What Type of Dog?

What type or types of dogs are these? What were they bred for?

The answer: The top two are Boxers and are, in fact two of the most famous early Boxers. The animal on the left is Alt's Schecken No.50 in 1893, while the animal on the right is Flock St Salvator No.14, taken in 1894. See here for more.

The animal at the bottom is an American Pit Bull which is both UKC and ADBA registered.

All three dogs were bred to grab animals and hold them -- cattle and wild pig in particular.  These are butcher's dogs, along with the Boxer and the Dogue de Bordeaux. 

The point here is these dogs are essentially the same breed -- a point missed by those who say "that's not a Pit Bull, that's a Boxer-American Bulldog cross."

Here a hint: an American Bulldog is a Pit Bull. So too are a number of the various cocked up molosser breeds like the Dogo Argentino.

Of course, what you breed for is what you get, but it does not happen quite as quickly as a name change does it? And if the animal is still being bred as a game bred dog by many, it may not happen at all.

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