Blair Hetrick - tribute to an old time dogman
Hetrick's Sadie (Humphrey's Duke x Lady Kate).
Blair Hetrick started around the 1920’s and ended up as Pete Donovan’s partner in Bulldogs. Donovan was a very well known and successful dog fighter from around the Pennsylvania area. His dogs were mostly the old pure Colby and imported English dogs.
Hetrick conditioned and handled most of his and Donovan’s dogs with great results. When Donovan died in the 50’s, Hetrick continued to breed and select the Donovan strain of dogs and originated his own family of fighting dogs, later these dogs became known as the Hetrick dogs.
Hetrick always favored the pure Lightner and Colby bred dogs and he kept mostly around 50 dogs in his yard. The Lightner and Colby dogs were basically from the same background, but were bred from different individuals until they were crossed to each other and produced some very good, high powered fighting dogs that were respected and winning all over the states. Hetrick also kept and bred many other popular bloodlines, but his pure fighting stock out of the Donovan, Colby and Lightner strains were his pride and joy.
When Hetrick’s wife, Lillian, died in the late 70’s, Blair moved away to Moose Haven in Florida, and to best of our information is still alive at the age of 95 years. Blair Hetrick was always good friends with Pete Sparks, Harry Mossburg and many others that were active in the breeding and testing of sporting dogs.
One of the best known dogs that Hetrick owned and bred many times in his later years was a big red brindle from a Colby-Hemphill cross named TNT Deacon. This dog won 6 or 7 off the chain fights and when bred to another dog from Hetrick called Sadie produced the 4 time winner Toddy and the two time winner Cei, which was a red brindle 35lb dog. Sadie was a 38lb female and a pure Komosinski dog. One time when Sadie got off the chain, she killed another favorite dog of Hetrick’s, this being the pure Colby bred dog, Colby’s Chopper.
TNT Nigger was out of Colby’s Boots and Snapper and he lost game against Sonny Sykes coming in 2 or 3 pounds light. There were other examples of Hetrick bred dogs that scored good in open competition, but unfortunately today a lot of these dogs do not exist anymore because they were crossed with other popular bloodlines.
One of the baddest man-eating dogs that came out of the Hetrick line was the Trigger dog. One time Hetrick received a phone call from a man in Florida who wanted to buy a guard dog because he had some trouble with people trespassing on his properties and stealing things. This man had tried almost every other breed of dog to protect his property but finally decided to buy himself a Pit Bull.
Hetrick sold the man Trigger and asked him if he would return the dog crate as soon as possible because in those days an air kennel was an expensive piece of equipment. So they agreed. After about two weeks Hetrick called the man and asked him about the crate. The man from Florida told him he would ship back the crate as soon as he could get the dog out of it. Trigger sure made a good guard dog.
Hetrick conditioned and handled most of his and Donovan’s dogs with great results. When Donovan died in the 50’s, Hetrick continued to breed and select the Donovan strain of dogs and originated his own family of fighting dogs, later these dogs became known as the Hetrick dogs.
Hetrick always favored the pure Lightner and Colby bred dogs and he kept mostly around 50 dogs in his yard. The Lightner and Colby dogs were basically from the same background, but were bred from different individuals until they were crossed to each other and produced some very good, high powered fighting dogs that were respected and winning all over the states. Hetrick also kept and bred many other popular bloodlines, but his pure fighting stock out of the Donovan, Colby and Lightner strains were his pride and joy.
When Hetrick’s wife, Lillian, died in the late 70’s, Blair moved away to Moose Haven in Florida, and to best of our information is still alive at the age of 95 years. Blair Hetrick was always good friends with Pete Sparks, Harry Mossburg and many others that were active in the breeding and testing of sporting dogs.
One of the best known dogs that Hetrick owned and bred many times in his later years was a big red brindle from a Colby-Hemphill cross named TNT Deacon. This dog won 6 or 7 off the chain fights and when bred to another dog from Hetrick called Sadie produced the 4 time winner Toddy and the two time winner Cei, which was a red brindle 35lb dog. Sadie was a 38lb female and a pure Komosinski dog. One time when Sadie got off the chain, she killed another favorite dog of Hetrick’s, this being the pure Colby bred dog, Colby’s Chopper.
TNT Nigger was out of Colby’s Boots and Snapper and he lost game against Sonny Sykes coming in 2 or 3 pounds light. There were other examples of Hetrick bred dogs that scored good in open competition, but unfortunately today a lot of these dogs do not exist anymore because they were crossed with other popular bloodlines.
One of the baddest man-eating dogs that came out of the Hetrick line was the Trigger dog. One time Hetrick received a phone call from a man in Florida who wanted to buy a guard dog because he had some trouble with people trespassing on his properties and stealing things. This man had tried almost every other breed of dog to protect his property but finally decided to buy himself a Pit Bull.
Hetrick sold the man Trigger and asked him if he would return the dog crate as soon as possible because in those days an air kennel was an expensive piece of equipment. So they agreed. After about two weeks Hetrick called the man and asked him about the crate. The man from Florida told him he would ship back the crate as soon as he could get the dog out of it. Trigger sure made a good guard dog.
