History of the Breed
The American Bulldogs are descendants of the ancient Mastiff, which originated in Asia, and were brought to Europe by the Nomads. The Mastiffs were bred to bring down, fight or hold large aggressive animals such as Wild Boar, Bears and Big Cats.
In approximately 800 BC the Phoenician traders bought a brown strain of Mastiff to England and the Celts adopted this breed of dog for catching Cattle and Boar. It is believed that today’s English Mastiff and the Bullmastiff are descendants of this strain.
A second strain of Mastiff reached our shores around 400 AD. This dog was called the Alaunt. It was due to English butchers and farmers who turned the Alaunt into the first true Bulldog. A strong muscular dog with a lock jaw grip; this was now the working bulldog, approximately 80 lb in weight and capable of bringing down an 1800 lb bull.
The Alaunt is now extinct but the bloodline lives on in some of our dog breeds today, and this includes the American Bulldog. Research describes the English butchers Alaunt belonging to English settlers in Southern Georgia as a predominantly white dog with a short, coarse coat and powerful jaw.
The White English is, in our opinion, the true American Bulldog. The ‘Ol’ Southern White’ is the raw foundation dog that Mr Scott and JD Johnson used to produce the two modern types of American Bulldog we know today. A book we can recommend is American Bulldog by Abe Fishman. This book gives a basic history and better understanding, also what to look for in the breed.
The Standard American Bulldog
Alan Scott Dogs from Alabama and Bill Hines Dogs are the true working type. Bred for their character, good sound temperament and intelligence, they make an ideal family pet as they are good with children.
Alan has been breeding working American Bulldogs since 1982. The Scott type is the original performance American Bulldog; intelligent, discerning, and hard driving with the ability to give peak power all day long. These dogs are bred to work, play and look great doing it.
The Classic Bully American Bulldog
From the state of Georgia are the John D Johnson (JDJ) dogs, which are quite different to the Standard American Bulldogs. They are very bully faced, usually with fewer teeth and very heavy in build, as much as 135lb compared with the 80lb weight of the standard.
The “Hybrid” American Bulldogs
This is an American Bulldog with mixed ‘standard’ and ‘bully’ bloodlines. The goal was to breed a dog with the best features of both. Most American Bulldogs are probably in this category. Renowned breeders of the hybrid lines include Kyle Symmes (Sure-Grip), Matt Boyd and Greg Souza among many others. Matt Boyd and Greg Souza are well recognised names and often judge the main “Hopwood’s” American Bulldog shows here in the UK.
Why the American Bulldog?
Over the years we have had various breeds of dogs, mainly Staffordshire Bull Terriers, usually rescue dogs ‘because every dog deserves a loving home’.
In the year 2000 we bought a 1 year old Bullmastiff called “Mischief”. She was a big, beautiful, lovable dog, but sadly died 18 months later from a brain tumour. We decided after that we wanted to keep to a large bully breed dog but we wanted a breed of dog with few health problems.
This is how we came across the American Bulldog and we discovered this breed of dog has few health problems. In August 2003 we bought our very first American Bulldog and became addicted to the breed.
The American Bulldog is not recognised by the UK Kennel Club which, in our opinion, is probably a good thing and has stopped unnecessary interference with the bloodlines.
The American Bulldog is as good today, with all the distilled characteristics of the breed, as they were hundreds of years ago.