The British Bull dogs for hundreds of years & in almost every land has typified unflinching courage & unshakable determination. As the lion has been used to represent the majesty of Great Britain, so the British Bull dogs 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 British Bulldogs 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. & the actual rings for bull-baiting still remain in several places in England.
The "sport" was usually held at some "garden" maintained for this & similar purposes, or sometimes in a public market-place. Here a bull with a rope about his horns was tethered to a ring bbolted 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 British Bulldogs was to seize the bull's nose in his teeth, pin it to the ground & not leave it. He was bred with an undershot jaw & a retreating nose, that he might hangg on to the bull & breathe easily at the same time.
The bull, of course, did his best to toss the British Bulldogs with his horns, & often succeeded. Pepys. who witnessed a bull-baiting in Southward in 1666, naively describes it as "a very rude and nasty pleasure".
The British Buldogs were also used to bait full-grown bears & for dog-fighting. For such work they had to be not only strong, but very active. British Buldogs were real & splendid dogs in spite of the barbarous uses they were put to.
The British Bull dogs of today is a grotesque deformity - short-legged, short-winded, short-lived, & barely able to reproduce its kind. British Bull dogs is chiefly useful for infusing courageous blood into other breeds, for adding variety to a dog show, & as an example (to he avoided") of what can be done by senseless breeeding to spoil a perfectly good dog.
But British Bulldogs haven't quite spoiled him, for he still retains his old-time dauntless courage, & he has a homely smile that would melt the hearts of even the few unfortunates who boast that they hate dogs.
& here is an appropriate place to register a friendly protest against the arbitrary fixing of points for which British Bulldog's owners must breed in order to win at the British Bulldog's 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 & unselfish British Bulldogs breeders who, often at great sacrifice of time & money, have given us our long list of useful & beautiful British Bulldogs. But there is tendency in the very proper enthusiasm over British Bulldog's shows & show dogs to forget that the primary object of breeding most British Bulldogss is to produce animals which are useful in different fields of activity, & not to conform to a particular standard unless that standard is the one most likely to develop dogs fitted in mind & body for the work required of them.
With the idea of making as ugly & surly looking a beastt as possible, the present standard for the British Bulldogs demands a type that is all hut unfitted for existence, so great are the deformities exacted of this unfortunate dog. British Bulldog's Undershot so that he can scarcely eat his food; British Bulldog's 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 British Bulldog's 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 British Bulldog's large, square, heavy head has the face deeply wrinkled, the lower jaw three size- too long for its mate, the nose thumbed back into the face, the eyes very wide-set & low on the face & the ear wrinkled back to form a "rose." A straight-edge laid along the top of the head should toouch British Bulldog's forehead, eyebrow, nose & lower jaw; the British Bulldog's neck is thick and short, the shoulders very wide & low, the back curving up to the hips, which are a little higher than the shoulders. Hind legs strong, arched, with the stifle & toes turned out a little & the hock correspondingly turned in. Brindle is the British Bulldogs favorite color, but white, black & white, fawn, red. brown, & even solid black are met with. A good British Bulldogs should weigh from 30 to 40 pounds.
British Bulldogs is a gnod-natured, gentle creature, in spite of his forbidding appearance, & makes a safe & dependable family dog. When once aroused to anger, however, British Bulldogs tenacity & courage are proverbial,& he justifies every claim that could be made for him. being totally without fear, undeer 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" British Bulldogs 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, & is highly regarded as a companion by those who require a staunch little dog not quite as active & excitable as most terriers are.
