If you own an X-L Bully (or similar breed) why did you get it?

[Kinut]

I’m not trying to cause a pile on, I’m genuinely curious to hear from owners on here.

I would guess the vast majority of owners on Mumsnet consider themselves responsible owners and their dog to be no threat. I often see it said that the dog is harmless/more likely to lick you to death/soft/great with the kids etc. but why did you opt for that breed?

You obviously wanted a family pet, and obviously care about the safety of yourself and loved ones, and you didn’t want a guard dog or to intimidate the public.

So why opt for a bully type and not another large dog with less surrounding controversy and innate risk? As I say, I don’t want a raft of insults towards owners, Im just curious as to why otherwise normal and responsible owners opt for these breeds?

At least get the name of the breed right before you try and slag them off

An excellent summary!

The Wordpress article on Kimbo is really scary.

I wouldn’t run from a staffy, or a Bedlington. Both lovely dogs in my experience. XL Bully - you wouldn’t see me or my kid for dust.

I personally don’t have one….but my sister does. He doesn’t fit every one of the characteristic the government class as an XL Bully, but he does fit most of the type characteristics.
Her DH was working on a building site, and it come up in conversation that they wanted to get a puppy. A bloke from one of the crews told him he knew a bloke who had puppies for sale. My BIL went to see the puppies and was horrified to find it was people breeding fighting dogs.
He looked in a crate and saw a tiny scrap of a thing, locked up with a much older puppy who’d been tearing shreds off the little one 😔 And that was that. He decided he wasn’t leaving him there and took him home that day. After being checked over at the vet, it turned out he was only around 6 weeks old and shouldn’t have even been away from his mum yet 😔
My Dsis and BIL have spent a lot of money on puppy training, adult socialisation classes for him etc, and he has grown into a wonderful dog. He might be the most obedient dog I’ve ever met - he looks at my BIL like he’s god! If he gets told to sit and stay, he doesn’t move a muscle until BIL tells him he can.
We’ve looked after him while they’ve been on holiday etc and he walks wonderfully on a lead, has great manners around food etc he sits and waits patiently for his bowl.
I am a firm believer that yes, certain breeds have the potential to be more dangerous that others based on pure physical power. But those same dogs can be wonderful pets same as any other dog when in the hands of responsible owners who invest the time and money to ensure their dog is properly trained and socialised.

Thank you.

But why, of all puppies, did your BIL decide on this breed?

I don’t think there is much of a crossover of the demographic who read mumsnet and the demographic who own those awful dogs.

I guess he didn’t make a conscious decision relating to breed, he just saw a tiny puppy in a horrible situation and simply couldn’t just leave him there to die 😔😔 He would have done the same thing had the puppy been of any other breed.
And I know it’s anecdotal, but their dog is a complete dopey mushball 🤷🏻‍♀️🫠😂 I sometimes think he doesn’t even know he’s got teeth. His favourite thing to do is take his teddy bears into his crate and build himself a teddy nest to sleep in. He’s a gentle giant, but at the same time my DSis and BIL aren’t idiots: they know regardless of his intentions, he is an extremely strong, powerful animal. They don’t put him or human guests in situations that have potential to be an issue. When my DC’s were very small, the dog would always be separated from them - not because anyone was concerned about aggression, but because he’s just so big and could very easily knock over a small child simply by walking into them. He’s left a bruise on my calf before because he was enjoying belly rubs so much, his wagging tail smacked repeatedly into my leg 😂
If they have more than a couple of guests over or if it’s people who the dog hasn’t met before, he’s kept separated. Not just for the benefit of guests but also because my sister wouldn’t want to put him under any unnecessary stress.
I truly do believe that any dog, regardless of breed has the potential to be aggressive and dangerous in the hands of the wrong owner…..but when you choose to own a very large, physically powerful animal, it’s your extra responsibility to take extra precautions to ensure you are able to manage such an animal. I honestly think dog licensing should make a come back and a condition of that license should be mandatory training classes. You should have to demonstrate your ability to provide a safe environment not only for your animal, but also for other people. I have a friend who has an extremely aggressive chihuahua mix, but because he’s such a tiny dog, it’s almost accepted that he was never trained. He barks at everything and everyone, he bares his teeth and growls at any person who gets close to him. He jumps all over people and furniture….. But can you imagine if my Dsis’s dog behaved like that? His breed would be blamed rather than the blatant irresponsibility of his owners

We do know that WordPress is not a reliable, fact-checked news source, right?

I could start a WordPress evidencing that I have the cure for the common cold and if you all send me £1 you can invest, it doesn't make it true.

Not read all the thread here, so unsure of Kimbo has been mentioned

https://banthebullyxluk.wordpress.com/2023/08/01/finding-kimbo/

(Edit Scrolled up one and it's being discussed, apologies for the requoting)

Yup, its pure fantasy based on two facts - Kimbo existed - some UK people have written him down on pedigree paperwork.

That is it. The sum total of evidence that Kimbos genetics have aaaaaanything to do with it.

Chuck out all that we know about epigenetics, training, handling, housing (its a lot, there are a lot of studies both recent and pretty old now)... and base all thoughts entirely on a fantasy piece written by people with a strong agenda against bullbreeds.

