Pride & Dignity
Pride & Dignity
American Bulldogs are descended from ancient Mastiffs that orginated in Asia and were brought to Europe by nomads. Ancient Mastiff had incredible fighting ability and courage. Celts bred these dogs to catch cattle and wild boar. Around 400 A.D. a second very tough strain of Mastiff reached English shores. This dog was called the Alaunt. English butchlers and farmers turned the Alaunt into the world s first true Bulldog.
A true Bulldog has the ability to chase, catch, cheek or throat of a large herbirore and not let go no matter how hard the beast struggles or how much punisment the dog is forced to absorb. The Bulldog was also used against bulls, bears, lions,¿ These staged fights were called baits. In 1835 all animal baiting contests were made illegal in England. The only baiting that survived the ban was dog baiting. Because of the anti-baiting laws, purebred Bulldogs were very rare in England by the middle of the 19th century.
The Bulldog in his pure form was in USA as early as the 17th Century. Having arrived in the United States with the first sattlers, the Bulldog for the most part emigrated to the south eastern states, primarily North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. It was in this region that the breed of the dogs seemd to become rife in the 1800-1900 s. Obviously the name American Bulldog was not used at that time. The American Bulldog was originally known by many different names before the name American Bulldog became the standard. In different parts of the South he was known as the »English White« or »White English« becouse he was a primarily white dog. He was also called the »Southern Bulldog«, »Alabama«, »Working Bulldog« or just »Bulldog«.
It should be remembered that Amerucan Bulldogs were big enough and tough enough to get the job done, intelligent enough to know what needed to be done and courageous and confident enough to see the job through.
On the South and the Southwest American Bulldogs were also used as guard dogs. Toward the end of the 1960 s American Bulldogs were disappearing from the rural south. Large agribusiness firms were consolidating land and eliminating small scale ranching. It looked like the working Bulldogs was going to become extinct once and for all.
But thanks to a few Bulldog enthusiasts that registrated the dogs and set up special breeding programmes with dogs complying to the Bulldog standards, extinction was avoided.
A man named John D. Johnson, Georgia, USA, saved the breed from extinction. He is known as the granddaddy of the breed. When Mr. John came back from World War 2, he began the search for more quality Bulldogs to go with the ones he already had. He began his own breeding program ¿ Johnson Bulldog. The Johnson dogs are descendants of the plantation Bulldogs that were kept as yard dogs in the old south. They are typically more territorial, more man aggressive in short more of a guardian. They are stronger and have much more body fat. They have stronger bones, short square snout and a broad body. They are larger, wider dog, with pendulous lips, and undershot jaw, facial wrinkles and a short muzzle.
Alan Scott got his first Bulldog in the 1960 s. He created dogs which were and still are used to catch wild hogs and cattle. This typ of work requires extreme physical prowess. Scott Bulldogs have longer snout, athetic body. They look like a large, leggy, white Pitt Bull.
