast of Galloway in 1770 brought by the pirate Paul Jones who was a native of Kirkudbright, hence the name "Paul" in dogs.
The challenges were published in Bell’s Life magazine, a weekly English-language sports newspaper published between 1822 and 1886.
Blue Pauls were completely blue (gray), but sometimes produced brindles and also reds.
James B. Morrison of Greenook, the greatest authority on Scottish breeds in the 1880's, was the last to exhibit a Blue Paul, supposedly born in the Kirkintilloch district, and it's him who appears in the drawing of this post.
by Neylor Zaurisio Souza (19th Legacy's owner)
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