Friday 11 December 2015

Arnie the Frenchie: "perfect in every way"

Source

This is Arnie - a French Bulldog who, according to his UK owner, has sired a litter of puppies due this month.

Arnie is, apparently, health-tested and "perfect in every way".

Well.. except for the teensy, eensy issue of his nostrils.

Annie doesn't actually have any.

For the record, here is the visual guide the French Bulldog Club in the UK uses re nostrils.  Only Grades 1 + 2 are considered acceptable for breeding.

Of course, only Grade 1 is really acceptable. But it's very hard indeed to find a Frenchie with nostrils even this open.

Although not impossible.





I suspect it is little coincidence that these Frenchies are more moderate in other ways too - finer heads and with longer muzzles. Of course that's not what's fashionable at the moment. Just look at this nostril-free zone gracing a current Tesco advert here in the UK.



Yep every little helps, but we need a lot more when it comes to nostrils.





11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hah! Thought I would have to wait a *bit* longer for that observation!

      Obviously, colour not a big issue in my book as long as the animal is healthy (in yours, too, I know Scottie).

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  2. It's not colour that is necessarily wrong but the fact I bet you anything the pups from this upcoming litter are advertised as 'rare' or desirable and the money hungry breeders are charging in excess of £2500/£3000 +. I've seen blue Frenchies selling for £4500! Do you really think these breeders care about health when colour is more sought after? It's disgusting, frankly.

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  3. Surely, surely, surely, the KC should be notified that this dog is deformed and should not be used for stud. His owner and people using him to their bitches should wake up and see what we see. Hopefully his owners love for being a great little character and the reason for keeping him isn't because of the huge stud fees he is generating and they understand that they are just passing the deformity on for generations to come.

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  4. Getting back to your earlier post, you know what I find really depressing? That freaks like this Frenchie are intentionally bred, while magnificent specimens with high genetic diversity and normal bodies are routinely spayed and neutered elsewhere. Given that there are more dogs than homes available, we should not be wasting resources by saturating the population with freaks; we should only be enriching with healthy dogs instead.

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  5. I went to check the Finnish French bulldog associations website out of curiosity. It says in the breedstandards that the nostrils are "very open and symmetric". Might not always be the truth...

    But they do also list all the mouth and breathing problems in the sites and tell that they are caused by the brachycephalic skull! That's something... And they do list the "problem areas of breeding" (mouth and breathing problems, immunology problems, neurology problems, joints, eyes, back and internal organ. So basically everything?!)

    There is also a page for "old wrinklies", listing all the dogs over 8 years. Under 30 dogs... But they are just the dogs owned by the members, so probably not that truthful list.
    -Tiia

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  6. Jemima, the dog in the middle pic is a non-surgical natural? Where do I get one???

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  7. the dog just above the TESCO ad would be my pick for best of breed

    patrick

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  8. The general public needs to be slapped accross the face with a cold fish until they realize what stenotic nares are...

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    Replies
    1. Im thinking some kind of PETA action would in fact work very well. Appropriate, suitable in this instance to get the message across. Some kind of performance protest inside a well appointed Tesco for example, maximum media coverage, an audiance.

      Maybe if people wore plastic bags over their heads printed wth the face of a pug..... something like that anyway. Hmmm might be risky.

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  9. Arnie at 5 on the Richter scale of suffocation should definitely not be used for breeding. Any brief look through some show breeder web sites who also claim these coloured dogs are impostors and you will see dogs with noses exactly like this are the norm.

    These colour novelties sell for big money. Rolly comes to mind, the one blue, one green/brown eyed 50 000 US$ tri-merle midget (as though being merle and a bulldog wasn't enough) stenotic nared (about a three) bulldog owned by Kylie Jenner and Tyga. Celebrities, though what for Im not quite sure, or want to be either.

    http://www.people.com/article/kylie-jenner-tyga-new-english-bulldog-50-thousand-rolly

    The breeders Shrinkabullshit http://shrinkabulls.com/english-bulldog-photos.htm breed some truly messed up faces with their shrunken bulldogs. The skin looks to have been less willing to be shrunk, it almost covers the entire face, at least four times too large for the dog smothered within. Their tri frenchies are particularly bad as far as closed nostrils are concerned. Im especially fond of the picture of the little toddler, a boy squeezing a newly caesarian delivered puppy completely in half. Isn't that just too cute folks? All hand made in America, along the cherished lines of liberty and freedom. Actually the daughter looks like she could also be the product of rather close relations, I wont commit...could just be the way the wind was blowing, a tiny spec of dust on the lens perhaps?

    Even if you generally don't see (as I do) a problem with many colour variations these dogs are certainly no better than the messed up dogs that are acceptable to KCs.

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