story of a good bulldog least, he was to me, sorry if i did this before lol

[gary fuller]

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
   

 

 i wrote this story  for the american bulldog review magazine some years ago and am puttin it up here as i was asked to tell a story about petey, so heres the story.

Skit em Petey

These 3 little words Skit em Petey meant that within a very short time a wild hog’s worst nightmare was loose and about to put the hurt on a wild hog somewhere in Central California. Fuller’s Petey was the best in the woods catch dog I’ve ever owned. He was also the best I’ve ever seen catch wild boar on a consistent basis

Petey was out of my Kershner female Fuller’s Pretty Patches who is now with my friends Ralph Citterella and Jeanne in New Jersey at White Knight Kennels. Petey’s dad is Van Hoose’s Koa, now owned by Greg and Tammy Souza.

Petey was the driveiest pup in his litter from the time his eyes opened, so this made him a perfect candidate for my chosen sport of hog hunting. This drive also meant growing up constantly reminding him what was acceptable and what was not. Although as he matured he ended up being very mellow and laid back until it was time for him to work I had him on his first hog, a small wild pig in my pen at the age of 13 weeks. He was such a natural, I couldn’t wait for this pup to grow up and go to the woods. A few months later he got Panotheosis and I had to wait for all his bones to get straightened out before he could continue his hog work. At 11 months old he caught his first hogs in a local vineyard and a few days later he caught my daughter Amanda’s first hog for her in the same vineyards.

A week later I was catching some hogs I had in a pen because I had recently sold them to a couple of guys.  Due to a goof up on my part Petey ended up getting cut up pretty good when a nasty boar I had separated got loose in the pen I was catching the other hogs out of.  He caught the boar and gave me time to get out and not get hurt myself.  When I finally got him pulled out of the pen he was cut pretty good.  I laid him down on the tailgate of my pick-up and stapled him back together

In his entire career I never once had to use anesthetics on this dog to staple him back up and he never offered to nip or bite no matter the injury.  The very next day after the hog pen incident I wanted to see what this pup would do being all sore and swollen.  Well, we went out to my hog pen and he showed me more grit in an 11-month-old pup than I’ve seen in some mature, seasoned dogs.  During his career this dog left a lot of seasoned hog hunters in awe after watching him catch some real nasty hogs.  He had an unbelievably hard bite (despite having relatively small teeth) and when he put his mouth on a hog it was over.  I’ve seen him thrown off a few times but only to catch the hog again and hold him till we took over.  I once saw Petey put a 250-pound boar that was cutting him; on his knees in the time it took me to run about 80 yards to him.   More than once I used Petey to help me pull dead hogs up a hill or out of a ditch

One of my best hog hunting memories is of me and my hunting partner Dean watching the dogs backed up baying as Petey did battle with one of the most awesome boars I’ve ever caught.  This old boar was one of the most European, pre historic, beasts I’ve ever seen and was well over 300 pounds.  As soon as I killed this brute, Petey looked up at me, let go of the hog, and just collapsed from exhaustion.

Petey was cow broke and never was in a dogfight.  He would ride in the dog box with other male dogs.  I once saw him have a hold of a small boar while another dog was biting holes in Petey’s rear.  He never paid any attention to the other dog and just went about the job of holding the hog. He could be handled by anyone and considered all people friends while hunting or in the box, yet was a decent watchdog at home

Now that I’ve told all of the good memories I must tell how he met his end.  He got cut by a boar up through the roof of his mouth and into his sinuses.  I missed seeing this and by the time he acted sick his sinuses had gotten impacted  with foxtails.  Of course as sick dogs will, he ate grass.  It just so happened that he ate some green grain of some type that was growing on the ranch where he was staying that week, where a friend of mine was hunting with him.  The grass ended up tying up in his intestines and causing a blockage and at the same time a piece perforated his intestines.  By the time it was over Petey spent 22 days at the vet, had 3 intestine surgeries, a sinus repair surgery, anemia, pneumonia, peritonitis, pancreantitis, and had his spleen removed

