Leavitt Bulldog
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| Origin | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Breed status | Not recognized as a standardized breed by any major kennel club. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Traits | |||
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| Weight | Male | 27–35 kg (60–80 lb) | |
| Female | 25–31 kg (50–70 lb) | ||
| Height | Male | 42–51 cm (17–20 in) | |
| Female | 40–48 cm (16–19 in) | ||
| Coat | short | ||
The Leavitt Bulldog is a late 20th-century re-creation of the now extinct Old English Bulldog, the original bulldog breed which existed around the 19th century Regency era, about 1820. In contrast to English bulldogs of modern times, depictions of the breed from nearly two centuries earlier showed healthier, more agile dogs, with working ability. Unlike the 19th century breed however, the Leavitt Bulldog has a placid temperament. It is one of several breeds developed in order to overcome the genetic problems in the English Bulldog breed. The Leavitt Bulldog was developed by breeder David Leavitt which he originally named the Olde English Bulldogge. Leavitt has since disassociated himself with this name for the breed and set up the Leavitt Bulldog as its name due to many later OEB litters losing many of the qualities of his original OEB litter. David Leavitt's "Leavitt Bulldogs" were purebred from the earlier Olde English Bulldogge stock. Regardless of this, the original name has been adopted by the United Kennel Club whose breed standard is adopted as of 1 January 2014. The Leavitt Bulldog was mentioned in the documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed – Three Years On as a suggested healthier alternative to the English Bulldog.
Portions of the Olde English Bulldogge (OEB) breeding circles renamed their dogs in 2005 in order to distance themselves from the OEB name, now commonly being used by some breeders to refer to their unrelated (and non-purebred, a.k.a. "designer dog" crossbreed) dogs using a different standard and .
Breed developer David Leavitt wrote, in a formal statement [unusual capitalization as in the original text]: "A big reason for my wanting to change the Breed name is that there are far more Alternative Bulldog OEB's than true ones, and most of these dogs don’t have the appearance of the old working Bulldog. I admit it's my pride that has driven me to want to make clear these heavy dogs aren't my creation. I couldn't force them to change and the logical answer was to change a name that really wasn't correct for the period we are trying to recreate anyway."
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