was ben? was jack?

Since the Michael Vick dog-fighting case and the many blogs and news articles discussing it, I've been reading more and more often that Jack, the brindle bulldog in the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was obviously / definitely / emphatically a pit bull. Several times, I've emailed the person who made that statement and asked exactly what are they basing that fact on? I've also emailed people who wrote that Jack was undoubtedly an American bulldog. I've yet to receive a single reply.

For the past forty-plus years, I've thought that Jack was an English bulldog, based entirely on the Helen Sewell and Garth Williams illustrations of him as such. I freely admit that I know nothing about bull dog related breeds. I don't care what kind of dog book Jack was (I'm not worried about dogs who played Jack in the television show or movies); I'm simply curious as to why people are convinced he was one breed or another, and what they are basing this belief on? Yes, I've seen the dog documentary on "Nature." Yes, I've seen old photos showing pit-bull-looking dogs with their owners.

Jack is a main character in only three "Little House" books: Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek. He is in two chapters of By the Shores of Silver Lake (he dies), and he's remembered once in Little Town on the Prairie.

Of the 80 chapters in the three earlier books, the word "bulldog" is used in only 5 chapters. The most recognizable phrase is to refer to him as "Jack, the brindle bulldog."

Looking at the Garth Williams illustrations only, Jack is pictured 1 time in BW (under the wagon in Chapter 9, "Going to Town," which is interesting, since Jack isn't mentioned as actually going to town in the chapter). He is pictured 13 times in LHOP, 7 in BPC, and once in SSL. Garth Williams may have drawn Jack as an English bulldog simply because Helen Sewell did. Whether Sewell and Wilder communicated about the drawings is unknown. Some of the Williams' illustrations do show a hairier dog and/or a dog with a much longer tail than Jack's supposed "stump of a tail." Look at the Table of Contents illustration in On the Banks of Plum Creek. The recognizable drawings of Jack as an English bulldog certainly must have caused readers (like myself) to picture him as such.

In the Pioneer Girl manuscript, Wilder mentions Jack as a bull dog (two words) only once. Bulldog is used once in the BW manuscript. In the LHP manuscript, it's used twice: "the brindle bulldog ran under the wagon in the shade" and "the brindle bulldog had taken his place lying across the doorway."

There is a dogfight story that was edited out of the series; it appears in both the LHP and BPC manuscripts. In both cases, Jack gets in a fight with another dog who is brought to the Ingalls' home with its owner. In LHP, the dog comes with Mrs. Scott; in BPC, it is Mrs. Nelson's dog. Both times, "the other dog was a bulldog too." I can't imagine that this is bulldog-specific behavior; for example, my Alaskan malamute fought other dogs brought to our home with their owners, including other malamutes.

Again, what are the written clues that suggest that Jack was a pit bull, an American bulldog, or an English bulldog, for that matter. Jack is a guard dog. He has short brown fur. His hackles raise on occasion. His ears perk up. He sniffs in the wind. He is strong and sturdy when Laura leans against him. Wilder does write that his "teeth showed a bit, but that was because he was a bulldog." (Do pit bulls' teeth show?) She mentions Jack's broad back. In the Pioneer Girl manuscript, Pa is said to have put Laura "on Jack's back to ride."

Wilder also wrote that Jack was left with the horses when they were traded leaving Indian Territory, but that's another story.

Laura and Almanzo Wilder did own one documented "bulldog." The photo above shows their bulldog, Ben. The photo was taken circa 1930. I can't believe that the photo is common enough for the "not Wilder people but dog people" to assume that since this dog was a bulldog, Jack was like this dog. We know that Wilder called this dog a bulldog, since she wrote about him in one of her Missouri Ruralist articles.

Until I see some evidence, Jack Ingalls will always be an English bulldog to me. It will be interesting to see what kind of dog readers of the newly un-illustrated "Little House" books will picture in their minds...
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:10 PM