Brief History: Bulldogs in England were originally working dogs who drove and caught cattle and guarded their masters' property. The breed's strength, courage, and familiarity with livestock led to its popularity in the brutal sport of bull baiting. When this sport was outlawed in England, the original type of Bulldog disappeared from Britain and was replaced with the shorter, stockier, less athletic dog we now know as the English Bulldog.
The original Bulldog, however, was preserved by working class immigrants who brought their working dogs with them to the American South. Small farmers and ranchers used this all-around working dog for many tasks.
By the end of World War II, however, the American Bulldog breed was almost extinct. Mr. John D. Johnson, a returning war veteran, decided to resurrect this breed. Along with Alan Scott and several other breeders the American Bulldog is back. The American Bulldog is considered a rare breed.
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Origin: American Bulldogs are descended from ancient Mastiffs that originated in Asia and were brought to Europe by nomads. Mastiffs were bred to bring down, fight or hold large aggressive prey such as wild boar, bears or big cats. The ancient Mastiff had incredible fighting ability and courage.
Phoenician traders brought a brown strain of Mastiff to England around 800 B.C. The Celts bred these brindle or brownish red behemoths to catch cattle and wild boar. Today's English Mastiff and Bullmastiff have a similar color and to some degree are descended from this strain.
Around 400 A.D. a second, very tough strain of Mastiff reached the English shores. This dog was called the Alaunt. English butchers and farmers turned the Alaunt into the world's first true working Bulldog. In medieval times, the working English Bulldog was the first dog to develop the so called 'lock jaw grip'. This grip has more to do with a dog's gameness than any structural difference in its jaw. A true Bulldog has the ability to chase, catch and hang onto the nose, cheek or throat of a large herbivore and not let go no matter how hard the beast struggles or how much punishment the dog is forced to absorb.
Throughout the medieval, Elizabethan and the early industrial periods, Bulldogs routinely caught horse, cattle and boars in routine farm or butchery work and sometimes in staged competitions. When catching domestic animals, the Bulldog was usually able to make the hoofed creature submit to the excruciating pain of the bite before being harmed himself. When it is ready to cry "uncle" a bull will lower its head to the ground and allow the Bulldog to drag him backwards to the butcher. The bovine can then be slaughtered or put into a holding pen.
An old time working Bulldog also had the ability to throw a bull to the ground by rapidly corkscrewing his body right when the big beast was off balance in the middle of a stride. It was possible for an experienced 80 pound Bulldog to topple an 1800 pound bull.
Although the main opponent was usually a bull, the English Bulldog was also used against bears, lions and other ferocious carnivores. These staged fights were called baits. The Bulldogs employed on bears and large meat eaters were heavier than the ones used solely on livestock. For the larger opponents, speed was not as important and the fight would take place in an enclosed area so endurance was less of a factor. Whether large or small the working English Bulldog that survived this grueling gauntlet of animal combat became the greatest canine warrior ever. In 1835, all animal baiting contests were made illegal in England.
The only baiting that survived the ban was dog baiting or dog fighting. Coal miners in the Staffordshire region crossed English Bulldogs with scrappy terriers and continued the gladitorial tradition in clandestine matches that are still going on today. The modern descendents of these Terrier crosses with the Bulldog are found in the American Pit Bull Terrier, the Staffordshire Bull terriers and the Bull Terrier.
Because of the anti-baiting laws, purebred Bulldogs became very rare in England by the middle of the 19th century. The remaining bulldogs were actively exported to America where they joined and improved the working Bulldogs already in the former colonies. They were also shipped to Germany where they helped create the Boxer. The bulldogs were crossed with Mastiffs to create superior guard dogs. Interestingly, the early Bullmastiffs were often white or piebald, only later with the addition of dark brindle mastiff blood did darker colors evolve.
To preserve the memory of the true working bulldog in England, the last of the working Bulldogs in England were crossed with pugs to create a blocky mild mannered little show dog. Today, the dog the world calls the English Bulldog is the anatomical reality of a Pug Bulldog cross. While it is indeed a fine animal in its own right, it cannot be considered a true working Bulldog. The working English Bulldog became extinct in his native land at the turn of the 19th century.
Fortunately the bulldog survived in America, especially in the rural Smokey and Appalachian Mountain regions. The working bulldog was saved from extinction because there was much hard work to do. Hogs and cattle were allowed to free range in this rugged terrain where fences were impossible and could only be caught with hardy English Bulldogs.
Throughout the south and the southwest, Bulldogs were also used as guard dogs. In the 19th century and earlier, there are numerous historical records of large plantation Bulldogs or estate Bulldogs that were kept in yards. Plantation "bullies" were occasionally allowed to roam in prison yards, patrolling open spaces between cells and main wall. Regional varieties developed and many names were applied to the southern Bulldogs. Some of the more common names were Old English White, White English, Swamp Bulldog, Backwoods Bulldog, English Pit, Old Country White and many others.
