Questions // Dave Wilson Answers // Ray Certified Photography // Eric "Ptah" Herbert
Dave Wilson, breeder and founder of the well-known "Razors Edge" sets out to interview another icon in the breed, Ray Certified. Ray is an old school breeder and has one of the more popular lines in the breed. This was the first time these two respected breeders have ever met, and Atomic Dogg Magazines brings you the inside side view of the world of dog breeding. From breeder to breeder, and interview with RayCertified.
Question: Where am I from and how did I get into the Breed?
Answer: I was born in Brooklyn NY, but I grew up on 74th and Hoover, in LA, from about the age of 5 to 18. My first dog was a boxer. Then when I was about 10, I got my first pit. My homeboy Cast-Iron gave him to me. He was buckskin with a black mask. I was hooked!!!
Pretty much ever since I have owned at least one pit bull. (hey guys you decide whether this is too much information or not, if it is then just please remove it)And I will clean it up.
Then when I was about 14, I was walking home from school and the big homey straight smoke’s this cat in front of me and takes his pit right out of his front yard. (that’s how important pits were in my hood) I guess to shut me up, about what I had seen, he asked me if I wanted this other pit he had stolen from someone else? The big homey was a real natural born killer, so I took the dog.
He was all black and named Trouble. I renamed him Redrum. Redru would ultimately become my first best friend. I met my wife when I was 15. Some of our first dates would just consist of us just walking around my neighborhood on what I called Cat-Hunts. When I was like 16, another one of the Big Hommies shot Redrum in his head and killed him.
Question: What made you decide to start your own bloodline?
Answer: In the 90s my father died and left me some money. I always wanted to run my own business, so I decided to use those funds for that purpose. I could not decide what to do. Then one day while having a conversation with a friend of mine, about this subject, she said, “you need to do something with them stank’n dogs you love so much“. Soon thereafter I would see my first blue pit (my Brianna Bluegood) and the rest was history.
How did you go about doing it?
This was the most interesting part of all. After having my Brianna for a few years, I found myself in need of a stud to compliment her virtues. This was not an easy task. It took me about five years to find the right dog for the job. I started researching all the old school blood’s real tuff. This led me to the Ruffian bloodline and a woman I would affectionately come to call Yes Maam!!!
I had been researching and researching for about five years. I did not own a computer then, I had done all my research by straight hitting the books. Someone once told me that when a white person wants to keep something a from a black person, they hide it in a book. Well, ultimately all that reading paid off big time. Yes Maam!!! was an elderly white woman in her 80s and after a few phone conversations, this is what she once said to me. I guess I had been going on about what I have done and what I knew, because she stopped me cold and said “will you shut up”? You talk too much!!! You need to go and find a bible and read Ecclesiastes 1: 10,11. (check it out sometime) She talked slow and wit a deep ...
