From the old rings to the hearth
The Bulldog is an English breed, and for a long stretch of its history it had a job in the bull rings of English market towns. Parliament outlawed that trade in 1835, and the whole future of the breed came down to what a small group of enthusiasts decided to do next.
What they did is the most interesting thing about the Bulldog. Rather than let the dog disappear along with the sport, they set about turning it into a companion, selecting generation after generation for steadiness and good humour until the temperament of the breed had been rebuilt from the ground up. The Bulldog Club Incorporated was founded in England in 1875 and is the oldest single-breed club in the world; it wrote the standard the breed still answers to. The American Kennel Club recognized the Bulldog in 1886.
The rebuild worked so thoroughly that within a couple of generations the Bulldog had become a national emblem — the dog you put on a poster when the word you wanted was dogged. It went on to become the mascot of the United States Marine Corps and of more universities and schools than anyone has counted. Yale’s Handsome Dan, who took up the post in 1889, is generally reckoned the first live animal mascot at an American college, and there has been a Handsome Dan in the job ever since.
The outline, and the famous roll
A Bulldog is a medium dog built on a wide chassis. Adults stand about fourteen or fifteen inches at the shoulder and weigh roughly forty to fifty pounds, and all of those pounds are low down. Seen from above the dog is pear-shaped: broad at the shoulders with the front legs set well apart, narrowing toward the hindquarters. Seen from the side it is a long, low, thick-set thing with a short tail and a topline that dips behind the shoulders and rises again over the loin. The old term for that is a roach back, and it belongs there.
Then it walks, and the walk is the breed. Because the front is wide and the rear is narrower, a Bulldog moves with a loose-jointed, shuffling, sideways roll that no other dog produces. The standard describes it in more or less those words. A Bulldog crossing a room is unhurried, faintly diagonal and entirely pleased with itself, and it is impossible to watch without smiling.
The head is massive in proportion to the rest, broad and square, with the skin falling into heavy folds across the brow and a wrinkle over the short, upturned muzzle. The lower jaw comes forward of the upper — the undershot bite the breed is known for — and turns up at the end, which is what produces that determined expression. The ears are small and thin and folded back on themselves in what is called a rose ear, showing the inside. The eyes are set low and wide and are very dark, far enough forward that the dog looks straight at you rather than sideways.
Coat and colour
The coat is short, straight, fine and flat, with a hard gloss to it, and it is one of the least demanding coats in dogs.
The colours are more varied than most people expect. Red brindle is the classic and often the most admired — dark striping over a red ground — and the other brindles run from light through to nearly black. Beyond the brindles there is solid white, solid red, fawn and fallow, and piebald, which is white with patches of any of the above. Face markings range from plain colour to a dark mask, and no two piebalds are laid out the same way, so a pen of Bulldog puppies rarely contains two that look alike.
Steady, sweet and full of opinions
The temperament is the thing that made the breed. The standard asks for a dog that is equable and kind, resolute and courageous, and that turns out to be a very good description of what shows up in the living room. Bulldogs are calm, affectionate, patient and quietly funny. They are famously easy with children and easy with other pets, and they take a busy household completely in their stride.
They are companionable in a way that some breeds are not. A Bulldog wants to be where the people are and will move from room to room to stay there, arriving at its own pace and settling with a long contented sigh against somebody’s foot. Sitting on you is an ambition, and a forty-five-pound dog with that ambition tends to get its way inside the first week.
There is a sense of humour in there too, and a wide streak of self-assurance. A Bulldog that has decided the current arrangement is comfortable has a way of making that clear, and most households simply plan around it. Owners tend to describe the breed as having opinions rather than energy, and living with one is a good deal funnier than the solemn face suggests.
Grooming, training and the shape of a day
The coat asks for almost nothing. A rubber curry or a soft brush once or twice a week lifts the loose hair and brings up the shine, and most Bulldogs fall asleep partway through. Baths are occasional rather than scheduled.
The folds are the part of the week with a routine attached, and it is a pleasant one. While you are already brushing, run a soft damp cloth through the wrinkles across the brow and around the muzzle, then go over them again with a dry one. It takes a minute, the dog enjoys the attention, and it turns into one of those small daily habits you stop noticing you do. The tail pocket at the other end gets the same treatment. Nails a little and often, ears wiped in the same session, and teeth brushed early enough that a puppy decides the toothbrush is a game.
Training works best in short, cheerful sessions with real rewards. Bulldogs are clever and thoroughly food-motivated, which is a useful combination: five minutes before dinner, three while the kettle boils, one more in the evening. Ask for one thing at a time, mark it the instant it happens, and stop while the dog still wants another go. The same words from every adult in the house matter more than volume does. Socialization is the rest of it — different floors, car rides, umbrellas, hats, calm dogs going about their business — and a Bulldog that has met a hundred ordinary things by six months takes the hundred and first as ordinary too.
The day itself is a gentle one. A couple of short strolls at a comfortable pace and a game indoors is a full Bulldog schedule. Twenty minutes of pottering along a shaded street, a food puzzle after breakfast, a rope toy in the afternoon and a long evening on the sofa suits the breed exactly. This is a dog that has never seen the point of hurrying, and living at that pace turns out to be rather good for the rest of the household as well.
Coming to meet the English Bulldog puppies
Photographs flatten a Bulldog into a face. In person it is a surprisingly solid, surprisingly heavy little tank of a dog with a very soft manner, and the first thing a Bulldog puppy usually does is walk over, sit down on your foot and look up at you.
Our English Bulldog puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy has been like day to day. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.