Wheelback's Bulldogs

Ella is our first bulldog. We got her in the spring of 1999. She proved out to be a very energetic dog with a constant interest to everything possible. She has been, and she still is busy with entertaining herself and us.

We had thought that the bulldog would be a good companion for us at home, and the idea of attending dog shows had not passed our minds. But as Ella's activities aroused a lot of questions about bulldogs in general and we wanted to know more about the breed, we also wanted to see more of them. And where would you see lots of bulldogs if not in dog shows? As we began visiting the shows, we gained a lot of useful information and found new friends.

Ella was so playful that she seemed to need a mate to play with. So another sourmug, Bessie came to our home in the beginning of 2001. Ella greeted Bessie warmly. They get along very well and never fight with each other. It seems as though they compensate each others' temperaments. Bessie is much calmer than Ella. At times one could almost call her a "sofa potato" although she sometimes behaves very wildly and is very playful.

When we got Bessie, we also became interested in breeding bulldogs. We gained knowledge at the courses arranged for breeders-to-be by the Finnish Kennel Club. We also got ourselves a kennel name. The first Wheelback's bulldog, puppy bitch Wheelback's African Queen was born in August 2004. We are very thankful for being able to use for our bitch the wonderful, very masculine male bulldog S & N & FIN CH NORD CH Roseneath Masquerader owned by kennel Malcom's. He has already shown that he produces excellent offspring. We are also very thankful for Mrs. Karin Ögren at kennel Malcom's for all the support and good advice that she has given to us.

At the end of the year 2004 we got a new dog. Brampton Tug Tough came to us from the well-known Brampton kennel in the UK. We are very happy to have this handsome and well-tempered fine young gentleman with us from Terry, Angela and Steven Davison. Roli, as we call him, is a very sound bulldog with lovely bone structure and strong, efficient movements of Brampton bulldogs. We have high hopes for him in our breeding work.

We intend to breed bulldogs very moderately as our's is a home kennel. Our bulldogs live with us sitting on the sofa and enjoyning their life as part of the family. In our breeding work we follow the guidelines of the breeders commitment of the Finnish Kennel Club and the breeding goal program of the Bulldog Club of Finland. We want to help to promote the breeding of healthy bulldogs in Finland.

We are members of the Bulldog Club of Finland, The Bulldog Club and the Bulldog Clubs of Sweden and Norway. We think that it is important to get information from the bulldog scene also from other countries as Finland is a quite small country and there are not so many bulldogs or bulldog breeders here.

We attend dog shows quite actively sometimes also travelling to foreign countries. We hope that our bulldogs can represent the breed in a good way. We want to take good care of our dogs so that they are healthy and in good condition and they also get along well with other dogs and people.

The breed standard of the bulldog describes very precisely the qualities that the bulldog should have - the temperament, the structure of the dog and his other qualities. According to the breed standard the bulldog should have a roach back, or, as the english breeder Chris Thomas states in his book Bulldogs today, a "wheel back". This is the origin of our kennel name.

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.

We wish that we will be able to breed bulldogs with sound structure, good health and open, confident character. Our first bulldog Ella has shown 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.

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.

Pasi Apajalahti and Liisa Suoninen