Battle of the the Sexes - Ep 04

Sara delves deep into the intricacies of Bulldog ownership, tackling the age-old question: What sex is better for first-time owners? Through her wealth of experience and expertise, Sara navigates the nuances of the Bulldog temperament, behaviour, and physical characteristics, providing valuable insights for prospective owners.

• Size and Strength: While males tend to be larger and more muscular, females are generally smaller framed. However, individual variations exist based on bloodlines and breeding practices.
• Temperament and Behaviour: Due to their natural power, males may exhibit more boisterous behaviour, while females often display greater attentiveness. Understanding these differences can help owners navigate training and socialization.
• Spaying and Neutering Dynamics: Spaying or neutering a Bulldog can impact pack hierarchy and dynamics. Careful consideration is needed, especially when adding a second Bulldog to the family.

Join Sara as she shares captivating anecdotes, expert advice, and practical tips for navigating the joys and challenges of Bulldog ownership. Whether you're a seasoned bulldog enthusiast or a prospective owner, this episode will enlighten and entertain you.

Tune in to Bulldog Broadcast and embark on a journey into the wonderful world of Bulldogs!

📝 Click to read Show Notes

Transcript

[00:00:00] Are you wondering which sex is better suited for a first time Bulldog owner? Stay listening for a thought provoking debate exploring the subtle differences between male and female Bulldogs. We'll also tackle the hot topic of spaying and neutering and consider how it impacts the dynamics of an existing pack hierarchy.

[00:00:25] Welcome to the Bulldog Broadcast. The Pure Talk Pedigree Podcast. Join me, Sara Lamont, as we delve beyond the pedigree propaganda and misinformation surrounding the beloved Bulldog breed. Together, we'll uncover the real life realities of Bulldogs, sharing insights with admirers, owners, and breeders worldwide.

[00:00:47] Hello, and thank you for joining me today. So the question we're going to answer and discuss is what's better for a first time owner. Owning a dog or a bitch, so owning a male or a female. This is just a summary, so I'm generalising massively. There will be crossover. Don't, don't come for me. Don't have a go at me.

[00:01:12] Let's start with size and strength. The breed standard, which is the blueprint of what a Bulldog should look like, what the perfect Bulldog should look like, The breed standard weight for a male is 25 kilos. That's 55 pounds in old money. Weirdly, I don't know why, I do all my puppy weights in pounds and ounces, but my adult weights in kilos.

[00:01:38] How weird, how messed up is that? Okay, so male is 25 kilos, 55 pounds, a female is 23 kilos, 50 pounds, so you've got a 2 kilo or 5 pound difference. So this suggests that the female is going to be smaller, which would make sense even if you were to do a human comparison. Men are bigger than women as a generalisation.

[00:02:04] To me, I always think, if I'm thinking of a breed, my default is probably male because they are more breed typical and more to breed type, just probably because there's a bit more of them. So when that comes to male and females, typically a female would be smaller frames, which means she's going to have slightly less bone.

[00:02:27] So her legs aren't going to be as chunky and her head is probably going to be smaller. Where a male. They've got the extra weight that they're able to carry. So to me, generally you will see that in that they have chunkier legs, so more bone, and they might have a slightly bigger head. Now that's a massive generalisation.

[00:02:45] You're going to get females with a big head and lots of bone and vice versa. And that probably more comes down to how they've been bred, what their pedigree is, and what their bloodlines are like. As I said, it's a huge generalisation. Obviously the bigger the dog. the more powerful the dog can be. So, so you need to remember that Bulldogs generally, well, most dogs are in four wheel drive, aren't they?

[00:03:10] They have four feet on the floor. Obviously that's how they move around. You would assume that a bigger dog has more power. There's muscle mass that needs to come into that. I think bearing in mind, generally my experience, Bulldogs don't tend to be pullers. As in when you're taking them out on a walk, they won't pull you.

