My husband and I started out with a common love for the American Pit Bull Terrier.  In late 2002, we acquired our first together - Ziggy, a young tan male Pit bull.  He was beautiful, and enormous for his breed - about 98 lbs when he was fully grown.  He developed into a great overall family dog - very loving, ambitoius, an absolute teddy bear with our then- infant son.  He was a great protector, and had free run of over 20 acres of land, and he patrolled it constantly.   We had so many people, friends and family alike, who would comment on what a great dog he was, and how we were lucky to have him.  Eventually, we got to thinking about his own mortality, and we felt the need to keep his line alive, so in early February of 2005, we  started looking for a female that had some of the same great qualities and traits that we wanted to breed back in.   In mid August of that same year, we happened across Kandy, a 4 month old brindle and white Staffy.  She came with smaller size, more bully built, and the shorter muzzle that accented the blocky heads.   Through their breeding, we developed Zag, the perfect offset of the breeding - a beautifully conformed APBT.  As we were developing a set standard for what we wanted to achieve, our world was shattered one morning when a neighboring farmer mistook Ziggy and Kandy's playful pre-mating romping in a nearby field as aggression towards a herd of their cattle in the distance, our foundation male, and therefore the base of our breeding foundation, was gone.  Kandy was shot in the face, and survived ( that's that pit bull determination) but we were no longer going to breed her after that.  We did acquire another female APBT shortly before the accident that we were going to work into our breeding program - she was a tan reverse-brindle rednose ( Diamond) and ended up breeding her with Zag once, but the results just weren't what we were trying to accomplish with the breeding.  We ended up putting to rest what we thought would be a personally gratifying breeding career with that specific breed.

        To fill the gaps in our lives left by our departed ones, we began to take in a few pit bulls that we came across here and there - some lived out their days with us, others we found good, loving homes for.  We tried breeding Diamond with another male we came across - Kain - but again, not the results we were looking for.

        In early July of 2007, a friend came to us and said he knew of someone who had to move suddenly, far away, and was selling his litter of American Bulldog puppies at a low price to make sure he could sell them all before he moved.  The friend thought we would be interested, since we have a breeding history.  We figured it wouldn't hurt just to look - we are definitely dog lovers, and I'm always interested in breeds that I'm not as familiar with.  One of my sisters lives in Des Moines and had been raising and breeding American Bulldogs for 2 years prior to this, so all that I knew about the breed I learned  from her.  I decided to do some research before we met up with the guy, and spent about 9 hours on the computer, pouring over tons of information from just about everywhere!  I learned very quickly that I was interested in investing my time in the American bulldog, but that my sister's dogs weren't exactly what I was looking for - I was impressed with their size, but wanted to eliminate the underbite, and have a short, boxy muzzle instead of the English bulldog look.  The ones I kept seeing over and over again in the Johnson lines were exactly what I wanted.  They looked almost like pit bulls on steroids, but with a definitive difference, and with better temperament.  After my research, we decided it may be exactly what we were looking for to bring back into our line of APBTs, and it would form a hybrid - the Bullypit - to boot.  We ended up buying 2 females - Pearl and China.  They were mostly white - another thing we could never seem to find consistently with the APBT, but that had been in the back of our minds as a goal to strive for.  Just a few months after we acquired our first American Bulldogs, we were yet again surprised with another dog - Sunny Boy, Pearl and China's sire.  He was in desperate need of a good home, and we just couldn't say no.  His pedigree sold itself, and with such a strong background of Johnson blood, we knew that we had stumbled upon something great.  The only downfall to our aquiring Sunny Boy was that he had a hard time adjusting to other males in the house, and we ended up having to choose between our love of the American Pit Bull Terrier and our new found love for the American Bulldog - lucky for us, we had family that was willing to provide Zag with a good home, and in that we made our full transition into the American Bulldog world.   We have since bred Sunny Boy not only to our females Pearl and China to get some awesome little bulldogs ( this is where Kreeper came from - he is out of Sunny Boy and Pearl ), but we have also bred him to other Americans (through stud service) and to our APBT Diamond, and set a beautiful standard for the hybrid Bullypit.

We have had 2 more children since, a daughter and a second son.  When our youngest son was diagnosed with Autism in August of 2009, it reestablished our confidence in the breed, knowing that our dogs went out of their way to keep careful watch over him, in our home and through our yard and property, and were and still are very understanding of his mood swings and sensory issues.  Kreeper has proved to be his best friend, the first dog that our son ever petted, played with, or let lick him.  Our son still tends to avoid the other dogs, but Kreeper has a special place in our son's very different world, serving as his protector and trusted companion.  ( We even have to resort to kenneling Kreeper when we want to roughhouse with the children, other wise he takes it as a threat to them when we start grabbing them and they are screaming - he will jump at us and try to get between us and the children - not trying to hurt us as the parents, but to keep us from harming the little ones).

We have acquired 2 additional female American bulldogs that we hope to pair with Kreeper and Chance ( Chance is a litter mate of Pearl and China's and lives with a friend, but is posted on our site), and will be keeping a pick of the litter out of one of these to breed back into our line, to keep as much of it alive as possible.   I have done hours upon hours researching the breed since we acquired an interest, past and present, as well as visiting numerous American Bulldog breeder sites to get a feel for what others might find to be the "perfect American bulldog".    I have learned many things from this, one very important thing is that every breeder you will come across claims in one way or another that they have "the perfect dog", and that may very well be, in their opinion.  Every person will have  a different idea of what they think is "the perfect American bulldog".  The trick for you, the buyer, is figuring out what qualities and traits you want in your puppy.  Remember that the American Bulldog is a versatile breed - some resemble more the Scott type and are more like overgrown pitbulls, and others can resemble the Johnson types, which can look like giant English Bulldogs.  Different breedings will produce different physical characteristics - it is the breeders' responsibility to make good matches depending on their projected end result.   I encourage you to shop around, in depth, and make sure you know exactly what you want before you make a commitment.  Feel free to contact breeders prior to making your decision - ask questions, like what kind of health problems may your puppy be prone to?  Is there anything that runs in their family ( i.e. cherry eye, hip displaysia, dermatitis, allergies, etc.)  It is helpful if you can see what other puppies look like that have been produced out of the same breeding to get the look you want.  If it is important to you, find out what their pedigree looks like before you buy.  You can tell a lot about a dog  by their pedigree - which ancestors it has can mean the difference between a dog that would be better for show or bite/pull competitions,  catching, family pet, or all of the above.  You can also tell how "pure" your new puppies line is by the names in their pedigree.  Research the different lines and trace their origin ( JDJ, Boyd, Hines, Scott, etc.).  This will give you a better feel of what kind of puppy you are getting.  A great place to trace your dog's lineage is http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dogs/american_bulldog/search.html

It is best when you go to this site to enter one of the furthest names down the line on your pedigree, and it will link it to any known ancestry of that dog.  A lot of them include photos, show titles, PennHip test results, and more.  It is definitely worth looking into.