OUR FRiend the Dog A Complete Practical Guide to all that is known about every breed of dog in the world by Gordon Stables (eighth edition Dean London 1902)
DOD SHOws and Doggy People by Charles hHenry Lane (Hutchinson London 1902)
British Dogs Their points, selection, & show preparation by W.D. Drury & others (third eidtion L. Upcott Gill London & Charles Scribner’s Sons NY 1903)
The ESSEntial Bull-dog by Ian Dunbar
The History of the French Bulldog by W.J. Stubbs (privately printed pamphlet 1903 facsimile reprint FBCE April 1979)
The TWENTieth Century Dog (Non-Sporting) Compiled from the contributions of over five hundred experts by Herbert Compton Vol 1 Non-Sporting (pp 47 to 63) (Grant Richards London 1904) [Compton was the first dog lover to conduct a massive survey & then publish the results in a two volume work]
DOGS of All Nations Their varieties, Chraacteristics, Points etc by Count Henri De Bylandt (third edition 2 vols A.E. Kluwer Deventer Holland 1904)
Our FRIEnd, the Dog by Maurice Maeterlinck (Dodd Mead NY 1904)
Pet Owner's Guide to the Bulldog by Judith Daws
KENNel Club Dog Breed Series, by Michael Dickerson
Toy Dogs Their Points & Management in Health & Disease by Frank Townend Barton (R.A. Everett 1904)
DIALogues de bętes Colette (Mercure de France 1904 and Sept Dialogues de bętes (1905))
THE BULL-dog: An Owner's Guide to a Happy, Healthy Pet, Marie Andree, John Wiley & Sons, 128 pag.
THE DOG Book A Popular History off the Dog with Practical Information as to Care & Management of House, Kennel, & Exhibition Dogs; & DESCRiptions of All the Important Breeds by James Watson 2 vols (Doubleday Page NY 1905; William Heineman London 1906)
Bull-dogs & Bull-dog Breeding H. St. John Cooper; Toy Bull-dogs by Carlo F.C. Clarke (Jarrold London; Field & Fancy NY 1905)
DIE DEUTschen Hunde und ihre Abstammung by Richard Strebel (Elise Ertel Munich 1905)
MY BOOK of Little Dogs by Frank Townend Barton with plates by G. Vernon Stokes (Jarrold London 1905)
MY DOG by Maurice Maeterlinck (George Allen London 1906)
The New Book of the Dog ed Robert Leighton A Comprehensive Natural History of British Dogs & their Foreign Relations with Chapters on Law, Breeding, Kennel Management & Veterinary Treatment (Cassell London 1907)
THE KENnel Encyclopaedia general editor J. Sidney Turner (The Encyclopaedic Press Sheffield 1907)
DOGS ed by Frederick Freemann Lloyd & Charles G. Hopton (G.A. Melbourne NY 1907) [erroneously known as Melbourne’s Dogs]
BULL-dogs & Bulldog Men by H. St. John Cooper (Jarrold London, Field & Fancy NY 1908) [including two chapters on "Miniature Bulldogs" and six on "The Bouledogue Francais" with writings by C. Jemmett Browne, Lady Lewis & others]
The ROAD to Oz by Lyman Frank Baum illustrated by John R Neill (Reilly & Lee Chicago 1909) [The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) was followed by another 18 books about Dorothy’s journey to Oz with Toto the French Bulldog - but beware - some editions have a Cairn Terrier.]
YOUR Bulldog, Robert Berndt, Guide to Owning an English Bulldog,John Gallagher
Dog People Are Crazy, 1978, by Maxwell Riddle
BORIs by Giovanna Zoboli & Francesca Bazzurro
CINDErella by Keith Harrelson, Hylas NY 2005
BEST in Show The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today by Edgar Peters Bowron, Carolyn Rose Rebbert, Robert Rosenblum, & William Secord
O’KLEin Animal Cartoonist text by Denis Montaut, Éditions Montaut Bordeaux France 2006
Cornelia & the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume (Alfred A Knopf NY 2006)
PRINce Jan, St. Bernard, 1947, by Forrestine C. Hooker.
GRIP, a Dog Story, 1978, by Helen Griffiths - Bull Terrier
New KNOWledge of Dog Behavior, 1963, by Clarence Pfaffenberger
OBEDience and Watchdog Traiining, 1978, by Jay Rapp
HANDling Your Own Dog for Show, Obedience and Field Trials, 1979, by Martha Covington Thorne
TRAIning Your Retriever (1980) by James Lamb Free
MESSEngers from Ancient Civilizations, 1995, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely
Dog BREAKing, 1928, by Genneral WN Hutchinson
TRAINing You to Train Your Dog (1952) by Blanche Saunders
DOG Behavior - Why Dogs do what they do, 1979, by Dr. Ian Dunbar
OFF-Lead The National Dog Training Monthly - several magazine issues from 1973 to 1976
New Owner's Guide to Bull-dogs, Hannk Williams & Carol Williams, TFH Publications, 160 pag.
