˃ullFo͖ With Doris BoyD, Gary L. DoerGe, FreD haynes, anne M. hier, John LittLe, roBert neWcoMB & roBin stanseLL q&a
2. What are your “must have” traits in this breed? DB: Gentle, but confident. GD: My must have traits in the breed are head and proper size. FH: My must haves in Bulldogs are heads, fronts and topline, but of course it takes so many individual breed points in the head alone to make a good head that I do tend to dwell on examining the head when judging. AMH: The Bulldog standard actually lists three specific musts. 1) “The perfect Bulldog must be of medium size and smooth coat; with heavy, thick-set, low-swung body, massive short-faced head, wide shoulders and sturdy limbs.”; 2) “Tail must be short, hung low, with decided downward carriage, thick root and fine tip.”; and 3) “The action must, however, be unrestrained, free, and vigorous.” For me, personally, my musts in the breed are correct temperament, health, type and soundness. JL: Good temperament and soundness. RN: I want to see a balanced dog with Bulldog type that appears massive in relation to his size. The head equals 39 percent of the points in the standard. The dog’s head must have correct ears; wide and long skull; short nose; wide, well turned-up jaw, not wry; and correct wrinkle pattern. The dog must have a pear-shaped body, wide shoulders, well sprung ribs and narrow in the rump. One of the most important traits to me is a correct topline. The standard reads, “roach back, or more correctly, wheel-back, a very distinctive feature of the breed.” RS: Large square head, free breathing, correct roached topline, tacked-on shoulders and correct, rolling gait. 3. Are there any traits in this breed you fear are becoming exaggerated? DB: Not really. No traits—bad habits sometimes. I have a thing about showing a Bulldog on a tight collar. If a dog is unable to gait with all 4 feet on the ground, something’s wrong. GD: My biggest fear of exaggeration is the long and low exhibits that are out there. This trait is very hard to breed away from and could literally destroy the look of the breed. Bulldogs should be short-backed and short-loined. FH: This can vary within different regions, but generally speaking, I think many Bulldogs are getting much too short. Others are overdone with heavy, ropey wrinkles and some are losing leg and are too low to ground. AMH: Except for some short-legged dogs popping up, I would say that a lot of Bulldogs in the ring today are not exaggerated, but are becoming quite generic with significant lack of type in many areas, particularly in dogs.
JL: I believe that the breed is headed in the right direction. RN: I do not see any traits that are becoming exaggerated. RS: Some heads are overdone with excessively large wrinkles. 4. Do you think the dogs you see in this breed are better now than they were when you first started judging? DB: Bulldogs are the same. Breeders breeding to the win- ning dogs are what makes the difference. We all try to breed good, healthy dogs. We’re not all successful, all the time. But we try. GD: When I first started judging, Bulldogs were on a down- swing. Fortunately, I have been able to actually see some of the great Bulldogs of our time, so the average finish- able dog was what everyone was showing. I have since realized that everything being shown is not going to be a great one. Having judged the breed for many years now, I am happy to say that the breed is improving greatly and there are now many exceptional dogs being shown. FH: Compared to when I first started judging there is abso- lutely no doubt that Bulldogs today are tremendously healthier, especially breathing. It is rare indeed nowadays to hear/see a Bulldog in the ring with labored breathing, whereas in my early days it was pretty common place. I think generally speaking today’s Bulldogs are better dogs than they were, but I don’t think that they are necessar- ily better Bulldogs today because we are losing several important breed points—width and thrust/sweep of jaws, length of skull and fore face to name a few. We are in danger of becoming generic. AMH: As a whole, the Bulldogs in the ring today are signifi- cantly better than in the 1970s, particularly in the area of health and soundness. They are also more uniform in type, better conditioned, shorter bodied, and, on the whole, have significantly smaller, correct ears and ear sets. More and more breeders now do numerous health screenings and this has been a major help to breeders. In the 70s, it was not uncommon for the ring to be filled with dogs that had significant breathing issues and well as long backs, absolutely horrific rear ends, including layman obvious hip dysplasia, inverted hocks and splayed feet. However, the dogs of that era had, on the whole, correct head type with super layback and massive, broad, well-turned up under- jaws. Bulldog breeders are very fortunate that we have dozens of specialty shows a year and the quality is still quite high at these events. However, I believe the quality has deteriorated at many of the all- breed shows with a lot of average dogs in the ring, which makes it a disappointing day in the ring for the judge. Too many blocky heads, narrow muzzles and underjaws, wry
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