Toward the end of the 1960s, the last remnants of working English Bulldogs were disappearing from the rural south. Large agribusiness firms were consolidating land and eliminating small scale ranching. Also, small, all- terrain vehicles were allowing farmers to herd, catch and move cattle without dog assistance. It looked like the working English Bulldog was truly going to become extinct once and for all.
Fortunately, dedicated Bulldog enthusiasts made a concerted effort to locate some of the last of the hill Bulldogs and began efforts to breed them, preserve them and foster a public awareness so their breeding programs could continue into perpetuity. Because of their work, the Bulldog, the breed that had toughed it out for so long against so many adversaries, has survived.
To say that today's American Bulldog is a direct descendant of the original working English Bulldog is not to say that a small percentage of other breeds have not been recently added, mostly in the 1970s when the AB was being rebuilt. The Mastiff/Bull breeds used in such outcrosses were descended in part from the working English Bulldog, Alaunt and other ancient molossers. Due to the low number of Old English Whites left, some breed out-crossing was inevitable to insure enough genetic diversity.
Johnson and Scott Types
The principal architects of today's American Bulldog are Allen Scott and John D. Johnson. From the breeding programs of these two men, two distinct strains have emerged, commonly called the Johnson type and the Scott type. The former is a larger, wider dog with more bone, pendulous lips, an undershot jaw, facial wrinkles and a shorter muzzle. The Johnson type resembles an athletic, tightly built, white Bullmastiff. The Scott type looks like a large, coarse, leggy, white Pit Bull.
The two types differ temperamentally as well as physically. 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 aggressive towards human males; in short, more of a guardian. The athletic Scott strain descended from hog and cattle catch dogs. They were [and still are] used to catch wild hogs and cattle that have strayed into brush so thick that a man on horse back would find it impenetrable. This type of work requires extreme physical prowess. For this reason the smaller strain is called Performance.
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Boaz DOB: September 2003, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Uzbek Ministry of Interior Certified Obedience and EOD.
2nd place Best in Show (all Breeds), Uzbekistan Kennel Club National Championship - Uzbekistan 2004.
National Junior Champion - American Bulldog Best in Breed Uzbekistan 2004.
National Champion - American Bulldog Best in Class - Uzbekistan 2004.
Sire: Shiek Cliff (PKI 1216896P) was reigning 2 time Uzbek National Champion - Best in breed. Boaz beat his pops in the ring and took his title away.
Dam: Tiger Terri OI2/00. Boaz was the pick of the litter of 12 pups. He was from Tiger Terri's 2nd litter with Sheikh Cliff.
Breeder A.B. Borisenko, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
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This moss-banked fountain in the heart of the ancient village of Belleau, France, has become ~ by a quirk of history ~ a central symbol in the lore of the U.S. Marine Corps. The iconography of the fountain, of course, greatly predates the arrival of the Marines in 1918. The "bulldog" of the fountain is, in fact, a bull mastiff, doubtless one of the hunting mastiffs for which the Chateau of Belleau was famous. It was to this same Chateau of Belleau which Belleau Wood, Bois de Belleau, belonged by tradition. The cold & pristine water which gushes from the mastiff's mouth is the "beautiful water", belle eau, for which the village itself was named.
When the Marines took Belleau Wood from the Germans in June, 1918, they had just been dubbed Teufelhunden, "devil dogs", by their opponents, a soubriquet which the Leathernecks quite cheerfully adopted. Almost at once, depictions of fierce helmeted hounds began appearing on recruiting posters and even in the letters of the Marines themselves. And so it was that when the first Marines entered the shattered, abandoned village of Belleau, begrimed by battle & the unrelenting heat, they must have greeted the sight of this venerable canine with particular delight. For not only, in the wake of their fiercest battle to that time, could they luxuriate in the clear & cooling stream, slaking thirst & swabbing their steaming necks, but, in the very act of replenishment, in a ritualistic partaking of restorative water bestowed by the beast, they affirmed, as though with a warriors' toast of raised aluminum cups & canteens, the newest & hardest-won symbol of the Corps: Teufelhunden ~ Devil Dogs ~ Bulldogs of the Marne.
Now that this stirring portrait has been painted, it must be confessed that nothing of the sort ever occured. Though the Marines took Belleau Wood in late June, 1918, Belleau itself was captured not by the Marine Brigade, but by the 26th Division some three weeks later, by which time the Marines were fighting & dying at Soissons. How and when the "bulldog fountain" actually entered into the mythology of the Corps remains something of a mystery.
Cited from http://www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/fountain.html
It is in this vein that we named our Devildog Kennels in honor of those World War I Marines who fought in the battle of Belleau Wood abd earnd the name Devildogs for the Marine Corps.
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