[00:03:29] Mine actually walk so nicely compared to my Labrador. Yanks me arm all the way, she's so excited she just pulls me here, there and everywhere. So she's so much easier to exercise off lead. For all my Bulldogs, I really enjoy walking because until I had the Labrador, I didn't really appreciate a dog just walking nicely, trotting nicely to your side.

[00:03:51] So in my experience, Bulldogs don't tend to pull unless they are being reactive to something, which we've covered in another episode, and they're trying to escape a situation. I do see online, some of the Facebook groups, people saying their dogs don't want to go out for a walk and so they might end up pulling them rather than them being pulled.

[00:04:13] In my, again in my experience, I've never had this either, like my dogs want to go out every day, soon as I pick up the collar and lead, they are raring to go. So I imagine, if there are dogs like this, Then, they haven't been correctly socialised within their socialisation window, and then they're actually being reactive, this way being shy and timid and not wanting to go out because they don't want to be exposed to that environment.

[00:04:37] Again, that's something to bear in mind and demonstrates how key puppy socialisation is, but I've gone off on a tangent a little bit. Weight wise, all I'm trying to get across is males could be bigger and bearing that in mind that, like I said, I don't feel that the pillars, but. they could easily knock you over.

[00:04:55] So they are like a little solid bowling ball. And when they move their weight around that it shifts quite, quite heavily and quite quickly. I know somebody, somebody told me a story once where their Bulldog come running in from the garden, run into that ankle and actually broke that ankle. So it is a solid mass.

[00:05:16] Yeah, they are a solid mass. So you should be aware of that. I feel that the bigger the dog, the more tendency to be able to. Knock little kids over, not even, you know, intentionally, they just get excited and might jump up and send a kid flying, or stuff on your coffee table. I remember once we had a stack of nest tables, and the Bulldog had gone through it, and the thing with Bulldogs, if you don't know, they literally think they're as wide as their head, they don't realise that they have a massive body after them.

[00:05:44] And she'd gone walking through the smallest of the nest tables and then obviously got stuck, it got stuck on her and then she freaked out and then obviously she ran around the lounge and she just looked like a turtle with this nest table on her. That's something to bear in mind that most Bulldogs think they're as wide as their head and they're definitely much wider with their shoulders.

[00:06:04] The next thing to think about is temperament. I would say that males tend to be a tad more boisterous because they're more powerful. So, because they have that natural power, they can come across as a slightly more, yeah, abrupt and a bit more in your face, but equally I've seen girls with that same type of temperament.

[00:06:25] So don't rule that out. I find boys tend to be, they do like, like, Bulldogs love their cuddles, they all love their cuddles, but I find with the boys they like, most of them like their cuddles and then they tend to get too hot and bothered, they like just laying on a cool floor. where I think the girls tend to absorb all the heat a bit better, so they stay on the sofa with you longer and be a bit all snuggly.

[00:06:48] Two slightly different, and I'm sure there's, this is generalisation, I'm sure there is a crossover. I find the girls to be a bit more attentive, probably for that reason, and they're a bit more snuggly. I think it is pretty much like the reflection of, what's the saying, men are from Mars and, you know, Women are from Venus, I'm sure this is equally reflected in their dogs, but I find them to be more attentive, but that's probably because they're more hormonal, generally anyway, so some of the characteristics of behaviour that you might see, some dogs will hump when, sometimes it's out of excitement, so you'll get young puppies, just get humping, it's quite funny, the puppy I've got, the puppy I've got at the moment, I've just looked out in the garden, he's sitting on a garden chair, He's got a thing about cushions, so as soon as he gets a cushion corner, he starts nibbling it and then he starts humping the cushion, but that's not because he's being sexual, it's just because he really likes cushions, and he's managed to get hold of a corner and then he doesn't know what to do with himself.

[00:07:48] And he ends up humping it, so he's sort of hyper aroused. So he's got a bit of a cushion fetish, bless him. When it comes to humping, males and females will do it. Generally, when they come to sexual maturity, slight bit of confusion. Sometimes it can be a dominance behaviour. In any instances, I generally stop them.

