American Bulldog?

That is so good!  I hope they all get along.  Good Luck!

Hollysmom and other bully owners,

I'm having a concern. Things went very well yesterday when I introduced this dog to my ridgeback clan. Did it one at a time and then everyone played (trailing leads just in case). But on the bulldog breeds message board one poster said she keeps her dogs separated when she's not home. My dogs have access to a fenced yard through a dog door because I commute an hour one way to work so I'm gone 9-10 hrs a day. Would it be a bad idea to introduce this dog to such a set up?

Paula

POOP! I guess I knew the answer to that one even before I went back to the bully breeds message board. As soft and sweet as she is, she is a pit bull mix and pitties are a fighting breed. They rightly pointed out that leaving her unsupervised would be reckless if there is ever an altercation over a valuable resource ...like a critter...the fallout would be hideous. And I am away from home all day - crating her for ten hours just so I can have an american bulldog/pitmix is unreasonable.

Sigh.
Paula

Well even if I had a doggie door, Holly would not use it, except to go pee and come back.  She is an indoor couch potato. Even my Golden/ Gordon hates to be outside by himself or even alone with Holly.  He wants to be near me.
 
Do your RB's stay outside and play and sleep  or do they come inside alot? 
 
If the bulldog has separation anxiety, she will probably stay inside, waiting for you to return . If she is well-adjusted, she will do what the others do.
 
As far as heat goes, I don't think AB have the extreme heat sensitivy like english, but I'm not sure  

A few months after I had adopted Red, he is much larger than Holly, a friend asked if I separated them when I went to work.  I said "no".  He said he had a friend who's dog killed the the pet rabbit even tho they were buddies for a long time.  It made me pause. 
 
 But the only incident I had was when i was supervising a raw bone session, the first for both, and Holly was the aggressor taking Reds bone, he accidently bit her and sent her to the vet.  So I would be careful if the bullie gets/is toy or food possessive.  Maybe put toys away when she comes home.
 
 

Paula, do you know the history of the 9 months she has been alive?  Have these foster people had her for 9 months?  If so, I wouldn't let the "pitbull sterotype" distort her.  I know people with sweet pitties.   

ORIGINAL: Hollysmom

Paula, do you know the history of the 9 months she has been alive?  Have these foster people had her for 9 months?  If so, I wouldn't let the "pitbull sterotype" distort her.  I know people with sweet pitties.   

 
Whila I agree with the above statement I would defintly not leave them alone for a very long while until you sorted out how well they are going to share. Sure a AB has aggressive instincts but there a lot of factors to include.
 
Are all of your dogs fixed?
Is one evidently the alpha or do they see you as the alpha?
 Are you planning on giving them seperate everything such as toys, dog bowls, things like that?
Before they can be left alone its going to take some serious adjusting and observing and if anyone comes onto this topic saying there is no way in hell that they will ever be able to live peacefully (not there is a chnace cause we all know that with ANY breed of dog) then I am officially logging off forever from this biased sight.
 
 
 

Well I was quite upset to get that bit of information because I really like this dog. 
To answer the questions;

1. She has not been with the foster 9 month. The foster is a neighbor of the surrender..er and she saw no indications of abuse. The dog used to escape the fence to come play with her dogs (she is two yards over).

2. Yes everybody is fixed.  Yoshi is the dog leader - the vice president - but I am clearly the alpha.

3. I intend to take her on a Friday and watch them  til tuesday before leaving them alone. Putting away toys is definitely on the books; it's what I did when I introduced Nandi. I can't do anything about the occasional yard critter.

I've put a call in to my former ridgie rescue coordinator. She's always given me good info and she had, up until he died, two ridgie females and a male pittie (plus a cairn terrier, a cat and  a child).

I'd already called the foster to tell her I couldn't take the dog. She is going to DC to meet a fellow who is interested in her (I like to get difficult issues done as quickly as possible). So I called the foster back later to say that I would think about it some more. So if I lose her from vacillating it's my own darned fault.

I'll keep you guys updated.
Paula

Paula,
 
Don't sweat it.  I know you really want an English Bullldog.  Maybe when you can get a window A/C unit, you can get one.  There is nothing like a snoring, cutey-pie face of a bullie while sleeping, which they do all the time.  Even outside, my bullie is always lounging or sleeping on the chair.  Once in a while she'll get up to check out a noise and warn whatever to go away!

She's proved herself predatory with cats (the person who took her to DC reported this) and that's a definite no no.  Sigh. Oh well. I still like bulldogs and just filled out an application with americanbulldogrescue.org.

Paula

UPDATE

This girl is not predatory with cats. For whatever reason she chased the foster's (the one who took her to DC to be seen by someone else who alleged to be interested and turned out to be half a$$ed and hadn't even spoken to his landlord) cat, but at her current home her foster  (the one who'd been keeping her) has been observing her over these past few days around her cats and attest that she is not predatory with the cats.

So come this fourth of july weekend I'll be testing her at my house.

Wish me luck.
Paula

Well that is good news Paula.   God luck!
A lady here at work just bought a white 8 week female. 
 
Looks like we might be adopting an english bullie soon!