By Steve Carney

Three-year-old Brick is the quintessential American Bulldog, and not just because the United Kennel Club has said so two years in a row.

Although loyal, protective, and hardworking, he knows how and when to relax and have a good time - like the best of his breed. When he won Best of the Guardian Dogs Group at the UKC's Premier competition in June, he basked in adulation backstage.

"Ladies had lipstick all over him - he lives for that. Guys would be coming up and going, 'Hey, Brick,' but he'd just look back toward the ladies," says his owner, Robert Latsha of Grants-ville, Pa. "He surely likes the ladies. And he likes children."

Originally, Southerners bred these muscular, athletic, confident dogs to protect farms and to catch loose livestock. This made them devoted to their families and eager for a task. Although wary of strangers and other dogs, the breed is described by fans as affectionate, gentle, and patient with children - like the one that endured a toddler's emptying a pincushion into his snout. (An adult removed the pins after discovering the dog stoically waiting for someone to come along and intervene.)

"They're a lot more durable with kids [than many breeds]," Latsha says. "They're bigger and stronger than your Cocker Spaniel."

Latsha also likes the breed's versatility. "They can be your house dog and lie on the couch, and at the same time I can take one and go hunting, and after that I can take one and go to the show ring," he says. "They do a little bit of everything."

One weekend Brick - short for King Haven's Brickhouse - will drag 2,800 pounds in a weight-pulling contest, and the next he will chase hogs in another competition. Other American Bulldogs excel in obedience and agility trials, or happily hit the jogging trails with their owners.

"You can take that energy and place it into whatever you want to do," Latsha says - just as long as you do find some outlet.

Samantha Jones learned early what happens when you don't.

The Martinsburg, W. Va., resident left her first American Bulldog, Mena, then 1 year old, home alone and uncrated one day soon after getting her. She returned to find a torn-up living room and an anxious dog that had dissipated her nervous energy.

"She's definitely a working dog," says Jones, the East Coast coordinator for the National American Bulldog Rescue Alliance. "She needs something to do all the time." Otherwise she'll chew up the carpet and tear down the blinds.

"They're too much dog for a lot of people. They need a lot of obedience training," Jones says. She adds that the number of American Bulldogs going into rescue has doubled in the past year, "I think because a lot of people are breeding them trying to make money."

She says part of the problem stems from their classification as a rare breed; plus, exposure in movies and on TV has caused an increased demand. "They [buyers] want Chance from Homeward Bound," Jones says, referring to the Disney movies that feature Michael J. Fox as the voice of an American Bulldog, one of a trio of pets searching for its family. Members of the breed also starred in The Little Rascals series of TV programs and films and Return to Me (2000) with Minnie Driver and David Duchovny.

Jones describes the best owner for an American Bulldog as "someone used to large dogs, someone not afraid to be firm. You definitely have to be the boss. They're stubborn. You need a lot of consistency."

American Bulldogs must have obedience training, as well as early and consistent socialization. One trainer recommends that you introduce your American Bulldog to 100 new people in the first 100 days after you've brought it home from the breeder's.

"If you don't put this dog through obedience training, within a year you're going to be putting it in the pound or giving it back to the breeder," says Tonia Lorensen, president of the United States Traditional American Bulldog Club, the UKC-sanctioned breed club. "It's going to be your alpha."

Once your American Bulldog learns its place in your pack, you'll have an affectionate, playful, and protective family dog.

A neighbor once sneaked into Lorensen's house to play a joke on her husband, Jon, who didn't hear the neighbor come in. He went to investigate when he noticed all the family's dogs had disappeared. Jon Lorensen found their neighbor on the kitchen floor. The other dogs, who knew him, licked his face while 6-month-old Pagan - the family's first Bulldog - pinned the intruder to the ground.

"Pagan jumped across the floor and had him in a shoulder bite," Tonia Lorensen says. He didn't break the skin, but he wasn't letting the man up, either, until Jon Lorensen said, "OK."

That tenacity, confidence, and sheer strength make the American Bulldog attractive for home protection to many people. Those natural tendencies come from generations of catching and taking down livestock.

The breed originated in the 18th century. Immigrants to the American South used the American Bulldog - a descendant of the powerful bull-baiting dogs of England - to work and guard their small farms.

According to the American Bulldog Association, American ranchers in the South wanted dogs strong enough to put unruly bulls on the ground and athletic enough to catch hogs that ran wild. Not much later, they diverged from the shorter, rounder, and less athletic English Bulldog.

But the American Bulldog nearly died out by the end of World War II, until returning veteran John D. Johnson and fellow breeder Alan Scott sought to revive it. Now the two main subgroups of the breed bear their names.

The "Scott" or "Standard" type tends to be smaller, more rounded, and more athletic, while the "Johnson" or "Classic" type is larger, heavier, doesn't breathe as well as the Scott, and tends toward the turned-up nose and underbite of the English Bulldog, Latsha says. In recent years the two types

merged somewhat into a hybrid, but still without the abundant wrinkles, jowls, or corkscrew tail of the English Bulldog. The UKC recognized the breed in January 1999.

American Bulldogs can act aggressively toward other dogs, but if thoroughly socialized, they will get along with other animals, even cats. "It's just a matter of training. It just takes time and patience," Lorensen says.

For example, a 15-year-old Chihuahua, Reeney - not the American Bulldogs - plays top dog at the Lorensens' house. And Latsha says the two female Bulldogs in his house get along fine with Buddy, his daughter's Fox Terrier. "He's 6 pounds; they're 60 pounds. But he is the boss," he says, adding that he still practices caution. "You're not going to want to get into a certain situation. I'm not telling you to go to the dog park with your male American Bulldog and let him run."

Jones says prospective owners should think twice before adding an American Bulldog to a home that already has more than one dog; for safety's sake, adopt a Bulldog of the opposite sex from what you already own.

"Some dogs are just not meant for some people," she says. "People who don't like a mess, people who don't like to be jumped on or sat on" should steer clear. "They think they're lap dogs.

"They are beautiful dogs," Jones continues. "When people meet a nice American Bulldog, people are drawn to them. It's their presence. They have a lot of character and personality."

Steve Carney is a regular DOG FANCY contributor and lives in Falls Church, Va.