Dog Articles
Past and Present: Bulldog, Bull Dog
The
English Bulldog for hundreds of years and in almost every land has
typified unflinching courage and unshakable determination. As the
lion has been used to represent the majesty of Great Britain, so the
Bulldog has been used to represent her persistence - her ability to
hang on until she has accomplished whatever she has undertaken.
As his
name implies, the Bulldog got his name from the fact that he was
used in the old-time ‘sport’ of bull-baiting, which was popular
among certain classes in England for at least 700 years, until it
was made illegal in 1835. Even after that, occasional matches were
continued illegally until 1853, and the actual rings for
bull-baiting still remain in several places in England.
The
‘sport’ was usually held at some ‘garden’ maintained for this and
similar purposes, or sometimes in a public market place. Here a bull
with a rope about his horns was tethered to a ring bolted to a rock
or to a stake driven into the ground. The rope being about 15 feet
long, the bull had considerable room in which to move without being
able to endanger the lives of the onlookers.
The object
of the dog was to seize the bull's nose in his teeth, pin it to the
ground and not leave it. He was bred with an undershot jaw and a
retreating nose, that he might hang on to the bull and breathe
easily at the same time.
The bull,
of course, did his best to toss the dog with his horns, and often
succeeded. Pepys, who witnessed a bull-baiting in Southwark in 1666,
naively describes it as ‘a very rude and nasty pleasure.’
The dogs
were also used to bait full-grown bears and for dog fighting. For
such work they had to be not only strong, but very active they were
real and splendid dogs in spite of the barbarous uses they were put
to.
The
Bulldog of today is a grotesque deformity - short-legged,
short-winded, short-lived, and barely able to reproduce its kind. It
is chiefly useful for infusing courageous blood into other breeds,
for adding variety to a dog show, and as an example (to be avoided)
of what can be done by senseless breeding to spoil a perfectly good
dog.
But they
haven't quite spoiled him, for he still retains his old-time
dauntless courage, and he has a homely smile that would melt the
hearts of even the few unfortunates who boast that they hate dogs.
And here
is an appropriate place to register a friendly protest against the
arbitrary fixing of points for which dog owners must breed in order
to win at the dog shows, without sufficient reference to the
requirements of the dog as a working ally of man.
No one
feels more deeply the debt of gratitude which we owe to the many
intelligent and unselfish breeders who, often at great sacrifice of
time and money, have given us our long list of useful and beautiful
dogs. But there is tendency in the very proper enthusiasm over dog
shows and show dogs to forget that the primary object of breeding
most dogs is to produce animals which are useful in different
fields of activity, and not to conform to a particular standard
unless that standard is the one most likely to develop dogs fitted
in mind and body for the work required of them.
With the
idea of making as ugly and surly looking a beast as possible, the
present standard for the Bulldog demands a type that is all but
unfitted for existence, so great are the deformities exacted of this
unfortunate dog. Undershot so that he can scarcely eat his food;
teeth that should normally meet never being able to do so; the nose
so jammed in that breathing through it becomes almost or quite
impossible; the shoulders so muscled and legs so out-bowed as to
make locomotion difficult, he is indeed a tribute to the art of man
in its most perverted manifestation.
The large,
square, heavy head has the face deeply wrinkled, the lower
jaw three sizes too long for its mate, the nose thumbed back into
the face, the eyes very wide-set and low on the face and the ear
wrinkled back to form a ‘rose’. A straight-edge laid along the top
of the head should touch forehead, eyebrow, nose and lower jaw; the
neck is thick and short, the shoulders very wide and low, the back
curving up to the hips, which are a little higher than the
shoulders. Hind legs strong, arched, with the stifle and toes turned
out a little and the hock correspondingly turned in. Brindle is the
favorite color, but white, black and white, fawn, red, brown, and
even solid black are met with. A good Bulldog should weigh from 30
to 40 pounds.
He is a
good-natured, gentle creature, in spite of his forbidding
appearance, and makes a safe and dependable family dog. When once
aroused to anger, however, his tenacity and courage are proverbial,
and he justifies every claim that could be made for him, being
totally without fear, under whatever odds he may be placed, and
apparently insensible to pain, staying at his battle to the very
death.
There has
been developed in England a so-called ‘miniature’ bulldog with a
maximum weight of 22 pounds. A perfect specimen has been
described as the larger variety seen through the wrong end of a
telescope. As the weight would indicate, he is not a toy, and
is highly regarded as a companion by those who require a staunch
little dog not quite as active and excitable as most terriers are.
Source:
National Geographic 1919
Recommended Reading
Dog Training
Mastery - An Owners' Manual
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