THE DOG was wheezing and gasping. It couldn’t walk another step. Then the choking started and it began coughing up lumps of white mucus, all the time its big, brown eyes registering incomprehension and distress.

It was at this point Steve Barnett decided he’d had enough. He was sick of seeing British bulldogs, the breed that he and wife Simone loved best, dying in infancy, of heart attacks and unable to run and fetch a stick or even to walk up a road – “beautiful, affectionate dogs” prisoners in their genetically-malformed bodies.

“We’ve cared for and rescued so many bulldogs in our time,” he says.

“They’ve had so many problems that it came to a point where you lose so many of them, they’ve died aged two or three of heart defects or suffered because of terrible skin problems, that you can’t stand it any more. So I decided to start breeding my own to get back to what they should be.”

This decision was to change the lives of the Barnetts, who live at Lytchett Matravers. It involved patience, research and a willingness to take on the bulldog establishment which is, claims Steve, one of the most powerful in the British canine world.

“As far as I know they are one of the most powerful clubs within the umbrella group (of the Kennel Club) and they have a hell of a lot of say.”

Earlier this month, as the Kennel Club signalled new and better breeding standards for a variety of dogs, including bulldogs, the British Bulldog Breed Council was reported to be threatening legal action.

Chairman Robin Searle told The Times: “The new standards are unacceptable” and added that some breeders were threatening to leave the Kennel Club altogether.

As a breed, bulldogs have always aroused powerful feelings. The “Bulldog spirit” got Britain through World War II. They were immortalised in Spike, the proud, loveable dog in the Tom and Jerry cartoons and more recently as the cuddly Churchill from the TV insurance ads.

But, says Steve, the reality of life for the creature that has come to symbolise our nation is little short of a disgrace. He believes the way bulldogs are now produced, with huge heads, narrow hips and grossly shortened muzzles has led to the breathing, breeding, mobility and heart problems that have come to plague the breed.

“With a Kennel Club bulldog, nine out of 10 matings are by artificial insemination,” claims Steve. “They are so out of shape they either can’t do it or if they do, they can get a heart attack.”

He says many can only give birth by Caesarean section and claims that this is condoned by breeders because: “They can be worth up to £2,000 a puppy. They’re hardly going to want them squashed or find out the mother had them naturally in the night and one or two have died.

“So it’s now turned from a natural process of trying to create a dog with a quality of life to watching your eggs in the basket to see they don’t get broke. It’s purely for the money.”

Why can’t breeders see this? He shrugs. “There’s none so blind as those who will not see.”

Simone recalls the day, many years ago, when she was pushing their son out in his buggy and walking a rescued bulldog at the same time.

“This dog was so unhealthy, so unable to breathe and walk properly that we ended up with my son toddling along and the bulldog in the buggy!”

Then there was the occasion they walked a friend’s bulldog along a Bournemouth street to visit its owner at work.

All went well until the 100-yard walk back up a gentle slope. “The dog had a heart attack and died,” says Steve.

He says he’s had to massage countless bulldogs to calm them when they become desperate for breath, unable to inhale because of their malformed throats.

“If you look down into the mouth of a bulldog when it opens its mouth, it should have a great big throat.

“But a bulldog’s throat could be around 10 millimetres across, three quarters of an inch. There’s a problem with the tracheas in bulldogs where they can’t get the oxygen down their throat to feed their brain and that’s why they collapse.”

It was the final collapse, 25 years ago, of a bulldog they were caring for – “He was just choking up all this white stuff and he was so distressed,” says Simone – that they embarked on a programme to breed a bulldog that would be able to live a proper life.

“We wanted a dog that could run, fetch sticks and live to a good age,” she says.

Bulldogs were originally bred for baiting bulls and bears.

“It’s said of the Romans that the reason they came here was so they could take back our gold and our bulldogs, to fight at the Coliseum,” says Steve.

Starting from this point he and Simone spent their holidays in museums and art galleries, researching bulldog history. “You come across them in old paintings and engravings,” says Steve. He noted that while they retained their distinctive look, the dogs of the past had longer legs and muzzles and a leaner, fitter physique.

He points out one 17th-century painting. Called The Treaty, it was painted at the end of the American War of Independence and features a handsome bulldog who, says Steve, bears a strong resemblance to the dogs he now breeds and to one in particular, Hector.

“We call them Dorset Old Tyme Bulldogges because they are really as bulldogs used to be,” says Simone.

They bred from their own bulldogs, carefully selecting for an even, friendly temperament and to get back to the characteristics of the bulldogs of 300 years before.

The end result is, says Steve, an affectionate family pet that should live to a decent age with few health problems.

Best of all, they can run, jump, mate and give birth naturally or with minimal help.

“Lots of the people who have had ours train them for agility,” says Steve. He and Simone vet the owners and have even travelled abroad to visit their former dogs.

The dogs themselves range in colour from jet black, through brindle to mainly white and look happy and healthy.

“We’ve taken a deformed dog and put it in a proper body,” says Simone.

They put on their own shows every year and now Steve has decided to try and gain official recognition for his breed from the Kennel Club.

He describes his dogs as “ambassadors” for the bulldog breed and is hopeful that with the new thinking, his Dorset dogs will finally win official favour.

“I’m definitely not anti-Kennel Club and I think they do a good job,” he says. “But if you had human beings and decided to breed something like that, people would think it was monstrous. So why isn’t it monstrous to breed a dog like that?”

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