By Lesli Rose, American Bulldog Archive · Updated September 30, 2026
Scott's Place in the Revival
The revival of the American Bulldog after World War II is most often told through the story of John D. Johnson. But Johnson was not alone in that work. Alan Scott, operating out of Tifton, Georgia, was doing the same thing at roughly the same time: searching the rural South for the remaining working bulldogs, assessing what he found, and building a breeding program with the specific goal of preserving the American working dog.
Scott and Johnson knew each other. They collaborated in the early years, sharing dogs, comparing notes, working toward a shared goal. But their visions for the breed's future eventually diverged, and that divergence produced the two-type structure that defines the American Bulldog to this day.
Scott is the father of what is now called the Standard type or Performance type. Understanding his contribution means understanding half of what makes the modern American Bulldog what it is.
Scott's Breeding Philosophy
Where Johnson prioritized mass and imposing physical presence, Scott's focus was function above all else. He wanted a dog that could truly work in the heat and terrain of the American South. To Scott, that meant a leaner, faster, more athletically versatile dog than the heavy-boned, massive dogs Johnson was developing.
Scott believed that the working bulldog had to be able to move. A dog that could not run down a feral hog, that could not cover ground efficiently, that tired in the heat: that was not the dog he was trying to preserve. He was selective for:
- Speed and agility over raw mass
- A longer muzzle that allowed for more efficient breathing
- A leaner, more athletic overall build
- Proven working ability in actual field conditions
- Structural soundness that could hold up to hard daily work
This philosophy produced a different physical type. It is still a large, powerful dog, but shaped more like an athlete than like the heavy bully-type Johnson was selecting for.
Scott Type Traits: What Defines the Standard/Performance Type
Scott-type American Bulldogs are immediately recognizable to people who know the breed. Compared to the Johnson type, they are:
- Leaner and more athletic in overall build
- Longer in the muzzle with less exaggerated underjaw
- Lighter-boned relative to overall size
- Faster and more agile
- Typically smoother-faced with less wrinkling
- Oriented more toward stamina and speed than power and mass
These dogs are still substantial animals. A well-built Scott-type male will often run 70 to 90 pounds of lean muscle. But the impression is one of athletic power rather than brute mass. They move differently, with a longer stride and more ground-covering efficiency.
Key Dogs in Scott's Program
Scott's Mac the Masher
Scott purchased Mac the Masher (often spelled Mack) from Cel Ashley of Sand Mountain, Alabama, and used him heavily in his breeding program.Mac the Masher stands as one of the defining dogs of the entire Scott program. His pedigree is preserved in the archive. He was a physically outstanding representative of the Standard type: lean, powerful, correct in structure, with the drive and character that Scott valued above all else. His name reflected the working culture that surrounded these dogs, and his influence on the Performance type is woven through the pedigrees of a remarkable percentage of modern Scott-line American Bulldogs.
To understand the Scott type at its best, Mac the Masher is a central reference point. His influence appears in lines across the country and continues to shape modern breeding programs that trace Scott-line ancestry.
Other Foundation Stock
Like Johnson, Scott built his program on a broader foundation of working dogs sourced from Southern farms during the same post-war search period. These dogs contributed genetic diversity and working character that carried forward through subsequent generations. The early foundation Scott assembled was carefully selected for the specific attributes he valued, and that careful early selection is visible in the consistent character of Scott-line dogs today.
The Collaboration with Johnson, and the Parting
The working relationship between Scott and Johnson in the early years of the revival was real and productive. Both men understood that saving the breed required more than one program, and they shared dogs that contributed to each other's lines. The early exchange of genetics between the two programs is why most modern American Bulldogs, regardless of which type they lean toward, carry ancestry from both sides.
But as their programs developed, the differences in philosophy became harder to bridge. Johnson was moving toward a heavier, more massive dog. Scott was moving toward a leaner, faster one. These were not minor aesthetic disagreements. They reflected genuinely different visions of what the breed was and what it should be.
The two men parted ways and developed their programs independently. The result was not a fracture in the breed but a branching: two distinct and recognized expressions of the same foundation, each carrying the best of what the original working bulldog had to offer, each developed to emphasize different strengths.
Read the full story of John D. Johnson and the Classic/Bully type →
How the Two Types Merged Into the Modern Breed
For a period after the Scott-Johnson split, many breeders worked within one type or the other. But American Bulldog breeding has always been pragmatic, and breeders quickly recognized that crossing the two types could produce dogs that combined the best of both: the mass and presence of the Johnson type with the speed and athleticism of the Scott type.
Today, most American Bulldogs are not pure Johnson or pure Scott. They are mixed-type dogs that carry varying degrees of both programs in their pedigrees. The archive contains dogs spanning the full spectrum, from the heaviest Classic/Bully types to the leanest Performance types, and everything in between.
Understanding the two types helps breeders make better decisions. A breeder working toward a specific type or working purpose can use the pedigree database to trace the type percentages in any pairing, understand the characteristics they are likely to produce, and make selections that move their program in the desired direction.
Learn how to read pedigrees for type and bloodline research →
Scott's Lasting Impact
Alan Scott's legacy in the American Bulldog is as foundational as Johnson's, even if his name is sometimes less immediately recognized by newcomers to the breed. The Standard/Performance type he developed is one of the two pillars of the modern breed. The many thousands of dogs in the archive that carry Scott-line ancestry are the living continuation of his work.
Scott's emphasis on function, athleticism, and working ability also established a standard that continues to matter to performance-oriented breeders today. The dogs that compete in weight pull, hog hunting, and other working venues tend to carry strong Scott-line influence. The Performance type name is not just historical. It describes dogs that are still performing.
ABRA has been preserving and documenting these bloodlines since 1998, owned by Lesli Rose since 2005. Every pedigree in the archive is a record of the work that Scott, Johnson, and the other early preservationists did. Searching those pedigrees is how breeders today stay connected to the foundation the breed was built on.