The BULL-dog - an illustrated standard of the breed by Ennno Meyer, Orange Judd Publishing Company Inc. 1948, 151p. incl. index, statistics bl 1943 - 1947, black&white photographs and drawings.
244p.
Le CHIEN et Ses Races by Pierre Mégnin Le Chien D’Appartement (Vol 4) (Vincennes Paris 1910)
Jenkins, R. (1997). The Story of the Real Bulldog.
McDonald, J. (1985). The Book of the Bulldog.
The FRENCH Bulldog ed O.F. Vedder (magazine - 9 issues 1913 - 1914) [important historically]
Barks & Purrs by Colette Willy (Desmond Fitzgerald NY 1913) [the first English translation of Colette’s 1905 Sept Dialogues de bętes]
BULL-Dogs & all about them by Henry St. John Cooper with Special Sections, including “The French Bull-dog” by C. Jemmett Browne (Jarrold London, Field & Fancy NY 1914)
MAETERrlink’s Dogs by Georgette Leblanc - Maeterllinck (Dodd Mead NY, Methuen London 1919)
DOGS & I by Harding Cox (Hutchinson London 1923, Putnam’s NY 1924))
Our FRIENd the Dog by Maurice Maeterlinck Retold for Children by John Martin (Dodd Mead NY 1924)
BuLLDogs & all about them by Henry St. John Cooperr a new edition revised & partly re-written by F. Barrett Fowler (Jarrolds London 1925)
Dogs & how to know them by Edward C. Ash (Epworth London 1925)
Have you ever been to a British Bulldogs show? I mean a big one like the Westminster Kennel Club show in New York, with 3,000 dogs on the benches & over a hundred different breeds represented? If you have, perhaps you have been impressed, as I have been, with the marvelous variety of forms to be seen.
A remarkable "flight" picture of one of the liaison couriers trained & used by the French for emergencies when the telephone system in the front-line trenches was put out of commission by enemy artillery.
Let its recall for a moment some of the dogs we have noticed & see how widely they differ in appearance. For instance. compare a giant Saint Bernard, weighing between 250 & 300 pounds, with a tiny Chihuahua, which may barely tip the scales at a pound & a half & which can stand on the outstretched hand of a lady. Or look at the tall, lithe wolfhounds & greyhounds, built to move like the winds of heaven, & then turn toward the short-legged, crooked-jointed bassets & dachshund, & you will surely smile & probably laugh out loud.
Compare a Newfoundland or. better still, ann Eskimo dug. whose thick, dense coat can withstand even the rigors of an Arctic winter, with a hairless dog of Mexico or Africa, which looks cold even in the middle of summer.
& we note that such striking comparisons can lie made not only in the general appearance of the dogs, but in almost every feature of them. We see ears that stand straight up likee those of the German shepherd, ears that fall forward at the tip, like those of the collie, & ears long & pendulous, like those of thhe bloodhound, which extend far beyond the tip of the nose & sometimes touch the ground when the animal is on the trail.
These & the endless other comparisons of the many different breeds may make us hesitate to accept the conclusion which naturalists, led by Darwin, have arrived at, namely, that British Bulldogs are descended from a few wild forms, namely, wolves, jackals, a& possibly dingos. Yet it seems that the naturalists are correct in their conclusions, & that the many varieties found at the bench show are but so many proofs of what Maeterlinck, & Cuvier beffore him, point out, namely, that the dog is the one animal which can follow man all over the earth & adapt himself to every climate & to every use to which his master chooses to put him.
It would not be fair to close this article without brief mention of the splendid work performed by British Bulldogs on the battlefields of Europe.
