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Above is a dog from one of our first litters so many years ago, Tru Blue Zebity.

People often ask about the Bandog, their nature, their way of doing things and seem never to be able to get enough information about the general character of these dogs, now I cannot talk for others, and you do need to understand that because they are a crossbred dog they do vary, if you think all are the same you are only partly right, all will probably share some traits, but only some.

What a line of dogs are like depends a great deal not only on what was crossed with what and in what proportions, but on how much the breeder knows about choosing parents with suitable temperaments to start with, and unless the breeder has taken the time to learn from experienced, proper trainers of guard type dogs, preferably of Mastiff origin, they will not know a proper temperament from a tampon.

End of.

To help those who want to take the time to read and decide if a Tru Blue or Southern Cross dog is right for them I will post some 'doggy autobiographies' of some of my main or favourite dogs for you to read.

If you like what you read, then I advise you to take great care in where you buy your pup, remember it is NOT a case of a Bandog is a Bandog is a Bandog.
also know that there are more people claiming to have dogs or bitches from TruBlue or Southern Cross kennels than either Katrina or myself have ever bred!

Just click on each dogs name at the right, to go to his own part of the page, and read his or her story,so far I have only put a very few on here compared to the many I have owned and bred over the fifteen odd years I have been involved with them.

Shooter was actually meant to go over to the USA to a fellow who, with his family have become great friends and part of our circle even though they are so far away after he bought his first Australian Bandog from me so long ago.

He had made the long trip out to visit us when she was a pup and I had promised her to him then.

When the time came for her to go over he wrote to say they were expecting a baby and felt this was not time to be adding a puppy to the family, by then, I must say I was rather pleased, I had picked the top pup for our friend and having run her on to let her be mature enough to make the long trip, I by now did not really want to part with her.

So Shooter stayed, she has been one of the easiest dogs to train obedience wise that I have yet seen, and I find them all easy, she never forgets a lesson once she has learnt it and she concentrates so hard to learn that you can see her thinking and working out just what you want from her.

Like her mother Tenner, Shooter learnt very early to sit in front on me if she wanted attention, it took so little to stop her jumping up that I do not really remember her even doing it, Tenner also had worked out very early in life that to run up and skid to a sit right in front of Phil or me was bound to get her a pat, maybe Shooter was watching, for pups do learn this way.

Shooters only fault is that she is big, far bigger than I like my dogs to be, she weighs well over 60 kg, and for that reason is an outside dog, she just takes up too much space inside or in a car, it also distresses her to work in the heat of the day, mind you, she is almost always overweight, much as I advise others against having their dog fat, Shooter is one of those dogs you just cannot keep lean, her health has always been excellent, apart from having her hips and elbow x rayed she has never been to a vet.

If there is a bit of food to be scrounged you can bet Shooter does the scrounging, most Bandogs are not big eaters but Shooter is the one exception who proves the rule.

Like most of my dogs, Shooter got very little socialisation, I do take them to town once in a while, and on occasion do some obedience work in one of our parks which has great things for dogs to jump over crawl through and climb ect.

When the first Pro Sports meeting was held in Australia near Tamworth in NSW, Shooter was one of the dogs I took to this great event, at that stage she had been tested for protection as all our dogs are, so I knew she was defensive and brave, I had done a reasonable amount of obedience with her although I am always sporadic in this, they do not forget even months later, the last lesson is still in there, you just pick up from where you left off.

The extent of her socialisation had been maybe a half dozen trips to town to be led around the main street and then over to the park.

I had not expected any of my dogs to do any good at the sports, I went to learn, and to show what these dogs would do naturally, anyone with any idea about training could see that neither they nor I had any amount of experience in any sort of formal work scenario.

Shooter God bless her, did so well she came second in the protection section, now this was due in large part to her great obedience, but also she went into defence mode in a split second when Butch Cappel pretended to be a threat to us, one of the exercises was to try and touch me with a pole which had chalk on it and make a chalk mark on me, after he had alerted Shooter to the fact that he was a 'bad' man Butch tried all sorts of ploys to get her off guard to mark me with that chalk but no hope! he bounced balls and came in backwards, from the side, nothing worked she was not going to let him get that close, and she meant business.

The only reason she got second not first was because I could not send her, her natural instinct is to protect me and her from any threat in our vicinity, when Butch did all he could to upset her from some 30 or so feet away, She looked at him for a second, considered what to do, decided on nothing, he was no threat at that distance and that, Shooter reckoned was that!

