Are Bulldogs Good for First-Time Owners? The Honest Answer

The English Bulldog is the dog on the tea towel: wrinkled, stocky, sweet-faced, and about as far from a working dog as a dog can get. Ask a vet whether it is a good first dog and you will get a long pause, and then a careful answer. Here is ours.

What makes them a good first dog

• Temperament. Calm, affectionate, patient and comic. Bulldogs are gentle with children in a way few breeds match, quiet in the house, and content with a nap and a lap.
• Low exercise needs. Two or three short walks a day is a full Bulldog day. No hikes, no running, no hour of ball. For someone with a small home and a quiet life, that is a real advantage.
• Easy to live with. Not a barker, not a chewer of walls, not a dog who needs a job. A Bulldog's idea of a job is holding down the sofa.

What makes them a hard first dog

• The breathing. Most Bulldogs have some degree of brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, BOAS. Snoring, snorting, gagging and tiring easily are the airway telling you it is narrow. Many need surgery, and every owner needs to learn what normal breathing sounds like.
• The heat. A Bulldog cannot cool down like other dogs. Above about 20°C, walks stop. Heatstroke kills Bulldogs every summer on ordinary walks and in ordinary gardens, and one large UK study put their risk at around fourteen times a Labrador's.
• The skin, the eyes, the joints. Fold dermatitis, a tail pocket that needs cleaning, allergies, ear infections, cherry eye, entropion, dry eye, the worst hip scores of any breed on record, slipping kneecaps, and a spine with deformed vertebrae. Not every Bulldog gets every one. Every Bulldog gets some.
• The weight. Food-obsessed, low-drive, and very good at looking hungry. More than half the breed is overweight, and every extra kilo loads the airway and the hips.
• The cost. Among the most expensive breeds to insure and to treat. Budget for a possible airway surgery, lifelong skin management, eye surgery in the first two years and joint care later.
• The lifespan. Eight to ten years is typical, and some large studies put the average lower. This is the part nobody puts on the tea towel.
• Food guarding. The one behaviour problem the breed is known for, and the one that matters most in a house with children. Preventable in the first month; fixable later with a plan.

The breeder question

More than eight in ten Bulldog litters in the UK are born by caesarean, because the puppies' heads no longer fit the mother's pelvis. That tells you how far the shape has gone, and why the breeder matters more than for almost any other breed. Look for parents certified under the Bulldog Breed Council health scheme and graded on the Respiratory Function Grading Scheme, meet the mother, watch her breathe, look at her nostrils and her tail. A breeder with no paperwork is selling you the problems. Breed rescue is a real alternative: an adult Bulldog's breathing, skin and nature are all there to see.

The questions to ask yourself

Is someone home most of the day? Can you keep the house cool and walk at dawn in summer? Will you wipe and dry face folds and a tail pocket every day or two, for ten years? Can you afford high premiums and a surgery? Will you keep a food-obsessed dog lean when they look at you like that? Are you happy with short, slow, sniffy walks and no swimming, ever?

Six yeses, and a Bulldog could be the easiest, funniest dog you ever live with. Two noes, and you will both be happier with a different breed.

If you go ahead

Insure before the first vet visit. Buy a harness, not a collar. Read the breathing and heat guide before the puppy comes home; it is the most important thing on this site for this breed. And start the food work in the first thirty days, because that is when guarding is prevented.