I’ve recently seen some American Bulldogs - they look like big, muscular x-bred Boxers. What are they?
Both owners said that the dogs would fight if my dog were a male …both were un-neutered … was thinking that they were a less controversial name for a pit-bull type of dog, but have no idea really.
I have an American Bulldog. He is a derpy derp and absolutely not a fighting dog. Bring your male dog by any time and he’ll be fine and not aggressive. I have taken in a few runaways and kept them at my house and pet sat others dogs at my house. The owners that you talked to sound like they are trying to hard to seem tough and/or are dog owners that don’t train their dogs. My guy has been mistaken for a pit bull once before (which sorry he doesn’t look anything like other than he has a squarer jaw) - one guy told me “omg is that a pit” and his friend said “are you an idiot, look at the legs on that thing definitely not”. He is very leggy and very lazy other than the occasional zooms. I have had him in agility training, but man he is so slow. He’ll do whatever you ask and is intelligent in his own way. He has made me fall in love with the breed and eventually, when I’m ready for another dog to add to the herd, I am going to look for another ABD.
There are five types of ABD with the common ones being Johnson and Scott. Johnson is more of the mastiff type, the classic type. Scott is the performance type which my guy is. The American Bulldog is an actual breed and there are actual breeders. They are descendants of the Old English Bulldog and around WW2 John Johnson and Alan Scott began to revive the breed. Rescues sometimes they get mislabeled. I have seen a few being labeled as ABR/Boxer or APB/ABR mixes - just kind of a catch all unfortunately.
If you want to read on the breed please do. Here is a good link: http://www.bulldoginformation.com/american-bulldog-types.html
Hopefully my post will go through as I typed a lot… but I posted a link so we’ll see. I’m an ABD owner. They are a real breed with traceable history and are descendants of the Old English Bull Dog… not just a name for another breed or a cross breed. Just do a quick search and you will find plenty on their history and videos comparing the different types (there are 5 with Johnson & Scott being the prevalent ones).
I have a Boxer, and there is one in my dog group that looks so much like a Boxer cross, but much beefier…the people did not seem to know a lot about the breed, and I’ve not seen many up here.
They can have a Boxer-ish appearance and some people do cross breed ABD and Boxer. I’ve had comments on mine where he kind of almost looks boxer - but I think that is from people who don’t know about ABD and mainly are comparing his size and shape and guessing? He has the same height as a Boxer and the dip from his forehead to nose, but definitely not pronounced like a boxer would be and his body is thicker and not as refined as it meets the hips. You are right that most people don’t know about the breed. I honestly didn’t before I got him and haven’t met any out and about. I have seen a couple at the shelter and it is hard to not go right in and adopt one, but I really don’t need three dogs again and am not sure I’m ready for puppy mode and usually they are puppies that I see. I’m attaching a younger puppy photo, his first experience with agility equipment, and a recent one in the snow (he kept following me so weird angle). This is the dog I talk about that always has allergies so in one of the photos his looking a little pink - that is why.
What a nice dog. Thanks for sharing the pictures
@rockonxox The only american bulldog I’ve ever met was absolutely “derpy” lol. Your guy is adorable!
He was a childhood friend’s dog, and an absolute sweetheart, his worst habit was following people around incessantly asking to be petted! Like yours, he was mostly white, and his spots were brown. A very sweet boy, and his fur was extremely soft.
I just spent some time with her the other week, and she was talking about how much her parents still miss him.
I think they do have that “pitty” blockhead kind of look, and the height of a boxer, but their faces are a bit less square than a boxer in my experience. It does sound like the ones in the OP were poorly trained. Too bad, since it is not a very well known breed, and I think pitt-type breeds, or ones that look like them, can very easily get a bad rep.
Mine is a tennis-ball-oholic with kids at the dog parks. If you have a child he will find your child and drop the ball in front of them. He will wait patiently until they throw it, even just 1 foot away, and bring it back and drop it and wait. He is so funny about that. If you are an adult (like me) you aren’t as cool so he won’t bring you the ball. I’m totally ok with him having the kids do all the work for me 
Tails are not docked? Do they have mastiff in them for their size? My Boxer looks small by comparison. They soundlike they have excellent temperaments by and large?
The Johnson/Classic ones do have Mastiff in them and are larger and much more stout, with big big big faces, compared to the Scott/Standard type (mine is a Scott… he is 83lb and his size is nothing compared to a true Johnson). If both lines are crossed then you’ll get a hybrid and a lot of ABD these days fall into that category. There are few kennels across the US that truly only breed for Johnsons (not my cup of tea - I like the look of the Scott more) and don’t bring in some type of Scott. Docking and cropping is not a thing for the breed.
I do not have personal experience with a true Johnson type so not sure how that line compares to what I know of. It honestly depends on the dog how the temperament is. You can have great ones and sour apples in every breed… but overall they are pretty goofy dogs. You can train them to guard if you want, and back in the day they were used to guard farms and to catch cattle. My terrier mutt is a better guard dog imo and all Ace has going for him is that he is bigg"ish". They are incredibly loyal which is a trait I always like in my dogs.
Ha ha - you could walk into my house, steal the silver and then load my dog into the car and go home - she’d be just fine with that! Dumb Boxer.
I think a lot of backyard breeders (aka “producers”) sell this type of dog, and it’s quite likely that most of them are nothing like the breed standard. (As is common for lots of backyard bred puppies). Nor do people buy them because they are looking for an “American Bulldog” but because they stumbled across the puppies or saw them advertised on Craigslist.
What they look like/act like versus what they should look/act like is a wide range. They are not recognized as a breed by AKC but are recognized by UKC. I believe this is their national association (UKC affiliate “parent club”).
. It looked deformed, and I actually wondered if it was a dwarf Neopolitan Mastiff. Or maybe a very fat 3 month old Neopolitan Mastiff, but then it seemed to muscled and testicles too big for that age. I had to ask the guy because I was so curious. I would never have guessed American Bulldog.
It couldn’t actually sit it was so overmuscled; it’s leg had to go out to the side - my first guess was a cruciate tear. But then it sat with the other leg that way, and then sort of squatted over its haunches (I thought it was going to poop). Its legs were either so short, or too muscled to allow his butt to hit the floor.
Needless to say, it looked to me to be a conformational trainwreck. 
The guy picked it up from being bathed with antibacterial/antifungal shampoo - and bought the shampoo. So, skin problems too.
Ugh.
ETA: it sort of looked like this but didn’t seem to be able to sit this way; I don’t think its torso was that long. So imaging it just hovering over the ground in that position. Not very tall, short legs, huge muscles, cherry eyes.
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