Big Pit Bull-like molossers had been fighting in Persia for a millennia before the first stone was set in the coliseum. Terriers were never part of the mix because they did not exist.
And guess what? Terriers are still not part of the mix.
When 19th Century colonists in Africa wanted a lion-fighting dog, they crossed local Africanus dogs with Fox Hounds and Great Danes. There is no Jack Russell in a Rhodesian Ridgeback!
When Australians and Brazilians sought to produce pig-hunting dogs, they turned to Great Danes, Mastiffs, Fox Hounds, and Greyhounds. No one though a dash of Cairn Terrier might improve things!
The very idea is laughable.
One has to wonder what mythical quality armchair theorists imagine a 15-pound working terrier would add to the mix.
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1 comment:
Here's the theory from my armchair: About the end of the 18th Century, England, especially the West Midlands, was becoming increasingly industrial and urban. There was no longer room for bull-baiting and bears were long extinct. So the form of "entertainment" involving dogs tearing live animals apart switched to dog fighting and ratting, often in indoor "pits". This required a smaller, more agile dog to give a good "showing". So the big "bulldogs" were crossed with various small high-prey-drive dogs kept primarily for rodent control (which were also the precursors of hunt terriers). This produced a new type known as "bull and terrier". When the Kennel Club absorbed the bull and terrier type into one or two breeds (the least distorted is the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, though show ring examples are getting worse..), they dripped the "and" classing the Bull Terriers as terriers (though too big to go to ground). Because the American "Pit Bull" resembles the "Bull Terrier" type some people think it is descended from it, so consider it a "Pit Bull Terrier". In fact it's closer to the "bulldog" precursor of the "bull and terrier". Staffies do tend to think and behave like terriers (think Jack Russell with a serious steroid habit), but there may not be much Staffie in a Pit Bull.
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