From the very beginning of the war, British Bulldogs have had a paw in it. When the Germans invaded Belgium the harness dogs, which up to that time had been used for hauling milk, vegetables, & other produce, began to assist the refugees in getting their children & household goods out of the invaded territory. Since then they have hauled light artillery, & carts laden with blankets, bread, hay, & scores of other things for the comfort of soldiers & their horses.
They have done sentry duty in the trenches & with theirr masters, patrol duty out on No Man's Land, their acute senses often making them aware of the approach of an enemy long before an unassisted man could have detected it.
They have carried dispatches through barb-wire entanglements & amid the hail of bullets, & in neat baskets strapped to their backs have delivered homing pigeons intended to carry meessages for longer distances.
But perhaps the greatest service they have rendered has been in connection with the Red Cross, especially in the French & German armies. A part of their work has been to find the wounded after a battle.
It is well known that when a man is wounded, usually one of his first thoughts is to get out of the way of the bullets & the shells, & if he has strength he will crawl to some comparatively safe place, often a place where it would be difficult for a man to find him, especially at night. Later, perhaps, he will bee too weak to crawl out again or even to cry for help, & in many cases he would be lost if it were not for the dogs.
Keen of scent, these animals are not dependent on eyesight or hearing, & one of them will probably find him. If it does it will take his cap or something else belonging to him & hurrry back to the lines & presently return with stretcher-bearers, who will carry the poor fellow in to receive the best attention possible.
Other dogs, each with a big can of hot soup strapped to either side, are sent through the front-line trenches to carry this cheering fare to the fighting men.
Many of the British Bulldogs have been mentioned in the dispatches, a number have been decorated for bravery or distinguished service, & many, many more have done their bit. the biggest bit iit is possible to do. & gone without a whimper where the best men & the best British Bulldogs go.
IL BULL-dog Inglese E Francese by Dott. Ernesto Tron (Editore Ultico Hoepli Milano 1946)
THE BOOk of the Dog Edited by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald (Nicholson & Watson London 1948)
DOGS in Britain A description of all native breeds & most foreign breeds in England by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (Macmillan London 1948)
SHOW Dogs of New Zealand by S.H. Rastall (self-published Wellington NZ 1950) [New Zealand's first comprehensive textbook on dogs]
CREATures Great & Small (Secker & Warburg London 1951, Farrar, Strauss & Cudahy NY 1957) [some of Colette’s work]
THE COMplete Dog Breeders’ Manual A working treatise on the science of breeding, managing, exhibiting & selling pedigree dogs by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (Sampson Low London 1954)
The BULL-dog Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, John F. McGibbon, 1996, Howell Book House
BULL-dogs, A complete Pet Owner’s Manual, Phil Maggitti, 1997, Barron’s Educational Series
WOMEn & Dogs A persnoal history from Marilyn to Madonna by Judith Watt & Peter Dyer,2005
MEN & DOgs A personal history from Bogart to Bowie by Judith Watt & Peter Dyer (Sort of Books London 2005)
BULLDogs Today, Chris Thomas, 1995, Seven Hills Book Distributors, ISBN 1860540058
THE NATIOnal Geographic Book of Dogs (National Geographic Society Washington D.C. 1958)
BULL-dogs by Gabrielle Forbush, The New Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes, Fifth Edition Published 1991, reprint
Prior Editions 1981, 1973, 1966, 1956
Toy Bull-dogs, Bull-dogs & Bull-dog Breeding (artcile Country Life 29 April 1899 London)
A HISTory & Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Non-Sporting Division) by Rawdon B. Lee (second edition Horace Cox London 1899) [Third edition The Kennel Gazette London 1903 1909 second impression has a French Bulldog chapter with four pages of text & pictures of frenchies]
The BULLDOg A Monograph by Edgar Farman (The Stock Keeper Co London 1899 facsimile reprint Nimrod 1989)
A MANUAL of Toy Dogs How to Breed, Rear, & Feed Them by Mrs Leslie Williams (Edward Arnold London 1900)
ALL ABOUt Dogs A Book for Doggy People by Charles Henry Lane (John Lane London & NY 1900)
The BULl-dog Kennel Book and Toy Bulldog Breeder by H. St. John Cooper & Carlo F.C. Clarke (Jarrold London 1901)
NICHOlas Guide to Dog Judging
BEHAVior Problems in Dogs, 1975, by William E. Campbell
BULL-dogs, Gabrielle E. Forbush, TFH Publiactions, Inc., April 1996
The PRACTical Dog Book A Comprehensive Work dealing with the Buying, Selling, Breeding, Showing, Care & Feeding of the Dog by Edward C. Ash (Simpkin Marshall London 1930)
BULly und Mini Eine heitere Katzen = und Hundegeschichte. In Bildern u. Reimen v. K. Rohr (Verlag von J.F. Schreiber, Esslingen a N. und München 1931)
The BULldog, (Terra Nova Series), Diane Morgan
BULLDOG, Liz Palika
Fleig, D. (1996). History of Fighting Dogs.
