Grab a pen and paper! It is about to get real!
Where did the term blue nose and red nose come from?
Old Family Red Nose (OFRN) is a strain off of a bloodline. OFRN Pit Bulls tend to vary in looks depending on the different strains of the original OFRN strain. OFRN was a close knit strain. It was hard to get your hands on unless you were a well known dogman/breeder. The majority of OFRN dogs did not leave the yard they were produced on. If they did, it was to another close friend-dogman.
Being that OFRN was kept in such a small circle, fanciers of the strain would go into dire depths to have one in their yard. This is where backyard breeders started to intervene. They started taking any red dog they could get their hands on and breed the hell out of it. They saw what all backyard breeders see; DOLLAR SIGNS. They could sell an average red Pit Bull for double the price by calling it an OFRN. Eventually, more backyard breeders started to catch on. By having hundreds, even thousands, of red Pit Bulls being labeled with incorrect strains produced, backyard breeders lost all of the history on the dogs. They couldn't even tell you where the strain started. They started using the term we know today as red nose.
The truth of the matter is, OFRN is still to this day kept in close circles. A lot of the dogs being called OFRN Pit Bulls are just more uneducated breeders who do not understand the history and the hype OFRN first gained. OFRN dogs have a deep red (almost reddish-brown) nose, nails, and lips. The borderline pink noses, pink lips, and white nails are typically, not always, but typically, another bloodline that has been mislabeled. I see it every day on websites. A lot of breeders claim to know the history of the OFRN strain. The truth is, they haven't been around long enough to understand it.
Now, with this being said, just because your dog is a deep red/brown color, doesn't mean he is a Pit Bull, let alone an OFRN Pit Bull. So, in conclusion, red nose is just another term backyard breeders have made overly hyped. They aren't a special kind of dog. They aren't a completely different breed. They do not have better or worse temperaments. They are simply a red dog with a red nose.
Now we can move on to blue nose "Pit Bulls". Blue nose started off much like the red nose did as far as being used by backyard breeders. Backyard breeders saw how much "red nose" dogs went for. Unbeknownst of the OFRN vs red nose history, they decided to start a new hype. Blue nose became very prominent in the 21st century. However, backyard breeders have been producing blue dogs since around the 80s and started to gain minuscule recognition in the 90s.
Blue American Pit Bull Terriers were culled in the beginning stages of the breed's development. To create what backyards breeders call "blue nose Pit Bulls" they had to cross American Staffordshire Terriers as well as other Bull and Mastiff breeds to create them. Blue is a common color with other Molosser breeds, however, it isn't common at all with APBTs. Another breed mixed with Pit Bulls is the Blue Paul Terrier. The breed is now extinct and was short lived. It was originally created to essentially be a blue Pit Bull. Many blue dogs today with Pit Bull lineage who are blue are influenced by the BPT somewhere down its lineage.
After years of breeding blue dogs and calling them purebred Pit Bulls, the term blue nose just seemed to stick around. A lot of people think blue nose is a breed. However, as stated above, many different breeds were mixed into one to create the desired look. Being that all "Pit Bulls" with blue noses were a huge lump of mixed breeds, there is no way it can be considered a breed.
After years of being mislabeled, internet was discovered. Being that more than 2 billion people are active internet users, information was able to spread quickly. Unfortunately by this time, there were more uneducated internet users than educated ones. Day by day, incorrect information was beginning to reach mass numbers of people. Seemingly to say, it became out of control.
Add rescues, shelters, more backyard breeders, uneducated owners, and the government into mix, the backyard breeding terms stayed and the breed's name was ruined.
There you have it. A complex version of how the blue nose and red nose terms were created.
