English Bulldog Dog Breeds
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Height at the withers: Males 31 – 40 cm, Females 31 – 40 cm
Average Weight: Males 24 – 25 kg, Females 22 – 23 kg
The English Bulldog is a proud and noble dog, if somewhat delightfully ‘grumpy’ looking character. They are powerful, smooth coated dogs that boast being thick set, broad and compact, standing low to the ground. The large face and head of the English Bulldog is its defining physical trait, this together with their very pronounced undershot jaw with canine teeth pointing upwards and which are usually very visible, make the Bulldog one of the most recognised dogs in the world.
The folds of skin around their faces and noses are large with the conspicuous folds being called ‘ropes’ over their black noses. The skin around the mouth droops downwards hanging under the neck giving the British Bulldog their famous ‘sourpuss’ expression. Their snout is short, but should never be too short that it causes a dog to have difficulty in breathing. The English Bulldog is a brachycephalic breed and any exaggerated physical traits which includes shorter faces and muzzles, would make breathing that much harder for them especially during the warmer weather.
A Bulldog’s eyes are set low and wide apart being round and medium in size. Their eyes should never protrude or be sunken and they should be quite dark in colour leaning towards black showing no white at all when a dog looks straight at you. Their ears are set high and wide apart falling neatly down each side of a dog’s head yet as far away from their eyes as possible.
Their body is powerful and muscular with their hindquarters being higher than their forequarters and strong looking. Their chests are wide and deep with broad shoulders and these dogs are quite short backed. One distinctive characteristic of the breed is their slightly arched back. Tails are set low always jutting outwards before dropping downwards and are average in length leaning towards shorter rather than longer, but never docked.
When it comes to coat, the Bulldog boasts a short coat over their entire body that’s fine in texture, smooth and close-lying, but never wiring. The recognised Kennel Clubs colours can be whole or smut which includes the following:
- Brindle
- Brindle & White
- Fawn
- Fawn & White
- Fawn Brindle
- Fawn Brindle & White
- Red
- Red & White
- Red Brindle
- Red Brindle & White
- Red Fawn
- White
- White & Brindle
- White & Fawn
- White & Red
Important note about Merle colouring in English Bulldogs
The merle colour is not a naturally occurring colour in English Bulldogs and when dogs are bred to have this colour, they are more at risk of developing the health issues associated with the merle gene, namely problems with their hearing and vision. As such, merle English Bulldog puppies cannot be registered with the Kennel Club because of the health concerns which affect both a dog’s eye sight and their hearing.
Gait/movement
The way an English Bulldog walks is quite unique because they take short, quick steps on the tips of their toes without lifting their back feet very high off the ground so they seem to just skim the ground they are walking on. They also hold a shoulder slightly more advanced than the other one. English Bulldogs must move soundly which is deemed very important to their breed standard.
Faults
Male English Bulldogs should have two normal testicles fully descended into their scrotums and if they are not, this is considered a fault.
The sizes given in their KC breed standard are a guide of how tall and how heavy an English Bulldog should be. As such, some dogs can be shorter or taller and they can be lighter or heavier than stated in their KC breed standard.