John puts the Pete dog to good use as mobile heated boy furniture. Pete loves John and could lay there with John on top of him happily all day long.

John was six here. At this age, any dog we owned that was aggressing on the door, or behaving foolishly John could command into correct behavior. My little boy is a masterful little dog man. In the years to come when I am long gone and John advises you, listen to him, he knows his stuff.

This is my gorgeous wife, Rebecca, who spells better than me, shoots better than me, often tells better stories than me and has a significantly better sense of direction than me. I on the other hand can grill a good steak and taught our children how to burp their ABCs so I'm thinking we're about even. If you're ever asking for directions on how to get here, I'll be giving her the phone. If you're ever wanting to know when our kid's birthdays are, when we'll be paying a bill, whether we remember that dentist's appointment - I'll be giving her the phone. Basically if you have any inquiry whatsoever not dog related, I'll be giving her the phone. I don't deserve her. If she were all I had, I'd be in good shape.

Evaluating a Bulldog Puppy

A very cool little 9-week old puppy named Diesel... Notice how the rear legs face to the front nice and straight with that sharp angulation of the hock; the front legs under the weight of the animal and not off to the side; the tight toes and straight pasterns. These are the marks of a dog that can - or will be able to truly run in long, easy strides. Now notice the beginnings of that little chest, the early muscle development in the shoulders, the beginnings of little jaw muscles. These are the marks of a dog designed to do something once his fast running gets him there. While you are technically viewing a Hybrid American Bulldog, this one shows the Standard or Performance Line American Bulldog blood exclusively - a dog bred specifically for herding, catch and control of other animals.

Dioji at 4-months, from Bella's second litter. He is pure white but for a tiny red spot on his right ear and he has a mottled red nose like Pete. Dioji is a pretty fantastic looking dog even today and he's got a long way to go yet. Can't wait to see him at 14 months old, all buff and tough trying to act cool to impress the humans. We're also really happy to see Dioji with a dog friend here. One quick way to a happy, stress-free dog is to have a friend to play with. There's not that much difference between caring for two dogs and one dog, so should you feel tempted, we say indulge.

Conan: Pictured at 8 weeks meeting his new mom, Angela. Conan is from Bella's second litter. We have lost track of Conan; he was rehomed and we were not extended the courtesy of informing as promised. We make no legal claim on puppies after leaving our care so his new owner owns him free and clear, but if you see Conan, please tell us where and give his people our contact information. We only wish to know that he is happy and well cared for and maybe get a few new pictures. This male American Bulldog is all white but for the patch over his right eye and a small spot on the outside of his left eye. His nose will be slightly less mottled than shown here, but still mottled. If he has been well cared for, he will resemble our own Doc Holliday. If not, a skinnier version of Doc.

9-week old American Bulldog puppies practice their thousand yard stare...

To the left is Titus at 4-months from Bella and Judah, owned by Jeremy and Teresa K.

Titus is a beautiful red and white male, already significantly larger than his father Judah and built to run. Titus is more like the Judah dog, and that is not a bad thing at all. Titus is a perfect example of the dogs used as full time farm and hog-dogs throughout the rural south to this day.He is powerful, intelligent, and he moves fast and smooth. Titus' picture also comes with a puppy "protection" story from when he was only 4 months old.

Our kids know things about dogs - a lot of things. Since before they could walk, they were surrounded by guard dogs. All of their lives they have watched, listened and taken part in the care of dogs, both ours and many others as well. When John, Kat, and Abil tell folks, "I've been raising dogs my whole life," it'll be true and here's the proof. That's my smart and beautiful son, John, feeding a puppy only hours old. We don't even watch our kids with puppies. Dogs are second nature to them.

At this age, most of the big dogs won't obey the kids, except John. John comes across no more forceful or assertive than his sisters do. With John though, the dogs just respond differently. Mambo obeys Abi. Lilly obeys Kat. John has Bella, but with John, all the dogs obey him, at least in a limited fashion. When he says, "no," they put their heads down and comply. When he calls, they come. When he tells them to move... well, they're usually sitting purposefully in front of the television just to mess with him, so they don't do squat on that one but sort of laugh at him, but you get the idea.

Kat is also a major little puppy expert. Please note that we're bottle feeding these dogs with their mother present. We've heard a lot of breeders complain about their nursing females being really difficult and aggressive towards kids around their puppies. We don't have issues like that. Kat could as easily walk out of the room with this pup as sit there and feed it and Bella would be fine with that. I attribute this to a strongly bonded, canine integrated household where the dogs are all truly stress free and feel continually safe. We do not have a human family that possesses dogs. We have a family which is inclusive of both humans and dogs. It sounds like some whacky statement from PETA, but it's a subtle and legitimate difference I've learned over the years.

Abi feeds puppies too, no help required. I think there are very few things this child loves more than puppies, besides perhaps yellow butterflies, lady bugs and cheese tortias. Abi also has a special touch with all animals, the puppies not an exception. Hard to feed puppies that don't like the latex nipple and struggle - Abi invariably ends up feeding them.

Mentionable here is that you see these puppies being fed on their backs. We do this in the first 24 hours, but after that, we turn them over and feed them on their bellies.

And that is what a 5-week old litter of puppies looks like as they begin eating solid food. Consider this the, "before," picture and I'll spare you the, "after," picture. Oh my gosh can they make a mess of a kitchen floor!

What are they eating? Dan's Puppy Mix.

This is Trinity - Doc, Mambo, Lilly and Pete's belly-sister. We had her for 11-months and loved her dearly. We rehomed her in the country with a very nice horse woman who had recently lost her dogs to an ex-husband and had an ad looking for a dog on Craigslist. We rehomed her for free, just looking to help someone.

Some time later, the woman wanted to breed Trinity, she called and wanted us to find a suitable stud dog. We found a Dogue de Bordeaux, and Trinity had a litter of puppies. We had opportunity to get one, but chose not to.

No longer choosing contact with this woman, we heard Trinity was bred again, but was in a fatal farm accident of some sort while pregnant. We don't wish to know the details. We mourn her. No doubt her second owners also mourn her - and we wish them the very best. These things do sadly happen, so now we remember and document Trinity here.

Bye Trinity. Mambo, Lilly and Doc still lift their heads when they hear your name.