Can You Spot the Difference?

English Bulldog Standard - Canadian Kennel Club here

Olde English/Leavitt Bulldog Standard - Leavitt Bulldog Association here

Can you guess which one would last longer in an endurance competition? To easy eh?

Mr. Leavitt has the right idea, and I commend him for wanting to "create" a healthier bully, insisting that any dog registered must conform to his standard (which includes faulting kinked tails, muzzles that are too short etc), and must have hips X-rayed, passing a certain grade before being bred or registered with his organization. I've spoken with him on 2 occasions, nice man, with a nice idea that I think eventually will take the same path as the dodo. The original OEB (a very young breed in itself) has already been separated into the "working" and the "show" type - the show type vying for UKC recognition and creating their own registry (hell, it's like the JRT's all over again) removing the creator of the breed from their midst because they were in disagreement of a number of issues, one being the introduction of viable out-crosses to increase the gene pool on this already inbred "new breed". 

Sadly, the largest registry for the Olde English Bulldogge (the IOEBA), will register anything under the sun that even remotely resembles a bully. And this is the registry that most are familiar with when the OEB is brought up as a topic. They, in a sense, ripped off Mr. Leavitt and his creation, adopting their own standards, rules and regulations and utilizing the name that he coined for his dogs. Mr. Leavitt's OEB's are now labeled "Leavitt Bulldog", though, through the separation, the other half of his original breed stock still uses the catch-all term Olde English Bulldogge. 

And sadly extreme sells - extreme weights, extreme features, extreme colours etc. etc. This "new breed", registered with the IOEBA, has now taken a page out of the EB book, and many "breeders" (and I say that with tongue in cheek), have reduced their stock back down to larger, sloppier EB look-a -likes, which is unfortunate, but it's what makes the money. Not all in this registry are going down that path, but a large majority are breeding for colour, for extreme bulliness, for huge size and weights, basically for a dog that would work well on a couch, or as a paper weight. Disregard for health and temperament are evident in many of these dogs, though, again, there are some conscientious breeders out there, but they seem to be few and far between.

For the most part, Mr. Leavitt's dogs are not extreme. Many compete in weight pull and personal protection, and have kept the original athletic build of their fore-bearers.

I wish Mr. Leavitt luck in his endeavor - but in the world of dogs, nothing is easy or simple, money complicates, extreme ideas complicate, and differing opinions complicate - hey, that sounds just like life as we know it! But at least there are some out there willing to do the work and put up with the crap from others. However, sadly, many of the "good ones" are lost because their ideas of health testing, out-crossing, reducing temperament/health issues, and keeping the extremes at bay are frowned upon by the conformists. Ah well, good luck Mr. Leavitt - you'll need it.