i will add some info now, including a collection of posts & quotes:
Temperament and phenotype
The “Beast from the East”, a title given to the Bully Kutta because of its aggressive nature in dog fights, or let´s say to its pretty good will to continue fighting, especially if you consider that it is a large dog and most large dog breeds are not that much focused on fighting for no reason, or are simply not bred as match-dogs. However the breed is bred for fighting and shaped by this purpose. With proper socialization and appropriate training, the Bully Kutta can make an amenable companion for dog owners. They can be protective, but when it comes to guarding don´t expect too much of them. Many people living in Pakistan say almost anyone can walk up to them, unhook the chain and walk away with them.
Judging by their build, being long legged and not too massive I expect them to be good large game hunters. The Pakistani Bully Kutta is a powerful mastiff-type dog. Long-legged and with a medium wide chest, this breed is agile and quick, capable of great speed and known for its impressive stamina. The head is medium broad with a long muzzle and not typical “mastiff-like”.
To answer a few questions from my point of view, that have been asked here on another board: (It is a bit like frequently asked questions.)
populator135 said:
Do any of you dog "experts" out there believe that this breed is the most formidable domestic canine of them all ?
No, I don´t think it is the most fomidable animal. However we first would have to define the word "most fomidable". There is no "most formidable" breed for me anyway, it often is more the individual and the breeding as well as the line.
For me a dog breed or a type had to to be way more versatile than a Bully Kutta to deserve a title like "most formidable".
A Bully Gull Terr for example, also known as Gull Dong, is a much better guard dog and serves more purposes unlike the majority of the Bully Kuttas. As mentioned before when it comes to guarding don´t expect them to be dismissive towards people and make good guard dogs. The breeding goal has never been a versatile one. Bully Gull Terrs can match Bully Kuttas and have defeated them in the past, so they can match them in their own game, while being pretty good guard dogs too, so all in all it makes them more versatile dogs.
I personally don´t think Bully Kuttas can be seen as a “pure, unchanged eastern breed” as when it comes to dog fighting, people in general use what works.
You also see a difference between fighting Bully Kuttas of the past and the present, while many describe the older fighting dogs as being boring in their style and looking more like dogs in a contest of stamina and wrestling, new Bully Kuttas have popped up with more bull & terr influence and a modified fighting style.
Mosquiller said:
BKs are overrated.
tall, narrow, hound-shaped head and body. can't be the best fighter.
(I'm against dog fighting btw).
You have made a good point mate. It obviously is a difference if you evenly match dogs or have a dog that has to inflict big damage against a wild predator even in the first minutes. One dog might be good for dog vs dog combat again talking about evenly matched dogs and the other dog for fighting wild predators and there are breeds, crosses and types that could shine in both combat and a not “staged” scenario. By the way, in the latter (fighting wild predators and being able to make very good match dogs) often crosses excel. Bully Kuttas are good on the long run, due to their stretched build and not having too much mass, on the other side they are not the dogs that dog much damage on average and their heads are not built for such a high bite force as many western mastiff-type dogs or some LGDs. The contests are more based on which dog lasts longer in terms of stamina and will to keep on fighting.
The Bully Kuttas on Kashmir side are bigger, due to having more Gaddi Kutta influence, the latter is another local LGD type. This results in thicker skin and thicker coats (a bit more fur). Due to the LGD influence these dogs have bigger heads and sometimes larger teeth and are able to make more damage than "normal" Bully Kuttas. The usual Bully Kutta has indeed a "houndish" head shape and has more the phenotype like Mosquiller decribes it and without any doubt they have sighthound influence.
One more thing to all readers, don´t confuse Gull Terrs with Bully Gull Terrs aka Gull Dongs, as Bully Gull Terrs are a mix of Gull Terrs with Bully Kuttas, with more Gull Terr blood in most cases. Gull Terrs are based on the EBTs (English Bullterriers) that have been brought to the Indian sub-continent.
Bully Kuttas are more often than not, able to defeat Afghani Sage Koochee, the LGD from Afghanistan, due to Bully Kuttas having the advantage of longer hind legs with better/more angulation and also due to being more willed. (Their mindset is better for combat.) Sage Koochees are often open-hocked and lack angulation, so the Sage Koochee cannot be seen as a proper representative of all types of LGDs and for sure also not of all types of mastiff-type dogs, no matter if western-mastiff type dog, or eastern mastiff-type dog. (A proper German Mastiff for example has pretty good hind legs for wrestling.)
Here a picture to show some differences:
http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy282/sunnyAK1/hindlegsangulation.png
Accidentally I have seen some Sage Koochees in mixed tournaments with Bully Kuttas, as the internet is sadly full of such stuff and the Sage Koochees were more like the dog in the middle, which is not good for having a solid grip to the ground, while standing on the hind legs. Standing on their hind legs they had problems against the BKs and fell to the ground much to easily. Just like you see it in the graphic above, looking at the dog in the middle. The distance between the feet is too close, combined with a lack of angulation.
