Bull Lurchers and XL Bully identificiation features

Bit of advice to anyone owning a bull x Lurcher : due to the new guidelines for identification of XL Bullies, it would be sensible to get your Bull Lurcher neutered if you haven't already and get them used to wearing a muzzle in public. Make sure their vet and microchip registration has them as a Lurcher.

There's a LOT of things in the guidelines which will apply to bull Lurchers and if you get reported for having an XL Bully, it's going to be a whole world of pain to prove that your dog is a Lurcher

Conformation standard: XL Bully type

The XL Bully breed type is a variant of the wider American Bully breed type. The XL Bully breed type is typically larger (both in terms of height and body shape) and more muscular than other

American Bully breed types such as the ‘Micro’, ‘Pocket’, ‘Standard’ and ‘Classic’.

Characteristics Description

General impression

Large dog with a muscular body and blocky head, suggesting great strength and power for its size. Powerfully built individual.

Height • Adult male from 20 inches (51 cm) at the withers.

• Adult female from 19 inches (48cm) at the withers.

Head Heavy, large and broad.

The length from the tip of the nose to a well-defined stop (indentation between muzzle and the head) is equal to around a 1/3 of the length from the stop to the back of the head.

Muzzle blocky or slightly squared to fall away below the eyes.

Topline of muzzle straight.

Prominent cheek muscles with strong, well-defined jaws and lips semi-close.

Often having prominent wrinkles on face.

Nose is large with well opened nostrils.

Teeth Level or scissor bite.

Neck Heavy, muscular, slightly arched, tapering from the shoulders to the base of the skull.

Medium in length.

Forequarters Shoulder blades are long, well-muscled and well laid back.

Upper arm length is about equal to the length of the shoulder blades and joined at a 35-45 angle to the ground.

Front legs straight, strong and very muscular with dog standing high on the pasterns. (area between feet and ankles).

Elbows set close to the body.

Distance from the withers to elbows about the same as the distance from the elbow to the bottom of the feet.

Characteristics Description

Body Heavily-muscled.

Large, blocky body giving impression of great power for size.

Broad, deep chest with well sprung ribs.

Chest may be wider than deep.

Topline level and straight.

Loin short and firm.

Generally appears square shaped from point of the shoulder to the point of the buttocks compared with the withers (tallest point on the dogs body excluding head and shoulders) to the ground.

Hindquarters Strong, muscular and broad.

Thighs well developed with thick musculature.

From behind, both pasterns are typically straight and parallel to each other.

Muscular development, angulation and width in balance with forequarters.

Feet Rounded, medium in size and in proportion to body.

Compact and well arched.

Tail Medium length and low set.

Tapers to a point to end at about the level of the hocks.

Generally assumes a straight or pump handle shape when dog relaxed.

Coat Glossy, smooth, close, single.

Reader notes: Descriptors such as ‘Medium in length’ and ‘long’ will be assessed by Dog Legislation Officers relative to the conformation of the rest of the dog.

Glossary

Description

Bite The relative position of the upper and lower teeth when the mouth is closed.

Coat The hairy outer covering of the skin.

Description

Croup Part of the back from the front of the pelvis to root of the tail.

Forequarters The front part of dog excluding head and neck.

Hindquarters Rear part of dog from behind the loin.

Loin The region between the last rib and the beginning of the pelvis.

Musculature The muscles on an animal’s body.

Muzzle The length from the tip of the nose to the stop.

Pasterns The pastern is the lower part of the foreleg, just above the foot and below the wrist. Similarly, in the hind leg, the pastern is the portion located above the foot and below the heel (also known as the hock). Every canine possesses a pair of front and rear pasterns.

Scissor bite The upper front teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws.

Spring of rib Degree of curvature of rib cage.

Tail set The position of the tail on the croup.

Tapering Becomes progressively smaller towards one end.

Top line An outline after the withers to the tail set. Viewed from the side of the dog or from above.

Withers The highest point of body immediately behind the neck where height is measured

Pet Insurance

We are now able to offer 5 weeks free Pet Insurance with each dog adopted from Lurcher Link through Agria Insurance

LL 2024 Calendar Competition

The Lurcher Link Calendar Competition is BACK!!

We are asking for YOUR photographs to be included in our 2024 Lurcher Link Calendar.

You don't have to be a member of the Lurcher Link forum, or have a Lurcher Link dog. You just have to have a keen photographic eye and fantastic photos you think suit the different seasons.

We need your HIGH RESOLUTION photographs to show how amazing our community, and the dogs we all love, are!

If you are interesting in joining in, we have a Google forms document where you can upload your photos. We are putting a limit on 1 entry per person this year, but you can enter all 4 seasons and the front cover!

We need PORTRAIT photographs for our FRONT COVER.

