Wheelback's Bulldogs

Our guidelines in breeding bulldogs

We have a certain idea of what kind of bulldogs we would like to breed. As we are still new in the breed, we understand, that it may take years and many generations to reach that target, if ever. Bulldogs are living creatures and not something inmaterial that one can mold just the way one wants. At the moment we have bred three generations of bulldogs.

It is very crucial to be able to begin one's work as a breeder with good dogs. We were fortunate to own a nice bitch with many good qualities. Our foundation bitch Bessie (FIN & EST & S CH Jewbull's American Pie) is still, at the age of eight years, in superb condition. She takes long walks every day and can run like an elk in the forest. She is still very lively and playful. No wonder, as her mother is now 12 years old, and also her grandfather and grandmother lived to that age with no major health problems.

In 2004 Terry Davison from Brampton kennel in the UK trusted us with a lovely male puppy. We were very fortunate to be able to import Roli (now INT & NORD & N & FIN & S CH Brampton Tug Tough) to Finland. He has lots of qualities that that make a good bulldog and are very important to stress in breeding bulldogs. We are very thankful to Terry and his family that we have been able to use his very sound males in our breeding and that he has given us many advices for breeding bulldogs. It is the experienced breeders who know best what is important in breeding bulldogs, as they have seen many generations of bulldogs and truly know their lines of bulldogs.

We want to breed bulldogs with sound structure and good movements. Bulldogs should be able to move as well as any dogs, and they should also get enough motion. When the dog has a sound structure, many problems can be avoided.

We want to breed bulldogs free of autoimmunity symptoms. Skin problems and allergies are a big problem for many dog breeds and they can really disturb the quality of life.

Bulldogs are lively dogs and no "couch potatoes". Our first bulldog Ella (INT & NORD & FIN & EST & S & N CH Black Hope Tutti-Frutti) showed us with her lovely, very self-secure and yet very friendly temperament that bulldogs are excellent companion dogs. This is the kind of bulldogs that we want to breed - happy, active dogs.

We breed bulldogs because we are very interested in the breed and we also want to have an impact on the bulldog population in our country and in the Scandinavian countries. The bulldog is often "under the magnifying glass", so there is always demand for sound, well-moving and well-breathing bulldogs and not too extreme types.

We want to respect the work of other breeders. There is no "one right type of bulldog", and one can always learn new things from other breeders. Breeding bulldogs is hard work, and the people who have done it for many years have done much fine work.

We believe that you can constantly learn new things about bulldogs. In order to be succesful as a breeder you have to be prepared to gather information from various sources. You also have to be wise enough to be critical about information that has not been proven to be true. One must understand, that common knowledge of animals and the genetics of nature still is quite limited, so the absolute truth about everything related to breeding dogs does not exist.

Every healthy, good-tempered bulldog is important to his owners and in their opinion represents the world's best sourmug, althought he might not fullfil all the desired qualities listed in the breed standard. It is a challenge for the owner of the bulldog to keep him in good condition and to offer him enough activity for a life worth living.