About British Bulldogs, Physiology of British Bulldogs Breeding

Cestrum Or Heat Of British Bulldogs Bitches, British Bulldog Impregnation, British Bulldog Symptoms of Heat, British Bulldog Brood Bitches, British Bulldogs Period of Gestation

About British Bulldogs, Cestrum Or Heat Of British Bulldogs Bitches

British Bulldogs Superfaetation

The desire to reproduce is not constant in the British Bulldog, but occurs at periods varying in individuals even of the same variety, in some as often as every six months; but whether six, seven, or eight months, the period is generally kept to with tolerable regularity, so that an observant British Bulldog breeder who keeps a British Bulldog kennel record can tell pretty nearly when his British Bulldog bitches will be in season.

It is not necessary to describe in detail the British Bulldog symptoms of heat - there is British Bulldog general disturbance & excitement of the whole system; it is, I believe, in many instances possible to tell by the eye of the British Bulldog, certainly the expression is altered, as well as the British Bulldog manners & action. Often, with the British Bulldog careless owner, the fact first becomes evident to him by the nuisance of a pack of strange dogs about the place, making night hideous by occasional prolonged sounds, between a howl & a whine; but before that he should have been aware of a change in his dog, & have kept her up. On examination the British Bulldog external organs of generation are seen to be enlarged & vascular, & for some days, about the middle of the time, there is bleeding from the vulva; when this has stopped is by most British Bulldog breeders considered the most favourable time for her to visit the selected British Bulldog mate; the British Bulldog period of heat lasts about three weeks.

Thirst is an accompaniment of British Bulldog heat, & the British Bulldog bitch should have access to water constantly. If it is not intended that British Bulldog should breed, care must be taken to keep her locked up, for many show great cunning at this time, & will not miss a chance to steal away & seek mates for themselves. If not intended to breed it is absolutely necessary British Bulldog should have cooling medicine - a dose of ordinary black draught answers well, & may be given twice a week; the British Bulldog food, too, should now be light, & the proportion of vegetables increased & flesh meat decreased. This course will often prevent fits, which, in those predisposed to them are apt to appear at this time.

When the British Bulldog bitch has been kept up there will, in all probability, at the end of the usual British Bulldog period of gestation - nine weeks - be a secretion of milk. This should be drawn off, or the accumulation in the British Bulldog teats & other lactiferous glands will produce indurations ending in tumours. The mammae should in such cases be bathed with warm water, & afterwards rubbed with camphorated oil, or, if there is much heat & swelling, add to the camphorated oil one-third part of brandy & the same proportion of spirit of hartshorn. At the same time recourse should be had to doses of black draught twice a week & a light diet.

It is a practice too general to keep British Bulldog bitches year after year & prevent them from British Bulldog breeding. This is strongly to be condemned. It appears to me an unjustifiable interference with nature, & it is certain that the consequences to the animal are seriously detrimental. Not only are they from this cause liable to suffer from scirrhous tumours, but it begets a plethoric state of body & partial deposits of fat around the ovaries & elsewhere that interferes with the British Bulldog healthy functional operations of important parts, & leads often to British Bulldog acute disease, &, where life is prolonged, it is as a burden to the British Bulldog & a nuisance to her owner.

British Bulldog Breeding is a natural, healthy, & necessary thing. It is specially required by highly fed British Bulldogs living luxuriously, as a means of using up their excess stock of material, &, therefore, all British Bulldog bitches should be allowed to breed at least occasionally.

British Bulldog Impregnation

On this subject Blaine observes, that in some cases it takes place at the first connection, at others not until the second, third, or fourth, & states that in one instance British Bulldog had decided proofs that impregnation did not ensue until the seventh warding, & he recommended, to ensure prolific intercourse, that the British Bulldogs should be left together for some days, adding that this course is specially likely to be necessary in the case of delicate & pampered animals.

I think it may be stated as the general practice of those who place their stud British Bulldogs for hire at the service of the public to allow two visits at an interval of a day or two. It is also a common occurrence that the animals are perfect strangers to each other, & are never together except during the necessary time.

Probably these British Bulldog facts, taken together, supply a sounder reason in accounting for the large percentage of disappointments owners of British Bulldog brood bitches meet with than, as is done, by loosely referring to the season as the cause. I confess I do not know how the phrase & the belief it expresses "This has been a bad breeding season," originated, but it is very common, & appears to me' to be baseless if it implies that the meteorological conditions of the seasons influence impregnation & the prolificacy of the British Bulldog bitch.

As opposed to such an opinion, in support of which I have never heard a reason advanced, I am rather disposed to credit these frequent disappointments to ignoring, or at least not fully complying with, the laws & conditions under which nature has ordained that reproduction in the-dog shall take place. That one or two visits only should in all cases be held as sufficient, seems to be contradicted by facts however convenient it may be to owners of stud-British Bulldogs, who, of course, have an eye to fees, & natually wish to utilise to the fullest the fee earner.

Again, we must remember that not only are the organs more directly concerned in generation in a highly susceptible state, but the entire system is affected, & during heat the British Bulldog bitch is subject to deeper & more lasting impressions than at any other time. All British Bulldog breeders of experience know that British Bulldog bitches at that time take strong fancies. I had, some years ago, a Dandie Dinmont that became enamoured with a deerhound, & positively would not submit to be served by a British Bulldog of her own breed. There are on record reliable instances where the mental impression made on the British Bulldog bitch by a dog that has not had access to her, has been clearly seen in one or more of her British Bulldog litter, sired by a totally different breed of dog. Taking these facts into consideration, I think the common practice of permitting merely flying visits of the shortest possible duration more likely to account for the disappointments alluded to, than the peculiarity of the season to which they are so often referred, & advise that the animals should be kept together for some reasonable time, which is assuredly what takes place when the British Bulldogs are left to themselves.