After the first day Butch had upset Shooters apple cart I had to have a backline, a long rope attached to her collar as well as my own lead, and a man on the end in case I could not hold her, she is just too strong for me to hold, and not being trained there was no 'out' word so we took precautions for safety's sake.
That alone was quite hilarious on one occasion the fellow we got to hold the line was not used to Bandogs, he no doubt thought it no wonder an old woman could not hold her dog and thus took Shooter far too lightly, mind you, he still had the rope passed through a fence, we were inside an old tennis court and so he was on the other side of this fence holding this rope, I had Shooter on a lead also but standing inside the fence with her, Butch became the Bad Man and shooter went for him, then I heard a roar of laughter behind me, Shooter had not only pulled me forward but darn near strained old mate through that fence! (I might add this was no part of Pro Sports, the weekend was also a training seminar)

Shooter could be trained to send, and go after somebody a distance away quite easily, but it is not her way to do it naturally, what is not near is not a worry to her and that is a good way to have a suburban dog, you do not want your dog to go attacking somebody who might be carrying on at something which has nought to do with you.

Shooter is eight years old as I write this and has not had many litters, I am hoping to get one pup to keep from her to carry on her line before she gets too old, Lord willing I will get another "Woo"

Woo (Tru Blue Woah Bullocks)
Right from the start Woo made his little presence known, I always spend time with pups on a daily basis, when I would get into their hutch I would hear grows from a pup, eyes not yet open, I took notice of the pup doing it and it was Woo, always it was Woo, as his eyes opened and he realised I was not any threat he came to greet me instead of growling.
As he grew he was pretty even with the other pups, maybe a bit more adventurous, when the day came to take pups to Brisbane to new homes, I had one pup picked out to keep myself, the rest were sold, all were black pups so went where was not much of an issue, I had been going to keep a pup with a big flashy white chest, a bit bigger than Woo and somewhat prettier, however in their yard was an old burrow longer than my arm, and for the first time even in his short life, woo did not come to me as I caught and loaded pups, he dived into that burrow and made it plain that if I wanted to get to him I would have to dig.
I did not have time to dig having an 800 k trip ahead I decided to leave him behind and take the pretty pup instead, best thing I ever did, that pup grew up to be my mate and the best dog yet, I have plenty of dogs just as able at protection and guarding, good dogs, but none who can literally read my mind as he did from that day on many times.
The time that stands out most in my mind where Woo just had to read my mind (probably apart from the day he dived into that burrow as a pup) was one day in a Brisbane suburb where I was waiting for some people to come and take a fluffy small puppy I had taken down for them, I decided to walk another dog I had with me a little way on lead as he had been cooped up in the van all day, being a hot day I left the sliding door open, Woo was tied inside so I knew the van was safe, his favourite joke was to wait until a puppy buyer had their head in the door, wanting to look at pups, and then roar, you would often hear a yell and would certainly see the poor bugger jump back, Woo would have that evil smile and his eyes would be dancing at me as much as to say “Hey, did you see that bugger jump Mum”.
So anyway, I leave the door open and was nearly a block away when up drove the small fluffy puppy people, their fluffy pup in clear view inside the van and I can see them advancing on it, and I was thinking, Oh Lord please Woo don’t roar at them, there were a whole family, kids and all and I did not want him to terrify them as he so loved to do.
That is the only time ever that he did not only not roar, the bloody kids were patting him, he gave me a look of pure glee as these people told me what a lovely friendly big dog I had!
Little did they know.
None of my other dogs have Woo’s black sense of humour that so often made me laugh (and often scared the daylights out of innocent folk who were the brunt of his evil idea of fun) to see a dog play jokes on people and sometimes other dogs and see his eyes light up with irrepressible and unmistakeable laughter has been a thing that to date I have only observed in Woo, perhaps some would have had it but were not close enough to me for me to see it, and to develop that close bond one has with a special dog one spends a lot of time with, time alone on long trips, time camping wherever we happened to pull up, and time at work in the early morning when I was still working in town and Woo always came too.
By no means was Woo all games and no action he made it clear that he meant business if threatened, on several occasions when I could get to a trainer with him we would do a little protection work.
Woo would bite fast and hard and would not be scared off, he only used as much force as he thought was needed however and proved this early one morning. It was just before dawn, we were at work in town and the street sweeper had not been along to clean the gutters for some days, so I decided to sweep the gutter myself.
Woo was with me and ought to have been on a lead but I erred there, being no one in sight I left his lead trail, because of the noise of the broom I was using neither of us heard an approaching push bike coming up fast from behind, the lady on the bike was riding practically in the gutter and was nearly on top of us, at the last split second he heard it, he had no time to think nor asses the danger, so he made a pre emptive strike, he let out a roar and hit the poor lady on that bike sending her out into the middle of the road, her one way, her bike the other, he could have pursued her and/ or bitten her, he did not, having removed her from our immediate vicinity by shouldering her, albeit very harshly, he left it at that.
Knowing how hard he could bite, that incident really scared me, had he bitten instead of merely using only the force needed to stop that lady he would have broken her bones for she had thin little arms and Woo could bruise a strong man through the protective arm used when working him.
On other occasions he roared at, but did not bite people who were coming up behind me, he had decided for himself that, if I was not aware of an approach that it was his job to watch my back and not let anyone come up behind me, on those occasions the people concerned were on foot and not approaching so fast that he considered he need do more than roar, and it was a roar more than a growl, but one only a fool would ignore.
He would also make his wishes known, one really hot summer day we were on the road and I stopped to take phone call, we were nearly out of a service area and hearing was hard, I turned off the aircon to hear better, when the call was over he glared at me, then at the console, than back at me, the meaning was clear, he wanted that aircon back on!
My Woo was only with me for six years and died from cancer, he let me know when he had had enough, he gave me a look that said, “Do something” we went to the vet, and for the first time in his life, Woo did not object to a strange man touching him, he knew why we were there, He looked at me while the needle took effect and died in my arms, that was six years ago and still I cry to try and write of his death.

