Toy Bulldog

The Toy Bulldog, also called the Miniature Bulldog, was a small British bulldog of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was a miniature of the Old English Bulldog, obtained either from naturally small puppies born to full-sized parents or by deliberately breeding for small size. It is now extinct, but the French Bulldog and the Boston Terrier descend from it.

History

The type appeared some time after 1835, when bull-baiting was banned in Britain and the Old English Bulldog fell out of favor. Breeders began selecting bulldogs for smaller size, and the results were called toy bulldogs. They were said to serve no useful purpose, but they were popular with women, especially lacemakers, who kept them on their laps at work. The dogs were company, and they also drew fleas away from their owners.

From the 1850s the dogs were taken to France, where they soon became more popular than at home. The French bred them for upright “bat” ears in place of the original folded “rose” ears, and a dispute known as the war of the ears followed. When the Toy Bulldog Club began to accept bat-eared dogs, its opponents left to form the English Toy Bulldog Club in 1902. The bat-eared dog became the French Bulldog.

King Edward VII owned a Toy Bulldog named Paul, but by the early 1900s the breed was in decline. The word “toy” had been meant to set it apart from the fierce bull-baiting dogs of the past; in 1906 the Kennel Club objected to it and renamed the breed the Miniature Bulldog. The last known record of one dates from 1914, and the Kennel Club declared the breed extinct in 1920. The rise of the French Bulldog, health problems that made breeding difficult, and the First World War all played a part.

Appearance

The Toy Bulldog looked like a dwarfed bulldog: the same dog in smaller proportions, with a large skull, a stocky body and as short a tail as possible. Small, fine ears were wanted, and set it apart from the French Bulldog. Puppies had “button” ears that hung forward and developed rose ears as they grew; button ears in an adult were a fault.

The Toy Bulldog Club’s standard set a top weight of 9 kg (20 lb). The limit was disputed among breeders because it was hard to keep to. Some tried to stunt their puppies by feeding them gin, a practice that was discouraged.

Temperament

The author Leslie Williams called the breed “almost uncannily intelligent”. The dogs were playful and active and had good appetites.

Care and health

Toy Bulldogs were hard to breed, and Williams described them as delicate. Bitches often died giving birth to their first litter, and those that lived were often poor mothers. The dogs were also reluctant breeders that needed supervision when mating. Mating two small standard bulldogs often killed the mother, so some breeders put a medium-sized standard bitch to a toy male instead.

Facts on this page were checked against Wikipedia and may have changed since.