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With the burgeoning popularity in Britain of James Hinks’s new all-white Bull Terriers during the 1860s, it was inevitable that these so-called “White Cavaliers” would soon appear in America. The first such imports—Corvina and Puss III—are believed to have been brought back in 1869 by James Cruikshank of Pittsburgh. By 1877, when the Westminster Kennel Club staged its first “Bench Show of Dogs,” 11 Bull Terriers were entered with names typical of the day like Nell, Rose, Jim, Billy and Lillie. Most were entered for sale, a common practice at early shows, with prices ranging from $50 to $500. The following year a show in Boston attracted no less than 23 Bull Terriers. James Watson noted that the first White Cavaliers of class shown in America were Ch. Tarquin—then the top winner in England—and his son Superbus, which were sent over in 1880 by Sir William Verner for exhibition in New York. The American Kennel Club (AKC) was established in Philadelphia in 1884, the first Bullterrier (AKC used one word rather than two until 1937) being entered in the stud book a year later. The entry reads “Nellie II, #3304. No sire or dam given …” Quite remarkably, however, Nellie II was one of the old-style brindles not a White Cavalier.

The most prominent figure in the breed at that time was Frank Dole of Connecticut, who imported, bred and sold numerous Bull Terriers. Many of his imports came from James Hinks’s son Fred. Dole’s biggest winner was Ch. Starlight, a daughter of the imports Ch. Grand Duke and the great Ch. Maggie May. In 1899, at nearly 12 years old and with few front teeth left, the incredible Starlight was still able to win at a New York show. Two other stalwarts, William Faversham, the celebrated actor, and T.S. Bellin, did much to support and popularize the breed. Both were Englishmen who emigrated during the 1880s. The Bull Terrier Club of America (BTCA) was established initially, under the presidency of Frank Dole, in 1895. This was the year in which ear cropping was banned in Britain, a major blow to cropped breeds like Bull Terriers. And such was the belligerency of the new club on this matter that it was expelled from AKC membership for “conduct prejudicial to the welfare of the American Kennel Club.” But by 1897 the BTCA was again a member club. In those days most members of the club’s committee lived in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

BTCA

The Bull Terrier Club of America is the AKC parent club for the breed. The club’s main purpose is to promote the Bull Terrier and protect the breed’s best interests through club activities. The club provides owners, breeders and fanciers with a network of contacts in the US and also reaches out to Bull Terrier people all over the world. The club offers continuing education to those in the breed, as well as informing newcomers to the breed and helping them decide if the “Bully” is the breed for them. Their breeder referral service ensures new owners that they will be matched up with a reputable, ethical, knowledgeable breeder from which to obtain a puppy. The club has many regional affiliates and sanctions shows throughout the country. The major Bull Terrier event of the year is the BTCA’s annual national specialty show. In addition, the club offers special awards and recognition to those dogs who’ve achieved success in the show ring and performance events. The BTCA’s health committee supports research, studies and dissemination of information about health problems with the goal of eventually eliminating these problems from the Bull Terrier through careful breeding. The club also supports breed rescue, in which dedicated volunteers across the country take in Bullies from unfortunate situations, such as neglectful homes or animal shelters, caring for the dogs until they are placed in good homes. Visit the BTCA online at www.btca.com to acquaint yourself with all that the club does for the breed.

During the early 1890s Ch. Streatham Monarch and Ch. Carney, both English imports, battled for top honors. At a show in Chicago, judge Harry Goodman exercised the novel option of placing them “equal firsts”. Goodman also judged the breed at the first Continental Kennel Club show in Denver in 1889. The BTCA held its inaugural show in New York in 1898, offering classes for Bull Terriers over and under 30 pounds. The winner came down to a titanic struggle between “the three bright stars of the Bull Terrier firmament,” namely Ch. Princeton Monarch, Ch. Tommy Tickle and Ch. Woodcote Wonder. The first two were bred by Bellin, while Dole owned the imported Woodcote Wonder. The judge, having placed Monarch first, took a leaf out of Goodman’s book by giving Tickle and Wonder “equal seconds.”

Ch. Haymarket Faultless, the winner of the 1918 Westminster show, was a milestone dog in America. From American parentage, Faultless was owned by Humphrey Elliott of Canada. American Bull Terriers had broader chests, were lower to the ground and their heads showed no stop but suggested a gentle arc.

