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American Bulldog

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The American bulldog is a large, muscular breed of mastiff-type dog . Their ancestors were brought to the British North American colonies where they worked on small farms and ranches.

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50-633: Dog breeds defined to any standard only came into being with the rise of kennel clubs and breed registries. This happened in the United States in 1884. Before this, no records were kept and instead of breeds, there were informal landrace strains that initially depended on where a dog's parent or master originated. Dogs resembling bulldogs in England were first mentioned by the ancient Romans as "pugnaces Britanniae." The vocabulary used to describe dogs has changed over time, but these are believed to be

100-417: A clavicle , so the shoulder can freely rotate backwards. If the vertebrae of the withers are long front-to-back, the shoulder is freer to move backwards. This allows for an increase of stride length. thus increasing the horse's speed. It is also important in jumping, as the shoulder must rotate back for the horse to bring its foreleg parallel to the ground, which will then raise the animal's knees upward and get

150-448: A quadruped . In many species, this ridge is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, cattle are often measured to the top of the hips. The term (pronounced / ˈ w ɪ ð . ər z / ) derives from Old English wither ("against'), because the withers are the part of a draft animal that pushes against a load . The withers in horses are formed by

200-581: A breed-standard appearance but might have lost other useful characteristics and have developed undesirable traits linked to inbreeding. The ancient landrace dogs of the Fertile Crescent that led to the Saluki breed excels in running down game across open tracts of hot desert, but conformation -bred individuals of the breed are not necessarily able to chase and catch desert hares . Some standardized breeds that are derived from landraces include

250-636: A breed. In November 2019, the breed was added to the American Kennel Club (AKC) Foundation Stock Service (FSS). The American Bully is an entirely separate breed that evolved from the American Pitbull Terrier mixed with the American Bulldog, English Bulldog, and Olde English Bulldogge. The United Kennel Club recognized it as such on July 15, 2013. The American Bulldog is a stocky and heavily built dog with

300-403: A broader scale, New World populations derived from the founder stock of Colonial Spanish horse . The Yakutian and Mongolian Horses of Asia have "unimproved" characteristics. The standardized swine breeds named "Landrace" are often not actually landraces or derived from landraces. The Danish Landrace pig breed, pedigreed in 1896 from an actual local landrace, is the principal ancestor of

350-718: A dog landrace with a related standardized breed with a similar name is the collie . The Scotch Collie is a landrace, while the Rough Collie and the Border Collie are standardized breeds. They can be very different in appearance, though the Rough Collie in particular was developed from the Scotch Collie by inbreeding to fix certain highly desired traits. In contrast to the landrace, in the various standardized Collie breeds, purebred individuals closely match

400-415: A farmers' variety or cultivar . Traits from landraces are valuable for incorporation into elite lines . Crop disease resistance genes from landraces can provide eternally-needed resistances to more widely-used, modern varieties. Some standardized animal breeds originate from attempts to make landraces more consistent through selective breeding , and a landrace may become a more formal breed with

450-406: A focus on their production may result in missing out on some benefits afforded to producers of genetically selected and homogenous organisms, including breeders' rights legislation, easier availability of loans and other business services, even the right to share seed or stock with others, depending on how favorable the laws in the area are to high-yield agribusiness interests. As Regine Andersen of

500-457: A group. These characteristics are used by farmers to manage diversity and purity within landraces. In some cultures, the development of new landraces is typically limited to members of specific social groups, such as women or shaman. Maintaining existing landraces, like developing new landraces, requires that farmers be able to identify crop-specific characteristics and that those characteristics are passed on to following generations. Over time,

550-429: A landrace and a cultivar, may also include landraces when referring to plant varieties not subjected to formal breeding programs. A landrace native to, or produced for a long time within the agricultural system in which it is found is referred to as an autochthonous landrace , while a more recently introduced one is termed an allochthonous landrace . Within academic agronomy , the term autochthonous landrace

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600-511: A landrace is a mixture of phenotypic forms despite relative outward uniformity, and a great adaptability to its natural and human environment. The word landrace entered non-academic English in the early 1930s, by way of the Danish Landrace pig , a particular breed of lop-eared swine. Many other languages do not use separate terms, like landrace and breed , but instead rely on extended description to convey such distinctions. Spanish

650-782: A landrace. General features that characterize a landrace may include: Landrace literally means 'country-breed' (German: Landrasse ) and close cognates of it are found in various Germanic languages . The first known reference to the role of landraces as genetic resources was made in 1890 at an agriculture and forestry congress in Vienna , Austria . The term was first defined by Kurt von Rümker in 1908, and more clearly described in 1909 by U. J. Mansholt, who wrote that landraces have more stable characteristics and better resistance to adverse conditions, but have lower production capacity than cultivars, and are apt to change genetically when moved to another environment. H. Kiessling added in 1912 that

