American Bulldog Vs. Olde English Bulldog
Platoon
baiting and the current American Bulldog? For that matter in postings
here I've seen much on the(pit-bull) and people seem to just call it a
bulldog. I would like some easy english on the difference among the three
breeds. I know what todays English bulldog is so skip that in any answer.
Anyone with help on this please respond. Thank you.
Aaron Dial
Well, first, the Olde English Bulldogge is not the classic
bullbaiter of the 18th century and before--it is a recent
creation aspiring to emulate that dog in its look and athleticism,
as well as eliminate the breathing and breeding problems of the
"English" Bulldog (the brachycephalic show dog.) Although
this breed is growing somewhat in numbers, they're regressing
largely to an outsized English Bulldog, with their legs getting
shorter and the muzzles growing shorter as well. You'd have to
do your homework to find a good, athletic specimen, but they are
out there.
Now, the American Bulldog is taking off like wild fire. It wouldn't
be fair for me to say there aren't some who SWEAR the American
Bulldog is the old bullbaiting bulldog preserved, but there isn't
much evidence to support this other than a resemblance to drawings.
The American Bulldog has existed in varying forms for many years
primarily in the American South, where they were used as livestock
nocturnal guardians, as well as catch dogs for boarhunting (and cattle
driving to a lessor extent.) To a 1920s farmer, his catch dog,
bulldog, or "old English White" had a job to do. The farmer didn't
care about any pedigrees. If the dog was too slow, he'd breed into
a neighbor's Catahoula strain, and if the result could catch and
hold a wild boar, or fight off stray dogs at night, said farmer
was satisified. He had no incentive to maitain a pure strain. He
only sought to maintain a functional, working dog that could do
what he needed it to.
The two breeds, the Oldies and the Am Bulls, are quite different to
the eye. The ABs are much larger, more powerful, and longer-legged.
There are various strains of ABs, with the fancy divided nearly down
the middle by folks looking for a 130 lb brachycephalic English
Bulldog (pushed-in muzzle), and by folks who want athleticism
and health (longer muzzles make for better heat dissipation if
you're working the dog or even just hiking), these dogs usually
weighing in at 75 to 100 lbs. The former strain is typified by
the John D. Johnson American Bulldog, also bred by Landers in Colorado,
John Blackwell, Richard Mullens, White Sands, Sure Grip (who
also breeds the performance type), and others.
The performance type, less prevalent (and more popular here on the net),
is typified by Scott, Painter, Williamson, or Tate dogs. Frostbite Kennels,
Steve LeClerc, Jody Dogomel, Screaming Eagle, Rode Hawg Kennels
all produce this type. They tend to live a bit longer, avoiding
dysplasia and other ailments that occur more frequently with the
larger Johnson-type strain. They tend to resemble the old bullbaiter
drawings more so than the larger Johnson-type bulldogs.
Oh, another note regarding AB history. A long time ago, Johnson
used to breed two types of American Bulldog, the big ones and the little
ones, he'd say to callers. In other words, at one time, Johnson,
too, bred the performance type that his contemporaries, George
Williamson and Alan Scott, were perfecting. When Carl Semencic
first researched the breed for his early 80s book, World Of Fighting
Dogs, Johnson and the others were not known at all outside the
South. After that book's success, the breed began to grow by
leaps and bounds, and probably in no small part because they resembled
a very large American Pit Bull Terrier. Johnson found that
folks went for size more than anything else, and eventually he
stopped breeding the smaller type, and now that the breed is so
hugely popular, the large, short-muzzled variety is usally
identified as a Johnson American Bulldog.
primarily for working dog skills, so they specialized the perfor
Platoon (pla...@aol.com) wrote:
: What is the difference between the Olde English Bulldog used in bull
: baiting and the current American Bulldog? For that matter in postings
: here I've seen much on the(pit-bull) and people seem to just call it a
weighing in at 75 to 100 lbs. The former strain is typified by
the John D. Johnson American Bulldog, also bred by Landers in Colorado,
John Blackwell, Richard Mullens, White Sands, Sure Grip (who
also breeds the performance type), and others.