The ban on cropping had been a major setback for the breed in Britain. Meanwhile in America, where cropping was still allowed, the breed went from strength to strength: Bull Terrier entries at Westminster of 99 in 1901, 125 in 1902 and 147 in 1904. This last entry was adjudicated by a leading British judge, who was much impressed by the quality of the dogs in comparison to those back home. Woodcote Wonder, who had finally begun to establish supremacy over his rivals, was sent to California for a couple of years, indicating the breed was gaining a foothold there.

The year 1908 saw Noross Patrician gain his championship. Bred and owned by Dr. Alan Northridge of New York, Patrician “became the outstanding dog of the breed and his progeny carried his lines far and wide.” In the midwest Ch. Bobby Buster, owned by Dwight Godard, of Aurora, Illinois, did wonders for the breed. While in San Francisco, E. Attridge bred several champions, his best being Ch. Edgecote Peer, who won the breed at Westminster in 1906, 1907 and again in 1908. Peer reputedly retired unbeaten. Next we come to Canadian Humphrey Elliott’s celebrated Ch. Haymarket Faultless. Although a Canadian dog, Faultless came out of American-bred parents, Noross Patrician and Glenmere Channel Queen. Billy Kendrick, a Bull Terrier stalwart and famous judge, provided a firsthand account of Faultless’s unprecedented victory at Westminster in 1918. The two judges narrowed the field down to a top-winning Pekingese and Faultless, but couldn’t agree on the winner. Kendrick wrote: “. . . hearts beat in unison with a single prayer on their lips when George S. Thomas was summoned as arbiter. Never was a Best in Show staged to quite so dramatic a tempo when Mr. Thomas, a truly great all-round personality, nodded in the direction of Humphrey and Faultless. And then the crowd went wild. Never before was there a more popular Best in Show award.” Faultless had become the first and only Bull Terrier to garner BIS at Westminster.

Ch. Furore Ferment, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Enno Meyer, epitomized the American-style Bull Terrier of the 1930s.

Almost inevitably the 1920s were something of a let-down, with neither the show entries nor the quality of new dogs matching up to those of the two earlier decades. Among the best of the new dogs was Ch. Coolridge Grit of Blight, imported by Wyatt Mayer of New York. Termed a “champion factory,” Grit sired a record 14 American champions. By 1929 we saw the first champion with natural as opposed to cropped ears, namely Blodwen of Voewood. Ears continued as an issue with four states including New York prohibiting cropping. Then in 1931 the AKC ruled that cropped dogs could not be shown in states with cropping laws. And, though cropped ears were permitted in the breed standard until 1957, for all practical purposes the AKC’s ruling meant that henceforth Bull Terriers were shown with natural ears.

By the 1930s American Bull Terriers—typically taller, narrower dogs with their brick-shaped heads—had diverged significantly in type from those preferred in Britain, which were lower stationed, cobbier and with the distinctly downfaced heads that are today a hallmark of the breed. A few enthusiasts, Bellin and Arthur Gale of Missouri among them, imported English dogs and were committed to propagating their type. But the majority of American breeders and especially of BTCA members focused their efforts on perfecting the type of Bull Terrier represented by Ch. Haymarket Faultless and the lines developed by Edmond Schmidt of Chicago (Artesian) and Frank Leach of Washington, D.C. (Newcoin). Ch. Furore Ferment, bred and owned by Enno Meyer of Ohio, is noted as a prime example of the type. But the imports were gaining ground with the 1933 show scene being dominated by the great English bitch Ch. Faultless of Blighty. She became the first and only Bull Terrier to win BIS at Montgomery County and went on to win the 1934 BTCA specialty. Later she was sold to film star Dolores Del Rio, reputedly for $5000.

Also out in California, Dr. George Lewin established his Kanyon kennels, with top imports as well as American-bred dogs. Without question, however, the top breeder-exhibitor of the 1930s was Mrs. Jessie Platt Bennett of Pennsylvania with her Coolyn Hill dogs. Having imported some beautifully bred stock, she went on to breed many winners, among them Ch. Coolyn Quicksilver and the rest of the famous Silver litter, all of which became champions. The top winner from 1939-41 was her Ch. Coolyn North Wind. Then in 1940 Mrs. Bennett brought over the stellar Ch. Raydium Brigadier, the epitome of English type. The sire of a then record 17 champions, Brigadier sealed the fate of the American-style dogs, which simply disappeared from the scene.