700-425: A large head and a muscular shoulders and forearms. Its coat is short and generally smooth, requiring little maintenance except a bath every few weeks. The breed is a light-to-moderate shedder. Colors, while historically predominantly white with patches of red, black, or brindle, have grown in recent years to include many color patterns, including black, red, brown, fawn, and all shades of brindle. Black pigmentation on

750-469: A more square head. Many modern American Bulldogs are a combination of the two types, usually termed "hybrid". In general, American Bulldogs weigh between 27–54 kilograms (60–119 lb) and are 52–70 centimetres (20–28 in) at the withers , but have been known to greatly exceed these dimensions, especially in the "out of standard" nonworking stock. Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) has been identified in some American Bulldogs. The American Bulldog

800-565: A portfolio of landraces over time that have specific ecological niches and uses. Conversely, modern cultivars can also be developed into a landrace over time when farmers save seed and practice selective breeding . Although landraces are often discussed once they have become endemic to a particular geographical region, landraces have always been moved over long and short distances. Some landraces can adapt to various environments, while others only thrive within specific conditions. Self-fertilizing and vegetatively populated species adapt by changing

850-562: A reduction in biodiversity , because most of the genetic diversity of domesticated plant species lies in landraces and other traditionally used varieties. Some farmers using scientifically improved varieties also continue to raise landraces for agronomic reasons that include better adaptation to the local environment, lower fertilizer requirements, lower cost, and better disease resistance. Cultural and market preferences for landraces include culinary uses and product attributes such as texture, color, or ease of use. Plant landraces have been

900-600: A species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism , and due to isolation from other populations of the species. Landraces are distinct from cultivars and from standard breeds . A significant proportion of farmers around the world grow landrace crops , and most plant landraces are associated with traditional agricultural systems. Landraces of many crops have probably been grown for millennia. Increasing reliance upon modern plant cultivars that are bred to be uniform has led to

950-547: A standardized or formal breed. Two approaches have been used to conserve plant landraces: As the amount of agricultural land dedicated to growing landrace crops declines, such as in the example of wheat landraces in the Fertile Crescent , landraces can become extinct in cultivation. Therefore ex situ landrace conservation practices are considered a way to avoid losing the genetic diversity completely. Research published in 2020 suggested that existing ways of cataloging diversity within ex situ genebanks fall short of cataloging

1000-565: A strict programme of genetic isolation and formal artificial selection to achieve a particular phenotype." In various domestic species (including pigs, goats, sheep and geese) some standardized breeds include "Landrace" in their names, but do not meet widely used definitions of landraces. For example, the British Landrace pig is a standardized breed, derived from earlier breeds with "Landrace" names. Farmers' variety , usually applied to local cultivars, or seen as intermediate between

1050-476: Is 4 inches (10.2 cm). Horse heights are extremely variable, from small pony breeds to large draft breeds. The height at the withers of an average thoroughbred is 163 centimetres (16.0 hands; 5 ft 4 in), and ponies are up to 147 centimetres (14.2 hands; 4 ft 10 in). The withers of the horse are considered in evaluating conformation. Generally, a horse should have well-defined withers, as they are considered an important attachment point for

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1100-821: Is at the heart of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the "Plant Treaty" for short), under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), though its concerns are not exclusively limited to landraces. Landraces played a basic role in the development of the standardized breeds but are today threatened by the market success of the standardized breeds. In developing countries, landraces still play an important role, especially in traditional production systems. Specimens within an animal landrace tend to be genetically similar, though more diverse than members of

1150-693: Is now known as the Standard or Scott -type American Bulldog. At another point, Johnson began crossing his original lines with an English bulldog from the northern UK that had maintained its pre-ban genetic athletic vigor, creating the Bully type American Bulldog, also known as the Johnson type or the Classic type. On January 1, 1999, the United Kennel Club first recognized the American Bulldog as

1200-607: Is one such language. Geneticist D. Phillip Sponenberg described animal breeds within these classes: the landrace, the standardized breed, modern "type" breeds, industrial strains, and feral populations. He describes landraces as an early stage of breed development, created by a combination of founder effect , isolation, and environmental pressures. Human selection for production goals is also typical of landraces. As discussed in more detail in breed , that term itself has several definitions from various scientific and animal husbandry perspectives. Some of those senses of breed relate to

1250-466: Is predisposed to the following dermatological conditions: allergic skin disease , ichthyosis , solar dermatosis , and squamous cell carcinoma . A review of patient records in the US from over 600 hospitals found the American Bulldog to be predisposed to juvenile-onset demodicosis with a 3.4 odds ratio. Landrace A landrace is a domesticated , locally adapted, often traditional variety of

