This is an interesting article. It covers the rather steep decline in the health of the breed, about which I knew nothing. I've always thought bulldogs ugly and slow and boring. And the history of the breed being a bred down, less vicious version of the bull-baiting original also did not have me interested enough in the breed to may any attention.
The article's great failing is that its title will be assumed to mean that somehow CFB is uniquely responsible. If the article had focused on Lassie and Collies as well, the real issue could not be missed: huge popularity of a breed over a protracted time guarantees that more and more people want that breed, which guarantees a great deal of irresponsible breeding, which harms the breed.
Eric Knight's Lassie Come-Home was a huge seller, and the movie topped that. There were movie sequels, and then the TV series began. Rough Collies went from being very rare in the US, and definitely more rare in the UK than Border Collies, to being the best known dog breed in the US and the entire English-speaking world. By the time the third phase of TV Lassie was drawing to a close, Collies were becoming known for a variety of health issues and for being less intelligent than most other herding breeds.
Massive popularity led to huge numbers of people, from kids to their parents to retirees, wanting a Lassie dog. Breeders not only bred too many (at least a large minority of pure bred dogs should not breed) and too often, but they stopped breeding for herding skills. That meant more Collies with less intelligence and less physical prowess even when they looked great.
The article's great failing is that its title will be assumed to mean that somehow CFB is uniquely responsible. If the article had focused on Lassie and Collies as well, the real issue could not be missed: huge popularity of a breed over a protracted time guarantees that more and more people want that breed, which guarantees a great deal of irresponsible breeding, which harms the breed.
Eric Knight's Lassie Come-Home was a huge seller, and the movie topped that. There were movie sequels, and then the TV series began. Rough Collies went from being very rare in the US, and definitely more rare in the UK than Border Collies, to being the best known dog breed in the US and the entire English-speaking world. By the time the third phase of TV Lassie was drawing to a close, Collies were becoming known for a variety of health issues and for being less intelligent than most other herding breeds.
Massive popularity led to huge numbers of people, from kids to their parents to retirees, wanting a Lassie dog. Breeders not only bred too many (at least a large minority of pure bred dogs should not breed) and too often, but they stopped breeding for herding skills. That meant more Collies with less intelligence and less physical prowess even when they looked great.
