Hounds of war: Let`s see `em!

[barnetmill]

Do the white English suffer from allergies? I'm guessing they are not food-sensitive, but GSDs are often allergic to foods, mites, pine needles and who knows what.

It us what we call a type rather than a pure breed. For the Carr White English strain they are not supposed to since they were originally farm dogs that were fed everything from ground corn to chicken and fish guts plus what ever they could scrounge. They eat muscadine grapes when they find them and mine love chicken poop. They seem not to have allergies. But you know many people with allergies are thought to have them these days from living an urbanized life that is too clean when you grow up. I wonder if dogs are not so different.
I might add that GSD that my family had did not have allergies either.
Simple answer is that white english generally do not. If they get too inbred on all white dogs they will throw blue eyes that often is linked to deafness. Some can have poor coats, but a diet with fats takes care of that, especially fish or fish oil.

[barnetmill]

Persimmon Posse. Their job is to protect the persimmons and they also eat some as payment for services rendered.

[barnetmill]

A new big headed white english puppy.

[barnetmill]

Litter mate to the above pup

[Chaos]

That's some nice looking pups! I'm sure they won't be spoiled much...

[barnetmill]

That's some nice looking pups! I'm sure they won't be spoiled much...

Spoiled, likely that will happen. But these are working dogs not that far removed from their ancestors that worked on southern farms. A primary duty was driving or killing feral or marauding dogs away. Before that it would have been the extinct red wolf. They basically guard and so are quite adaptable to a suburban environment. They are laid back and once assured a guest is ok stand down. They were intended to guard livestock. The leader of our white english group religiously believes that they should not be raised in the house, but she is in the minority. She is afraid they will get ruined once they are removed from the farm. They do very well in a domestic setting.
I put mine out at night on my 8 acres to guard. The only downside is that while they get along well with farm animals, especially the females may have problems with other white english dogs. but not with smaller dogs of the household. I finally have gotten my two females to work it out with one being dominant. I give them split territories in the house.
They are the foundation breed for various modern bulldogs including for the two major breeds of American Bulldogs of A. Scott and JD Johnson. Each put different crossbreeding into the white english. They did not really improve the breed, often got bigger dogs. But it is not the size of the dog, but the size of the fight in the dog that counts.

[barnetmill]

Another litter sibling of the dogs pictured above.

Premium kibble mackerel and an egg. How does that sound?

[Bob F.]

WOW! Great companions for the kids, important in today's world.

[barnetmill]

My larger 90 lb white female is closer than a half sister to the one below and the vet people never have a problem with her and can not believe she would bark at much less bite someone, and yes she will. I spent some time seeing she was socialized to people.

Lilly at the vet for her rabies vaccination...back up to 75 lbs. Still several pounds shy of her pre-pregnancy weight. The muzzle, supplied by the vet, is an x-large and is still slightly small

[barnetmill]