SUBMITTED: Thursday, July 09, 2009
POSTED: Thursday, July 09, 2009
The OEB Debate
The debate over who is producing “real” Olde English Bulldogges will never end. This is primarily due to the fact that the OEB is a re-creation breed of dog along with a lot of combating egos. This implies that the breed died off at some point and someone decided to “try” and re-create the breed based on their research and some photos that they found in some old books. A few people have been credited with the re-creation of the dog as we know it today. The reality is that no one currently has an OEB with an OEB pedigree that can be traced back more than 50 years regardless what they say. We have to accept the fact that the breed had become extinct for a period of time for whatever reason. Any OEB dog born in the last fifty years is what we believe that the ancestor dogs looked like.
I know it to be a fact that I cannot tell another breeder how to run their yard. I also know it to be a fact that many breeders are doing their own things on their yards. Some of the dogs that they have produced do not even resemble what we envision an OEB to look like. But you can't tell some folks anything. Some of these so called OEB's look like bricked up Pit Bulls, small American Bulldogs and oversized English bulldogs. The bad thing about this situation is that they will continue to breed these dogs, register the litters and sell the puppies as though they are the “real deal” to unsuspecting buyers. The goal of any respectful breeder is to improve the breed with each breeding. This statement implies that the breeder must know the current standards and understand that every dog is not meant to be breed. Every dog does not have that “It” just because you own it. However, every puppy born deserves to go to a good home for the rest of their life. As a breeder, you have to be big enough to remove certain dogs from your breeding program, especially if the dog has too many faults regardless how much you paid it. Please keep in mind that a superior dog will not automatically clean up the faults of an inferior dog. More importantly, a veteran breeder would not put a superior dog on an inferior dog and hope for a great outcome. Furthermore, two marginal dogs will seldom produce anything other than marginal offspring.
The other dilemma that we have to deal with is the questionable breeders that conduct mutli-sire hits and arbitrarily decides which male they will say sired the litter. Not only is this an unethical breeding practice, a purchaser will not be able to eliminate certain flaws that he or she is hoping to eradicate from their breeding program. Most breeders base their purchases on the pedigree of the dog that they want to purchase. If the paperwork is bogus the breeder does not know which dog is throwing the undesirable faults that they are producing in the future. When a person states that their goal is to produce high quality OEB's they need to put some conviction behind those words. As a current breeder of OEB's and a former breeder of bullmastiffs, I have outright refused to conduct some breedings because it would do nothing to enhance the breed. My reputation is more important than the little money they wanted to throw my way.
Keeping it real, there is enough BS going on with the OEB's to make me want to invest my time and money into another breed. However, most of the bully breeds that I like are also going through the same thing or have too many health concerns for my liking. So what I am going to do? I am only going to breed the best dogs that I have access too in attempts to help standardize a breed that I am really fond of for a number of reasons.
In closing, the Olde English Bulldogge will probably never become an AKC dog due to the wide variations in the breed. Until OEB breeders respect the standards no one else will respect the breed. How can a dog be judged objectively when they are all over the place? The ultimate compliment of an outstanding breeding program is when a person can recognize your OEB dog and not question what type of dog it is or speculate on the parentage of the dog.
Brian Turner, M. Ed., Breeder
Gangway's Olde English Bulldogges
www.goebulls.com