I have two bulldogs, specifically OEBs, a recreation breed trying to get back to what bulldogs looked and were like (health temperment and obedience wise) before the banning of bullbaiting in the late 1800's. A cross breeding of English Bulldog, bullmastiff, and APBT.
The male, who was the runt of his litter is 85-90lbs, the femaleis approximately the same weight but taller at the shoulder. They are considerate, loving, eager to please dogs who have shown they have a rather protective streak. They are the perfect SHTF dogs for me and mine. I don't need a hunting hound, and wouldn't have the time to give one the training and excerise without which it would be cruel to keep one. They are perfect deterrent/guard dogs, moderately large, very intimidating looking, gentle with children, alerting me whenever anything larger than a cat comes near the house. I have no doubt they would physically defend the persons and property in my home in the future, and am sure their presence alone has saved me grief in the past.
An anecdote :
The wife and I, to save up money during the second year of our marriage while i was in school, moved into a double with another couple, we had the upstairs. Older house, big fenced yard, and the rent was a pittance I could pay with a part time, freeing up more of her fulltime income. Difficulty? it was on Buffalo's east side.
This is a crime map for those unfamiliar with the area, look at the mid to left and lower left portions... Yep, that bad..
http://spotcrime.com/ny/buffaloI should have put my foot down and said no, but she really was convinced that this was the best financial decision to stay out of debt/eliminate what we had. I had grown up in rougher and I have streetsmarts, but the wife was very very suburban and I was worried about what would happen to her. Over my own objections we moved (Lesson: Safety first, money second, lesson: put your foot down when you have to)
On the day we moved in, the neighbors all came out, and just watched. Everytime we moved in something that was kinda nice, you could see them talking among themselves. The front door had a very nice, very sturdy wrought iron portcullis, and I heard one say 'I wonder if they have the guad door on the back.'. At that point I put down my end of the sofa, causing my friend/landlord to look at me funny. went to my car, got out my gun case and brought it in the home. It is an obvious gun case. I figured that would put them on notice as to me being a man willing to defend his property. No reaction. I guess they were inured to the idea of men with guns, didna even phase them. Here comes my wife, in her cute like car, and pulls up, opens the fence gate, and lets the dogs into their new yard for the first time. All those same people immediately looked horrified and went back inside. We lived their for a year and as soon as I graduated we moved out of the city. The neighbors during that time were loud, obnoxious, violent people. To eachother. They would cross the street rather than come near our fenceline. I am positive that if it were not for my dogs, we would have been robbed.
My landlord was too, as soon as my dogs and us moved out, Bud the APBT was moved in.
