Thursday, November 20, 2008

Pug history 101

I like reading about the history of dog breeds. It took me awhile but I tracked down one about pugs that has some great info. It turns out that it is believed they developed from the same lines as the bullmastiff and not bulldogs. There are even photos of skulls of various dogs included. It is most interesting to note that when they were developed that they did have a nose on them, and not the extreme flat faces they have now. (or even as shown on the book cover)



I'm throwing in a bunch of Jenny photos for someone to look at that has smooth brussell griffons. It has been mentioned that perhaps she is a cross with a smooth BG due to how much she looks like one in the face and has a similar body type. I have only seen one smooth BG in person and it was such a long time ago I am unsure if this is a realistic possibility. After seeing the photos in the history book however I believe she looks like more of the original pug type. I think they used to call that a throwback.

Another thing I found interesting from the book is that is used to be very common practice to crop pugs ears.



I should have gotten more pics of her profile so you can see her nose.











We don't really care what she is, we are smitten. I have now been charmed by the pug breed. I guess that may make Jenny our "gateway" pug. :-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was in the hair salon the other day, someone brought in a little pug puppy and passed her around so we all could see her. Her name was Shorty. I always didn't think I liked pugs but she totally charmed me in the minute I got to hold her. :] What a sweet baby!

Caveat said...

I have a smooth Griff with a 'perfect head' according to my friend the breeder. The rest of him is wonky so he wasn't bred or shown and is now my pet. He is the colour Belge.

Smooth Griffs have a soft double coat kind of like a Rottweiler, although there are two coats - Deer which is stiff and stands away a bit kind of like a pug and plush, like Digby's.

Griffs come in black and tan, black, Belge and red although if people clip the wires, the coat comes in lighter in colour. That's why I have to hand-strip my Rough and listen to my friend the breeder's criticism of my half-baked effort. Memo: Don't become good buddies with the next breeder, if there is one.

They say the Griff was a cross between the English Toy spaniel ad the Smousje a little ratter.

As for the mastiff thing, I've said for years that Pugs must be mastiffs because they are so much like them but put through the Shrinkalyzer.

There's a pic of Digby here in profile and a couple of pics of his nephew, Albert at 6 mos (his first show):

http://caveat.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/12/11/3403592.html

Or if you go to my blog and put 'digby' in the search box at the upper left, more pics will come up.

Your dog could be a Pug/Frenchie cross, just guessing of course, but the head is rather massive for a Brussels Griffon. Griffs are small as well, usually around 10 lbs if you can resist the gimme a cookie thing - not easy LOL!