Dog dreaming

[FloorCandy]

My whole life I dreamed about having an English bulldog. In 2007 my now husband was offered a job in another state, the agreement was that we would move and I would transfer my job, but we needed to rent a house not an apartment and we needed a bulldog. Well he was the best dog we could ever have asked for. We ended up with a pug a few months later as well, and we had others with bad health who weren’t with us very long. Thrall the bulldog was amazing, but in his twilight year ( he was healthy until a month before he turned 9, then it was constant issues for his last year), we lived in Brooklyn in an apartment and the elevator was always broken, it was really hard for me to carry him as I’m a middle aged woman, and he was 65 lbs.

When he passed I didn’t feel I could house break a puppy in the apartment, we still had our elderly pug as well. As soon as we left Brooklyn, the day we closed on our house, I found a bulldog mix on Craigslist or some other similar site. He was so sad in the terrible cage with only an empty bowl, and a grate stretching his toes. I thought, perfect he will be so bully but smaller. Turns out the previous owner must have lied about his age so people would think he would be small, he weighs 55 lbs now haha! I wasn’t done though...

I ended up with 3 puppies, I soon added 2 frenchies, turns out they are just what I wanted, all the bulldog, half the package. However, having a bulldog thru all life stages I learned a thing or two. Look for longer noses, long straight back and legs, make sure they can lift and rotate the tail, I had to wipe Thralls butt every time he pooped, I had to powder and care for his tail pocket. I was looking for all this, but maintain a good stocky well balanced physique.

When I examined the akc breed standard, it forces the characteristics that cause the issues I wanted to avoid. I started reading all of these horror stories of show dogs being given medicines and anti inflammatory pills to do well in shows, dogs that pass out from poor airways when they aren’t even moving around are being bred, and the so called “responsible” breeders will literally bad mouth and trash anyone who tries to breed healthier built dogs. It was very eye opening to me, my grandmother showed and bred Siberian huskies, and I assumed other akc breeders were like her. The reality is that in French bulldogs it’s a very closed clique, and if you suggest any deviation from the popular trends, you are called a back yard breeder and ostracized by the show ppl. So it was hard finding what I consider a healthy bulldog. Can you believe the French bulldog standard used to allow tails that could be held gaylie (sp?) now the standard prohibits tails that break the top line. Can you imagine writing a standard that forbids a dog the ability to raise its tail, the reality is that many bulldogs need their nub amputated because it starts to get ingrown.

Anyway, after a few months I found Peppa, our sweet little girl, I took the kids to go see the puppies and we came home with a spunky black nugget. I had been talking to a lot of people, researching many sites looking for what I wanted, and a couple months later I received a lovely photo of my Meatball, I stared at it and clicked on it and read about him about 100 x a day for 3 or 4 weeks. Finally I literally started crying while I was doing the dishes one night because I wanted him so bad, but we had already found a puppy. My husband says how about we make a deal, we get him and don’t alter either one and we have a litter to recover the costs in a few years, his point was I had put a lot of effort into finding bulldogs who met my health standards, talked to many other people, and I had determined there were too many wonky eyes, poorly built, crooked toothed and lame dogs being sold for thousands, so why don’t we just give a few people healthy dogs at a reasonable cost.

So I basically would have agreed to anything, and now we have 3 young dogs and our 13 + year old pug. We haven’t had puppies, Peppa is on her 4th heat so I have to decide within the next couple. But now with the issues in the city, we want to buy acreage and move so I’m sure we will resolve that before having pups, but who knows, I make rash decisions haha.

Anyway that is my current progress on my dog dream, as I type this my sweet little mommas boy Meaty is in my lap, where he strives to be 24/7. I saw an Alaskan Klee Kai at the pet expo last year, and my Siberian roots met my frenchie fever and so perhaps one day when we have lots of land I may look into one.

My intention was always to do rally obedience and/or agility with my frenchies, but with covid we had to stop taking classes, I had hoped to compete this spring and summer, but that’s impossible. I don’t even know if the trainer will be able to reopen after all this time :-(

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Two of my dogs have French bulldog in them. I was surprised to learn of all the health problems that the breed has. Mine are mixed with Boston terrier, and it seems to make them better off. They are definitely heavier, so some hybrid vigor going on.

I see one of yours is a merle. I was wondering your thoughts on merle frenchies as they aren't considered normal, but trendy now. It seems those and blues are all the rage now. I love the breed, but I don't think I can justify the price tag considering all the health problems they can have. They definitely are my number one breed for dreaming breed.

I fell in love with French bulldog back in the 80's and I worked at a kennel and they had 3. They are such funny great dogs.

 

[FloorCandy]

Two of my dogs have French bulldog in them. I was surprised to learn of all the health problems that the breed has. Mine are mixed with Boston terrier, and it seems to make them better off. They are definitely heavier, so some hybrid vigor going on.

I see one of yours is a merle. I was wondering your thoughts on merle frenchies as they aren't considered normal, but trendy now. It seems those and blues are all the rage now. I love the breed, but I don't think I can justify the price tag considering all the health problems they can have. They definitely are my number one breed for dreaming breed.

I fell in love with French bulldog back in the 80's and I worked at a kennel and they had 3. They are such funny great dogs.

I wasn’t looking for Merle, and I did not pay extra for it, and I definitely would not have paid the $5000 or more I see people asking. I actually looked into Merle a lot before I got him and there is no health issue directly related to Merle, the issue is breeding Merle to Merle, or the people who inbreed to keep this expensive gene in their “program”. Since Meaty comes from healthy and diverse lines, and my female is not Merle there’s no issue for me.

