heres a bit about a popular cross used in Australia from 'BOARDOGS' HISTORY: The origins of the Bull Greyhound go back 30 years or so and like many of the older type lines, the early days are a bit of a mystery. As far as I know Peter Ayre was the original breeder of the line of dogs I have today. Peter started breeding them in the 70’s with the original dogs being straight English Bull Terrier crossed with a racing Greyhound, they were a tall very fast dog leaning more to the Greyhound. Over the years the line has evolved to be a bigger and heavier type dog and with the addition of Airedale Terrier and Pit Bull Terrier (from two single breedings) more of a nose dog. Although not all of the remaining dogs have the Airedale blood in them.
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE BREED: In the early 80’s I was seventeen and on holidays in Moama NSW. I was walking through a service station when an old ute pulled up, on the back was a large crate with several large white running dogs that looked as hard as hell. Also in the back was a large black boar. I asked all about these terrific looking dogs and what they did and from that day on all I wanted to do was catch pigs. I later found out that the driver of the ute was Peter Ayre.
TYPE OF DOG: The Bull Greyhound is a tall, fast running dog that is built fairly solidly with a good sized head. They have excellent eyesight and a keen nose and are thick skinned. The size of the dogs range from 40kg to 50kg and up to 30 inches at the shoulder, the bitches are from 35kg to 45kg and around the same height. They throw very true to type but as with any cross breed some individuals can fall outside these measurements. They have a life span of around thirteen years and are mostly trouble free having no inherent health problems.
HUNTING STYLE: They excel when hunting on foot, covering a lot of ground using both nose and sight. Once on the trail you could only hope to keep up. They are great in lignum and crops as well as open forest. They love spotlighting, never taking their eyes off the light, and on stubble they run fleeing pigs down fast. They don’t hesitate or bark when grabbing pigs, often hitting them so hard both pig and dog go flying only to come up swinging off an ear. Hunting comes as a natural to them, I have seen on two occasions pups only 12-14 weeks taken out for a run with the older dogs and when encountering pigs splitting off solo and catching their own small pig, standing there proud as punch hanging off an ear.
APPEARANCE: They come in a range of colours, white with red or brindle patches, solid red and brindle, black, tan and pure white. They have a short coat however there is a branch of this line in QLD that has a rough coat.
PRESENT RANGE: The breed was fairly wide spread at one stage, but numbers dwindled with a lot of the old hunters retiring and younger hunters using the newer breeds around. It came down to a very small number of dogs left in the line. I bred a number of litters using the remaining dogs as did a couple of others, the line now seems to be coming back strong with new and old hunters using and liking the breed, the future seems positive. I have sent pups to most states of Australia with NT, QLD and NSW the most popular. One pup also ended up in Hawaii and is doing great things there.
THE FUTURE: As well as my own dogs I have access to a fair few dogs and am keeping two bitch pups from my present litter depending on their abilities will incorporate them into future breeding. We are always planning new tactics in how to bring the right dogs together to keep the line strong. Pups are available at time, please don’t hesitate to ask.
FROSTI (Frosti can be contacted via a post or personal message on the Boardogs forum)