TERMINATOR

Terminator was chosen same as a lot of my dogs, he did the choosing, the day I was to take his litter away, I had intended to keep a far prettier pup, but, not to be, they had all been perfectly well and yet when I walked into their yard to load up, here was ‘Nator’ beside a pile of spew, looking at me with those sorry eyes only a pup can give you, if he could have spoken he would have been saying “But not me I’m to sick” I did a bit of a curse and though Oh well I will leave him here and he can go at a later date. ” (Phil said as soon as I was gone the little turd was out playing with his mother and not looking in the least sick, so I got conned again)
That ‘going later’ never happened, even though I was pretty critical of all contenders for Woo’s place, for I had not long lost my favourite travelling mate and ‘Nator was no Woo, he was plain as chips and did not have a sense of humour at all, still hasn’t, but he was sharp, fast to learn and very loyal, also was not going to be a big dog, I like a dog who can sit on the seat beside me and fit, one problem with Woo was that he only just fit, and I needed to travel with a towel over my shoulder or he would drool all over my shirt, ‘Nator does not drool much and being smaller, he weighs 40 kg, he fits neatly on the seat.
He is also a great dog to have in the house, all kids are totally safe right up to teenagers, no matter whose kids they are, they can come and go no worries, he will also put up with pups, in fact he is the only male dog I have ever seen to regurgitate food to feed a bunch of pups, whether or not he knew they were his pups one would wonder but even so it is a most unusual thing for a dog to do.
All men on the other hand are NOT safe to walk in, and very few women, I have two gates you must come through to get to the house, the further one is where people should stay and call out from, my forty year old son came in one day without going through the proper procedure he came through the first gate, and ‘Nator heard him coming and hit the second gate so hard he has crippled himself for life, he crunched two vertebrae together and has done permanent nerve damage to his right hind leg, while he can still get over a six foot fence and gets about with not too much of a limp, long journeys do cause him discomfort and his Chiropractor has said not to expect him to manage for too long as the damage he did is considerable, he is still a very formidable dog and minds the house very well, and he did one day get his revenge on my son biting his arm to the bone when we were both coming in the gate and not paying attention, he bit just once and stopped as soon as I told him to but not before he got that one bite in.
Pups of Terminators who are socialised are fine with family and friends and not at all as sharp as he is, my dogs are often very suspicious and sharper than you need because I do not socialise them, this is NOT the way to rear your one companion and guardian, I do it as a breeder to know what is in a dogs nature, but there is no need whatever for a family dog to be like this, they will still act if there is trouble, never fear that they will not, provided you have reared the dog right he will be there when the whips are cracking.
When out and on the our travels Terminator is ok with people, he does not like to be handled but nor will he bite for no reason, and of course any child can run at him and one little one even hit him one day and all he did was look sad, he is also not dog aggressive although a mongrel Cane Corso I had once fought him several times and he had to fight to survive, that damn dog never did learn to leave him alone even though it always came off second best, so I sold it.
He did exceptionally well at Pro Sports indeed at one meeting we were well in front of all in the protection section, and only came in second because I called him off out of one exercise when I ought to have let him go! His obedience is terrific and I can send him through tunnels over water, fences, cars or just about anything you could want put him at.

He has had very little formal training as we seldom get to see ant protection trainers but does not need it, at another Sports day, one exercise was to send him to ‘rescue’ a stranger who was being attacked some distance away, then, when he was busy doing that, another agitator was to appear from cover and attack me.
Well I did not expect too much from him, I do not so much as throw a ball and send him after that let alone send him to the rescue of a stranger, but he went off like a brindle bullet and went right into that ‘bad’ man, then I let out a yell as my ‘bad’ man attacked me, well my dear little doggy saw me in strife and left that other bloke to it and as fast as he had gone, he came pelting back and hit my ‘bad’ man as hard as he could.

