History of the English Bulldog

The ferocious forerunners of today’s Bulldog were brought about through manipulative breeding in England of these Alaunt or Mastiff type dogs. Their original purpose was to assist butchers in controlling the savage bulls from which food for the table would be gleaned. It was also believed that the meat of a much more tender and nutritious quality could be had from bulls which had been “worried” by these bandogs prior to butchering than that which came from bulls immediately slaughtered. The dogs were developed with short legs and heavy bodies that served them in keeping out of the way of the bulls’ horns. It does not tax the imagination to see how readily what was a functional animal could rapidly be adapted to salve man’s ego in cruel sport by pitting the dog against bull to see who owned the most ferocious dog most capable of binging the bull to the ground. Thus was born the sport of “bull baiting.”

In these contests, the dog was to grab the bull by the nose when the tethered bull attempted to impale the dog on its horns. The dog was to hold onto the bull with no regard to his own personal injury until the bull finally expired from loss of blood and oxygen deprivation.

The undershot jaw of the Bulldog enabled the dog to clamp onto the bull’s nose with such a vice-like grip it was almost impossible for the bull to dislodge the dog. The dog’s heavy body weight and low center of gravity combined with his sheer grit and determination could eventually bring the bull to ground.

It was from the duties assigned to these tenacious dogs that the characteristics that distinguish the Bulldog of today were developed. A head of great size provided the power required of the jaws to secure the iron grip on the bull’s nose. The undershot and upward curing conformation of the muzzle (layback) not only provided as secure a hold as could be had, it also pushed the dogs nose back from the end of the muzzle so that even with jaws clamped tight, the dog’s nose was free to take in needed air.

It goes without saying that this vice-like grip created a torrent of blood from the bull. Wrinkles of the dog’s muzzle channeled this blood flow away from the dog’s nose and eyes. So, the Bulldog’s head, often dismissed simply as an anomaly, is in fact the result of form following function. Still, one is forced to wonder who else but the British stockmen of old could have conceived and developed the bizarre conformation of the Bulldog head as functional as it might have been?

Just prior to the close of the 1800’s, the noted dog writer of that era, Hugh Dalziel wrote: “When the rules of bull-baiting became consolidated, and the chief point was for the dog to run in farthest and fairest, tackling the bull in front, dogs would be selected and bred of low and strong formation. I think, unquestionable that we owe the present from of our Bulldog to the selection in breeding with the objects referred to made during the later period of bull-baiting, happily ending some 50 or 60 years ago.”1

1 - A New Owner’s Guide to Bulldogs – BULLDOGS; History Pages 9 , 10, 11; Authors: Hank and Carol Williams ; Copyright 2002 by T.F.H. Publications Inc.