XL
What it means
Exotic American Bully
Not a colour, not a size class, and not recognised by anyone. A word about what I mean by it, and what the wider market means by it.
"Exotic" is not a colour, a size class or a category any registry acknowledges. Out in the wider market it is a selling word for a look: a shorter muzzle, heavier wrinkle, a wider front, a build pushed past what the standard describes. On my own site I use the word far more narrowly, and I keep it that narrow on purpose.
What I mean by it, and what I do not
When I apply the word exotic I apply it to two specific dogs of mine and no others. It is simply how I label those two. It is not a size class, it is not a grade, and it is not a claim about health, quality or anything else. I will not stretch it across the litter to make more puppies sound special, because that is exactly the move the word usually exists to perform.
What the word is doing out in the market
Marketing, for the most part. There is no exotic standard, no measurement that settles it and no body that recognises it. In general use it gets attached to dogs bred further along a curve of compression, and it overlaps heavily with the micro label: micro speaks to height, exotic to the head and the build, and both point in the same direction of travel.
Why that direction carries a cost
- Breathing. The shorter the muzzle, the harder the dog works simply to breathe and to cool itself. At the far end that is an airway syndrome that caps exercise and sometimes needs surgery.
- Skin. More wrinkle means more warm, damp skin folded against skin, which is where fold dermatitis sets up.
- Joints. A wider, heavier front riding on shorter legs changes the load on joints that have to hold up for twelve years.
- Whelping. Wider dams more often need a caesarean, a cost and a real risk carried by the breeding female.
Not every heavily built dog is an unhealthy one. The point is only that the risk rises with the compression, and so, as it happens, do the prices.
What to read instead of the label
The parents, every time. Is their breathing quiet while they rest? A dog you can hear lying still has an airway problem, and it is heritable. Do they move cleanly away from you and back? Were their litters born without a caesarean each time?
Where I stand
I will not dress a health trade-off up as a luxury, and I will not widen a two-dog label into a category to catch a search. What is available now · The health detail
Every puppy, the same terms
The figure on the card is the figure, with nothing bolted on at the close. Examined by Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic before it travels, sent home with a written health record and enough of its food to change over gradually, and delivered anywhere in the country, by road or by a nanny who carries the puppy in the cabin and never in a cargo hold.
I don’t screen or certify the parents and won’t claim I do. What I do is have every puppy examined by Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic before it leaves, and the dates go on the record that travels with the dog.
Ask me anything
The awkward questions included, and that goes for a puppy you are weighing up from somebody else as well.