I was just so pleased with him, it was a simple enough exercise for a trained dog, but he was hardly trained at all in protection work, he had done a bit of mostly onlead work and he was pretty well trained in obedience, and of course he had been tested before, but testing is not really training

EARL
Earl, why that name, well, you might know the song “Earl had to die” Phil dubbed him Earl after that song
Earl’s litter got Parvo at five weeks of age, I managed to save half of them with silver water, was in their kennel more than I was in the house, day and night every two hours I flooded those pups with silver water to fight the virus, that years outbreak in town was a bad one and our vets said they lost almost every puppy that came in, so saving half a litter was darn good going.
There were 12 in the litter, 6 died, 5 of the survivors did not get really ill, I had started the survivors on the water before they became ill………. then there was Earl.
Most of the pups who died did so within a day or two, not Earl, he refused to die, one of the first to get the Parvo the silver water had not been much protection for him, he was still lingering days after the last pup to die had done so.
One afternoon when he was particularly down, I went to check on him and found him lying at the back of the hutch apparently dead, his skin was all sort of wrinkled on him from the other pups walking over him, he was not moving at all and looked flat from being stood on as well, I got in there to take his little body out, one little green eye (his eyes were green when he was small) opened and looked at me.
He was so far gone I decided to bring him into the house and just let him die in peace, he seemed to be past feeling much, well in the next week I found him apparently dead more than once, he could eat nothing, for ten days he ate not one thing, only silver water and Lectade, on the tenth day, he ate a couple of teaspoons of food
I had to go away for a couple of days but left him with Phil, by this time his bed was right beside ours, he continued to eat but was very weak, by the time I got home he was clearly trying to get better but had gotten a secondary infection, a huge boil like thing on one elbow and all four feet swollen and pussy, off to the vet we went and got some anti biotics to treat the infection.
It was another week before he could walk much, but from then on we knew Earl was NOT going to die, his sheer courage and determination had pulled him through where other pups in his litter had just given up and died Earl had simply refused to do so.
Earl still wears the scars from that awful infection, but today is a healthy dog and has never had another days sickness.
When he was about 18 months old I did consider selling him to a fellow who according to him was a very knowledgeable trainer who wanted a family dog and wanted to get away from the herding breeds he was used to, he wanted to see Earl tested, so I took him with me to a Pro Sports meeting, I had at this time done nothing with him only a little obedience at which he is great, we videoed him being tested by Sydney trainer Craig Murray, he was unsure what on earth to do, being attacked in this strange place but he bit right up although you could see he just did NOT want to be there, it was also clear that he distrusted strange men and that early test did nothing to help that, Earl was not the dog for old mate.

I left it almost another year and again had him tested, better, but still not too sure, still willing to bite but still you could see he would rather be somewhere else, and he still growled at anyone approaching us or the van as he had done from puppyhood, he was overly suspicious and defensive.
So I did nothing much with Earl, an odd trip to town once or twice every six months and that was it until Terminator hurt himself and was finding it hard to sit for long periods in my van, so at four years of age I decided Earl would have to kick in and be guard, I knew he would bite but expected not a lot of confidence.
Well, I did get a surprise from the dog who used to basically growl at shadows, which is NOT a good sign, it shows a lack of nerve, a fully confident dog does not bother unless there is a real threat perceived.
My previously uncertain pup has matured late, but now is so totally sure of himself that wherever we are that he will even allow total strangers to walk up and pat him!, one fellow who did not really take any notice when I warned him not to trust Earl too far, got the biggest fright when he made a very sudden move, a puppy went to run under the van and he went to dive on it, quick as a flash Earl went to dive on him!
Only his lead pulled him up for I had it tied inside the van, that fellow stood well back after that.
I look forward to doing a little protection work with Earl as soon as I can arrange it, I know that he is now, finally, ready.
Perhaps his line is just a late maturing one, for Terminator was a jumpy sort of pup too but is now one very determined dog, as many good trainers have witnessed including Butch Capel from USA Pro Sports fame, or perhaps Earls awful bout of Parvo slowed him down when it came to maturing.
Fear of Parvo or other disease is why very few people get to walk through our kennels area, the risk is not with worth it, if you had ever battled an outbreak of Parvo you would see for yourself why many breeders do not allow visitors in
I already know that the wait with Ealr was worth it, he has matured without outside influence, has not been socialised nor have I done much obedience with him, yet now he is a very confident dog, so I know it is nature not nurture that drives Earl, and that is what I look for in a dog, nurture a dog carefully and you can cover a lot of weaknesses, but nature does not lie.