The American Bulldog

Here we are, at the turn of the Millennium, leaving important aspects of America culture behind us as if they had no importance what so ever. It is the sum total of many simple things that a people do differently than others that comprises culture, after all. The creation and maintenance of the American Bulldog breed is one example of a simple thing that we American people did differently than all other people and look at how quick we are to give it up in its pure form.

What follows are pictures of the American Bulldog breed spanning some of American history. Maybe this is important to someone, somewhere.


This is a Bulldog from the year 1860


Here's one from 1885. It is showing a little color too, which is interesting. For the most part, this breed is white.


An American Bulldog bitch with a litter of puppies, ca 1910. I would just LOVE to be able to reach into this picture and through time and hand pick a nice, male pup out of this litter. No kidding. That is something I wish very much that I could do.


Here's one from 1912. I know that by today's standards it is tempting to dismiss this dog as a pit bull and it may just be a pit bull, but there are a couple of things we need to remember as we look through these pictures. One is that in these early days, the dog we think of as the pit bull today was much smaller. In 1860 the pit bull was just a little Stafford. The American Bulldog was smaller too. Heck, in the late 1970s, one of today's most well known American Bulldog breeders told me that his biggest males might reach as much as 85 pounds! Good bitches often weighed 60 or less. His dogs are almost twice that size today.

It is a continuum of form, function and speculatively, genetic composition that I am looking for here. By the way, I think that other small dog in this picture is a Blue Heeler (or Australian Cattle Dog.) Figure it would have been 30, 35 maybe 40 pound dog.


And here's my Mom with her Bulldog Petey in 1922. This picture was taken in Brooklyn, New York City. 70 years after this picture was taken, Mom still spoke of Petey with a deep, reflective fondness. Cick here to read more about the American Bulldog and to see another picture of Petey. Click here to see another picture of Petey as a young pup.


This picture was given to me by John D. Johnson of Georgia, about 20 years ago, for use in my first book "The World of Fighting Dogs". It was the late 1970s when Johnson gave me this picture (maybe 1978 or 1979) and he told me at the time that the picture was 40 years old then. That'd put this bitch at around 1938 to 1940.


This picture comes to me from Kathleen Snope. She tells me she got it from Lem Miller of Florida and that Lem informs her that this photo was taken during the 1960s.

I don't know. Maybe it's me but this sure looks like it constitutes a valid breed to me. How about you? Still, some people, who like to think of themselves as being "dog people", just don't get it. Hey. Even some kennel clubs don't get it. By the way. Does your modern "American Bulldog" look like these real American Bulldogs? I hope so.

(Some of the above pictures came from the collection of Kathleen Snope.)

Click here to read more about the American Bulldog and to see a picture of Bill Hines' "Snowbird" bitch in 1996.

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