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THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN BULLDOG IN ITS HOMELAND

As we begin this chapter, it is important for you to fully understand how completely misunderstood this breed is in the US and throughout the rest of the world. You will be presented with the history of the American Bulldog breed here, and this history may differ from written histories you will come across elsewhere. If you would rather simplify matters and believe one formal “history,” then believe this one. If you find yourself becoming a real student of the breed, however, read them all and, when you have done that, ask yourself which written history makes the most sense. After all, any theory presented should be tested, and I certainly encourage you to test mine.

American Bulldogs are mostly white, often with striking patches of color.

In the United States, where the American Bulldog breed originated, many believe that the American Bulldog is a breed of British origin, brought to the United States by the ancestors of early settlers from England. The claim is that the American Bulldog is of pure English Bulldog stock and it exists today in the form in which it was brought to the United States centuries ago. Proponents of this theory totally ignore the fact that at the time the American Bulldog first appeared in the United States, no dog even remotely similar to this breed existed anywhere else in the world, or had ever existed anywhere else in the world, including in England. The theory is totally unsupportable and was begun by one American Bulldog breeder in the United States who, in my opinion, devised it for use as a selling strategy. After all, those who were interested in buying his dogs wanted to hear the history of his breed and, since he didn’t know the history of his breed, he made one up for popular consumption. It’s as simple as that.

FROM HUTCHINSON’S POPULAR AND ILLUSTRATED DOG ENCYCLOPAEDIA

Ch. Impresario, in 1903, was the leading pillar of the English Bulldog breed. He does not look very much like the modern American Bulldog.

The English Bulldog, which has incorrectly been reputed to be the ancestor of the American Bulldog. Although one may assume that the two breeds share a common heritage, the author’s theory refutes a similar ancestry.

If you are, or plan to become, a serious student of the American Bulldog breed, I think it is important that you research what I just told you. In order to test my theory, you will need to find pictures of early American Bulldogs and compare the dogs in those early pictures with known English Bulldogs of that time or earlier. Remember that this is an old breed and when I say that you will need to find early pictures, I don’t mean pictures from 1980. I mean pictures known to date to 1940 or earlier. You must realize that American Bulldogs of 1980 or thereabout were already being crossed to other breeds, including the Bullmastiff and English Bulldog, not to enhance the breed’s working ability but rather to make the pups more marketable to novice puppy purchasers. These puppy purchasers were not in the market for an authentic American Bulldog, but instead they were in search of a pet they could relate to as a “Bulldog.”

FROM HUTCHINSON’S POPULAR AND ILLUSTRATED DOG ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

In 1904, this English Bulldog, whose name was “Oak Leaf,” was considered the best of the breed. Could this dog have been an ancestor of the modern American Bulldog? Though some think so, it is not likely.

FROM HUTCHINSON’S POPULAR AND ILLUSTRATED DOG ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

The early English Bulldogs “Boomerang” and “Katerfelto” were born in 1893. This famous strain featured size (bulk), long skulls, good turn-up of underjaw and excellent layback. Drawn by F. T. Daws.

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier, shown here, was originally brought to America as a fighting dog. The American Pit Bull Terrier derived from this breed.

CANIS LUPUS

“Grandma, what big teeth you have!” The gray wolf, a familiar figure in fairy tales and legends, has had its reputation tarnished and its population pummeled over the centuries. Yet it is the descendants of this much-feared creature to which we open our homes and hearts. Our beloved dog, Canis domesticus, derives directly from the gray wolf, a highly social canine that lives in elaborately structured packs. In the wild, the gray wolf can range from 60 to 175 pounds, standing between 25 and 40 inches in height.

At this point, let’s assume that we know what the American Bulldog is not, as a result of having read what has already been said. The question remains as to what the American Bulldog is. If the American Bulldog is of purely American origin, it had to come from somewhere, and the question remains as to where the American Bulldog did come from. If the breed evolved in the United States, from what breed or breeds did it evolve? To get to the bottom of this question, we will need to know a little about two closely related breeds.

