Saturday 1 October 2011

Puddleducks

I've kept very quiet of late regarding the rantings of Ms Harrison, but she's off again on her recent blog and I think it's about time someone stood up to her total drivel


She starts this particular entry with a photo of a Bulldog along side the photo of what looks like a boxer/stafford cross - For pity's sake - if I wanted a Boxer/Stafford cross I'd buy a blooming Boxer/stafford cross, in reality I want a bulldog and I still find it absolutely amazing that apart from the fact that the photo used is so totally unflattering it could be any bulldog in the world, these people still insist that the bulldog has changed so much that he's now on deaths door.


There's two things I'd like to point out here

Firstly: Take a look at the following two photos


If I told you there was over 100 years between these images would you still think the breed had changed beyond recognition as Ms Harrison would have us believe?

And secondly as the temperature outside today hits over 25 degrees (yes I know it's the 1st October but someone forgot to tell the weather) I have a kennel full of bulldogs who far from being shut away in a darkened air conditions room are all out sunning themselves and making the most of this unprecedented heat wave without a care between them. No they haven't been walked today, but no dog should be walked in this for the same reason you won't find me trecking for miles in extreme temperatures. The dogs we have here right now are at no more risk of overheating than any other dog of any other breed.

However, this whole cross breed malarkey has got to stop, our Face Book page was recently hijacked buy a bunch of cross breeders and apart from the fact that the people are not very nice I'm still very much a firm believer in the fact that the only reason why most of these people cross their bulldogs is simply for money - face it, put a bulldog male to a stafford bitch and you've got something you can sell as "a healthy alternative" to the unsuspecting public who truly believe they're getting a bulldog, with a far less chance of having to spend out on a c-section AND no kennel club rules which will limit how often the bitch can be bred from. Two years down the line we're getting the calls from really upset people who own what they thought was a bulldog that is now trying to bite them at every opportunity it gets. The bulldog was a nasty character and I for one don't really want to be on the receiving end of a so called "Olde Tyme" because some money grabbing thug wanted to make a quick buck and has absolutely no intention of standing by his creations. How many times has a new cross breed popped up? None of which have ever, or will ever go the distance and still be around as a breed in 150 years time!


Bringing in the mad ravings of a certain Ms Milne (who I see has gone all double barrelled on us), I will give give Ms Harrison credit for sticking up for the dog show - take away the only thing between indiscriminate breeding and the breed standard and my job will become a living hell, trying to work out what's a bulldog and what's verging on a Pit Bull. It seems to me that when someone's views are so strong and so misguided that they can't see anyone elses opinion as an option they certainly should not be put in charge of a TV show - maybe you'd like to interview me? Or visit the rescue kennel? I'm not ashamed to say that there is probably no other place in the country that sees such a wide variety of this breed, we probably see every single problem that could possibly be thrown at them and yet almost every single dog here enjoys a long daily walk through the woods and the majority of vet treatment is spent putting right the neglect of the human that owned it before we got it. I'm not denying there's problems, but breed anything to anything and there's going to be a risk of problems - that's the law of genetics. Maybe you should also actually speak to someone on the breed council too - there seems to be a lot of speculation being banded about as to what the breed council are actually doing - but as someone that attends almost every breed council meeting and supplies statistics to their health committee it is very frustrating when the good work is being ignored because it makes more sense to pretend that no one cares.

So lets concluded in the same way as Ms Harrison:
Quote "by suggesting that the answer to the KC bulldog was an outcross to a less conformationally-extreme breed. But of course this has already been done by those ahead of the game, eg: the Leavitt Bulldog (above). So how about the KC de-registering the Bulldog and embracing this healthier phenotype instead?
Yeah, I thought not...
" Unquote
a) I don't want a Stafford look-a-like, the UK is over-run with unwanted staffords b) Why not acknowledge the good work being done by the Breed Council and stop quoting outdated propaganda that no longer applies to most bulldogs and c) As the wife of someone in a wheelchair, we got a bulldog to suit our life style oh and d) stop encouraging unscrupulous breeding by people with no care or control over their actions - can you do that? Yeah, I thought not ......


20 comments:

  1. What really gets me Tania is that most people only hear about Bulldogs and never experience a healthy, fit and happy one. They hear about health problems but how many of these health problems do they actually see? Have they seen our breed at the monthly walks people throughout the country organise to raise awareness? Have they seen the clips of them swimming etc? Like you said previously, your work is undoing all the wrong that people have done previously to them. I only wish that Bulldogs were bred by people who actually cared about DOGS for a start. Most are out there purely to make money, keeping bitches in outhouses and in garages, pumping out pups on every season. Are these so called breeders concerned about health testing and paring dam & sire to ensure their future pups offer a lifetime of happiness to their new owners and not just a few months/years?? My opinion is if you buy a pup (of any breed) from someone - you need to be sure they are doing it for the right reasons. Im sick of the bad press Bulldogs get. Id never be without one.