Petey went from a ripped, no fat, in shape 85-pound gladiator to 58 pounds at the worst stay at the vet.  The vet said the only thing that kept him alive was he refused to die.  We took Petey home and the convalescing began.  After 1 month and 2 days home and numerous vet checks Petey was 78 pounds and had a lot of his muscle back also.  I saw Petey at 11 that night and by the time I checked on him at 6:30am, I could tell he was in real trouble.  Evidently all the damage that was done just caught up and his intestines were shutting down.  I called the vet and they said bring him in and if what I knew had to be done was necessary that they would take care of it as they said I didn’t need to deal with it

I started my truck, carried my hunting buddy out to my hog pen, and stood him up by the fence.  First the little pigs came over, and Petey in his weakened condition didn’t get too excited.  Then some of the big hogs woke up, came over, saw the dog and started hitting the hog panels trying to get Petey.  Well this sure woke him up! The oldest sow hit the wire and when she did Petey pulled out of my hands and grabbed her by the nose.  Of course in his weakened conditioned she pulled away and he fell over. This may seem cruel to some, but this warrior deserved to have that fire in his eyes just one last time.  I carried my buddy over to my truck and he rode with me in the cab acting the best he had all morning.  We got to the vet and she knew as soon she saw him that this would be his last visit.  I laid Petey in my lap, as they gave him the shot the vet and I both cried

 

Luckily the heart of this brave warrior still lives on in his son Slammin’ Jack.  Now 3 months old, he took his first bite of a hog at nine weeks old.  I just hope to again own and hunt with a dog the caliber of Petey.  If I never do at least I know I have great memories and feel honored to have hunted with a great bulldog

Skit em  Petey

                                               -Gary Fuller

[Scott]

I remember that story, Gary...mainly for what you did for him at the end.

[Judge peel]

Heck of a story sounds like a awesome dog rip Petey

[gary fuller]

thanks guys. hard for me to realize he died goin on 14 years ago.

[Shotgun wg]

Great story. Sounds like a great dog.


Shotgun
Arkansas

[Mike]

Awesome story... sounds like he was a helluva dog.

[gary fuller]

thanks guys, he wasnt the most athletic bulldog but he sure as hell was bad medicine for bad boars. on more than one occasion i saw him do what ive never seen another bulldog do when on a bad hog.... while havin hold of a ear he would throw his body upward and pull his front legs back under himself and then slam himself downward . he had figured out he could flatten a hog out on the ground doin this if things went right. even though he had basically small teeth he still had an ultra hard mouth and when younger i saw him get bored and reach down and snap a front leg on hogs 2 times( i quickly discouraged this style,lol) one of these times it was a 225 pound sow and he snapped a front leg  cleean right above her elbow. and he did this with one bone crunchin bite and not knawin on it either.

[WayOutWest]

Great story about what a catch dog can be. I really like lookin at those big teeth but it sure seems that they get broken or ripped out easier than the small ones. Has his offspring proven to be near his caliber?

[gary fuller]

 the ab seem to pretty much be lacking in the teeth department as a breed. and it really heads south when johnson blood is involved.ive seen way better teeth in 38 lb apbts than ive seen in alot of abs when i was judging etc. petey  was not much in the conformation department as far as breeding so i used his brother buster who had a mouth full of huge sturdy teeth and was bigger and better conformationally plus he was also prety damn good on a hog.  i bred petey one time though with the sole purpose to produce woods catchdogs for me and the owner of the female. i think out of a huge litter only 6 or 7 lived and 5 of these went to folks who at leat hunted some. these 5 pups  were all in the woods catching by 8 months old. i kept basically the smallest male. his registered name was fullers slammin jack the maniac. jack in shape was under 60 lbs and looked a bit bully but was actually almost overshot.i know its only asthetics but all the pups that lived except one female were red nosed and gold eyed and i dont care for it especially in my abs. jack and his brother conehead were used alot and both did well. conehead was i think 75 or 80 pounds and was killed by a bad boar before he was 2 years old i think. jack did well till he lost 2 canines at about 7 years old.  the other pups from petey were hunted but nothin like my jack or conehead. none of them came anywhere near having peteys abilities though.i payed to hip xray jacks sister to breed her to my max dog who was sired by peteys brother buster and her hips failed and were the loosest pennhip score of any dog our vet had ever done,even though she stayed functional to a normal age for the breed. so i didnt do the breeding being as it was cousin to cousin and her with loose hips. she was however bred to another ab by her owners and i think one went to a hunter and did just fine i was told.i put jack down earlier this year at a old age for most abs. his litter was born while petey was in the vet from the ordeal which killed him

[Reuben]

Awesome story... sounds like he was a helluva dog.

x2...thanks for a great story as well...