1300-698: Is sometimes used with a more technical, productivity-related definition, synthesized by A. C. Zeven from previous definitions beginning with Mansholt's: "an autochthonous landrace is a variety with a high capacity to tolerate biotic and abiotic stress, resulting in a high yield stability and an intermediate yield level under a low input agricultural system." The terms autochthonous and allochthonous are most often applied to plants, with animals more often being referred to as indigenous or native . Examples of references in sources to long-term local landraces of livestock include constructions such as "indigenous landraces of sheep", and "Leicester Longwool sheep were bred to

1350-662: The American Landrace (1930s). In this way, the Swedish Landrace is derived from the Danish and from other Scandinavian breeds, as is the British Landrace breed. Many standardized goose breeds named "Landrace", e.g. the Twente Landrace goose , are not actually true landraces, but may be derived from them. Withers Withers are the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically

1400-805: The Dutch Landrace , Swedish Landrace and Finnish Landrace goats . The Danish Landrace is a modern mix of three different breeds, one of which was a "Landrace"-named breed. The wild progenitor of the domestic horse is extinct. It is rare for landraces among domestic horses to remain isolated, due to human use of horses for transportation, thus causing horses to move from one local population to another. The heavy 'draft' type of domestic horse, developed in Europe, has differentiated into many separate landraces or breeds. Examples of horse landraces also include insular populations in Greece and Indonesia, and, on

1450-602: The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB, UK). However, more may need to be done, because plant genetic variety, the source of crop health and seed quality, depends on a diversity of landraces and other traditionally used varieties. Efforts (as of 2008 ) were mostly focused on Iberia , the Balkans , and European Russia , and dominated by species from mountainous areas. Despite their incompleteness, these efforts have been described as "crucial in preventing

1500-598: The Turkish Angora and Turkish Van breeds and their possible derivation from the Van cat landrace, the relationships are not entirely clear. Dog landraces and the selectively bred dog breeds that follow breed standards vary widely depending on their origins and purpose. Landraces are distinguished from dog breeds which have breed standards, breed clubs and registries. Landrace dogs have more variety in their appearance than do standardized dog breeds. An example of

1550-565: The Fridtjof Nansen Institute (Norway) and the Farmers' Rights Project puts it, "Agricultural biodiversity is being eroded. This trend is putting at risk the ability of future generations to feed themselves. In order to reverse the trend, new policies must be implemented worldwide. The irony of the matter is that the poorest farmers are the stewards of genetic diversity." Protecting farmer interests and protecting biodiversity

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1600-560: The International Agricultural Congress, organized by the predecessor of the FAO, an extensive discussion was held on the need to conserve landraces. A recommendation that members organize nation-by-nation landrace conservation did not succeed in leading to widespread conservation efforts. Landraces are often free from many intellectual property and other regulatory encumbrances. However, in some jurisdictions,

1650-540: The North American British colonies as working dogs, where smaller farm and ranch owners used them for many tasks, including farm guardians , stock dogs , and catch dogs . Cynographia Britannica defined the physical and behavioral characteristics of the bulldog in print in 1800. In 1835, bull-baiting was banned in the United Kingdom and breeders there minimized the aggressive, athletic traits of

1700-421: The ancestors of the alaunt and the later bulldog . Dogs had been used since the 13th century in bull-baiting , but the first known mention of bulldogs by name is not found until a seventeenth-century letter requesting them to be sent from London to St. Sebastian, Spain. Different strains of English bulldogs were developed for cattle-droving , bull-baiting , farm dogs, and butcher's dogs. They found their way to

1750-498: The appropriate information for landrace crops. An in situ conservation effort to save the Berrettina di Lungavilla squash landrace made use of participatory plant breeding practices in order to incorporate the local community into the work. Preservation efforts for cereal strains are ongoing including in situ and in online-searchable germplasm collections ( seed banks ), coordinated by Biodiversity International and

1800-536: The breed. This ban was not in effect in the United States; however bull-baiting lost popularity as a form of entertainment, contributing to the rarity of the dogs. Breeding decisions for the majority of these American dogs were based on temperament and work abilities as farm dogs instead of bloodline. Eventually, several separate dog strains of the bulldog-type were kept by ranchers as utilitarian dogs working to catch cattle and kill predatory wildlife that threatened farm property. Following World War II , this type of dog

1850-410: The concept of landraces. A Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) guideline defines landrace and landrace breed as "a breed that has largely developed through adaptation to the natural environment and traditional production system in which it has been raised." This is in contrast to its definition of a standardized breed : "a breed of livestock that was developed according to

1900-742: The creation of a breed registry or publication of a breed standard . In such a case, one may think of the landrace as a "stage" in breed development. However, in other cases, formalizing a landrace may result in the genetic resource of a landrace being lost through crossbreeding . While many landrace animals are associated with farming, other domestic animals have been put to use as modes of transportation, as companion animals , for sporting purposes, and for other non-farming uses, so their geographic distribution may differ. For example, horse landraces are less common because human use of them for transport has meant that they have moved with people more commonly and constantly than most other domestic animals, reducing

