History Of The English Bulldog
The history of the English bulldog is a very interesting one. The term “bulldog” first showed up in “1568″ and was probably used to talk about ancestors to the modern bulldog. It is believed the bulldogs were created from breeding Mastiffs and Pugs, but this is not certain.
In the 17th century bulldogs were used for bullbaiting. Gamblers would bet on which dogs would be the first to attack a tied up bull and try to latch onto its nose.
Wild bulls back then were considered quite dangerous so bulldogs were trained to attack loose bulls like this.
After a while this athletic bulldog was crossed with a pug. This resulted in more of the bulldog we are familiar with today.
He may look tough, but he cannot quite perform athletics as well as his ancestors.
The Bulldog Club in England is the oldest dog breed club in the world. It was formed in 1878. This group set the breed standard for the bulldog.
It is believed that the French Bulldog was derived from the English bulldog by breeding the runts.
French bulldogs are much smaller than English bulldogs and have pointy ears.
The French bulldog caught on more with royalty in France than the English bulldog in England.
In fact in France it was considered a very high class pet. Eventually even the Russian royal family even owned some of these bulldogs.
As you can see the history of the English Bulldog is a very interesting one.