[TheRednose]

Thats a great story Gary, sounds like a great dog! Thanks for posting this.

[hogmantx1979]

Have any pics of this great dog?

[gary fuller]

guess i should scan some and then try to get them here. our pc has been gone for repairs for several yrs now,lol and im using a laptop and i had tons of pics on the pc.

[gary fuller]

ok im just computer stupid,so i need help to post a picture. i got it scanned and on my computer but i cant get it to my photobucket account. if one of you guys would help me out it would be appreciated . email me at gnrbull@aol.com and ill send the picture to anyone who can post it to this thread for me. thanks in advance, gary

[gary fuller]

picture of petey....i hope

[TheRednose]

thats a real good pic Gary. Good lord look at the cutter on that sucker!

[gary fuller]

thanks and yea he definately had some hardware.if you look good you can see he had both cutters intact.  i should go see the mount as i hear it is pretty good.

 this particular hunt my partner got us invited to new place that some big contractors and a doctor had bought just for hunting and to get away to. i had hunted in this area and told my partner we could be in for some rough country and also some rank boars . i was sure right ,lol.luckily we had good strong guys to help get this booger out of where we killed him. this hog had been dogged before and also fought other boars from his scars and he showed how he had survived so long in this rough country . we got a strike and could tell it was a good hog from mollys voice so we dumped the box except for petey and brownie( a small fast apbt and cat plott cross that might bay on her own but was all catch with help another bulldog there) we could tell the bay was movin and we got close enough we sent petey and brownie and started movin fast and we heard the bulldogs hit but then the bay started mvin again but very slowly. this old boar was caught but just continued to walk with brownie basically being an ear ring and petey hooked solid on an ear also.  we got there a big young ex college lineman named sam wanted to grab the hog and boy did he,lol.he grabbed the hog in a bear hug from behind and tackled/ flipped the hog down wiht the bulldogs holdin his front end up still. sam later told us thats how he did calves to brand em and we made him rethink this stratedgy as we said but sam calves dont have cutters,lol. i got sam out of there and relgged the hog and had sam stick it. they then started hollerin for me to get petey off his ear as they wanted to mount it. he said i guarantee this hog is dead.

well when i pulled petey off, this dead hog jumped up and started chasin my huntin partner down a dry creek bed. i just dropped peteys lead and he cauhgt the hog and jerked him off his feet before he could eat dean up. he was dieng from the stab wound but brain hadnt let his body know yet. when we got the hog to where coyuld get the jeep to it the landowners young son was waiting with another owner who decided not to go into the canyons once he heard the fight,lol. prior to the fight the kid had been pettin petey in the jeep and so when we got back he went to pet him again. his dad told him after watchin petey on the boar that he was afraid to let his son get near him lol. dean and i assured him petey was safe so he then let his son pet petey up for doin a good job. in the morning after skinnin the hog out and eatin breakfast etc  the guys brought out a 45 and started doin a little target shootin.petey ran and got under the jeep and the landowner who stayed  at the jeep durin the fight started laughin about this big bad bulldog hidin from the shots. the other owner who had gone to the fight told him, you want to bad mouth that dog ? just slip that hog hide over your self and we will see whos hiding then,lol.

[TheRednose]

haha good story Gary. Petey had to be a good one not to get cut up by those dog killers that, that hog had! That is prob a pretty impressive mount.

[Indian Valley Ranch]

Great story Gary and awesome pic of you and Petey. PM me your # when u get time, we need to catch up.

I remember hearing good things about your Bosco dog, was he any relation to Petey?

[gary fuller]

thanks red, ive always been more scared of the inch and three quarter to 2 and a half inch teeth than i have the big ones but on occasion have seen the really long toothed hogs do severe damage to whole packs. in my mind petey was a real good one and had a good style but he also had plenty of staples in him too. ive always been a firm believer in good vests for bulldogs.