Bulldogs

Physical beauty has never been an attribute of the Bulldog, nor has beauty ever been an objective. Courage and determination always have predominated to where "Bulldog grit" has passed into the language. Savagery, too, was once part of his make-up, for lie was a champion in the cruel sport of bull-baiting, but viciousness has been bred out and replaced by an equable, pacific nature that carries the impression of power under restraint. 

More than a hundred years ago bull-baiting was outlawed. The breed that has become a symbol of the British people thus might have faded out, his usefulness finished, had not breeders interested in the dog's finer qualities gone to work. They developed the dog of today, a 50-pound smooth-coated, heavy-set animal with the big head, short face, the thick, deep chops or "flews," and the massive, undershot jaws.

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The Bulldog is a product of the British Isles. Perhaps he was a fighting dog of the early Britons. In 1500 W. Wuicher called him the Bondogge. He also was called the Butchers' Rogge and by other names until emerging in written records during the 1600s as the Bulldog. Exceptional power, tenacity and bravery were requisites for fighting the bull, and these traits the low-slung Bulldog had with interest. 

Whether the Bulldog came first and produced the Mastiff or whether it was the other way around has been debated a long time. 

Bulldogs were in the earliest dog shows and remain staunch bench competitors, with thou-sands of adherents. The first one is believed to have appeared in an American show in 1880, ten years before the Bulldog Club of America was formed. 

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