Even within KC registered dogs, there are tons of dogs out there whose pedigrees are not accurate.

Among the made up breed registries, either those set up for a new breed like XL Bullies, Olde Tyme Bulldogges etc or the rip off outfits like the Dog Lovers Registration Club, theres more fiction on those bits of paper than there is reality!

Just writing down a name can add £££ to the price of a puppy. And these people are already criminals.

Why wouldn't they lie? Vs spend actual money on the fairly hefty costs involved in buying frozen semen, shipping it here, getting the dog inseminated... for a *50% chance of puppies when you can write down any old name you like, no ones ever going to check, then mate your bitch to your mates dog with an 80+% success rate and the opportunity to repeat that mating several times across several days?

*that data on success rates is where vets are doing the AI and the collection, and everything is properly stored and shipped. The success rates for the shonky lay-person with his back street dog fertility club (those are BIG business and highly illegal!) are much much lower!

Some of the problem is how these dogs are bred. How many (if any) responsible XL breeders are out there I wonder?. I think the PP comments about her BIL buying one kept in a crate pretty much sums up the breeders of these dogs. (Not a criticism of the PP here, most people would have bought the dog home in that situation)
Bred for money, kept in crates, no socialisation, most likely in bred, and sold to anyone who has the money.
The dogs have a bad start, owned then by a man (usually) who wants to look tough as he swaggers down the road. They don’t train them, they don’t give the animal what he needs to even have a hope of being a good dog. I doubt these people are even surprised if they attacked another dog or person because they know what they had one for, and it wasn’t to be a well bought up, trained, exercised and loved family pet.

And yes there will be people who do get them and train them, give them everything they need and never have an issue, but I don’t believe for one second they are ever fully relaxed when someone visits them. Is that just ‘being aware of the breed’, or not being fully convinced they can trust them.
Dog owners always need to be aware of the breed traits, but a breed trait that is to potentially attack someone isn’t something anyone should own.

I’ve owned various dogs through my life, never once would I have not been able to hold one back if it lunged forward, never once have I worried when people come over.
Why anyone would want to own a breed that is so powerful, sorry but I just don’t get it.
And of course any breed has the potential to be aggressive (a family friend had a Yorkshire terrier that was vicious but I’d taken my chances of meeting him over an XL) but few are the size and muscle strength of an XL, let alone have the mix of fighting breeds in their genetics.

I love dogs they are fabulous, but at the end of the day they are animals. Lovely animals but they do not verbally communicate on a human level we cannot know how their brains work, wholly what things, experiences may affect their moods or behaviour.
What is that smell that overwhelms the behaviour of a small spaniel that makes her behave in a bizarre way and cause her owner on the other end of her lead to be pulled over ??
At the end of the day we love dogs their loyalty, their affection, but despite everything you cannot trust any of them 100 per cent, that's not to say not to keep a dog or a cat but just be respectful and mindful that you will never know what is going on in their heads.

That photo of the little girl with the huge headed creature is chilling.

Why would anyone deliberately put their child in harm’s way like that?

@MrsSkylerWhite - I agree. Looking at that photo, no matter how much you think you love such a dog I can’t believe that you wouldn’t have even a smidgen of concern of the potential danger to your child in which case how could you trust the dog around your child?

People kill their own kids. It's not a stretch to think they want the dog to do it for them, and escape murder charges for themselves.

😮

You cannot argue with stupid.

Not to mention it's probably the only breed who's jaws are comparable to a bear trap. Why anyone would want this in their home,well,it's baffling 🙄🤦

These monster breeds might well be soft and beautifully behaved until....... they're not. And then you simply don't stand a bloody chance.

What part of that don't these idiots understand?

Every part of life has risks, including owning any dog. I nearly broke my arm tripping over a 2-inch-tall chihuahua puppy yesterday. Luckily, I fell against the wall at the top of the stairs and managed to grab the rail, otherwise, I could well have broken my neck instead of just ending up with a smacking huge bruise on my shoulder.

Yes, the risk of injury is bigger, the bigger the dog but with proper ownership the risk can be minimized just like every other risk in life - e.g driving, cattle farming, blowing up a balloon...

I'll continue to believe these dogs are safe with the proper care until there is a publicised attack which is not the direct result of poor ownership and mishandling.

The biggest issue bull breeds have is the kind of people who are attracted to owning them.

ItWillWash
I’ll continue to believe these dogs are safe with the proper care until there is a publicised attack which is not the direct result of poor ownership and mishandling.

You are ill informed. These dogs are genetically predisposed towards aggression, it is nature, not nurture.

What evidence do you have to support this?

NB: WordPress is not evidence it is someone's opinion.

That’s what makes them so dangerous though. The vast majority of the population are not expert dog trainers. They make mistakes. Most dogs don’t have the ideal life all of the time, life gets in the way and most dogs just adapt. Socialisation can be screwed up in a second by something as simple as a bad experience.

Most dogs have enough resilience to cope with living in society alongside humans, despite maybe not having the ‘perfect’ lifestyle.

If a dog breed is so easy for your average Joe to fuck up then should be be legal? Probably not.

There are cases of seemingly responsible owners having their XL Bullies attack.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/nov/05/xl-bully-dog-put-down-after-fatal-attack-on-north-yorkshire-girl-10