One breed that is very similar to the American Bulldog and that is also known to have evolved in the United States is the American Pit Bull Terrier. The American Pit Bull Terrier, more commonly known as the “Pit Bull,” is essentially the American expression of the English Staffordshire Bull Terrier. As immigrants from England and Ireland began to make America their home, some brought their little “Staffords” along with them. One of the primary uses for the Staffords brought to the United States was fighting in organized “game-dog” matches. Such game-dog matches involved the pitting of one fighting dog against another of the same breed, the same sex and the same size. For purposes of these matches, it didn’t make any difference what size the dogs involved were, as long as both dogs were of the same size. With Staffords, the dogs involved were small (in the 35-pound range).

The American Bulldog had to be larger than the Staffords in order to protect the herd and perform his other duties effectively.

The breed’s strength and impressive build are evident even in American Bulldog youngsters.

Once in the United States, however, a few influences became responsible for the gradual metamorphosis of the game-bred English and Irish Staffordshire dogs into the Pit Bull. One of these factors was simply personal choice and selective breeding. America was the land of plenty, and a dog owner in the US could afford to feed a slightly larger dog than could a coal miner living and working in Staffordshire, England. Additionally, other ideas came to mind about uses fit for such a tough, fast, agile and determined little dog. One of these uses was farm and ranch work.

The American Pit Bull Terrier was bred originally to be a fighting and catch dog. Although very strong and agile, it was still a bit smaller than the farmers wanted for catch work.

There is quite a range of height and weight in the American Bulldog breed. This dog is on the heavier, bulkier side.

A dog that was to be used for farm and ranch work had to be larger than the small fighting Staffords were. The reason for this is that among the farm dog’s duties was protecting the farmer’s livestock from free-running dogs. A dog that spends much of its time running free will often become aggressive toward valuable livestock, and farmers valued a tough dog that had the willingness and ability to attack and run off such “wild” dogs.

Although bred for working ability, not looks, the American Bulldog is quite an attractive breed.

It is possible that the primarily white coat of the American Bulldog originated in the early catch-dog breeds.

Another demand placed upon the farm and ranch dog was what is commonly known in the United States as “catch work.” Catch work is the securing and holding of “free-range” livestock that has grown to a size at which it must be brought to slaughter. Imagine the huge expanses of land available for use by early American farmers and ranchers. If a farmer or rancher who had a large parcel of land available to him wanted to raise hogs, for example, the least expensive method of raising the hogs was to “brand” the animals so that everyone would know to whom the hogs belonged, and then allow them to roam free. This worked well until the time came to collect a mature hog.

Once such livestock had spent its early life maturing into a wild animal, it was inclined to run from people and to attack those it could not run from. If a rancher was to catch and tie the free-range livestock, that farmer needed the assistance of a dog that could run down the livestock in question, grab the animal and hold it until the farmer or rancher could tie the livestock. Such work demanded a larger dog than the English Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and the animal that was to become the Pit Bull was developed to be a combination “larger fighting dog” and “catch dog.” It is probable that the increased size of the Pit Bull was the result of purely selective breeding as opposed to being the result of Staffords having been crossed to other breeds.

With the aforementioned in mind, imagine now that a farmer or rancher needed a catch dog and that the farmer or rancher had absolutely no interest in fighting dogs. Instead, he wanted a somewhat larger dog than the Pit Bull, because the Pit Bull, while suitable for use as a catch dog because of the breed’s tenacity, strength, agility and speed, was still rather small for the work at hand. What the farmer wanted was a Pit Bull in the 65- to 85-pound range, but at the time no such dog was known. These farmers indeed had “catch breeds” of their own and had been using these dogs for catch work for generations. Some of these hardworking catch breeds still exist in small numbers in rural areas of the United States. One fine example of a working catch breed is the Yellow Black Mouth Cur, made famous by the Disney movie Old Yeller. Another native American working catch breed is the Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog, so called because it is native to the state of Louisiana, specifically the Catahoula Lake parishes of Louisiana, and because it is a spotted breed.

