I dagens uppfödarintervju möter vi Bazo-Town kennel, FCI godkänd kennel med säte i Italien. Följande intervju är på engelska.

After years of studying the breed, he got his first AST, CH De Paco XZ Like A Dream, that was a very typical AST with strong temperament, Gennaro says that he still thank his friend Paco for giving him such a beautiful dog.

He also tell us that he chose AST after having for years a giant dog like the saint bernard, ”these are beautiful dogs but very big and I was a city guy”. So he started to look for a smaller breed but also sporty and with a strong character. He was looking between some breeds, and one day reading a dog magazine, there was an article of the American Staffordshire Terrier. He tell us that ”after I read it, I thought “this is the breed I’m looking for”! I went to a bookstore, and I found a book of the breed, and from that point I started to study the breed deeply”.

”Since I was a kid I always had an attraction for animals, especially for dogs” Gennaro says.

At the beginning it was just something esthetical, but growing he started to like the concept of breeding, the idea to breed good dogs and be part of an improvement and the history of a breed. He remember when he was a child and he was studying the breeding techniques on the books of prestigious Italian breeders, one like Antonio Morsiani. He was very fascinated by everything that was about dogs and breeding, ”it was something I had and felt inside so I followed it” he says. Only after years of studying the AST he decided to make his first breeding and it was in 2004, he tell us ”I had an amazing experience with my first litter so I decided to continue”.

As our Breed Standard say’s “His courage is proverbial”, in this sentence Gennaro find there is a big part of the history of our breed. ”We can’t or should not forget from which dogs our breed is coming from, they were pit dogs, and the courage was essential to win the game” he say and continues, ”This is why the Amstaff has gameness like no other breeds. A strong temperament and proverbial courage are very important characteristics of the grand old breed”.

He also point out that ”Of course, another important point is the phenotype”. He want to say that he do never look who’s the winner of dog show, often (not always) he don’t agree with the judge’s choices (especially when they’re not breed specialist) and it’s not his priority to use as studs the big winners in his breeding program. The only priority that he have is to breed dogs with the right type that respects the standard. ”Personally, for me the choice of the females is very important, I think that they are the most important part for a breeder” he says. Gennaro also tell us that he do a deeply study of the pedigrees of the dogs, like looking at the ancestors going back for generations and see if it is what he want in his program and his dogs. To get knowledge of the bloodlines in a breed are the first step for all breeders. He says ”So, to all the new Amstaff fanciers my advice is: study, study and study”.

He explain that breeding is ha passion ”I breed for passion, for me the goal of any breeding is to breed at least one puppy in the litter that is better than both parents. I can say it’s not very easy when you have dogs like CH Winning Destiny Of Bazo-Town “Desty”, but we always try to get it in every litter”. For a breeder the hardest thing is to continue to breed good dogs for many, many years. One good dog can every lucky person breed, but to breed good dogs for many years, that’s something only for the best breeders. This is why he want to improve the level of his AST in every breeding. He explain that a potential buyer from his breeding must be a person that loves animals and at the same time give the right value to a breeder’s work. He tell us that he don’t like buyers that starts the conversation by asking “how much?”, ”which means I don’t like when people are more concentrated on the price than of the puppy” he says. Behind any puppy there are many years of work, sacrifices and choices, to be a good breeder and breed good dogs is not something easy at all. With that said, who wants a Bazo-Town puppy must give love and the right value to his/her future friend. ”Generally, I always stay in contact with our puppy buyers, giving them advice about what to do, and when they decide to start a dog show career, we also follow them in every step” he says.

”I’m very proud when the new owners are very happy with their amstaffs, this is something that makes me really satisfied” he says enda continues to tell us that something else that makes him very proud is when new puppies are born and he see right away that he is going in the right direction and getting what he had in his mind, than he feel that he is doing a good job. And he also says ”Of course I’m also very proud of my winning dogs, as for example the 2nd Best Of Winners at the nationals specialty in USA of Mowgli Ch Jungle Legend of Bazo-Town, or the BOB at Master Show and EJW or Desty Ch Winning Destiny Of Bazo-Town”. Those are some special moments to be very proud of as a breeder. He could tell us for hours at this question about what he is proud of, ” I can go in many details for every single part of the dog, but I must be very synthetic for the interview” he says. And about his ideal AST he says ”My ideal amstaff is a MODERATE dog in any part from the head to the tail. He respects the Standard and the true spirit of the Grand Old Breed. His Body must be balanced in any part. He should appear strong and muscular but still agile and with grace”.

He explaing the breed more and tell us that our breed comes from the bull and terrier dogs and probably, especially in the beginning, it’s not easy to understand the right type of this breed, and often the big mistake is to prefer bully type AST, ”I can see it in many breeders work and in many show winners. A good student of this breed should study a lot from the old books and visit a lot of kennels, trying to understand what’s correct. MODERATE is a very important word to always have in our mind when we talk about the American Staffordshire Terrier” Gennaro says. He is also talking about the the head, his ideal head is clean with tight skin, a strong muzzle of medium length, around 50% of the total head length. Strong underjaw to have enough biting power and cheeks very pronounced. The eyes must be as dark as possible, and the expression should give a feeling of power and loyalty.

He also says that ”As I said his temperament is very important, he’s an intelligent dog that gives attention to what’s going on around him”. AST is always confident with humans, he loves them, and never aggressive. He is a typical family dog, full of energy, very active and sporty and he likes to play.

At the end of the intervju Gennaro also tell us that ”He is a good dog with kids, diffident with strangers and guardian of his house and family”.

With that fine summation of our lovley breed we thank Gennaro Bausano, Bazo-Town kennel for the participation in our interview.