This film was based upon a book of the same name by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. (I’ll warn you that this book is not politically correct, as could be expected from the time period. This lack of sensitivity particularly makes sense when one considers that Rudyard Kipling talked Fitzpatrick into writing, and we all know that Kipling was a bit of a racialist defender of imperialism.)
Although the video says that Jock was a Staffie. I’m not so sure. Staffordshire bull terriers were not recognized as distinct breed in the UK until 1935.
In the book, Jock is always referred to as a bull terrier, although his color is very different from the Hinks-strain of bull terrier that existed at the time. That breed came in only white in the 1880’s when Jock was alive.
I’m going to call Jock a bull and terrier. Staffies and pit bulls are derived from bull and terrier types that were of the wrong color and head shape to be considered Hinks’s strain of bull terrier, which the South African call a Varkhond (pig dog) in Afrikaans.
From looks of his most common depiction, he looks like a meld of bulldog and terrier features, which is exactly what you’d expect to find in dogs that were hybrids of both bulldog and terrier.
The dog in the film doesn’t look like a pure staffie either. I think there is a touch of Boerboel in that particular animal. It is every bit as much a mixture of Boerboel features and staffie features as the depiction of Jock is a mixture of bulldog and terrier features.
Jock of the Bushveld was a cool little book. Its description of African wildlife and hunting were interesting, although Fitzpatrick refers to wolves a lot in his book and I wonder if he was talking about African wild dogs or maybe the ethiopian wolf, I was never really sure. As far as Jock, he is refered to as a Staffordshire, but he is really a mutt. In the book he is a cross breed of what Fitzpatrick called the Staffordshire and some sort of foreign hunting dog with a dark face. The Boerboel is a real possibility, but might not have been described as foreign. Jock was smaller and squatter than the rest of his litter mates, who were taller and lankier. Culturally Jock is still refered to as a Staffordshire, but you’re right, in the book he’s not really.
look, you sillies! All dogs were “mutts” until some Kennel Club decided to cast a standard in stone so of course the original Jock was a mutt. But he was a mutt primarily of the Staffordshire type of bull and terrier, a dog well known in the UK (for its association with that area of England). Of course that wasn’t a “breed” as we understand the word today until the KC standardized it. But…ahem: in order for the KC to standardize it, there had to be a dog that was breeding true and consistent, eh? The Staffordshire type of bull and terrier is recognizably and substantially different from the Hinks type of bull terrier. Both types came over to the USA, but it was the Staffordshire type that primarily went into the making of the “breed the retrieverman will not name”.. the American pit bull terrier, a breed standardized (via the UKC in 1890) long before almost every other breed in the US. The APBT was recognized by the US AKC in 1936 and given the name “Staffordshire terrier” because of its relationship to the original model (and of course because the AKC would have nothing to do with any pit thing). The bull terrier people would not allow them to use the more correct “American bull terrier” so later on when the AKC wanted to recognize the original English Staffordshire Bull Terrier, they had to change the name to the completely nonsensical “American Staffordshire Terrier”.
If I can find out what kind of dog Mfubu (the dog in the film clip according to my VHS copy) was, I’ll post here.
I use the term bull and terrier to describe “unimproved” bull terrier-type dogs.
Jock (aka Mfubu) was a pure bred staffie.This dog was owned by Tim Ham, and the puppies shown in the movie were from the Chassuki breeders owned by Suki Woods. Have a look at the end titles of the movie and you will see her name right there. All the staffies shown in this movie are as pure bred Stafforshire Bullterrier as they come. Mfubu was a real hunting dog and used to go out hunting on his own (just like in the movie!) in the Pilgrimsrest area where he lived. Unfortunately one day (when he was already quite old), he never returned from such a hinting expedition. So my point is that Mfubu (Jock in the movie) is real pure-bred staffie.
He doesn’t look like one. He looks like a boerboel/staffie cross, which would make sense if you wanted to breed a hunting dog. People are always breeding bull and terriers with larger mastiffs to make hunting dogs.
He’s much larger than any staffie I’ve seen, and his gait says boerboel. And he’s docked. Staffies aren’t docked, but boerboels are. His ears aren’t staffie either– far too heavy and droopy. Now, Jock was a docked bull terrier in the book. Finding a docked bull terrier of any type is next to impossible, but a cross with a boerboel might possibly be docked.
The puppies are definitely pure staffies.
Look at the dog very closely, and look at every fawn staffie you can find with at black mask. It’s similar, but he has Boerboel features. I am not convinced.
Does this look anything like that dog?
But if you take that and add this: http://users.skynet.be/maklikreg.boerboels/images/berre/boerboel_keuring_2006BERRE.jpg
It makes sense.
I am 99% sure that Mfubu was a pure staffie. He is not so large for a staffie (pretty average size), go have a look at the movie again. But maybe it will be better to ask Suki Woods herself about this. She and her daughter were involved on the movie set. She has all the info about the dogs used.