The performance type, less prevalent (and more popular here on the net),
is typified by Scott, Painter, Williamson, or Tate dogs. Frostbite Kennels,
Steve LeClerc, Jody Dogomel, Screaming Eagle, Rode Hawg Kennels
all produce this type. They tend to live a bit longer, avoiding
dysplasia and other ailments that occur more frequently with the
larger Johnson-type strain.
Oh, another note regarding AB history. A long time ago, Johnson
used to breed two types of American Bulldog, the big ones and the little
ones, he'd say to callrs. In other words, at one time, Johnson,
too, bred the performance type that his contemporaries, George
Williamson and Alan Scott, were perfecting. When Carl Semencic
first researched the breed for his early 80s book, World Of Fighting
Dogs, Johnson and the others were not known at all outside the
South. After that book's success, the breed began to grow by
leaps and bounds, and probably in no small part because they resembled
a very large American Pit Bull Terrier. Johnson found that
folks went for size more than anything else, and eventually he
stopped breeding the smaller type, and now that the breed is so
hugely popular, the large, short-muzzled variety is usually
identified as a Johnson American Bulldog.
Throughout the 80s, and now into the 90s, the dog is very
much a pure-bred, unlike its early days as a farmer's yard dog.
There are raging debates over just what the standard should be,
weighing in at 75 to 100 lbs. The former strain is typified by
the John D. Johnson American Bulldog, also bred by Landers in Colorado,
John Blackwell, Richard Mullens, White Sands, Sure Grip (who
also breeds the performance type), and others.
The performance type, less prevalent (and more popular here on the net),
is typified by Scott, Painter, Williamson, or Tate dogs. Frostbite Kennels,
Steve LeClerc, Bill Hines, Jody Dogomel, Screaming Eagle, Rode Hawg Kennels
all produce this type. They tend to live a bit longer, avoiding
dysplasia and other ailments that occur more frequently with the
larger Johnson-type strain.
Oh, another note regarding AB history. A long time ago, Johnson
used to breed two types of American Bulldog, the big ones and the little
ones, he'd say to callers. In other words, at one time, Johnson,
too, bred the performance type that his contemporaries, George
Williamson and Alan Scott, were perfecting. When Carl Semencic
first researched the breed for his early 80s book, World Of Fighting
Dogs, Johnson and the others were not known at all outside the
South. After that book's success, the breed began to grow by
leaps and bounds, and probably in no small part because they resembled
a very large American Pit Bull Terrier. Johnson found that
folks went for size more than anything else, and eventually he
stopped breeding the smaller type, and now that the breed is so
hugely popular, the large, short-muzzled variety is usually
identified as a Johnson American Bulldog.
Throughout the 80s, and now into the 90s, the dog is very
much a pure-bred, unlike its early days as a farmer's yard dog.
There are raging debates over just what the standard should be,
whether it should limit size, etc. One of the most popular notions
is dividing the fancy into two different breeds, one being
the American Bulldog and the other the Johnson Bulldog. There
was an ARBA symposium on this very subject just this past
Fall, but it dissolved into arguments pretty quickly, and nothing
was really decided. One things certain, though, the American Bulldog
is quickly outstripping most of the "rare" dogs in popularity,
with there being nothing rare about them any longer.
I had a big running debate with Craig Foltz, an English Bulldog
owner, here on the net a while back about just how specific one
should be when discussing "bulldogs," as the term means many things
to many folks. We agreed to disagree, and we both agreed we LOVE
bull breeds, regardless of what you call each of them. I'm a
APBT fancier above all else, and amongst my fellow Pit Bull
fanciers, we refer to them as bulldogs. If you're watching
the boarhunting video tape that Bill Hines puts out with his
American Bulldog yard footage (well worth the $10 he's asking--
highly recommended), you'll see a treed great white hunter yell
from his swaying perch in a tree, "Let go of them bulldogs!!!"
The boar was scurrying around at the foot of the tree waiting for
him to fall. The "bulldogs" used are, of course, American Bulldogs
bred by Hines. The Argentine Dogo is a bulldog. That's what
"dogo" means: bulldog (not dog.) So, translated literally,
the Dogo Argentino is not Argentine Dogo, but Argentine Bulldog.
I guess the best analogy is the term "hound."
Aaron
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*** AARON DIAL is bism...@uniblab.ocis.temple.edu ***
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