Guide
American Bully Temperament
What the breed was actually created for, whether they’re aggressive, how they’re with children, and who shouldn’t buy one.
The American Bully was bred to be a companion dog with a stable, people-oriented temperament, and aggression toward people is a disqualifying fault in the breed standard rather than a minor one. A correct bully is confident, outgoing and steady around strangers. A dog that’s fearful or human-aggressive isn’t a well-bred example of the breed showing its nature; it’s a badly bred or badly raised one.
What the breed was built for
The American Bully is a young breed, developed from the 1980s and 1990s onward, and it was developed deliberately away from the working traits of its ancestors and toward companionship. That’s the entire point of the breed’s existence. The people who created it were selecting for a dog that was heavier, blockier and calmer than what they started with, and specifically for one that was safe and steady with people.
This is why the standard treats human aggression as disqualifying. Not undesirable, not a fault to be weighed against good structure: disqualifying. A breeder who produces a human-aggressive dog has failed at the one thing the breed is for.
Temperament is the thing I select for ahead of size or color, and it’s the reason the puppies are raised in the house rather than in a run.
Are American Bullies aggressive?
Toward people, a correctly bred one isn’t, and it’s bred specifically not to be. The stereotype comes almost entirely from the breed being confused with dogs it looks like, which is a confusion I cover in full on the bully versus pitbull page.
Now the honest part, because a page that only reassures you isn’t useful. Two things are genuinely worth knowing.
Dog-to-dog tolerance varies, and it’s a different trait entirely from how a dog is with people. Some bullies are easy with every dog they meet for their whole lives. Others become selective as they mature, usually somewhere between one and three years old, and particularly with same-sex dogs. That isn’t a defect and it isn’t a warning sign, it’s a normal range within the breed, and the answer is management and honest expectations rather than surprise at two years old when a dog that loved everybody at eight months has opinions.
Strength is a separate issue from intent. A seventy pound dog with a low center of gravity that pulls, or that jumps up in greeting, or that’s simply delighted to see a small child, can knock someone over without a shred of aggression in it. That’s a training and management problem, not a temperament one, but it’s a real one and it’s the reason loose-lead work from twelve weeks matters more with this breed than with a spaniel.
American Bullies with children
This is what most people are really asking, and the honest answer has two halves.
The temperament is well suited to it. Bullies are tolerant, affectionate, not neurotic, and generally very good at absorbing the noise and unpredictability of a household with children in it. Mine are raised in the house with the family and handled from birth, which is the single largest factor in how a dog turns out around children and isn’t something that can be added later. A puppy that has spent nine weeks in a kennel run has missed a window that doesn’t reopen.
The other half is size, and it applies to every large breed. A dog this heavy doesn’t need any bad intent to hurt a toddler; it needs to turn round quickly in a hallway. No dog of this weight and a small child should be together unsupervised, not because of what the dog might decide but because of physics.
Teach the children as much as the dog. Leave a dog alone while it’s eating or asleep. No climbing on, no hugging round the neck, no taking things out of its mouth. Those rules do more for safety in a household than any amount of breed selection.
Who shouldn’t buy one
I’d rather say this before you send a deposit than after.
- A household with nobody in it most of the day. These are companion dogs bred to be with people, and a bully left alone nine hours a day is a miserable dog and usually a destructive one.
- Somebody who wants a guard dog. The breed isn’t one, and a person specifically shopping for a protective dog is going to be disappointed by a bully or is going to try to make one, which is worse.
- A first-time owner unwilling to do lead training. Not because the breed is difficult, it isn’t, but because a strong dog that was never taught not to pull is a genuine problem at seventy pounds and a trivial one at fifteen.
- Anyone who hasn’t checked their lease, HOA or insurer. This is the most common reason a sale falls apart. Check first. I’ll hold a puppy while you do.
If any of that describes you, say so when you write and I’ll tell you straight whether it will work. Sometimes the answer is that it won’t, and that’s a better outcome for everybody than a dog that comes back at eighteen months. It would come back, incidentally: I take back any dog I’ve bred at any point in its life, with no time limit.
Tell me about your household
Say who is at home, whether there are children or other dogs, and what your days look like. You’ll get a straight answer about which puppy suits, including if the answer is none of them.