As you flip through these photos you will notice that some of these dogs look very different from one another, particularly if you look at their heads. This is because the American Bulldog is a breed with a major breed split (this is when we have two separate populations within a breed that are categorized under the same name but have different features).
This split is due to the American Bulldogs history. American Bulldogs come from bulldog stock that was brought to the young United States in the 17th and 18th century. These dogs served as a utility farm dog, family companion, and guard dog and were especially well known for their skill catching feral cattle and pigs. However, as the USA became more modernized the need for such a dog declined and the breeds population started to dwindle. WWI and WWII dealt more devastating blows to the already fragile population and the breed was nearly lost, the only remaining animals survived on farms in the American South East.
Around this time two men took an interest in preserving the breed, these were of course John D. Johnson and Alan Scott. Though these men chose their foundation dogs from the same pool, what they viewed as ideal for the breed was somewhat different. Over generations they left their mark and today we have two very different looking strains.
