CR5 Issue 161 Oct 2018

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Quirky Britain Barmy about the British Bulldog With some puppies costing as much as £2,500, an English Bulldog Fan Club on Facebook with 154,000 followers and merchandise that includes t-shirts, fridge magnets, cushions and Christmas cards, it’s clear that we Brits are more than a little barmy about our bulldogs. So what’s the reason for this enduring love affair? Over the past two hundred years our perception of this popular breed has gradually changed, as its image has transformed from feisty fighting dog to everyone’s favourite family pet. What’s so brilliant about a bulldog? While they are no longer the fierce fighters of history, after careful selective breeding today’s bulldogs have managed to hold on to certain characteristics that make them stand out from the pack. Today’s bulldogs are calm, easygoing and affectionate and their protective instincts make them good guard dogs. Loyalty is also a strong feature of the bulldog’s personality and they bond strongly with their adoptive ‘families’. Once that bond is created, it lasts for life. But bulldogs can also be stubborn: if yours decides it wants to stay put, very little – short of lifting and moving its substantial, 40-50 pound body – will do. Bulldog beginnings Nowadays, as we laugh at funny Facebook posts of bulldogs in hats, or bulldogs splayed on couches, legs outstretched in an oddly human pose, it’s hard to grasp that the ancestors of this well-loved family pet were bred to excel in vicious blood sports. With its stocky, muscular body shape and vice-like jaw, the bulldog breed was deemed perfect for the violent sport of bull-baiting, in particular the practice of ‘pinning the bull’, where specially trained dogs were taught to bite and hold on to the captive animal’s snout. Bulldogs were especially bred for this bloodthirsty pastime, which was finally banned by the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835. Although most of us would probably associate the expression ‘British bulldog spirit’ with the Second World War, the saying actually dates from the 18th century. The Old English Bulldog (the breed originally used for bull-baiting) is now more or less extinct, but back in the day this animal’s strength, tenacity and fearlessness were qualities that brought it to the nation’s attention. Bulldogs particularly appealed to the political cartoonists of the Georgian era, who wanted to beef up their satirical drawings with a more robust embodiment of the British character. At this time the British spirit was traditionally shown in the form of the armed and helmeted classical figure of Britannia, guarded by a lion, but it seems that cartoonists became bored with this traditional image and added a rough, tough fighting bulldog as an alternative companion for Britannia. Throughout the 19th century the phrase ‘British bulldog spirit’ – as a watchword for unrelenting courage and bravery – was embedded in the public’s consciousness, and when the First World War broke out in the early 20th century, images of plucky bulldogs accompanied by slogans such as “They can’t muzzle me!” became a staple of wartime propaganda posters. It was a strange co-incidence that the man at the forefront of British politics during the Second World War (as the country faced the very real possibility of a Nazi invasion) 40 Log into www.cr5.co.uk your local community website! by Kate McLelland not only bore a striking physical resemblance to a bulldog but also displayed all the characteristics of that courageous and stubborn animal. In fact, the similarity between the British Bulldog and the British Prime Minister was considered so strong that wartime propagandists even published a famous poster, entitled ‘Holding the Line’, showing Winston Churchill’s head superimposed onto a bulldog’s body. Brexit bulldogs During the final decades of the 20th century the bulldog breed fell out of fashion, but in 1994 a string of popular TV ads featuring Churchill (aka ‘Churchie’) – a nodding-head car mascot with a cheerful “Ooooh yes!”/”Oooh no!” catchphrase – helped the bulldog reclaim its place in the nation’s hearts. And it was, perhaps, inevitable that as soon as the referendum vote was cast back in June 2016, the British Bulldog would be summoned out of its kennel to do battle once more, with pundits from both sides using the image to support their arguments. The last word According to a survey conducted in 2017 and <strong>2018</strong>, one in four of us owns a dog, but despite the enduring popularity of the English Bulldog breed, it seems that it has only managed to reach number six in the nation’s poll of most popular dogs, while –Sacre Bleu! – the French Bulldog has recently been tipped to replace the Labrador as Britain’s best-loved canine pet. As our withdrawal from the EU draws ever closer, could we be preparing to swap our 250-year-old icon of British identity for something a little more … um … European in style? We can guess what Churchie would say: “Ooooh no!”
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CR5 Issue 161 Oct 2018

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