Owner guide
Bulldog care: what I tell every owner
Everything below is what I actually do here, every day, with dogs I bred myself. Each section links to the video where I show it, opening at the moment I explain it.
The daily five minutes
Most bulldog problems are not dramatic. They are small things left alone for a fortnight. Five minutes a day prevents nearly all of them.
Wrinkles and the tail pocket
Wipe them down daily. That is the whole trick. If you start early and stay on it you will almost never have a problem — and if you skip it, the tail pocket is usually the first place it shows up, with the dog suddenly acting sore about being touched there.
Ears
Rinse, let him shake his head, wipe. Done as upkeep rather than as treatment, this is why my dogs do not get ear infections in the first place. A bulldog ear you only clean when it already smells is a bulldog ear you are going to be treating.
Nails
Little and often beats one big cut. Long nails change how a dog stands, and how a dog stands changes its whole front end over time. There are a few ways to do it — I show the way I use.
What to watch for
Two of these can kill a dog in a day. Most new owners have never heard of either.
Bloat
It kills fast. The signs: throwing up with nothing coming out, a hard swollen belly, pacing, unable to settle. There is no reliable single test, so if you see the picture, you go now — it is not a wait-and-see. A lot of it comes down to how and when you feed.
Cherry eye
The gland in the corner of the eye pops out and sits there like a red bean. It looks alarming and it is common in the breed. There are things you need to watch for and things you should do the moment it happens.
Bad stool
Check the poop. Giardia and coccidia are bacterial infections in the intestines and they are the most common reason a puppy goes off. Caught early it is straightforward. Ignored, it is not.
Overheating
Be very careful with any bulldog in heat. And if a dog does overheat, do not stuff anything down its mouth — I have seen people make it worse trying to help.
Breathing
Breathing is the thing a photo hides and the thing I breed hardest for. Know what normal sounds like for your dog so you notice when it changes, and understand what an airway procedure actually involves before anyone suggests one.
When to phone the vet
Knowing what to say on the phone changes the advice you get back. Four things that buy you time and give your vet something real to work with.
Feeding
I talk about food more than almost anything else, because it is the lever you pull every single day. With very young puppies I use the fingertip method — holding the head and feeding off the fingertips — and it solves one of the biggest killers of newborn puppies.
For grown dogs, what matters is consistency and knowing what you are actually putting in front of them, not chasing whatever bag is fashionable this year.
Fingertip feeding a newborn (opens at 18:59) →
Training: sit, stay, come
Five minutes a day for a fortnight. Sit, stay and come are not party tricks — they are the basis of the relationship between you and the dog, in both directions. A bulldog that will come back to you is a bulldog you can take places.
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