We need LANDSCAPE photographs for WINTER, SPRING, SUMMER and AUTUMN.

You can upload your photos on the following link: https://forms.gle/ba8fLY58BjrFE5ZJ9

We will be creating photo albums where we will be uploading the entries so you can see what photos we have

The competition will run until Sunday 13th August

Get snapping!

(If you have any difficulties with uploading photos, please contact kaye@lurcherlink.org)

Last year’s Calendar to show the format

T shirts with Lurcher Link's past designs

We don’t have the space or the funds to keep in a stock of T shirts in various style / colours/ sizes, but we’re trying a Redbubble shop to see if this might be a way to supply people with clothing (and other) items.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/lurcherlass/shop?asc=u

It’s still early days and I’m still learning, so bear with me….. but if there’s anything you want to say about this, you can email me on kaye@lurcherlink.org

Beautiful Joe's Liver Treats

I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to the folk who run “Beautiful Joe’s” and our LL supporter Catherine Hutchinson for nominating Lurcher Link to receive such a fantastic donation of their liver treats.

We had a parcel arrive today which the dogs were VERY interested in…I let them all have one in the interest of quality control of course, and they seem to approve as they all wanted seconds. :)

They’ve sent us the equivalent of 45 x 50g packets of their liver treats so that’ll last a while. Plus some lovely little tins to keep them safely in your pocket which is very thoughtful. This is what the company says:

For every packet of treats we sell, we donate the same volume to a rescue centre or other good canine causes. You were nominated by your friend and supporter Catherine Hutchinson ( bcathfc@aol.com ).

Since we were founded in 2012 we have given away over £400,000 of treats. Some rescue centres use them for training, others are grateful to have a treat to give the dogs in their care.
Beautiful Joe's are made from air dried, pasture-fed, beef liver. Nothing is added and they are completely natural. It is fair to say that dogs go crazy for them.

Incidentally, our treats are named after a dog called Beautiful Joe who lived in Canada in the 1890s. He was rescued from a brutal farmer and became the subject of a best-selling book. Its author, Margaret Saunders, devoted her life to championing the rights of animals. As, in our small way, we also aim to champion the rights of animals, we decided to name our dog treats after him.

Isn’t that lovely?

Our goodies

Absolutely starving dogs

Quick update on T J Newton

Just wanted to let folks know that the lovely and mega-expensive (shattered leg repair!) T J Newton has been adopted to a fab new home with some long time LLers :)

TJN looking well suited :)

BATTERSEA and LURCHER LINK

Due to the horrendous influx of dogs needing homes after the Covid Lockdown Mad Puppy Rush, Lurcher Link and Battersea have pledged to work together to try and find homes for as many Lurchers as possible.

This will mainly be by advertising each other's dogs on the Internet and via social media, but we may occasionally need to take in a dog for them or vice versa. We both have much the same rehoming criteria and policies, but if you want to know anything, do ask

https://www.battersea.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/animal-partnerships

Burgess donation

Burgess very kindly donated a load of their Greyhound and Lurcher food to us. so now all the dogs that go to their new homes will go with a sack of this to keep them going :)

https://www.burgesspetcare.com/shop/dog-food/supadog/greyhound-lurcher-chicken/

It also means we can cut down on the cost of our dog food (normally over £100 per week) which is a HUGE help. Plus for every sack they sell, they donate 20p towards rescue!

Thank you so much BURGESS

Belle and TJ Newton can’t believe their luck!

Lots of food!

Donations for the dogs

We had a lovely surprise donation of treats from The Innocent Pet care company the other day and the dogs are going absolutely doolally over them :)

They’re air dried and grain free meat proteins such as duck, beef, chicken, lamb and different vegetables. They’re little “training treat” size pieces and smell lovely, even to me and I’m a veggie :) I heartily recommend them, check them out :

https://theinnocentpet.co.uk/collections/healthy-dog-treats

They do complete food / cat food/ toys and gift idea too……. not the cheapest in the world, but, as I’ve discovered, “you get what you pay for”. Also supplements such as Turmeric and Pepper (I take that!) and and Aloe Vera and Spirulina.

And the best bit is : They’re from Yorkshire and they have LURCHERS :)

Box of goodies!

Mudz hoping for some more

Easter Pressies for the LL dogs

The Easter Bunny came early for the LL dogs and brought them, not chocolate eggs, but "Yak chews" (made from really hard yak milk cheese, not Yak meat) which they all think is the best thing ever. Even the dogs with sensitive tums, like Benny, have been able to have a good chomp on them…. thank you to everyone who donated towards the Yakky fund and to Carolyn Savage from the Canine Cavern https://www.caninecavern.co.uk/ for facilitating this.

Benny

Frank

Flash

Rogue

Aurora