Dear Lynn 

  Here is a story for your website:

  In April of 1999 I lived in San Antonio, Texas with my new wife and our 2 American Bulldogs.  We lived 7 houses down from an elementary school.  Dame was 13 months old and Mack was 2 months of age.  Neither of my dogs were trained to do anything but sit and fetch.

  We lived around the corner from a family that kept two Irish Wolfhounds in their backyard.  I learned very quickly not to walk my pups on the sidewalk on their side of the street as these animals barked, growled, and snarled when we walked by.

  One day I was walking the young dogs on the other side of the street (both on their leashes) when I heard these two hounds start barking.  As I walked along, I saw something I was not expecting to see.  These two Wolfhounds began tearing apart the 6-foot wooden privacy fence that surrounded their yard.  They broke two of the fence pieces, jumped through, and ran full speed across the street at the three of us. 

  I stopped dead in my tracks and backed up against the fence on my side of the street.  Unfortunately, the fellow who owned the property on my side had recently erected an 8-foot tall wooden fence which ran the length of the block.  There was no place for us to go.

  The two dogs positioned themselves in the street at about 45 degree angles, keeping us up against the fence.  They were snarling and began frothing at their mouths.  My yearling AB, Dame, stood tensely at my right side, facing them without barking or moving.  My 2 month old pup, sat down in front of me, watching the dogs. 

  Suddenly the Wolfhound on my left ran at the pup, grabbed him around the neck, and began shaking him violently.  Dame didn't hesitate, ran across in front of me, grabbed the dog around the neck and back with her paws, and sank her teeth into the dogs neck.  This caused the dog to release my pup just before Dame threw the animal to the ground.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other dog move.  As I turned my head back to my right and down, I saw the dog's mouth opened wide about 6 inches from my leg as it ran at me.  Everything seemed in slow motion at this point, but I tried to pull me leg out of the way about the same time I saw a blur of white streak into the second dog.

  Apparently Dame had been watching this other animal too.  She plowed into the dog, knocking it out of the way as its jaws snapped where my leg would have been.  It then turned its head and bit Dame on the neck.  She wasn't taking any duff from this much larger animal, and immediately grabbed it around the neck with her paws and put a bite on this animal's lip like I hadn't seen before.  The dog tried to bite, then pull away.  This made Dame shake her head vigorously as she lifted the front part of the dog up with her paws and threw it to the ground.  Then she jumped on top of the dog and got a firm bite on its throat.

  During the whole attack I had heard a man yelling behind me.  I turned around to see that the guy with the long fence had been repairing his roof.  He had seen everything and yelled at his wife to get his gun, then was yelling at me to get out of the way. 

  I pulled on the dogs' leashes and tried to run to my left.  This caused Dame to release the second dog.  When she did, the other dog started moving toward her.  Dame ran at the first dog, then the second and chased them back towards their house.  When I finally got a firm foothold and stopped her advance, the dogs jumped back through the same hole they had made.

  The guy who was working on his roof couldn't believe what he had seen.  He asked me, "How can those people keep dogs like that?  What if there had been some school kids walking by the fence and they had done that?"  He also complimented me on my fine dogs and wanted to know what breed they were.  I proudly told him "American Bulldogs".

  I took my dogs home and immediately came back to pound on the neighbor's door.  No one answered.  I left them a straight-forward letter that told them what had happened, and if this happened again, I wouldn't hesitate to defend myself and my animals with whatever force was necessary.  Later that day I saw they had patched the fence.

  We never had another problem with those two Wolfhounds, and my dogs got extra treats that day.

   Lynn, I hope you enjoyed the story.  I only wanted my ABs to be good family and house dogs, but found out they have strong protective drives.  These animals would do anything to protect their family.  I don't know too many breeds that would take on an animal twice their size-much less two of them, and be able to successfully best them.  Sorry I don't have a digital photo of them yet.  I'm deployed to Kosovo with the US ARMY right now.  When I get back to Germany I'll snap some photos of them for you to include.

  Best Wishes-