Guess what? I can jump three feet in the air! Some of my relatives can jump even higher, around six or seven feet. We’ve been known to clear all types of obstacles, from fences to shrubs. Long story short, if you’re thinking of bringing home an American Bulldog soon, make sure your backyard can handle our pawsome athletic skills – or that your neighbors don't mind a furry visitor flying over the fence from time to time!

My ancestors’ journey to the United States follows a familiar American story. Between the 1600s and 1800s, a now extinct breed called the Old English Bulldog came over to the New World with their European, working class immigrant families. Southern farmers realized my ancestors weren’t afraid of a little hard work and quickly had them toiling on the farm. Our dog breed was famously good at catching feral pigs, earning us the nickname “catch dogs.” Since the pigs had no predators, we were the only ones up to the task! Sadly, throughout history, many bulldogs died due to bull baiting, a sport where people purposely made us fight bulls to the death (earning us the name “bulldog”). This, along with the tough farm work we were doing, meant bulldogs were having a rough go of it. By the end of World War II, Bully breeds were nearly extinct. Luckily, a few great humans – John D. Johnson and Alan Scott – helped revive our struggling breed in the 1950s. You could say those men were the bulldog'