Toy Bulldogs
Toy Bulldogs.
The last Toy Bulldog was registered in the late 1900's, they died
out due to ill health just as current Bulldog types are in ever increasing danger of also doing.
It is the intention of our minibull project to recreate in a far healthier form, the Toy Bulldog
...............
Looks vary, some show more of their Boston heritage others more of their French Bulldog ancestry.
Health checks on all breeding dogs are stringent and all pups come with genetic guarantee
Tails may be short or long, noses are short but not too short to allow the dogs to breath.
Size is from 8 kg up to 15 kg, dogs over this are Middy's not Toys and are very seldom available.
Breeders are limited to a trio of very experienced, ethical people, and no pup goes to anything other than a pet home.
More photos
see more of our dogs here
View puppies
see what is available or on the way here
History of Toy Bulldogs
Toy Bulldog history is rather like all histories, what gets written is always at least partly swayed by the beliefs of, and partly limited to, the knowledge of the historian.
If you Google it there will be several sites pop up, we all have pretty much the same information and it does tend to differ little from one site to another, in books it varies a bit more.
The most believable and common sense information on the original roots of the breed I have found is the idea that they sprang from the Chincha Bulldog which lived in ancient Peru from around 1100 to 1400 AD
There was a study done by Professor Richard N Wagner and Max Hilzeimer in 1937 which showed that the Chincha was similar in size to the French Bulldog but had a more pear shaped cranium.
(As did the Toy Bulldog)
Old photos that can be found in books and on the net suggest a small, very well muscled dog with obvious Bulldog characteristics, but not as exaggerated as the English Bulldog of today is.
It is certain that they were hugely popular in the 1800's and early 1900's, and that they died out due to health problems.
The last time one of them was registered with a kennel club was said to be in the 1930s
Many think the French Bulldog was bred from them, and there are great similarities in the two although the Toy Bulldog often had loppy ears but photos do exist of Toy Bulldogs with ears standing straight up, some had short tails others had long tails so that varied as well.
Now that about cuts my knowledge of the past out, after all, I was not there any more than anyone else was.
What we here at the Minibull Project and our partner breeders do know is that we intend to breed a far healthier type of small Bulldog to take us into the future than is currently, or ever was, available.
Below are just a few examples of Bulldogs of old.
The Minibull Projects Mission
The Minibull Project comprise a small group of only very experienced breeders, with the same goals in mind, to breed according to our own set of ethics toward producing a sustainable type of small Bulldog with better health and fitness than can be bred within the very limiting rules of the ANKC.
Unlike ANKC breeders who must stick to the rules of that organization and who cannot outcross to increase vigour and decrease as many of the faults caused by both the general lack of diversity bought about by the too frequent use of popular sires and in, or line breeding, and breeding dogs that have physical attributes which limit their ability to live normal lives.
One of the physical attributes considered as 'normal' which we are striving to improve are the narrowed nostrils to be found in almost all French Bulldogs, in far too many cases these pinched nares are causing breathing difficulties before you even get to the faces which in many lines are getting way too brachycephalic to allow free passage of air further back.
At this stage of the Project we do still see dogs with fairly narrow nostrils, however very few of our dogs are so narrow that airflow is restricted to an extent that causes trouble, or have problems further up their nasal tract that needs correction nearly as often as you will find in their pure bred cousins.
Below on the left is one of our Toy Bulldogs, he will never need surgery on his nostrils to help him breath easy, on the right is a pure French Bulldog, photo taken off the net, with extremely narrow nostrils, if you go looking for yourself you will see that nostrils like these are more common than not in the pure bred dogs while in our own Toy Bulldogs they are presenting far less often because we are actively breeding away from this feature and toward more open nares (nostrils).
Another mission we are on is to improve spines, and hopefully one day erradicate Hemi Vertebrae which is another problem becoming far too common in the pure bred dogs, this condition is a deformity of the spinal disks, it is linked to the short noses, short backs, and screw, to no tailed dogs.
The Minibull Project have been doing x rays on all new lines and any established ones where we have heard of any sort of trouble.
Hopefully as time goes by we can x ray fewer dogs but in the meantime we do this along with DNA tests on all new lines.
Dogs from proven clear of the conditions we can do DNA tests for need not have further DNA testing done, if you have already established that a condition is not in a line, it is not there, and it cannot just pop up from nowhere.
This shocking image of a severe case of Hemi Vertebrae is one I took off the net as you do not need to be a vet to see that this dog would be badly affected.
REMEMBER this condition is linked to over short noses,backs and tails !
All of which we can breed away from yet still keep the nice square shaped head with a reasonably short nose, squarish back and why not a bit of a tail even the odd long one to wag when it is contributing so much toward a more structurally sound dog
I am not going to bore the prospective pet buyer with unending images of the dogs we have x rayed,
The thing to consider is that we ARE doing all we can to improve all aspects of health in our Toy Bulldogs, unlike DNA which gives us a means to erracicate the few things we can do DNA tests for, spinal problems or hip / elbow problems can still ocur in offsring even when adults used are perfect.
However it does greatly lessen the incidence of problems to use dogs with good skeletons to start with.
These x rays show the skeleton of Pongo a Boston Terrier bred by ourselves who has the best spine we have yet had x rayed, to use the words of our vet, he has a spine as good as one would expect to see on a working Kelpie ! this is unusual in a pure bred Boston or a Bulldog.
Getting results like this shows us that without doubt we are heading in the right direction with our project. (And our Boston Terriers )
We also keep an eye oh hip confomation as HD is far more common in small dogs that is realized. probably because it often does not cause any noticable problem for the dog until well into old age, probably because the hips of a smaller type of dog do not have to bear the weight that those of the large breeds do, so a certain ammount of dysplasia can be tolerated by the dog.
Pongo will be used in both Bulldog and Boston breeding programs, and hopefully will pass on his great spine to others in our lines.
Pongo, in spite of having a relatively short nose for our type, breathes well and does not snuffle or run out of wind after a good run, probably due to nasal passages being wide enough to allow good airflow.
Above, Pongo x ray, side view showing good stong, even vertebrae.
Below, Pongo
Below are two very loose examples of the origins of our Toys Bulldogs. Ive done these just to give pet buyers a visual example of roughly what is entailed in ensuring we have enough diversity to improve immune systems and produce a more robust, generally fitter type of dog.
I won't go into finer details than these.
It took us many generations before we even sold a puppy, excess pups from most early litters were given away.
In the last ten years the dogs are advanced enough in type to sell pups as pets, although they still vary a lot in looks.
Kennels, where it all starts, first the nursery viewed from our backdoor, close enough to hear a wee one in trouble, and nursery entrance and inside ! Below that are some shots of older pups kennels both indoors and outdoors pens
