Catahoula Bulldog Dog Breed

Below are details and specs for the Catahoula Bulldog breed.

Mature Catahoula Bulldogs are medium-sized dogs that stand 24 to 26 inches and will easily tip the scales between 75 and 100 pounds.

Catahoula Bulldogs are great family pets with a superb intelligence, an easy trainability, and a very friendly demeanor, but they are also a bit headstrong as well as need a lot of attention and a job to keep them occupied.

For the most part, Catahoula Bulldogs are low- to medium-maintenance dogs. They don't need much grooming, will exercise a bit if they have the room (but should have short walks if not, and long walks and other exercise if indoor dogs) and above all need a fair amount of attention.

The Catahoula Bulldog is a hybrid that is more than 100 years old and comes from cross-breeding the Catahoula Leopard Dog and the American Bulldog. It is not a designer dog but a cross-breed produced for the sake of a ranch-bound working dog that could also provide protection and companionship. Ranchers desired a dog like the Catahoula Leopard Dog (that was a good hog hunter and could be trained to get the hogs into pens) but that had more power and size — which is where the American Bulldog came into the picture.

Although the Catahoula Bulldog was first bred in the southern United States over a century ago, however, it was not until the very early 1950s that breeders mounted a campaign toward formal recognition. Tom D. Stodghill (of Quinlan, Texas), founder of the Animal Research Foundation (ARF), is said to be chiefly responsible for launching the effort, and he coined the hybrid dog's name as well. While the Catahoula Bulldog has a short albeit rich history, the two dogs from which this remarkable dog comes have both rich and longer histories.

The Catahoula Bulldog is a muscular dog that tends to take more of its physique from the American Bulldog than its somewhat tall, slender and long-eared Catahoula Leopard Dog parent, but he will probably have short, tight skin like the latter. In cold climates, he may develop an undercoat. As both parents have long, square snouts, so too will your Catahoula Bulldog, but the ears will most likely be small. His eyes will almost certainly have an inquisitive look — perhaps as if awaiting the next adventure!

The Catahoula Bulldog is a hybrid produced to integrate the best qualities of two great dogs, and the result has been successful: amazing loyalty, remarkable calm (unless outright provoked), highly attentive, seemingly perpetual stamina, astounding herding ability and top-notch intelligence. Along with all these qualities, they make great family pets as well, and they work very well in packs due to Catahoula Leopard Dogs having been trained for centuries to work in packs (usually of three) when they were used to hunt wild hogs.

The only drawback to all this is that they do require patient training from an alpha. While they do love to spend time with their families and are very protective of them, they do have a mind of their own and can be a bit belligerent. Moreover, females tend to be more dominant than males. In either case, Catahoula Bulldogs must be socialized and trained early.

Catahoula Bulldogs are prone to joint problems and a number of genetic defects as well as blindness and deafness that may occur in one or both eyes or ears. Their life expectancy is around 10-14 years.