I knew that the history of various bully/mastiff/molosser breeds went back quite a bit. I recall reading stories about the dogs in England in the 1500s and 1800s as bull baiting and fighting dogs.

The other day, I caught on episode of Animal Planet’s Breed All About it and the breed this episode was bulldogs. They spent most of the episode discussing the freak of nature but there was a brief segment on American Bulldogs and how they were more representative of the original English Bulldog (i.e., before it became that deformed freak of nature).

The show stated that the earliest record of bulldogs was 55 B.C. Apparently, the Romans (who were invading England at the time) documented bully type dogs that were trained to run up to cavalry horses, bite down on the horses’ noses, and hang on. I could see this being a real problem for a cavalryman.

Note: In reference to the freak of nature, I just find it sad that years of breeding have caused that poor animal the health problems it has.

Posted in uncategorized on April 27th, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |