Leavitt Bulldog

The Olde English Bulldogge is an American dog breed, recognized by the United Kennel Club (UKC) in January 2014. The breed is listed in the UKC Guardian Dog Group. Five years prior to UKC recognition, the breed was registered by the former Canine Developmental, Health and Performance Registry (CDHPR), a privately held business located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In the early 2000s, CDHPR had been working with the UKC under a unique agreement to develop breeding plans and strategies in an effort to produce improved breeds of dogs that would be accepted as purebred and, therefore, eligible for UKC registration. In the early 1970s, dog breeder David Leavitt of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, wanted to "recreate a Bulldog with the looks, health and athleticism of the 18th Century Bulldog which was originally created for the English sport of bull baiting between the years 1100 to 1835". In an effort to rapidly achieve his goal for a purebred dog, Leavitt modeled his program after a livestock line breeding scheme developed by Nathan Fechimer, a professor in the Department of Dairy Science, Ohio State University. The result was an athletic breed that looks similar to the bulldogs of 1820, but with a friendly temperament, fewer health issues, and with longevity reaching into the teens. U.S. researchers have said the Olde English Bulldogge is a "viable candidate" as an outcross on which to rebuild the Bulldog; a breed that genetic studies have suggested is so inbred that it "cannot be returned to health without an infusion of new bloodlines."