The stallion owner replied, "We think she's a Decker. My son found her at the humane society about twelve years ago."

     That encounter changed everything.

     It is also why eyes have been incorporated into my website and branding since the beginning. Looking back, I suspect she may have been one of the unclaimed dogs from the final years of Milton Decker's breeding program. When Milton retired, many of his remaining dogs were sent to another breeder in Pennsylvania, Tim Brown. Whether she was one of them, I'll never know, but I've often wondered.

     When I returned home, the search began.

     By that time, Milton had already quit breeding. The finest and highest-percentage Deckers in the country were owned by Kim Seegmiller, and they possessed the look and type I admired. I started with seven dogs and eventually selected four as my foundation stock: Ace of Spades, Samuel (Raise the Stakes), Madalina, and Maisey.

    Then the real work began.

     I gathered every piece of information I could find about the breed. It took several years before I realized that the Basenji was the key to understanding the Decker Terrier. Back then, many Rat Terrier breeders referred to Deckers as "bastardized Rat Terriers." At first, I didn't understand why. Over time, however, the pieces began to fit together.

     Milton had bred his standard Rat Terriers to two Basenjis but publicly maintained that only Rat Terriers had been used. In truth, it was a brilliant move. The Basenji contributed traits that helped create the distinctive dog many of us came to love. Unfortunately, it also created a long-term genetic problem.

     Only fifty-two of these Basenji crosses existed. Because they were registered as Rat Terriers, no additional Basenji blood could be introduced without falsifying pedigrees and repeating what Milton had done decades earlier. As someone who values accuracy and transparency in breeding records, I never viewed that as a sustainable solution.

     I could see what was coming.

     I love linebreeding and understand its value, but every gene pool has limits. Even thirty-five years ago, Milton documented issues such as poor bites, inguinal hernias, and heart murmurs. As generations passed and the gene pool remained closed, the risks only increased. Today, I can see signs of genetic narrowing even within lines I deeply admire.

     For years, I hoped someone else would step forward and address the problem. No one did.

     Eventually, I realized that preserving the Decker Terrier's future meant returning to its roots. An outcross program wasn't something I wanted to undertake, but it was something I believed needed to be done.

     The greatest challenge was finding the right dogs. When you're building a foundation for future generations, you don't simply choose what's available. You search for the very best examples you can find.

     Convincing breeders to part with those dogs was another matter entirely.

     Very few Basenji or American Staffordshire Terrier breeders were willing to let their best dogs go, even for a preservation project. My search for Basenjis eventually expanded into Europe, where I found access to high-quality, health-tested show lines. After a long search, I also located a championed and health-tested American Staffordshire Terrier in Michigan.

     That was the beginning.