    Jenna

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  2. Yes I agree and if you de-register the bulldog with the kennel club you'll be removing what little policing dog breeding has and encouraging more to breed for the sake of it
    Tania

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  3. Completely agree too Tania. I think the world has gone mad :(

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  4. Have you seen her blog now: She's commented:
    Jemima Harrison said...
    I seem to have upset Bulldog rescue:

    http://bulldogrescueuk.blogspot.com/2011/10/puddleducks.html?spref=fb

    1 October 2011 19:01

    Shame the blog won't accept my reply

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  5. Thats the thing Tania - their quick to throw their opinion out there but not willing to take anything back from someone with knowledge like yourself x

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  6. Ey up, was out walking the dogs, hence the short delay in publishing your commment, Tania. I publish almost every comment - as is evident from the blog - and am more than happy for alternative views as I strongly believe that the debate is important.

    Jemima

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  7. This is the first time I've visited your blog, so I haven't read any of the other entries (yet). As I said on Jemima's blog, I'm the owner of a Dorset Olde Tyme Bulldogge, who can only be described as a perpetually happy, bouncy little mentalist, with endless affection. He's a handful to be sure, and our five year old bullmastiff, keeps him in check very well. He is definitely protective of us, but overall, he is a precious little thing.

    I'm not sure about your Olde Tyme comment, but that's perhaps because I need to read more of your stuff. Mine is certainly not a nasty little thing, he's boisterous to be sure, but not nasty.

    We've had several visits to the vets with skin issues and gastrointestinal problems, but we were prepared for that when we rescued him--we were told that he would be work health wise, because that's the way the breed is. We're a household that believes in rescue and not buying, for so many reasons. I know my bullmastiff and bulldog were taken from a place holding thirty-eight dogs, all of whom had spent most of their time in unfortunate conditions. I'm not sure which one is worse, dogs being held to KC standards that might be killing them slowly, putting them in intense pain and discomfort with seriously diminished life span, or being neglected and spending their lives in much the same predicament, without being shown off for fun and profit.

    Both break my heart. I know one thing, the squished up face of the champion bulldog made me wince, because I can't imagine breathing is at all easy. I don't know if my Dorset is the result of a staffordshire/bulldog cross or not (I'm still learning about the breed), but I love him nevertheless.

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  8. Thank you for taking the time to visit Emma, as you've pointed out your OT is very boisterous - some go beyond that but at the end of the day most bulldog owners don't want that level of energy, like I said my husband is in a wheelchair and that is why we got our first bulldog.
    The photo of the squished up face broke my heart too - the photo is very misleading, you can see what that dog really looks like here http://www.tkdogs.com/dog_shows/2010/Bulldog+Crufts/photo/1188-248

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  9. a 'puddleduck' or 'puddock', in certain areas of Scotland is a slimy toad.


    quite apt really ... lol

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  10. He IS very boisterous, but generally extremely happy and affectionate with it. He managed to tire out a ten month old ridgeback a couple of weeks ago, running about on the local meadows.

    I've seen that photo, and although it does show the dog from another angle, the face is still really squished up. But then, that's a trait of the bulldog.

    Both the dogs we have are rescues, we weren't specifically looking for a bulldog. They came to us via Iron Mountain Canine, who had taken a Bullmastiff and the Dorsets from here: http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/7986609.Man_and_38_dogs_evicted/

    We originally took the Bullmastiff, and then took the Dorset as a companion for her, when we realised they'd been in the same home. Going from being in a "pack" of thirty-eight dogs, to being a solitary dog can't have been easy for her, so we took one of the other dogs that the rescue were finding hard to rehome, the Dorset.

    This is why we rescue, and don't buy. There are entirely too many dogs out there who need homes, without thoughtless breeders adding to the numbers. I would like to find out exactly how my dog was bred though, it's hard to find information when internet pages return "page not found" and other dead links.

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  11. I am purely a pet owner and I have kept several different dog breeds, over my life time. Of all of them, I have to say, the KC Bulldog has the best temperament and personality. I would hate to see this breed outcrossed, god knows what would happen, to its friendly disposition. It taken many years of careful breeding to achieve this and I wouldn't like this to change. Although I own two healthy dogs, I will admit there are health issues within the breed, but doesn't every breed. We now have responsible breeders, that health check their breeding stock, which is more than I can say about some others. Unfortunately, you will always get the back yard type breeders, more interested in the £. there again every breed has this problem. LEAVE OUR BULLIES ALONE.

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  12. I have an Old English Bulldog which is based on the Leavitt Bulldog. As a result we did a lot of research about them first. What I will say is the Leavitt Bulldog was bred to retain the superb temperament and personality and this breeds true. The only real difference is the look and the potential for less health problems

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  13. Let's see dogbreedinfo lists lifespan of the KC bulldog as averaging 8 years. Lifespan of an Olde English/Leavitt Bulldog with lifespan of "about 11 years or more". Quite a difference.

