Rio Jones, born and raised in the inner city of Chicago during the era of Reganomics, used his street knowledge and hustler’s ambition combined with pure determination to become the first black owner of an American Bully registry. The ORIGINAL BULLY KENNEL CLUB™ Established 2003, is the very first registry to name and run the American Bully.
Growing up, it seems it was written that Rio would be destined to do great deeds as a dog lover. He’d never gone a year without a dog to love, care for and learn from. Rio had been raised in a dog family, as his grandfather would breed and raise beagles as hunting companions. Rio fell in love with the American Pitbull Terrier at a young age and legend has it that he would find stray APBT’s and bring them in his aunt’s home on the West-side of Chicago and feed them the last of her bologna, not understanding how difficult it was for her to purchase more. His love for dogs often blinded him to many problems of the outside world and kept him busy and out of trouble.
Rio became interested in American Bullies in 2008 when he returned home from a 15 month tour in Iraq, although the Army wouldn’t allow him the opportunity to breed and raise them the way he desired. When he received his honorable discharge in 2010, he began to chase his dream of creating the perfect American Bully. Knowing that the breed was not 100% APBT or AmStaff, he decided to create his own bloodline of American Bully using Purebred APBT and Purebred bulldog; while honestly documenting the linage, rather than falsify papers the way a majority of the industry had. Rio went on to create the ‘BADOG BLOODLINE’ which has changed American Bully programs across the globe. Rio’s work ethic within the Bully community landed him on the radar of OBKC™ Founder Larry Duran, who invited Rio to an OBKC™ judging seminar in Mexico City, Mexico. A year later, the opportunity to purchase The OBKC™ presented itself to Rio and he knew an opportunity like this was not only perfect, but that it would never present itself again. Rio purchased the OBKC™ and hasn’t looked back since. Larry Duran was quoted saying “Many people told me not to take a chance on Rio because he was a longshot. I told those people I love longshots because they go out and kick ass. Just look at what Nick Foles did in the Super Bowl”.