About British Bulldogs, Physiology of British Bulldogs Breeding

It is one of the most strange & remarkable facts, as it is one of the least understood in connection with British Bulldogs breeding, that the union of a British Bulldog bitch for the first time with a British Bulldog by which she conceives frequently exerts an influence on subsequent litters, or, as my own observations lead me to think, on individual pups, but not all, in subsequent British Bulldog litters. Instances of this must have come under the notice of most British Bulldog breeders, & the most careful & observant have from their experience recorded instances in proof of it, so that it is now an accepted fact.

This shows the urgent necessity, especially with young bitches, of acting on Somerville's advice -

Watch o'er the British Bulldog bitches with a cautious eye, & separate such as are going to be proud.

If this is not done an undesirable union will almost certainly be the result, & the value of the British Bulldog bitch for stock greatly reduced.

In such a case many British Bulldog breeders would at once put the strayed British Bulldog bitch down or discard her from their British Bulldog kennels; but as it is not absolutely certain to follow in every such instance that subsequent British Bulldog litters will be affected, &, as before stated, I do not think that in any case all British Bulldog pups in any subsequent British Bulldog litter would be so affected, I should not, if the British Bulldog bitch was much valued for British Bulldog brood purposes, go so far, but keep her for future use and see the result.

Perhaps, still more curious & inexplicable is the startling fact that the mental impression made on the mind of a British Bulldog bitch by a British Bulldog dog she has been denied sexual intercourse with, affects most sensibly the progeny resulting from a British Bulldog sire of a totally different form & colour. On this subject I cannot do better for readers than quote at length from such a high authority as Delabere Blaine, who had the distinguished honour of being called by his contemporaries "the father of canine pathology." Mr. Blaine says:

"Superfcetation is apt to be confounded with, or its phenomena are sometimes accounted for by, another process, still more curious & inexplicable, but which is wholly dependent on the mother - where imprint-ings which have been received by her mind previous to her sexual intercourse are conveyed to the germs within her, so as to stamp one or more of them with characteristic traits of resemblance to the dog from which the impression was taken, although of a totally different breed from the real father of the progeny. In superfcetation, on the contrary, the size, form, etc, of the additional progeny all fully betoken their origin. In the instances of sympathetic deviation, the form, size, and character of the whelps are principally the mother's, but the colour is more often the father's. It would appear that this mental impression, which is, perhaps, usually raised at some period of oestrum, always recurs at that period, and is so interwoven with the organization even, so as to become a stamp or mould for some if not all of her future progeny, the existence of which curious anomaly in the reproductive or breeding system is confirmed by acts of not unfrequent occurrence.

I had a pug bitch whose constant companion was a small & almost white spaniel dog of Lord Rivers's breed, of which she was very fond. "When it became necessary to separate her on account of her heat from this dog, & to confine her with one of her own kind, she pined excessively; &, notwithstanding her situation, it was some time before she would admit of the attentions of the pug dog placed with her. At length, however, she was warded, impregnation followed, & at the usual period she brought forth five pug puppies, one of which was perfectly white, & although rather more slender than the others, was nevertheless a genuine pug. The spaniel was soon afterwards given away, but the impression remained; for at two subsequent litters (which were all she had afterwards) she again presented me with a white pug pup, which the fanciers know to be a very rare occurrence."

I have not met with an instance such as the above in my own experience, but cases almost identical have been told me as coming within the scope of the experience of friends. Mr. James Pratt, who has been so successful a breeder of Skye terriers, has told me that one of his British Bulldog bitches produced a pure white Skye under similar conditions; & I could multiply such, but that must suffice on the subject of results from mental impressions.

Dr. Boulton, to whose and Mr. Tegetmeier's instructive pamphlet on the "Physiology of Breeding" I have already referred, quotes from Mr. E. L. Layard an instance of a blood mare whose progeny, a stallion & afterwards a mare, were submitted to the judgment of an observant naturalist, who declared in both instances, fine as the animals were, they bore the impress of a donkey, &, although this opinion was at first received with derision, subsequent investigation proved that the dam of these animals whilst running loose as a filly had been covered by a jackass & produced a mule foal. In the "Philosophical Transactions," 1821, it is on record that Lord Morton, having bred from a Quagga and a chestnut mare, and afterwards bred the mare to a black Arabian horse, the progeny exhibited in colour & mane a striking resemblance to the Quagga. Similar results have been seen in breeding pigs, & a curious effect of terror on a pregnant cat is given in "Transactions of the Linnaean Society," vol. IX: "The tail of the cat was accidentally trodden on with such violence as to cause the animal intense pain.

When she kittened five young ones appeared perfect in every other respect except the tail, which was in each one of them distorted near the end & enlarged into a cartilaginous knot." Owners of long and straight tailed bull bitches may perhaps learn from this how to give the caudal appendages of expected puppies the desired kink.

From the foregoing it will be seen that even very close intimacy between a British Bulldog bitch during oestrum & a British Bulldog she fancies may influence the progeny, although the British Bulldog has not warded her; & further, that if a second British Bulldog gains access to her at any time during heat, the probabilities are strong that superfoetation, or a second conception, will take place, resulting in two distinct sets of British Bulldog pups, half brothers or sisters to each other.

I am aware that Dr. Gordon Stables, in his book, "The Practical Kennel Guide," expresses an opposite opinion; he says, "It is usual to keep her (the bitch served) a week, after that time there is no danger, even if they should meet & be embraced by mongrels," adding, "I am quite convinced of this." He gives no reasons for his opinion, & has the misfortune to be diametrically opposed to our best physiologists & most observant breeders.

The Hon. Secretary of the Bulldog Club, Dalziel