The differences in type between English and American dogs may have resulted in heated discourse and some animosity, but this pales besides the dispute over Colored Bull Terriers that spanned the 1930s and 1940s. It was little short of all-out war and, had it taken place 50 years beforehand, we may well have been reviewing another gun fight at the O.K. Corral. Enthusiasts in England had begun to breed colored versions of the White Cavalier early in the century, such that the first colored champion was crowned in 1931. Then in 1934 Wallace Mollison of Massachusetts imported the first of these new “Coloreds”–Tisman’s Tango and Brigadier of Blighty. He bred them and in 1935 Tango whelped the first litter of Coloreds bred in America. Coloreds first appeared at Westminster in 1936, when one took second place to a white bitch in the Open Class. The first colored champion, Mrs. Willard McCortney’s Beltona Brindigal, completed her title the following year. The Bull Terrier establishment was outraged by these events. The BTCA, under the presidency of Father Francis Heaney of Staten Island, viewed itself as the guardian of the all-white Bull Terrier and regarded the Coloreds literally as mongrels. Opposition took the form of verbal warfare and the boycotting of shows and judges who supported Coloreds. Father Heaney, it was said, was a saintly man: he would forgive anything except supporting the Coloreds.

A champion in England and America, Ch. Raydium Brigadier represented the classic English type. He was imported by Mrs. Jessie Platt Bennett of Coolyn Hills kennels in Pennsylvania. Note the type differences between Brigadier and Furore Ferment.

Ch. Heir Apparent at Monty-Ayr, owned by Dr. and Mrs. E. S. Montgomery, was the first American-bred Bull Terrier to win an all-breed Best in Show, an accomplishment he made on August 13, 1946 at a dog show in Albion, Michigan.

The BTCA wanted Coloreds to be registered not as Bull Terriers, but as a separate breed. To this end, in 1936 the BTCA revised its standard to disqualify “markings behind the set on of head.” The AKC, however, proved equal to the challenge by approving the new standard and then adopting a new one for the Coloreds as a separate variety of Bull Terrier with “Any color other than white, or any color with white markings. White not to predominate.” The BTCA continued to wage war, but in 1942 the AKC resolved the issue, determining that Whites and Coloreds should be separate varieties of the same breed. Not until 1949 did the BTCA finally vote to accept this decision. The ultimate acceptance of Coloreds owes much to two men, namely Mollison and in particular Herbert Stewart of Pennsylvania. Of note here, America is the only country in which Whites and Coloreds are classified as varieties of Bull Terriers rather than as just one breed.

Post World War II the leading figure in the breed was Dr. E. S. Montgomery of Pennsylvania, a giant of a man in all respects of the phrase. He purchased the bitch Tanark Queen Mother, bred from English lines by Willard McCortney of Michigan. Montgomery mated her to Raydium Brigadier, thereby producing Ch. Heir Apparent at Monty-Ayr, an all-breed BIS winner and the sire of a record 17 champions. At one show where Heir Apparent was competing for BIS, Dr. Montgomery, sensing the judge was equivocating, picked up the dog and threw him fully 6 feet with Heir Apparent landing perfectly. And Montgomery kept doing this until the judge awarded his dog BIS!

The 1950s and 1960s were dull years for the breed. Yes, Montgomery’s Monty-Ayr dogs continued their winning ways and several imports pursued successful show careers. None of these dogs, however, made a lasting impact on the breed, and it became clear that American-bred Bull Terriers lacked the type and quality of their British counterparts. Bill and Hope Colket of Pennsylvania (Silverwood kennels) determined to establish a trophy competition for North American-bred dogs, along the lines of the English trophies, to be awarded by breeder-judges. With the encouragement of Raymond Oppenheimer, a great figure in the world of Bull Terriers, the Colkets set about the task. Tragically, however, both were killed in auto accidents and so the Silverwood Trophy became a memorial to them. A second initiative followed with the introduction of a Recognition of Merit (ROM) system, an award based on success at specialty and supported shows adjudicated by breeder-judges. These two initiatives have gone from strength to strength, truly transforming Bullterrierdom in America.

The first Silverwood Trophy winner, this is Ch. Killer Joe, owned by Peggy Arnaud.

