Grand Future Kennel has never produced an NCL-afflicted American Bulldog, or even just an NCL-carrier, in the kennel’s history.
NCL (Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis) is a serious and fatal hereditary neurological disease that exists within the American Bulldog breeding pool. In our understanding, an NCL-afflicted dog can begin to show symptoms anywhere from 2-4 years of age and subsequently dies within a short span of time. Please note that timing of disease on-set can be significantly past any health guarantee a dog breeder can provide. Therefore, it is critical that your next American Bulldog puppy comes from parents who have been tested clean for the NCL gene. NCL carriers can pass on the gene recessively, which means that both parents must be carriers in order to produce an NCL-afflicted puppy.
All responsible American Bulldog breeders MUST test their dogs for NCL. The test only costs $65. If you’re shopping for an American Bulldog and the breeder cannot produce NCL test results for both parents, we suggest you look elsewhere. Given the small cost and non-intrusive nature of this test, it is naive to assume that a given dog is not an NCL carrier if the breeder went through the trouble of doing other tests except for NCL. The more likely possibility is that the non-ideal test result is being withheld.