|
About me:
(A young Rowland with family bullmastiffs in the early 1960s) My parents were born and raised in South Wales between the two world wars, my late father also living in Bradford for a while. His family had a couple of bullmastiffs and dad got his love of bullbreeds from his experiences with these dogs. It may interest American Bulldog enthusiasts to know that in Wales bullmastiffs were often known as "Gafaelgi", meaning "holding dog" or "grip dog". This reflected the bullmastiff's original purpose as a kind of catch dog for two-legged prey such as poachers. Bullmastiffs were originally very popular in England as game-keepers' watchdogs. In the 1950s my parents moved to London to work and it was not long before mum was persuaded that the home needed a dog and soon they became the owners of a succession of bullmastiffs.
(Photos above: 1966 to 1972) I loved these bullmastiffs but as I entered adulthood my interests focused on bull terriers of various types; I liked their spirit and high levels of activity. Over the coming years I enjoyed the company of a variety of bull terrier dogs; dogs don’t come much better than a good terrier!
(1973 with Quintin and 1987 with APBT Minnie)
(1990 with Spike)
(Uzi, 1988-2002) In the late 1980s I became aware of a breed I had not heard of before: the American Bulldog. This was apparently a breed that combined lots of spirit with physical substance. It sounded like my kind of dog, although it would be some years more before I would finally own one myself.
(Cross-bred terrier "Clarissa" and "Prudence", my first American Bulldog) As time passed and I learned a little more about the American Bulldog breed, I found it to be a very complex picture. Unlike most other breeds there are two basic distinct types of American Bulldog ("Bully"/"Classic" and "Standard") and both types can be further divided into various strains. Furthermore, Bully and Standard types of dog are widely interbred and popularly known as "Hybrids". In fact the majority of bulldogs out there nowadays are probably the so-called hybrids.
The variety of type within the breed is something of a double-edged sword: On the one hand, the range of types means that there are bulldogs to suit a wide range of tastes and purposes, however one of side-effects is that this has sometimes led to disharmony between factions favouring different types/lines of bulldog. The newcomer to the breed who visits American Bulldog internet message boards will soon discover that the Bulldog community can unfortunately sometimes be a fractious place!
(Mum and Dad, January 2005)
(My much missed late father with Eva)
Thanks are due to all the following people for advice, support or practical help over the years: (in alphabetical order) Colin Brown Ralph Citarella Lem Miller Alan Scott Kenny Taylor Paul Wood My wonderful parents and many others...
***
|
