It is about time , Bull Terrier breeders become serious and assume responsibility instead of hiding behind their fingers. What I am about to say relates to other dog breeds too, but I will leave that to those who work with other breeds.
With no intent to insult or target any one , I am going to say things as they really are. Neither as we would have wanted them to be nor as some intentionally present them to be. If a breeder feels uncomfortable, I suggest they self reflect ,give some serous thought on why what I write makes them feel uncomfortable, and not waste time on trying to prove me wrong.
When I got my first Bull Terrier, Hector, I noticed that people considered the Bull Terrier to be non trainable. Most breeders would talk about their sense of humour, their stubbornness and how difficult they are to train .Unfortunately , not much has changed. I heard the same thing from every breeder I talked to, their dog’s achievements in dog shows. When talking about training, they all said the same thing. Bull Terriers cannot be trained, don’t waste your time.
Breeders have worked meticulously , then and now, to render the working Bull terrier ,the Bull Terrier as a working dog, forgotten. Any attempt to talk about the Bull Terrier in any kind of work like protection work or k9 sports would end too soon. In my opinion this has happened intentionally for commercial purposes as has happened with most dog breeds.
Dog shows are useful and necessary. But distinction in dog shows is not enough for a dog to be considered suitable for breeding. The purpose of breeding is the conservation and improvement of the breed- any breed. Which means that, aside from a good place in dog shows, a dog that will be chosen for breeding also needs to be healthy, clean of hereditary diseases and have the right temperament according to the breed standards. All that is judged in dog shows is morphology. Neither the temperament nor the health condition of the dog(s) is taken into account.
We have reached the year 2021, so many years have passed and still I hear the same things. The charade goes on the same. Let me tell you right away what this results to. This results to the Bull Terrier being banned in some countries (banned breed), restricted in others (restricted breed), high risk breed elsewhere and even illegal to import in some parts of the world. With everything the law of each country brings along to this and that is how there are rescue centers full of unwanted Bull Terriers all over the world.
In the UK, a study of pedigree dogs in 2014 revealed a significant decrease in longevity over the previous decade, with the Bull Terrier losing an average of three full years of life span.
This is a long way away from the purpose of breeding. The purpose of breeding is neither to fill the shelters with unwanted pure bred dogs nor to make the lawmakers of countries ban the breed. And under no circumstances can decreasing the average life span be considered as improvement.
All this is the breeder’s responsibility, because the breeder is supposed to give the proper example, to be the example. The breeder is the first to be expected to have his dogs properly trained and socialized. On dog training, let me share a small excerpt from the book “ Canine Behaviour: A Guide for Veterinarians”.
“Bonnie Beaver offers the statistic that only 38 percent of dog owners keep their dogs long-term. The rest re-home their dogs, surrender them to shelters or simply turn them loose, often far from home. The single most common stated reason for surrendering a dog is “behaviour problems. “These “problems” account for up to 70 percent of the dogs euthanised at shelters, a number far greater than dogs lost to all infectious diseases combined. So much suffering and death results from a simple lack of communication and understanding.”
As for the health of the dogs bred, it is the breeder’s responsibility to only choose healthy dogs for his breeding program instead of choosing other criteria with profit as the sole purpose.
Telling half the truth to potential dog owners, helps nobody. We need to say things as they are.
Yes, Bull Terriers have a keen sense of humour, can be great pets, are very smart. But they are also very persistent, need a great deal of socialization, are very energetic and absolutely need to be trained. And yes, they can become aggressive towards other animals but for dogs that have been bred from Terrier and Bull breeds, very dynamic dogs, it makes sense. It may not be acceptable but it is sensible. And that is something all new Bull Terrier owners should be informed of.
And with no intention to offend any one- this is not “FAT shaming”- it is not normal for a Bull Terrier to look like a barrel, it is not normal for a Bull Terrier to be overweight, and it is not the morphology misleading. When a dog is overweight, the dog is overweight. There’s no excuse.
A young, healthy dog that cannot get on the couch or into the car on his own needs a diet and some exercise, because it is overweight and in bad physical condition. Obesity and lack of exercise are very common death causes and drastically reduce a dog’s life span. It is time we stopped excusing obesity in Bull Terriers with excuses like “ it’s their body type” or “ the dog will not take a longer walk”.
Whether you or I carry more weight is our business. But the dog does not get to decide what and how much he will eat. The dog does not get to decide how much and when he will exercise.
We are responsible for the dog’s diet and exercise.
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