1950-443: The dorsal spinal processes of roughly the 3rd through 11th thoracic vertebrae , which are unusually long in this area. Most horses have 18 thoracic vertebrae. The processes at the withers can be more than 30 centimetres (12 in) long. Since they do not move relative to the ground as the horse's head does, the withers are used as the measuring point for the height of a horse. Horses are sometimes measured in hands – one hand

2000-424: The extinction of many of these local ecotypes". An agricultural study published in 2008 showed that landrace cereal crops began to decline in Europe in the 19th century such that cereal landraces "have largely fallen out of use" in Europe. Landrace cultivation in central and northwest Europe was almost eradicated by the early 20th century, due to economic pressure to grow improved, modern cultivars. While many in

2050-418: The frequencies of phenotypes. Outbreeding crops absorb new genotypes through intentional and unintentional hybridization, or through mutation. A clear example of vegetal landrace would consist in the diverse adaptations of wheat to differential artificial selection constraints. Members of a landrace variety, selected for uniformity with regards to a unique feature over a period of time, can be developed into

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2100-400: The incidence of populations locally genetically isolated for extensive periods of time. Many standardized breeds have rather recently (within a century or less) been derived from landraces. Examples, often called natural breeds , include Arabian Mau , Egyptian Mau , Korat , Kurilian Bobtail , Maine Coon , Manx , Norwegian Forest Cat , Siberian , and Siamese . In some cases, such as

2150-403: The muscles of the torso. Withers of medium height are preferred, as high withers make it difficult to fit a saddle and are often associated with a narrow chest, and low withers (known as "mutton withers") do not provide a ridge to help keep the saddle in place. More importantly, the dorsal spinal processes provide an attachment for the muscles that support the shoulder and neck. Horses do not have

2200-644: The native landraces of the region". Some usage of autochthonous does occur in reference to livestock, e.g. "autochthonous races of cattle such as the Asturian mountain cattle – Ratina and Casina – and Tudanca cattle." A significant proportion of farmers around the world grow landrace crops . However, as industrialized agriculture spreads, cultivars , which are selectively bred for high yield, rapid growth, disease and drought resistance, and other commercial production values, are supplanting landraces, putting more and more of them at risk of extinction . In 1927 at

2250-482: The nose and eye rims is traditionally preferred, with only some pink allowed. Eye color is usually brown, but heterochromia also occurs, although this is also considered a cosmetic fault. American Bulldogs are known to drool more than other breeds of dogs. The Bully type is generally a larger, heavier dog with a shorter muzzle, but the muzzle should never be so short that it causes difficulty with breathing. Standard types are generally more athletic, with longer muzzles and

2300-402: The process of identifying the distinguishing characteristic or features of a new landrace is reinforced by cultivation processes; for example, descendants of a plant that is notably drought tolerant may become iteratively more so through selective breeding as farmers regard it as better for dry areas and prioritize planting it in those locations. This is one way in which farming systems can develop

2350-509: The region are already extinct, some have survived by being passed from generation to generation, and have also been revived by enthusiasts outside Europe to preserve European agriculture and food culture elsewhere. These survivals are usually for specific uses, such as thatch , and traditional European cuisine and craft beer brewing. The label landrace includes regional cultigens that are genetically heterogeneous , but with enough characteristics in common to permit their recognition as

2400-477: The specific criteria which describe landraces, although there is broad consensus about the existence and utility of the classification. Individual criteria may be weighted differently depending on a given source's focus (e.g., governmental regulation , biological sciences , agribusiness , anthropology and culture, environmental conservation , pet -keeping and -breeding , etc.). Additionally, not all cultivars agreed to be landraces exhibit every characteristic of

2450-662: The subject of more academic research, and the majority of academic literature about landraces is focused on botany in agriculture , not animal husbandry . Animal landraces are distinct from ancestral wild species of modern animal stock, and are also distinct from separate species or subspecies derived from the same ancestor as modern domestic stock. Not all landraces derive from wild or ancient animal stock; in some cases, notably dogs and horses, domestic animals have escaped in sufficient numbers in an area to breed feral populations that form new landraces through evolutionary pressure . There are differences between authoritative sources on

2500-640: Was on the verge of extinction. The few surviving dogs were kept primarily on farms in the southeastern US . John D. Johnson and Alan Scott are widely regarded as rescuing the landrace from extinction. Johnson scoured the backroads of the South, looking for the best specimens to revive it. During this time, the young Alan Scott became interested in Johnson's dogs and began to work with him on his revitalization project. At some point, Scott began breeding bulldogs from working Southern farms with Johnson's lines, creating what

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