Since earning her bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University in 2006, Jennifer Heiner has divided her time between working at a running company in New Jersey and volunteering with various animal rescue groups. An avid runner herself, she has completed six marathons and several shorter events. At other times, Jennifer Heiner spends time trying new restaurants, attending Broadway shows, and staying home playing with her English bulldog.
Bulldogs are among the most popular of all dogs kept as pets. The English bulldog as we know it today is the result of countless generations of selective breeding. Growing to a maximum of about 50 pounds, it’s characterized by a stocky body with wide-set shoulders, a broad stance, wrinkly skin, a large, square head, flat face, short snout, and a perpetual frown displaying a notable underbite. Centuries ago in England, their ancestors, the result of breeding pugs with mastiffs, were full-sized work dogs used to drive cattle. They got their name because they were used in the “sport” of bull-baiting until it was outlawed in 1835. Bulldogs then began to fall out of favor until smaller versions were bred as pets. Many point to pit bulls as being an aggressive dog breed and used in dog fighting, while in reality, English Bulldogs were the original dog fighting breed of choice.
Some of the new, smaller English bulldogs were brought to the Continent by their owners, where they quickly became popular; further selective breeding resulted in the dog we call the French bulldog today. Smaller than their English cousins, they are tail-less, and their ears resemble a bat’s – upright and pointed. The American bulldog, a full-size version of the English bulldog weighing 60 to more than 100 pounds, developed as a working breed in the colonies primarily used in agricultural applications.
Nevertheless, all modern bulldog breeds have had that aggressive nature bred out of them, and they make excellent and playful family pets. Because of their small nostrils and short snouts, bulldogs, especially the French and English, often fall prey to respiratory problems. Many modern breeders have been working to develop new strains without these problems, and today there are at least a dozen additional bulldog breeds.
