But.. What KIND of dog do we get?

This question is one that my husband, Bob and I tried to answer for YEARS before we made a final decision.  Oh hey! I should introduce myself before I tell you why we decided on a Leavitt Bulldog.

Hi! I’m Kerry Pottle! I live with my husband, our adult nephew and our two Leavitt Bulldog boys in Massachusetts in the Eastern part of the United States.  You’ll get to meet the pups later.

When I met my husband, neither of us had dogs.  In fact, he got me and two giant cats.  I got him and his 5 year old nephew.  Seemed like a logical blending! We both worked in Human Services at the time and, in fact, I still do.  He moved on to a more lucrative field where he didn’t also have to clean up human feces.  All this to say, we didn’t own dogs and we didn’t work with them.

My husband grew up with German Shepherds, Doberman’s and Rottweilers.  His dad worked as a Security Guard in Boston and always had a working dog on the job.  Bob said they were the best family dogs and he had a great fondness for them.

I did not have active working dogs.  Our first dog was a Collie, then we had a Shetland Sheepdog and finally an Australian Shepherd. They were all Blue Merle and my mom took them all to training and worked with them.  I had a little involvement, but nothing I ever took responsibility for.  My husband and I had the Aussie overnight once while my parents were away and swiftly decided that they weren’t the breed for us.

We did dog breed research for literally two years. We wanted a stable dog that could tolerate chaos within the family (Our nephew was now 15. Enough said).  A family dog but also a dog that could maybe do a job too, and one that we could travel with.  Bob wanted a big dog.  Big.  Like a Mastiff.  A Dogue de Bordeaux was on the top of the list for quite some time.  We finally decided on a Mastiff and researched several breeders (went through a couple also) until we found one that answered all our questions.  We were promised a pup and when they were born, there only 3.  The breeder didn’t breed often and thought the other two were great show prospects.  We’d never shown dogs (but I told her I wanted to learn and would be willing to do it or allow her to show the dog) and she decided she wanted to sell to an experienced show family.  I believe everything happens for a reason.  The week after this news, one of Bob’s co-worker’s brought an English Bulldog puppy into the office, so Bob started researching to see if there was a healthy bulldog out there.  He stumbled across the Leavitt and the more we read and talked to breeders, the more we knew this was the breed we wanted (and the size made me happy too!).

As it turned out, an approved Leavitt breeder had a planned breeding and she was only 45 minutes away.  We had no idea how much more enriched our lives would be from that point.

If you are still reading, it’s important for you to know that I really knew nothing about training a dog, how to train a dog to pee outside or much of anything really.  I read a lot and I sought out trainers before we ever picked up the puppy.  We found a vet and called them in advance with questions too.  I wanted to learn.  I like to learn, and going to dog training seemed like a great way to learn.  I didn’t realize that it was also a great way to connect with my dog… and that I may become mildly addicted to finding out what else he could do! The possibilities seemed endless (and still do!).

My goal with this blog is to share all the things I’ve learned Leavitt Bulldogs can do.  We have tried and competed in multiple dog sports and shows.  I NEVER anticipated trialing with my dogs but spending all of this time getting to know them has really enriched all of our lives. I want to share that with you.  I very much want to share what OTHERS are doing with this breed and I hope you will see why we are so passionately trying to preserve David Leavitt’s vision.  If you found this blog because you are a new or prospective Leavitt owner, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment or send me an email.  I may not know the answers to your questions, but I can likely direct you to the right people!

Thanks for visiting!