I read an interesting article which I haven’t been able to find again, about how when they mapped the doggy genome they determined Merle occurred naturally before the split into many breeds, and Merle can spontaneously occur naturally in any breed at a very low occurrence even breeds with coloring that isn’t affected, can carry the gene but it can’t be seen as not all pigment types are affected. So basically a black dog can throw blue puppies randomly like one in every 100,000 litters or something like that, it’s a natural mutation, same for Merle, but a fraction of the rate. As far as health concerns for frenchies, before you worry about color, there are so many other issues that blatantly cause problems, I would prioritize back length, nose length, leg shape and length in that order as highest priorities. After that, tail, eyes, and teeth. My dogs have longer backs than akc frenchies, they still fall into the formula for being acceptable, but they’re not all roaches and misshapen. Their legs are straight and long, I don’t worry when they jump off the couch, I do have stairs for the hope chest and bed, but they don’t always use them haha. They’re eyes are not bugged out, they can run, jump and play while breathing easily. I can easily put out a kiddie pool in 100 degree heat and me, the kids, and dogs can spend all day in the yard without the dogs having issues. They’re teeth are straight which is often an issue. It was teeth that took our dear Thrally from us, repeated infections in the jaw from his crazy teeth.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would tell me how people culled white and piebald huskies. Now a days husky people will tell you those colors don’t occur naturally, and other breeds were mixed in, that’s because today’s breeders ignore the skeletons in the closets of past breeders. Way back when, not every breeder culled off colors, they were often secretly rehomed with no papers and never mentioned again. I’m sure some new trendy colors in breeds come from hanging papers and mixing in other breeds, but some come from those genes naturally being expressed by pets, and perpetuated outside of the ring and show standards.

In summation, I think my Meaty is super handsome, but I bought him because he’s a healthy dog with good proportions, straight teeth, and a limber movable nub tail, and that’s why I bought him, being adorable is an added perk imo.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I'm still dreaming, never stops here. Now I'm thinking fondly of those yappy Pomeranian that used to live next door to my grandparents house in Chicago. I used to feed them milk bones as a kid through the fence. They were adorable dogs.

They sound nice!! They’re cute dogs. Little fluff balls lol

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They sound nice!! They’re cute dogs. Little fluff balls lol

Gotta get smaller around here. I'm assembling a team of little dogs in my head.

 

[FloorCandy]

I like this site a lot related to bulldog coloring, this breeder, writes articles from her experiences such as participating in UC Davis genetic studies on color, not here say they got from their show buddies who have a vested and financial interest in keeping the trends out.

https://rarebulldogs.com/the-merle-controversy

Can you believe the current trend in akc breeders of frenchies is to breed a brindle dog with as little brindling as possible, so maybe like one or 2 tiny eruptions of fawn on an otherwise black dog, however solid black is a disqualification in the akc (not the KC of England tho, I believe solid black and blue is acceptable there). Two alleles of the same gene, one is the most sought after, the other, breeders claim never existed in frenchies, and is a severe fault leading to disqualification.

In 2015 I think, the Bulldog Club of America voted to change the standard (not frenchies, but bulldogs, and frenchies have the same issues regarding colors and acceptance) so they can reprimand and fine judges who award a ribbon to a Merle dog of higher quality than to a standard colored dog of obvious poor quality based on other physical features besides color. So dogs who can barely make it around the ring they were breathing so badly or in so much pain, should be awarded over healthy dogs of Merle color. Some small shows may have very few entries, and judges sometimes have to choose “the best of the worst”. If that judge chooses a Merle over a lame dog the BCA believes he should be fined, rather than discipline breeders of unhealthy dogs who would go to shows with historically low entry to try to get a win for their lemon.

http://www.motherlodebulldogclub.com/whychangethestandard.html

 

[FloorCandy]

I'm still dreaming, never stops here. Now I'm thinking fondly of those yappy Pomeranian that used to live next door to my grandparents house in Chicago. I used to feed them milk bones as a kid through the fence. They were adorable dogs.

Going back to your question about Merle, the Pomeranian standard was rewritten in more recent years to include Merle. So you could get a Merle Pom.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

There is a lot wrong with the AKC. The intentions are good I think, but every breeder interprets things differently and breeds for traits they want, or feel they need to win those shows. I'm hoping one day it stops and dogs are bred for health which was the original intention of a standard.

I had thought that French bulldogs came in brindle, fawns of various shades and pied of those two colors. I don't understand how merle can show up, but I will do some reading. I like to learn new stuff, so thank you.

 

[FloorCandy]

There is a lot wrong with the AKC. The intentions are good I think, but every breeder interprets things differently and breeds for traits they want, or feel they need to win those shows. I'm hoping one day it stops and dogs are bred for health which was the original intention of a standard.

I had thought that French bulldogs came in brindle, fawns of various shades and pied of those two colors. I don't understand how merle can show up, but I will do some reading. I like to learn new stuff, so thank you.

The first link I gave called the Merle controversy is a great place to start, then I just kind of spiraled out from there reading various things. Even if you never get or even see a Merle, it’s nice to be informed so you can participate intelligently when people talk about these things right?

Also the akc is like the US. The breed groups are the states. Many times it is the breed group in this case the BCA and FBCA that bring the selfish drama, many other breed clubs really do keep health in mind.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Gotta get smaller around here. I'm assembling a team of little dogs in my head.

I am starting to love little dogs more and more!! I want a terrier lol