This is the saddest occasion I have ever had to write about. It has been two weeks since the tragic incident, and it is still very hard to write about.

On Monday, January 8, 1996, my beloved White Fang was shot in the head and killed before I even had gotten out of bed that morning. Sheila carelessly let him out unsupervised, he chased my low-life neighbor's cur dog from my property back to the neighbor's, caught and proceeded to work the cur over on his owner's porch. The cur's owner tried to "scare" Fang off by throwing milk jugs at him, of course to no avail. He then fired a shot to "scare" Fang off, to which Fang acted in a predictable manor, and "attacked the threatening bad guy who was shooting at him."

Besides dealing with the shock and grief of losing my #1 buddy, I am mad as hell and can't do anything about it. You cannot go back in time.

I am mad at Sheila for allowing Fang to go out unsupervised, I'm mad at that S.O.B. that allowed his cur to run loose, and I'm mad at myself for not shooting the cur in the past two years that he has been trespassing on my land. I had actually chased him off with warning shots numerous times because he was a neighbor's dog. The dog has been chained since he lured Fang to his death. But the slime bucket will let him loose again and I guarantee that either a 450# Russian Boar or the vultures will dine on cur. (editor’s note: The vultures dined, I didn’t want the mess in the hog pen)

Fang had gotten out of our eyesight on a few occasions and found plenty of "bulldog" type distractions in his own yard that he availed himself on. My stud Russian Boar is only 150 feet from our house and Fang would love to fight him through the fence or chase him round and round the pen, which he would do till he dropped. (Fang, not the boar). Or he would go 100 yards past the boar pen and take another try at whipping my 90 pound Pit Bull, Brutus McCoy, or check out the various bitches for romantic reasons. But that morning, he found a trespasser on his property, chased, caught, and was 'interrupted in punishing the trespasser by a gun shooting antagonist.

Fang had only one reaction to a gun shot, crack of a whip, or a threat to him or those in his charge, it pissed him off, and turned him into the GUARDIAN WARRIOR that he was. He never thought about where he was and retreating from a threat was not his nature.

It doesn't make it any easier, but Fang did die doing what he loved. He considered our property, boars and dogs his domain and would not stand for four or two legged uninvited trespassers. He pursued, caught and punished an 'intruder and attacked a "bad guy" threatening him and shooting at him with a gun. He did what he was bred and trained to do and was cut down in his prime through no fault of his own.

We are raising up a 5 month old son of fang out of Scoot who is the only one around hear who's glad the Fangster is gone. He is getting a lot of attention.

I was lucky enough to have had the foresight to freeze 'some of Fan's semen which will be used in our own breeding program in our attempt to recreate a bulldog 3/4 as good as Fang, which would still be one hell of a BULLDOG

I hesitated about putting the best damn dog I've ever owned in over 30 years on the cover of ABR #5 because I knew my critics would accuse me of a self serving act, and trying to promote my own dogs. But when I really thought about it, I realized that in reality, if it weren't for that big white brave buddy of mine, there would be no American Bulldog Association or American Bulldog Review. If Fate would not have delivered Fang to us, I would not have included the American Bulldog in the working bulldog magazine I was starting. National Bulldogger which turned into Bulldog Review which in turn evolved into the all American Bulldog American Bulldog Review, and I never would have started the American Bulldog Association Registry.

The following is a brief story on White Fang and a little of our roots in the American Bulldog world.

The Story of White Fang
and the birth of the ABA

In I 988, after being attracted to this breed by some real slick full page ads 'in Dog World magazine, I took the plunge and went to visit Joe Painter in Illinois. I was impressed enough to spend more money then I care to admit on buying "pick of litter" brood stock from Joe Painter and later from Joe and Margentina when the started their partnership. I really wasn't satisfied with most of the dogs I bought from Painter. The dogs mostly looked good cosmetically and had brave bulldog hearts but had a variety of physical disorders.

Joe Painter honored his guarantee but the replacements I got were as bad as what they replaced. The fellow from Massachusetts knew of the difficulties of suing out of state for a few thousand dollars and refused to honor his guarantee.

I was about to chalk up the $I0,000+ I had spent on the dogs as a valuable lesson learned, and stick with a breed that didn't have all those problems, which I already had. (I had my own strain of Pit Bulls that I had bred for 12 years as companion/ guardians.) at that point I wouldn't have given a plug nickel for another American Bulldog.

One day a fellow named J'im Dewberry from Virginia, whom I had sold a couple of Pit Bulls, called and asked me if I wanted a free American Bulldog with the agreement that he would get a dog back sometime. He described the dog as a little demon that would bite me. I took this as a challenge and agreed to take the little monster.

Jim had warned me that this pup would come out of the crate and attack anything he saw and to be careful. I had never seen the puppy that would not learn respect real quick with the proper discipline, and was ready to take any appropriate action.

The first pleasant surprise was that little baby Fang came in a free crate with no shipping bill. The second was that little Fang bounded out of the crate and wanted to play. Just a normal rowdy pup. He would play as hard as you wanted and I could not figure out why Dewberry thought this was a viscous pup. He would retrieve a ball and would play tug of-war as long as you wanted. And he looked and acted like I wanted my other bulldog pups to look and act like. I and many others got sucked in and bought dogs from Joe Painter that we hoped would mature into a dog like Sgt. Rock. After $ 1 0,000 invested, none did. And now I had one. I felt I was due for a break and a good bulldog.

As a growing pup. Fang was a lot of fun. He was definitely not a dull dog. If he got bored playing by himself, he would bring his tennis ball and drop it or throw it in your lap. If you didn't grab it quick, he would grab it back with part of you if you weren't careful. From the day we got him at I 2 weeks old he never soiled the house and never destroyed anything of importance. The only dog I've ever had to be that good. He always came when he was called and liked to keep you 'in his sight.

At around six months old, Fang's innate qualities of protectiveness started to blossom. My friend John Tatman, who lives near Dayton, Ohio agreed to evaluate and help train Fang if he had what it takes. John had previously finished his Pit Bull Sam to a Schutzhund III and has since titled a son of Sam's. John also is the author of Dear John, the training and problem solving column we run in American Bulldog Review when there are questions for it. John has spoke at many Schutzhund seminars and is respected by fellow trainers and judges. I was lucky to have a friend that qualified that was willing to help train Fang.

Fang possessed well developed and balanced defense and prey drives and took to the protection phase of Schutzhund like a duck to water. Fang was never trained enough to get any titles, but his protective qualities did get some fine tuning that helped to make a hard, brave dog that knew no fear and would lay his life down for you.

Even at a young age Fang instinctively "took over" when I was out of town. He stuck to Sheila like glue and let any visitor know that he was in charge.

Anyway, he really was the inspiration for all of Sheila and my contribution to the American Bulldog breed.

In summation, I would like to dedicate this ABA web site and all future issues of American Bulldog Review, plus any good that we have done for the breed with the A.B.A. registry and the foundation of the WABA to the memory of my big White Buddy, Watchdog White Fang.

Casey Couturier