Lifetime Breeder Support
The Rosebull Puppy Manual
Your puppy's genetics are settled. What is not settled is everything that happens next. The joint problems this breed is known for, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, blown ACLs, are multifactorial: genetics set the range, and how you feed and exercise your puppy over the next eighteen months decides where in that range they land. This page is the short version of what I tell every buyer. It is also why my health guarantee covers genetic disease and not joints.
The first 2 business days
- Book your own vet before your puppy comes home, and see them within 2 business days. This is the window in my health guarantee.
- Bring the vaccination and deworming records that come in your folder.
- Keep your puppy home and quiet otherwise. New house, new people, new everything is plenty.
Feeding: keep them lean, this is the big one
If you only do one thing from this page, do this. A fat puppy is not a healthy puppy and it is not a cosmetic problem. Dr Siobhan Menzies, reviewing the evidence in the Veterinary Ireland Journal, puts numbers on it:
- Lean dogs have a five-fold lower risk of hip dysplasia, and they live longer.
- Overfeeding puppies increases the risk of hip dysplasia.
- Obesity quadruples the risk of a cranial cruciate ligament rupture, the ACL tear.
- Long-term reduced food intake lessens the severity of arthritis later in life.
- Use a large-breed puppy food. It is formulated to slow growth on purpose. Fast growth wrecks joints.
- Feed to the dog, not to the bag. You should feel the ribs easily without pressing. If you cannot, cut back.
- Do not add calcium or any supplement unless your vet tells you to. Excess calcium raises dysplasia risk. A good large-breed food is already balanced.
- Growing fast is not the goal. Growing slowly and evenly is the goal.
Exercise: what helps and what hurts
The old advice was to keep puppies still. That turns out to be wrong. The right kind of movement builds joints; the wrong kind damages them.
Do
- Free, off-leash play on varied soft ground: grass, dirt, gentle slopes. In large breeds this in the first three months is associated with lower hip dysplasia risk.
- Let the puppy set the pace and stop when they want to stop.
- Short and often beats long and hard. Swimming is excellent once they are ready.
Do not
- Forced running. No jogging beside a bike, no long road runs while the growth plates are open.
- Repeated jumping: off tailgates, off decks, off furniture. Lift them down.
- Hard, slick or repetitive surfaces. Concrete and laminate floors are not friends of a growing dog.
- Agility, weight pull, or anything high-impact until the growth plates close.
Read this yourself
I am a breeder, not a veterinarian, so do not take my word for it. Dr Siobhan Menzies BVM&S CCRP MRCVS wrote Guidelines for exercising pups: separating myths from science in the Veterinary Ireland Journal (April 2025). It separates what is actually evidenced from what gets repeated on breed forums, and it is where the numbers on this page come from. It is worth twenty minutes of your time before your puppy comes home.
Socialisation
- Your puppy has already met kids, cats and other dogs here from birth to eight weeks. Do not let that work go cold.
- New people, surfaces, sounds and places, in small positive doses, every week.
- This is a strong, confident breed. A well-socialised American Bulldog is a joy. An under-socialised one is a problem you will spend years undoing.
Call me. Genuinely.
Lifetime breeder support is not a line on a sales page. If something worries you at any point in this dog's life, ring me. I would far rather answer a question that turns out to be nothing than hear about a problem two years after it started. Get in touch.