XL Bullies

Today Rishi Sunak has announced that the XL Bully will be banned from the UK by the end of the year, but what does it mean.

It does not require a new law or authority from Parliament to ban the dog breed known as an XL Bully, the Home Secretary has exiting powers under The Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) section 2 (1). But first he has to define exactly what it is he is banning as the XL Bully is not a recognised breed in the UK.

As neither the International Canine Federation, The Kennel Club, nor American Kennel Club (AKC) have recognised or accepted the XL Bully into their registry as a purebred dog, so what is one? XL Bullies are a type of American Bully, it is a recently developed breed of dog that is a descendant of the Pit Bull Terrier. It is a mix of several other bully breeds. It unlikely the Government will use a broad brush attempt at banning American Bullies and would want to be more specific to prevent the wrong types of dogs from becoming banned.

A quick internet search says an XL type is determined by its adult height, with males between 21 inches (53 cm) and 23 inches (58 cm) at the withers and females between 19 inches (48 cm) and 22 inches (56 cm) at the withers. But what we require is a breed standard that fully describes an XL Bully that is authoritative enough to be accepted by the courts. In the case of Pit Bulls a breed standard taken from a 1970’s breed publication was used.

The European Bully Kennel Club appear to say an XL Bully is just an extra large American Bulldog, if an American Bully is bigger than Males 17 inches – 20 inches (43 cm – 51 cm) for a male or 16 inches – 19 inches (40 cm – 48 cm) for a female, then its an XL Bully.

We would require far more detail standard that that to measure against, but simply the XL Bully: is an American Bulldog when a male is bigger than 20 inches and a female bigger than 19 inches.

Owners of these dogs should not panic, as it is likely the offence will be to keep an XL bully that is not registered on the Banned breed register and owners will be given time to register their dogs, say something like 2 years.

The current rules for dogs registered on the banned breed register are:

Owners of these types of dogs should consider their position, considering if they want to continue to be the keeper of a banned breed.

Many people may own a dog that they suspect is an XL bully but they are not sure, clarification will come from the Police, Each Police force employs a Dog Legislation Officer (DLO) who is trained to identify banned dog breeds, some new training will be undertaking but there is an expectation that the police will visit your home to give you advice.

On the downside, the DDA is one of the pieces of legislation with reverse responsibility, generally the law operates on innocent until proven guilty. But once a DLO gives an opinion that a dog is an XL Bully, the responsibility is yours to prove it isn’t.

The banning of the breed should not alarm dog owners, you will be allowed to keep your pet, the unsurety of the next few months will be to establish accurately what an XL Bully is, and you will be given ample time to make decisions.

However we recommend if you do own an XL Bully you should commence muzzle training your dog.

For more information, visit our frequently Asked questions page here.