Comment to 'Alaunt or Molosser-The Alaunt: A type, not a breed'
  • Even the leanest apbt is nothing like a sighthound, in no way can they move in similar ways. Even my bull arab makes the leanest apbt look very very slow and generally a poor clumsy runner, while a greyhound does the same to him. The gentil was described as being as fast or nearly as fast as a sighthound, and while I think this is an exagerration, "gentil hyping" from back in the day, I'd say it does strongly indicate they were at least comparable to a apbt x greyhound type of dog, rather than an apbt.

    It's quite simple really, all the alaunt varieties are types rather than breeds, and types based on what they can do in the field. The fact is an apbt can't run down a deer or anything quick, at all. This is what the gentil was for. A bully grey is actually well suited to this task today, or a type even more sighthound leaning is all the better. So that type suited to running down deer, is obviously what the gentil was. A presa canario, certainly in it's modern form, is way too heavy to be a practical dog to use for catching unruly cattle. The very way in which butchers operated in medieval times, droving and catching unruly semi-wild cattle, is a task that is still performed in some areas around the world. The dogs they use I can assure you are much closer to pitbulls than they are to presas, in fact they often are pitbulls, at biggest 80-90 lbs mixes along the lines of an alano. In australia pitbulls, ebt x boxers, ebt x acds and bandogs with a diluted mastiff percentage are used. In fact bully grey and bull arab types are also used, I'd sooner call a bully grey a "boucheries" type alaunt, than I would ever call an apbt a gentil. Basically because it can do the butcher dog job, while an apbt certainly can't do a running dogs job.

    The other gripping dog type is the heavy type, this is where the presa and bullmastiff and etc all fit. These were the type most often favoured for human prey/adversaries (convicts, natives, slaves, rival soldiers, criminals, etc), and also handy muscle on boars, but worthless on bulls and worthless on fast game.


    The alaunt trio fits perfectly with the reality of gripping dog functions, so being familiar with this world makes it quite obvious where different breeds and different types of dogs fit. 

    To summarise- 
    Butchers- cattle, boars, bears, dog fighting

    Gentil - Deer, wild canines, boars 

    Veantre - Man, Boars, dog fighting

    Whether we decide to subscribe to the alaunt term and it's categories or not, the above 3 categories are an accurate representation of the reality of gripping dog types through history and still today. Call them whatever you want. Certainly no one I know calls them alaunt veantres and gentils and etc, more like swingers, hangers and runners - but they're clearly appreciating the same variation of types as the gentlemen who coined the alaunt type names.

    All western short coat mastiff and bull types actually should fit into the above, if they don't they can be considered ruined, or to have mutated away from their function. 

    Then separately we have other types of dogs, like lgds, collies, herders, terriers, etc.