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  14. This is not true, even the kennel club page has updated the average life span from 6 to 10 which is a much more realisitic figure. Pet owners that wish to help us gauge a true figure can help the Breed Council Health Committee find out the real average by completing the survey at http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/BREEDCOUNCILSURVEY-PETOWNERSSURVEY.htm
    Personally I seem to lose mine between 10 and 13

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  15. BulldogLady, Your post is misleading. While the page has been updated it now says "under 10 years" which could mean anything. If you look at the "KC Individual Breed Results for Purebred Dog Health Survey" the mean age of death is 6.4 years. http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/download/1527/hsbulldog.pdf

    Trying to hide information or mislead people to my mind is half the problem with the KC and the whole pedigree issue. Being open/admitting problems whilst stating what is being done to correct things would be far more beneficial and restore trust.

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  16. I have never, and would never hide anything or mis lead anyone. I am speaking from hands on experience with a breed that I know in side and out. My info is taken first hand not from someone sat behind a desk who has never met a bulldog let alone dealt with over 1000 of them. Lets see what the breed council survey finds

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  17. I love the bulldog breed and have known quite a few, far from being just "sat behind a desk". Until the breed council publishes figures you cannot misquote something changing "under 10 years" to "10", however accidentally and not expect it to give the wrong impression.

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  18. Jessica - Lonsdale Bulldogs10 October 2011 at 23:03

    Jessica - Lonsdale Bulldogs.

    Hello Bulldog Lady.

    My name is Jessica - I own the Leavitt Bulldog in the photo that you have commented on ...I know you maybe surprised to hear but i actually agree with many of your comments and views regarding the new 'old tyme bulldog' trend.

    There is an rapidly growing interest in so called 'healthier bulldogs'; none of these self proclaimed healthy dogs are any healthier than any KC bulldogs; apart from them being slightly less exaggerated in appearance they are riddled with severe joint issues, skin, eye, neurological problems plus all the other health issues added to the mixing pot by the abundance of other untested breeds added to create their often egotistical visions of the ideal Bulldog...

    I will be the 1st person to confirm that there are serious temperament issues with many of these dogs - I have seen them 1st hand at dogs shows... They are bred by people with little or no understanding of what they are doing, no regard or compassion for the dogs, or the future of the breed......

    HOWEVER not all people involved with this type of Bulldog are the same neither are the dogs - As you are aware not all KC bulldogs crippled suffocating and suffering in pain....

    We are the only Alternative Bulldog breeders in the UK that actively health screening, joints, eyes heart as well as thoroughly temperament test all our dogs. We have bred one litter (5 puppies) after 6 years of planning, research blood sweat and tears....

    These dogs maybe in your eyes just 'boxer/stafford crosses' but to us they are healthy, happy and most importantly friendly loving family members.

    I have no issues with any KC bulldog owners or breeders quite the contrary. What they seek in a dog is very different to what we would look for i wouldn't judge or condemn anyone for that, its what makes us different. I certainly wouldn't go to the extent of generalising an entire breed of a photo or a couple of dogs i have met.

    What i don't approve of is breeders that do not carry out the basic health tests when breeding a dog. Regardless of breed - Bulldog or not the breed is not the issue, i am a dog lover and see reason not too.

    I understand exactly were you are coming from, i see why you have formed this opinion of 'Alternative Bulldogs' Like i have said i will be the 1st one to make my feelings heard when it comes to the backyard breeders who are doing a grand job at destroying any chance of recognition the breed may have had.
    What can be done about this problem is the million dollar question and an issue that is AS important as health.

    If i am honest i very surprised to see someone who does not appreciate having their 'chosen breed' penalised and generalised in a way do the exact same thing to another...

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  19. im interested in this olde tyme and leavitt bulldogs, my friend has just got an olde tyme one and to be honest they look nothing like my bulldog...and the leavitt looks like either a boxer or a american pitbull...its seems to me as a complete novice bulldog owner of just 3 yrs that people are just naming dogs whatever they want...i dont have a chosen breed, i have had labs, golden retrievers, rotties, a staffi, and my bulldog, for me its not about how much they cost its about can i give the dog the best life, but i have always had the best breeds, i would loved to of bred my dog as hes is beautiful, he would of sired amazing pups but because im not willing to put anymore pups out into a world where there are far too many unwanted animals i decided against it, i think what needs to happen is people need to stop breeding dogs, i dont think a woman would like to be popping out kids every year and giving them away to strangers for a decent price...yes health is important...but what i want to know is how many breeders and i mean any breed of dog...actually vet where these puppies go to live...my dogs breeder came to my home, i invited them to decide if i was the right person had the right house for there dog, they came in first and looked round the house etc to make sure it was safe clean and suitable for there beloved puppy, thankfully they said yes, and they even accepted alot less for him that they had originally wanted it clearly wasnt about the cash for them more a loving home, they are hardwork bulldogs and you have to research ailments etc but he gives so much love, i dont think i will have another breed again, no other dog i have had has given the cuddles he does, they are an amazing dog and iam proud to be his mum

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  20. The Bulldog is one of the strongest dog breeds that are heavily muscled; this makes the dog active and energetic. The Bulldog from local English bulldog breeders have a low to moderate energy level making it suited to all types of homes. It's a laid back dog that does not require too much exercise to keep it happy.

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