[00:08:09] I don't encourage that behaviour, I stop them doing it. Obviously, if a male was to be used as a potential future stud dog, I wouldn't tell them off. You just stop the behaviour, so distract them with a toy, put them in another room, stop the situation. Again, we've talked about this, where don't set your dog up to fail.

[00:08:28] They're doing something you don't want them to do, but that's a behaviour in the future you might want to need. You definitely don't want to be telling them off. You just need to stop the behaviour, because it's not the appropriate time to be doing it. We can come on to neutering. Again, if you had a dog that was being this way years ago, it used to be like, Oh, you know, you need to neuter him and that'll fix the problem.

[00:08:51] From my understanding nowadays, people sort of realise that doesn't always fix the problem. And what tends to happen is you can have chemical for males, you can do a chemical castration, it's just an implant. And I know nowadays a lot of people are at first just trying the chemical castration to see if that impacts behaviour.

[00:09:09] It's, it's temporary, so it can last 6 to 12 months. However, sometimes it sort of does lasting damage and the dog never gains full fertility back, so it's not guaranteed. But sometimes just taking the edge off during a particular window of development is enough to break any habits. It's more habit breaking than changing a dog's temperament.

[00:09:31] But sometimes that works. So, before it used to be just get them neutered, nowadays I think the stance is maybe we consider chemical castration. Let's see what difference that makes first to decide whether we need to castrate them fully going forward or whether that temporary castration during a certain window of development is enough to do the job.

[00:09:49] So, obviously with boys you can get them castrated. With an entire boy, what's the difference between having a neutered boy or an entire boy? Well, unless your boy, again, has behaviour issues or patterns, which is, they have a higher testosterone level, which means they're being a bit more boisterous and they're showing a bit more dominance.

[00:10:13] The only other thing I can think of is that they might cock their leg around the house and that can be quite Well, distasteful, I guess, where a female having a spayed female, unspayed female, obviously you're not going to have any seasons once you spayed a female. So again, in my head, when people ask me as a pet owner, first time owner, what would you rather have?

[00:10:36] My default would always be male because you never have to put up with the seasons and they look a bit more breed typical. With spaying a female. or even neutering a male. Generally, you wouldn't want to do that until the breed has matured. So you want the dog to be at least 18 months old, in my opinion, before you do any kind of spaying or neutering.

[00:10:58] With the females, you have the option of open spay or keyhole or lap spay. I would Keyhole, personally, it's more expensive, but the recovery time's a lot better and the incisions are tiny because it's keyhole. My preference would be keyhole over open spay. Things to bear in mind, and obviously by spaying, also it means that you rule out the risk of pyometra, which is a uterus infection.

[00:11:26] Every time your girl has a, well, your girl has hormones because of her ovaries. So every time she has a season, there is a potential she can get a uterus infection after every season. So if you're not breeding your female, then it would make sense to reduce that risk and have her spayed. This definitely comes down to personal preference because like with humans, you kind of go, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

[00:11:52] So we just don't carry out hysterectomies for no reason with humans, where some people like to take a preventative approach. The risk of pyometra does increase significantly once the dog is over eight years old and they do want to be operating on an older dog. So something to bear in mind, pyo is always a risk, pyometra is always a risk in an unspayed female.

[00:12:17] And also something to bear in mind is if you spay your female, most of the time there's going to be weight gain. So you're going to have to adjust her diet accordingly and make sure that, you know, she's exercised routinely to make sure you don't have other problems because of the weight gain. And then finally, is about the compatibility with other pets.

[00:12:41] I think it's widely accepted that if you have dogs of different breeds, that they're going to tend to get on well, because there's just no clash of personality, because they all have their own function, so they all have a different temperament and a different processor, if that kind of makes sense.

[00:12:58] They're all programmed different because they have different functions. Multi dog households that have multiple different breeds tend to get on fine. The problems that you have is when you have, or potentially you can have, when you have too many of the same type, which obviously when you like a breed, that's going to happen, that you buy one dog, you think he's amazing, let's go and get another one, and then let's get another one.

