Читать книгу American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook - Joe Stahlkuppe - Страница 31

In Germany, a smaller, shorter-limbed bullenbeisser began to be bred in the city of Brabant. These dogs were called Brabanters. A painting of this divergent bulldog-type done by John E. L. Riedinger of Augsberg around 1740 shows a well-muscled, medium-sized dog that looks much like the early bulldogs of England that, in turn, looks distinctly like the APBTs of today. Research into the Brabanter found that this breed possessed many of the attributes admired in the early bulldogs and later in the APBT. Gameness (a primary APBT quality), the ability to stubbornly hang onto a bull, adaptability in working bulls or even swine, and sturdy, squarely built bodies were all well-known Brabanter characteristics.

The astute canine student and writer John P. “Jack” Wagner wrote in 1939 that the Brabanters (the small bullenbeisser) rather than the severely short-faced, undershot, and squatty English Bulldog were the probable ancestors of the Boxer. The Brabanter, to Wagner and several other experts, bore a remarkable resemblance to the APBT of today. Wagner even hypothesizes that the Bulldog could trace its genetic steps back to the mastiff through the smaller bullenbeisser, the Brabanter. Thus, this pocket version of the mastiff, the Brabanter, could possibly be the parent of the bulldogs that were later bred to be the Bulldog we know today. If this is true, the APBT could definitely descend from the Brabanter and similar tough, smaller mastiffs.

Many avowed modern game-bred—the term “game-bred” today is taken to mean dogs bred for fighting or other hunting sports—APBT breeders discount the “T” in APBT. They have long claimed that the APBT of today is not a mixture of terrier and bulldog as is commonly accepted as fact, but the lineal descendant of the actual early bulldog. Wagner seemed to hold a similar view and his thinking centered on the Boxer, one of the bull breeds related to the APBT. Except for the head, the Boxer is a very similar breed in size and appearance to the APBT.