why did APBT's get larger

GET OUT THE DECODER RING !! I'll try to keep it clear
I am convinced thousands of years ago during the roman era and even Chinese must of fought dogs for at least the simple sport of it.
Now we live in our modern times & the laws of the land rule ,the recent past we had - record keeping / Keep keeping,dog men . who touted smallish pit dogs around 25 to 35 pounds these dogs were - fast - daring - game . Putting these dogs of the same weight and general size into each other must have been great sport in the day.
I just wounder why if smallish pit dogs around 25 to 35 pounds had such clout. why did APBT dogs get larger ?
was it because the dogs became dual purpose dogs Farm ? Hunting ? Gard intimidation ? Why did they get larger? Even the Boston terrier has roots in a small fighting dog as a common ancestor.
The one reason i can see, is a small dog being a choice would be economics. Small dogs eat less , easy to house . Some of the working class English and Irish a small dog might have been the only way to have a dog. I feel the larger size dog came about due to America had available land and room compared to england ,Ireland's people in the late 1800's to 1900s.

 

It 's simple really just like everything else Americans
gets our hands on bigger is better or so they say

 

Colbys Pincher 75lbs chain weight 1896.
http://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/modules.php?name=Public&file=printPedigree&dog_id=5650

I dont think the breed has changed that much at all, there are 100 times more bulldogs now than there were in those days but as far as the "Working" APBT the weight spectrum/percentages are relatively the same, IMO.
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i never really bought into the "bigger is better" thing myself and i know the dogs that i have (and those of my friends) all fall within what i guess would be considered average size dogs (about 31-51 lbs. in shape).

what i think happened in the old days is that you had a lot of people breeding dogs for different purposes especially in the south. just like today im sure every dog back then didnt make the grade, some culled others may have just given the dog away. you give a cur to a farmer or meat cutter or hunter or something and the dog made a good catch dog it was a fine dog to them...didnt matter if said dog was tried and proved to be a cur that wouldnt scratch and was culled from a gamedog breeding program as the dog served THEIR purpose just fine. this said dog my have even had opportunities to breed to other catch dogs/ varmit control dogs/ guardians whatever. in my opinion this is where the extra size may have been bred in from.

at the same time you still had breeders striving to improve and maintain/select APBT true to thier genetic task and in these strains the size didnt change much at all (maybe a little due to advances in nutrition) up till today.

i remember reading in one of the old game dogs book reprints (cant remember which one) that the old timers used to have a saying "the bigger the dog, the bigger the cur." i think theres a lot of truth in that.

 

People themselves have grown in size over time.

 

IMO the gamebred dogs have not changed, the everyday pet, "byb" dog has changed, i see alot of people fretting about how big there puppy is going to get. its kind of like "mine is bigger than yours" *sigh*

 

Quins Tony 23#
Harrington's Dick 19#
White's Nell 28#
Morrow's Fly 12#
Imported Rafferty 14#

the list could go on and on :eek: :eek: :eek:

You guys really think they haven't gotten bigger...

 

pictures? what about mayday ect? my boy is 65lbs and his litter mate is 30-35lbs how does that work out?

 

ive bred litters like that one would be 65 lbs & another would be 27lbs & the rest average size i have a 7 month old only 21lbs & she not getting any bigger love it pure fire !! Pure fire !!

 

Some Pure Bulldogs were as small as 45lbs, and some Pure Bull Terreirs were as large as 60lbs in the 1830's... In the 1920's and 30's it was not uncommon for Fighting dogs to be 50 to 60lbs CW

 

Wonder why? Do you think they are maybe just throw backs? Alot of people do no beleive they are from the same litter.

 

for one a lot of the foundation lines used when the dogs when brought to the US were larger dogs such as the ofrn blood along with others. also some of the more popular lines of today just happen to throw larger dogs. doesnt have to do with americans tryin to make everything bigger, that was a pretty dumb comment actually. there has always been bigger dogs and there always will be.

 

There are and have been large PB.Some keep their dogs a little heavier then others. Ham Morris was one that liked a little weight on his dogs.

 

apbt's have stayed the same if not a little smaller. when you inbreed you tend to get smaller dogs so in the begining they were not so small. i would list all the conditioned 55-65 dogs that were around 100 years ago that i know of but i cant pull up peds from my work computer.

 

That question has been on my mind for a while now. I'm slowly starting to believe what red rum said, some people keep ALOT more weight on their dogs than others. Mines 19kg at 12mnths and his brother is a tad heavier. Yet a female from the same litter is 25+. Big difference, I always thought it was throwbacks or chosen diet. Would like to see where this thread goes!

This is true. Look at the litters from some mastiffs, arabs or ridgeys they can vary a great deal.

 

seriously :rolleyes:

but anyways, I don't tend to notice more bigger dogs then smaller ones. Seem to have a good amount for both if you ask me, and I think that will continue in the future.

 

What she said. Hell, I'd venture to say 80% of the current "Pit Bull" owners don't even own a pit bull, it's a sad state.

 

From every ones statements, i guess i see that some larger PB's were around from the beginning along with small dogs. I guess the general population who own PB's generally want larger dogs so it appears
that larger dogs are more abundent, but the small guys are still around for those who want them.

 

ok ur talkin about the average joe breeding his pit mix to the next pit mix bc "that mfr is big as hell" i had to listen to that bs for almost an hour yesterday. wanted to breed his 75 lbs rednose w mine haha yeah right. we're talkin about real bulldogs

 

That second pic sure looks like an english staffy....