The history of the Olde English Bulldogge can be quite confusing. IF your new to the Olde English Bulldog
and find yourself searching for answers, your not alone. Many people eventually come to us searching for
information on the Olde English Bulldogge trying hard to understand why there are so many different types and
variations of Olde English Bulldogs out there today. Bookmark my site now as I created these kinds of articles
to help your understanding of the Olde English Bulldogge.
Perhaps your browsing breeder ads on Olde English Bulldogges and notice some extreemly wide and short with monsterous
muscles and then you look at another advertisement of Olde English Bulldogges and the next one looks like English Bulldogs and
your thinking... geez these dogs are night and day- how can this be?
It all goes back to the history and creator of the dog. The Olde English Bulldogge was created by David Leavitt.
He started a program to recreate the Bulldog of Olde, a healthy version of what the Bulldog used to be in the 1800's.
He called the dogs Bulldogge with the funny spelling as it was how the word was spelled long ago- a period of time.
I will use the word Bulldog or Bulldogge, I like to use bulldog but our breed is called Bulldogge.
David Leavitt started breeding specific bulldogs together to try to recreate the original dog of Olde.
I have plenty of info about that here if you want to read it, but I'm now getting into getting you up
to speed on the problems out there that plague the Olde English Bulldogge today.
When David Leavitt did all his work in the 70's period it's now readily apparant he never really thought out the repercussions of what
the future might hold for the Olde English Bulldogge. I'm sure if he could turn back time he'd do some things
differently (let's hope he would).
In the entire history of Breeds never has such confusion surrounded a breed. The Olde English Bulldogge is probably the most
confusing one out there, I remember when I started how long it took for me to understand what an Olde English Bulldog was.
It's in my own belief that as information becomes more readily apparant (especially with the Internet) that people can understand things
quicker. Designer breeder were hot the last few years, we had the laberdoodle and puggle just to name a few. The Olde
English Bulldogge became something that other breeders saw an opportunity to cash in on the idea of creating an inexpensive
Bulldog when there was much higher demand for the Bulldog.
There is such great confusion surrounding the Olde English Bulldogge today that many times people call the Leavitt Olde
English Bulldogge a line. The Olde English Bulldogges that we breed are not a line, they are a breed. The Olde English
Bulldogge that David put his work into in the 70's began to breed true and the genetic traits on the dog were quite strong.
To this day they have been crossed with many dogs to improve the health of other breeds. American Bulldogs were something
that the Olde English has been bred to to help with hip issues and other problems.
David knew John D Johnson quite well and leased dogs from him when starting his Olde English Bulldog program. Who knows
exactly what other dealings may have went on. I have interviews on John D Johnson that are quite interesting on the
American Bulldog HERE if you desire to read about it. I find it quite interesting to say the least.
As many opportunists came about to breed Bulldogs stories varied on how they aquired their Olde English Bulldogge (some are very creative).
The Hermes Bulldogge came about and was claimed to be in the family for generations. I have a dog that has hermes in it and I have seen
many hermes Olde English Bulldogs vary in periods of time. Their claim to fame really was based on size and Greg Hermes
has many pictures of showing ultra large bulldogs, which made his dogs quite different form any Leavitt Olde English
Bulldogge and also catered to a market. I have been told that Greg's family did in fact have Bulldogs in the family.
When they started calling them Olde English is the issue that most Leavitt traditionalists have with this type of thing.
Regardless of the name Olde English Bulldogge or not the Hermes line was quite successful in building a following and
serving a specific Bulldog desire.
Opportunists popped up in areans of dog registries. Some like the IOEBA started as dedicated registries to their perception of
Olde English Bulldogges. The CKC also began registering dogs. David Leavitt had his own registry the OEBA which as he left
the breed got confusing as some breeders within his organization started their own then eventually the OEBKC came about
and that is the one I am a part of. They work passionatly and together in a unified effort to get the breed the recognition
it should have. Over time fighting for the name does not win one fans in alternative bulldog breeder land. In your search
for truth you'll hear plenty on people trying to legitimize their creations.
I've done my best to give you some facts about the breed and confusion. I have on my HOMEPAGE real documentation that
you can see the dates the books were created to find turth.