[00:13:19] And then you've got a lot of similar personalities all in one, in one place a bit, not like a prison, but you understand what I mean that it's going to kick off, it becomes a bit more volatile because it's similar people in a, in a confined environment, being your house with varying mood swings and changes and, and that can have an impact.

[00:13:42] So when people already have a dog, if it's a different breed, I generally say it doesn't make any difference, but if they already have a Bulldog, my recommendation is that you either have two males, and I want the second dog to be introduced as a puppy and grow, so it grows into the position it's been given, if that kind of makes sense.

[00:14:07] Rather than bringing in an adult dog to another adult dog, then that's quite difficult for them to adjust to that situation and know. I don't even know whether there's like this top dog hierarchy stuff. I don't know what dog trainers say about that nowadays. But I think most people that live with multiple dogs, they know the dog.

[00:14:25] That is the queen bee generally is the female rather than the male, but they know who is top dog and keeps everybody in their place. And that's where you have to be careful. Also, when you come to spaying, I had a female that she was top female and she, we spayed her, but she had to run a bad luck, bless her.

[00:14:43] Cause she had abscess that she needed removing and that ended up with 21 stitches down her side. And then she, and then we had to spay her. And then because we'd spayed her, she'd slipped down in the pack of hierarchy and then she ended up getting picked on by another dog, which ended up in a, yeah, a fairly traumatic dog fight where she had significant amount of flesh loss.

[00:15:11] And so that, that would never have happened if we hadn't had her spayed. When you decide to spay a female, you need to think about how, or neuter a male, you need to think about how that's going to change the dynamics in your current existing pack of dogs. Yeah, my preference is, if somebody, when it comes to Bulldogs, two males are a good choice.

[00:15:32] Pairing, a male and a female is a good pairing. Obviously, I know people are worried about accidental matings. So, somebody should be neutered or spayed in that instance, when of the right maturity. However, personally, I've always managed to keep dogs apart, but from my, from my business, I know that, Many people can't seem to manage that and there's always accidental breedings happening here, there and everywhere.

[00:15:58] So, I would neuter one of them. The male would be easier than the female, in my opinion. But obviously we've already covered about seasons, so most people might prefer to do the female. My least favourite combination would be two females. And I find with two females, obviously it depends on their temperament, personality, demeanour.

[00:16:22] But, with two females If it's, if they're not going to get on, it's probably not going to show until they're 18 months, two years old, when the youngest one is 18 months, two years old. So when she gets to sexual maturity, that's when she might start thinking, Oh, I want to be the top one here, especially potentially like mum and daughter.

[00:16:42] I know if you're buying two in, it wouldn't be mum and daughter with it, but I don't know, two half sisters or something or other. Yeah, I just find that's your window. So all might seem well for 18 months, two years, and then it all starts becoming unsticky. In that instance, maybe somebody of the two females, I would spay one to prevent that becoming a situation, but you still got the shift of dynamics that could impact that.

[00:17:06] You can think about that. I'm just putting it out there as food for thought as to what you would do. But my preference, when somebody comes to me and they already have a dog and it's the same breed, I always say get another male or get a male and a female. The female will be top dog out of those two. My least preferred combination is two, two females.

[00:17:26] So that's it. That was just a little lowdown as to why I think which sex is better or highlighting some of the points. But personally, if I was to buy a Bulldog and I was only having one, I would have a male all day long. That's my personal preference. I know the market seems to change. Sometimes everyone wants females and everybody wants all males.

[00:17:49] But in my opinion, I would definitely be heading for a male. And to be fair, I don't know if that's because my first Bulldog puppies, yeah, I think the first two were male. So I just probably slightly had that perspective that that's the way forward to go. But okay, I've chatted enough. Any disagreements, then you know what to do.

[00:18:08] You need to come and join the community. And start a conversation. See you later.

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