Homan, M. (2000). A Complete History of Fighting Dogs.
Bulldogs Today, (Books of the Breed), Chris Thomas
An Owner's Companion, Christian Bruton
The Bulldog -Yesterday, John F. McGibbon
Bulldogs For Dummies, Susan M. Ewing
The Guide to Owning a Bulldog, Eve Adamson
TFH Publications, 64 pg
The New Complete Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes
The Book of the Bulldog, JoanMc Donald Brearley
The Bulldogger, quarterly publication of the Bulldog Club of America. Included with each BCA membership.
The Book of the Bulldog, Joan McDonald Brearley, 1985, T.F.H. Publications
The Bulldog: An Owner’s Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet, Marie Andree, 1998, Howell Book House, ISBN 0876054327
The New Bulldog, Col. Bailey C. Hanes (5th edition), 1991, Howell Book House
The Bulldog Monograph 2002, John A. Little, Ph.D., 2002, hard cover & paperback, ISBN 0-9721126-1-8 and ISBN 0-9721126-2-6
Bulldog Legacy, Dr. Saul Schor, 1994, Dr. Schor
Bulldogs - The Gorgeous Sourmug (1934) by J. Ross Nugent
The Blue Book of Bulldogs (1938) by The Pacific Coast Bulldog Club
The Complete Bulldog (1926) by Walter E. Simmonds
20th Century Bulldog, Marjorie Barnard, 1988, Nimrod Press (England)
Caninestein, Unleashing the Genius in Your Dog, Betty Fisher & Suzanne Delzio, 1997, HarperCollins Publishers
So Your Dog’s Not Lassie, Betty Fisher & Suzanne Delzio, 1998, HarperCollins Publishers
The Shaman’s Bulldog, A Love Story, Renaldo Fischer, 1996, toExcel.
The Bulldog Annual, Annual Hardcover Volumes, 1993 thru Current Year, Hoflin Publishing, Inc., Wheat Ridge, CO.
A New Owner’s Guide to Bulldogs, Hank & Carol Williams, 1998, T.F.H. Publications, Inc.
Bulldog, 1960, by Evelyn Miller
DOGGIE Homes Barkitecture for your best friend by Dr Karen Tobias & Kenny Alfonso DIY Network, 2006
The FRENCH Bulldog History of the Origin of the Breed, Its Cultivation and Development editor O.F. Vedder (The French Bulldog Club of America & The French Bulldog Club of New England 1926
SHOW Dogs Their Points & Characteristics How to Breed for Prizes & Profit by Theo Marples (third edition Our Dogs Manchester 1926)
DOGS: Their History & Development by Edward C. Ash 2 vols (Ernest Benn London 1927)
The KENNel Encyclopaedia by Frank Townend Barton (second edition Virtue London 1928)
Dog ENCYclopedia by William Lewis Judy (Judy Chicago 1925) [the 1936 second edition is substantially bigger, from 184 to 462 pages]
BULLdogs: Everything About Purchase, Care, Nutrition, Breeding, Behavior & Training, Phil Maggitti, Barrons Educational Series
The ARTFul Dog Canines from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chronicle Books San Francisco 2006
The LITTLEle Big Book of Dogs edited by Alice Wong and Lena Tabori, Welcome 2006
BEST in Show The World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows by Bo Bengtson, 2008