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Rebirth of the breed

Authors: Otto Brito and Tim Taylor

 

It was in the 1980s that three gentlemen, Mr Paco Ruiz, Mr Manuel Calvino and Mr Riussec, the breeder of TITO and ANASTASIA, started to look for the remaining Ca de bou"s in Mallorca. The fact that some Ca de Bestiar/Ca de bou crosses were seen in the island helped them recover the genetic make up to start crossing for the correct typicity. Some bulldog was used to shorten the mouth, please refer to the list of serious faults above which have appeared in Ca de bou as a result of breeding with bulldog (too much white; very separated elbows; exagerated prognatism; chest too low).

​This could be seen very clearly in specimens 9-10 years ago. The GREAT majority of the crosses in the early recovery years were done with specimens with a high percentage of Ca de bou blood and some of the Ca de Bestiar.

​It took quite a time before an exceptional pair of brothers was born, Tito, and his brother Toby. Tito was much superior, and had the typicity of the dogs whose blood he carried.

Later on, Toby was crossed with a very special Ca de bou female by the name of Nix who produced some very promising pups, one female had excellent typicity, her name was Anastasia. Nix was one of the very special recovery specimens found.

​Tito and Anastasia, were considered to be the first authentic Ca de bous with absolutely NO Ca de Bestiar characteristics. It was them that gave us back the breed, the sons that they produced together are SOME OF THE best that the breed has ever seen, Chimo, Conan, Ben, Leon and daughters too.

Tito also had a couple of sons outside of Anastasia that produced some lines of their own, like Dino. Dino was probably the nicest son out of Tito without Anastasia, smaller than the half brothers but very stocky and great temperament and typicity.​ It was at this time that it was common to see specimens of little or no tipicity at all, by this we mean specimens that were either too bulldoggy, not only bully in face but also being too much of presa type, which means they had chest too close to ground and also sometimes shorter front legs. Others were too Ca de Bestiar in type.

These specimens were the results of unfortunate crosses and sold as Perro Dogo Mallorquin by people who were only interested in money. These dogs were out of shape, untypical, unsound and wrong color. As far as we know on every occasion, their progeny failed to deliver, as the pups seen in subsequent generations showed the inferior typicity. These lines are well known and most of not all have died out in Spain. That is also why most Ca de bou's descend from Tito, Anastasia and their sons, with only a few exceptions.

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