This breed is really the most extreme example of what happens when the dog show fancy goes bizerk. It’s been bred as a show dog, though, ever since there were dog shows. It’s a breed that has been very much institutionalized by the fancy, and as a result, its entire gene pool is horribly messed up.
The original bulldog looked something like this dog, an American bulldog. This old type of bulldog was imported to the colonies of Georgia and North and South Carolina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to help catch half-wild cattle and swine. Because the South became full of feral swine in the succeeding centuries, the original catch-type bulldog continued to exist there.
[...] How about a little outcrossing of those defective lines, for a dog who can actually, you know, breathe? A less-extreme look would still be a bulldog. In fact, it would actually be a bulldog. [...]
[...] How about a little outcrossing of those defective lines, for a dog who can actually, you know, breathe? A less-extreme look would still be a bulldog. In fact, it would actually be a bulldog. [...]
[...] How about a little outcrossing of those defective lines, for a dog who can actually, you know, breathe? A less-extreme look would still be a bulldog. In fact, it would actually be a bulldog. [...]
[...] All of these facts came to a head when Uga VII died Thursday morning. He unexpectedly died of a heart condition, and his owner said the dog wasn’t all that active compared to other bulldogs. Gina Spadafori at Pet Connection correctly suggests that lots of reforms have to be made to make a “less extreme” bulldog that can live a good long life (and also links to a post of mine that has a video of David Hancock’s analysis of historical bulldo…). [...]
[...] How about a little outcrossing of those defective lines, for a dog who can actually, you know, breathe? A less-extreme look would still be a bulldog. In fact, it would actually be a bulldog. [...]