"Tara O." wrote in message
...
"Lori Reynolds" wrote in message
news:edDkb.183962$%h1.173729@sccrnsc02...
I was watching the dog show on Animal Planet last night and
noticed the
"Bulldog" looked like what I know as the English Bulldog. Isn't
there an
American Bulldog also, that doesn't have the smushed up face and
wrinkles
that the English Bulldog has? I had to leave the TV before the
show was
over, so I didn't get to see if there were different kinds of
bulldogs.
I'm
confused about the dog I saw on the show being called just plain
"Bulldog."
We're starting to look into what I know as the English Bulldog as
a
possible
future pet, so I'd like to learn more about this.

The American Bulldog is an entirely different breed.

No, it isn't. Both are descendants of the original Elizebethan era
English bulldog. When bullbaiting was outlawed, the breed went a
number of ways. Show fanciers bred achondroplastic dwarf bulldogs with
each other, and maybe crossed in some Pug, and ended up with the AKC
recognized Bulldog, a genetic mutant can often not breed or deliver
naturally. Other bulldogs were crossed with large, game, terriers,
eventually producing the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which developed
into the Pit Bull At the same time, lower socioeconomic class working
people emmigrated to the US, particularly to the deep South, and
brought their working dogs with them. There, the bulldog continued
with only little change from occasional crossbreeding. The American
Bulldog, along with the "bullier" lines of Pit Bull, are the closest
living descendants of the extinct original bulldog.

Heck for that matter,
line up 10 random AmBulls and few of them will look like the same
breed as
the others because there's that much variation in them. They can
look like
Pit Bulls, overgrown English Bulldogs, byb Boxers and any mix
thereof and
still be called an AmBull.

They can be called American Bulldogs if their parents were American
Bulldogs. Registration with the American Bulldog Association helps.
The range from the "bullier" lines to the standard lines. Conformation
is more variable because they are, and have always been, working dogs,
for whom performance is more important than how they look.
Conformation shows are relatively recent for American Bulldogs. And,
by coincidence, I just...2 hours ago...came from the American Bulldog
Association 2003 Nationals, held this weekend here in Las Vegas.

David
www.geocities.com/sammiesdad/dogs.html