History of the Bandogge

The Swinford Bandogge Suley, owned by Murray Pierce, USA.

The Bandogge, or Bandog if you prefer, is not a purebred dog in the way we know the word purebred.
The words Bandogge and Bandog is being used on dogs of mixed Molosser ancestry, most often with Pit Bull as one of parent components.
The name Bandog, or Bandogge, comes from the old Saxon word "banda"; the Saxon word for chain. It was used on watchdogs chained at day and released at night, to carry out its watching and guarding duties. It is quite obvious that the name was used on any chained watchdog, Mastiffs, Bulldogs and dogs of mixed ancestry, but it is also certain that these chained dogs must have been of a recognisable watchdog type, which eliminates all dogs which was not of more or less Molosser blood.
This means that any Molosser cross of today could rightfully be called a Bandog, even if the most common crosses today which is called Bandog is the Mastino Napoletano/Pit Bull and the Bullmastiff/Pit Bull.

Lucy, a Pit Bull/Bullmastiff Bandog, or Pitbullmastiff if you prefer.
This picture was taken from t

he book The World of Fighting Dogs,
with permission from the author, Dr. Carl Semencic.

One of the fairly common methods

of producing Bandogs is by crossing Pit Bull males with Bullmastiff bitches. This cross was earlier much more used in Europe than the Neo/Pit cross. Some refers to this cross as Bandogs, while others, especially in USA, call them Pitbullmastiffs. Considering that the Bullmastiff is a British breed, and that the Pit Bull is derivatived from the British "Bull and Terriers", this cross should be more like the original Bandogge of Britain than the Neo/Pit cross.
Another method to bred Bandogs is to cross the Pit Bull with English Mastiffs, but many breeders is of the opinion that the Mastiff is a too much laidback bred and they prefer using the Neo in the cross instead of the Mastiff, so the cross will be thougher and inhabit more gameness.

At left John Swinford with his 56 kg. Bandog Swinford's Bantu.
At right, third generation Bandog Thor.
The two pictures above have been taken from the book The World of Fighting Dogs,
with permission from the author, Dr. Carl Semencic.

In the late 1960's a veterinari

an by the name of John Swinford began a breeding program which was ultimately to produce the greatest of all protection dogs. Though breeders of bandogs today disagree on just what breeds went into Swinford's original breeding scheme, the general consensus is that it was 50 % American Pit Bull Terrier and 50 % very large molosser, most likely the Neapolitan Mastiff. It is now agreement that the best method employed to produce the American Bandogge is to cross a good game male American Pit Bull Terrier with a large and strong Neapolitan Mastiff bitch. This cross (Neo/Pit) is also known as Swinford Bandogge.

Shade, Pitbull/Mastino Bandog, pictured at 23 months of age.
Owned by Juan Cantillana, Santiago - Chile.

Today the Bandog of Mastino/Pit cro

ss is fairly common all over the world. In the later years it has however been difficult to obtain this cross, especially in Europe, since the Pit Bull have been outlawed in many countries.
There are breeders that has bred Bandogges for several generations now, without adding more cross bred blood, and that has obtained a homogeneneous type and size.

Narve's Drager and and his litter sister.
These two dogs are 75 % Bullmastiff and 25 % Rottweiler.
No less Bandogges than the more common crosses.