The first Silverwood Trophy, an unpretentious event held in 1970, went to Ch. Killer Joe, bred and owned by Peggy Arnaud of Massachusetts. The following year the winner was Ch. Banbury Charity Buttercup, bred and owned by Winkie Mackay-Smith of Philadelphia and now Virginia, for whom this was the beginning of an illustrious career as a breeder, exhibitor and mentor. Her brindle Ch. Banbury Benson of Bedrock took the Terrier Group at Westminster in 1982 and became an influential sire (Bedrock here being the affix of her current partner Mary Remer of Pennsylvania). Another kennel that has exerted enormous influence during what we can call the Silverwood years is Magor, belonging to Norma and Gordon Smith of Thunder Bay in Canada. Their Ch. Magor the Marquis, the 1976 Silverwood winner, raised the stakes in terms of the international standing of North American dogs. They have consistently bred top winners, including Ch. Magor Moonshine, the 1996 Silverwood winner. A guiding figure throughout the Silverwood years has been and is Hon. David Merriam of California, past president of both the AKC and the BTCA.

Ch. Jarrogue’s Ms. Jennifer Jones, bred by George Schreiber and owner Susan C. Murphy.

In the east, Drue King (Westbrook) made excellent use of the line produced by her neighbor Peggy Arnaud with Ch. Westbrook Wild One and the brindle Westbrook Windborne, both winning the Silverwood Trophy in the early 1980s. On the other side of the country, Bob and Lynne Myall (Iceni) of Bothell, Washington imported the great Ch. Monkery Buckskin, a son of the famed English sire Ch. Souperlative Jackadandy of Ormandy. Buckskin soon garnered all of the breed’s stud records, siring a multitude of winners. The Myalls have bred numerous top Bull Terriers, including their 1997 Silverwood winner Ch. Iceni Isis. David and Anna Harris of New Mexico arrived from England with a penchant for Coloreds and among the dogs they brought with them was the key Jackadandy daughter Ch. Jaquenetta of Brummagem, granddam of the brindle Ch. Brummagem Bacarole, a Silverwood runner-up. George Schreiber (Zodiac kennels) of New Jersey exerted tremendous influence on the breed during the 1980s. Having bred the first Colored to win the Silverwood trophy, Ch. Ann-Dee’s Red Adair in 1979, Schreiber mated his Ch. Zodiac Lady Madonna to the top import Ch. Catrana Eye Opener of Aricon, producing the key littermates Ch. Zodiac Jarrogue Prima Donna and Ch. Zodiac Private Eye, who between them produced the four Silverwood winners from 1988 to 1991.

The most successful kennels of the late 1980s and 1990s have been those of Dr. Franne Berez (Action) of Pittsburgh and Susan Murphy (Jarrogue) of Orange County, California, both having bred six and four Silverwood winners respectively. Ch. Jarrogue’s Ms. Jennifer Jones and Ch. Action Hot Item won in 1988 and 1989 respectively. These two spectacular bitches are further proof that American-breds were a match for Bull Terriers anywhere in the world. Interestingly, although both these kennels’ early successes were with White Bull Terriers, they have since had success with Coloreds, including Ch. Jarrogue’s Red Rover in 1998 and Ch. Action African Queen in 2000.

Indeed, during the 1990s the Coloreds, for the first time, enjoyed consistently greater success than their White brethren. In the new century, Bill and Becky Poole’s Rocky Top kennel in Tennessee has come to the fore with a number of imported and home-bred dogs. Their top winner is multiple specialty and BIS Ch. Rocky Top’s Sundance Kid, whom the Pooles co-own with several others. Sundance Kid, the 2001 Silverwood winner, was sired by the topnotch German dog Ch. Einstein the Joker, indicating the international flavor of Bullterrierdom today. American Bull Terriers have made tremendous advances in the past twenty or so years, with superior examples of both White and Colored varieties winning in the all-breed as well as their own specialty shows. Truly, the White Cavalier and his Colored brother have invaded and conquered America.

Ch. Action Hot Item, the 1989 Silverwood Trophy winner, bred by Rich and Maureen Ciecwisz and owner Dr. Franne Berez.

Bull Terriers are very popular around the world, as this Dutch beauty signifies. This bitch is a Dutch champion and multiple Group winner.