Some more history and controversy:
This legendary Pakistani/Indian fighting dog (although we have to say that the Pakistani dogs are the better bred fighters) is thought by some of its fanciers to have remained pure and unchanged since ancient times, while others question its true origin and background. Although there is some evidence that the Pakistani Bully Kutta was developed from the Sage Koochee and there are lines with Gaddi influence another native LGD type, old Persian Alaunts, Afghani Gawi Bulldogs, Indian Mastiffs, Assyrian Mastiffs and dogs introduced by Alexander the Great, who in opposite to many peoples knowledge also brought dogs to the Indian sub-continent (although most people only know the story that he brought TM-like dogs back to his country, but he died on his way back) and many other types that people bring into play, quite a few authorities believe it is a result of crossing local hunting dogs, especially sighthounds with German Mastiffs, German Pointers, English Mastiffs and Bulldog types, as well as other western breeds brought to the region by the British soldiers in the 1700's.
It is a know fact, that the same type of English Bull Terriers that have been brought to Argentina, have been brought to India too and Pakistan used to be an Indian province.
I personally don´t believe the “ancient pure Pakistani breed story”, but I also don´t think they are just German Mastiff crosses. However if you cross certain sighthound types to Mastiffs, no matter where they are from, you will get similar dogs in phenotype as German Mastiffs.
Interbreeding between both of these types mentioned a few lines before, was common and while a small number of “true Bully Kutta bloodlines” howsoever you define “true” have supposedly been preserved, much of the breed's gene pool has been corrupted.
But let´s face the facts that I have mentioned earlier. Fighting dogs that are still fought nowadays have been improved by crossing any dog into the breed that worked and helped to get the desired result, a good match-dog, so this is how I see the Bully Kutta. I neither see it as a British result or some German Mastiff crosses, but for sure also not as ancient and unchanged Pakistani breed. Some say even the name of the breed was indicative of the influence foreigners had on the region, translating simply to "Bully Dog", but here I have to disagree, as Bully Kutta does not mean „Bully type dog“, like it can be read on MolosserDogs, but wrinkled dog! “The word Bully actually derives from the languages of Sindhi and Hindi-Urdu as bohli — meaning heavily wrinkled. “
The explanations offered by the breed fanciers for the apparent non-existence of the pre-colonial name for the controversial Pakistani Mastiff range from suggesting that the Bully Kutta is the continuation of the original Persian Alaunt to it actually being the same thing as the thought to be the extinct Gawii, but further research is required to establish whether these claims are valid or simple wishful thinking.
Regardless of the true ancestry of the breed, the Bully Kutta's popularity in its homeland remains reasonably strong, mostly due to much of the country's acceptance of dog-fighting tournaments as a way of life, although it should be noted that the practice of outcrossing hadn't been fully abandoned in some parts of Pakistan even after the British left the region, with many other breeds having been created using both the original Bully Kutta and its descendants over the years. Some of these newer Mastiff types are the Kohati Bulldogge, Nagi Bulldogge, Sargodha Bulldogge, Kanda Bulldogge and the Pakistani Boarhound. Nowadays, all of these breeds are being incorrectly classified as one and the same, especially in the West, where the Bully Kutta is slowly becoming popular. In recent years, these dogs have been assigned the misleading "Central-Asian Mastiff" name, which conveniently does away with individual categorization of actual breeds and varieties found in the region, allowing the breeders of such animals to promote their stock in the West under a new exotic label, without having to worry about the actual ancestry of the dogs they import, breed and sell.
One more thought of mine, beside that we have to say that no dog like the Bully Kutta can be found in the surrounding countries of India and Pakistan, including countries that belonged to former Assyria and this is definitely a valid doubt that the dogs are the dogs that used to be know as Assyrian Mastiffs or the dogs know as “Babylonian dogs”. Beside that some of the mural reliefs in Ninive even resemble way more a St. Bernard than a Bully Kutta in my opinion.
Some fanciers in its home country claim that the best examples of “pure” Bully Kuttas were never sold to foreigners or even expatriates visiting Pakistan, inferior dogs were readily available for export, with some authorities pointing out that the majority of Western-bred bloodlines aren't pure, having been crossed with various European dogs to soften the temperament and increase population. I agree to the latter, but I guess to countries like South Korea, where different fighting dogs are tested, they won´t sell inferior dogs. Fortunately, the true pure Bully Kutta, whatever that is, as I don´t regard “true pure” as a dog of pre British colonial times, can still be found in some areas of Pakistan, where it is regarded by many as a national treasure. Sad but true this breed is still used today for what it was created centuries ago, which is the ever popular "sport" of dog-fighting and bear-baiting, especially the latter is the biggest crime, as the bears are chained, have no claws and no teeth. For the terrible "event" of bear biting, Gull Terrs and Bully Gull Terrs are usually preferred.
I think a meaningful and useful alternative to dog on dog combat would be large game hunting for the breed, maybe even in a combination between a male and female dog.
The average size is 32cm while a few very tall dogs exist, with almost the size of German Mastiffs or Irish Wolfhounds.
sunnyAK
http://sunnyak.forenworld.at/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=111