CARE AND TRAINING

The behavior and personality of your American Bulldog will reflect your care and training more than any breed characteristics or indications. Remember that these dogs require a purposeful existence, and plan your relationship around activities that serve this most basic and important need. All the good potential of the breed will necessarily follow.

Both the Cur dog and the “Cat” are larger dogs than the Pit Bull. If farmers and ranchers of old were interested in a working catch dog, it would have made no difference to them if their catch dog stock was pure Catahoula, pure Cur or mixed-bred Pit Bull. What was important was that, in the end, the catch dogs were hard, determined, agile, strong and large enough to catch a mature hog, yet small enough to maneuver about without getting injured or harmed by the livestock. A combination of Pit Bull and these larger indigenous catch dogs could have produced such a versatile working dog. This author believes that it is highly likely that such early cross-breeding produced the breed we now know as the American Bulldog.

A question arises when we ask why American Bulldogs are so commonly pure white in color. One possibility is that many old Staffords and later many Pit Bulls of old were white. These white pit dogs were used in early catch-dog breeding. Another possibility is that one of the early catch breeds used in the crosses was either all white or at least frequently seen in white. We do see that many Catahoula Leopard Dogs carry genes for white coat coloring, and it is possible that this is part of the reason that American Bulldogs were and still are white. It is interesting to note here that many Catahoulas have blue, or even “clear” or “glass” eyes. This is a rather “spooky” genetic anomaly common to Catahoulas. Similarly, blue eyes occur among American Bulldogs, too.

The Yellow Black Mouth Cur dog, which Walt Disney made famous in the movie Old Yeller. This is a scene from the movie showing the Cur dog and the young actor Tommy Kirk.

It is also possible that the white coat of the American Bulldog came from the use of early white Pit Bull genetic stock in the production of early working cross-bred catch dogs. If so, the white coat of the American Bulldog might well account for the white coloring we often see in the coat of the Catahoula Leopard Dog. We may never know for sure. In looking for evidence that such crosses were of interest to rural American agriculturists, however, we can point to similar crosses that are still being conducted today. One such cross is the Plott Hound (an American breed similar to the Catahoula) to the Pit Bull. The Plott-Hound-to-Pit-Bull cross is often conducted to produce a bear-hunting dog. It is known to produce a dog with the courage and tenacity to track and get in close to a bear, causing the dog to “tree” or “bay.” These dogs are also known to be smart enough to stay a safe distance from the bear to avoid getting themselves killed. Interestingly, the Catahoula is also known to be an effective bear dog for the same reasons and, in fact, in days gone by, the breed was referred to by some as the Catahoula Bear Dog.

Many Catahoulas have striking blue or even glassy clear eyes.

A pair of Catahoula Leopard Dogs. This breed may have featured heavily in the ancestry of the American Bulldog.

SEMENCIC’S THEORY

It should be noted that the theory of the breed’s history presented here was first developed and put forth by the American breed historian Dr. Carl Semencic. Semencic can also be credited with having popularized this breed at a time when it had become almost extinct in the United States and before it had been introduced to other parts of the world. It is the author’s opinion that Semencic’s theory makes more sense than any other being put forth, and it is offered here as the true history of the American Bulldog breed.

In any event, it is highly likely that the American Bulldog originated in rural America as a ranch and farm dog used for catch work and for protecting livestock from marauding packs of wild dogs. If so, it is likely that the kinds of crosses just described are the crosses that gave rise to the American Bulldog. Ideally, then, the American Bulldog would have been a hard, fast, working, tenacious, medium- to large-sized dog (65 to 85 pounds). From early photographs, we know that these dogs were always white. We also know that in order to be most effective at the task of catching wild free-range livestock, the level or scissors bite would have been preferable to the undershot bite. As expected, early photographs depict American Bulldogs with working scissors bites.