Breed Profile: Pug

The Pug is one of the oldest known dog breeds: as a companion dog, family dog or lapdog, the crumpled little fellow has enjoyed the greatest popularity for centuries. Or, as Loriot once said: a life without a pug is possible, but pointless. In this article you will get information about the breed history, the appearance, the character traits, typical canine illnesses and important tips on acquiring a pug and the pug keeping that follows. First of all: we know that this breed does not meet with everyone’s approval and that the word “torture breeding” comes up quite often. Yes, that is correct; nevertheless the breed is widespread, and fortunately there are now many back-crosses (retro pug) that specifically tackle, for example, a set-back nose and bulging eyes. We also address this topic in this article.

A brief breed history of the pug

The beginnings of the breed history of what is probably the smallest molosser lie largely in the dark. It presumably comes from the Asian region and, as a lapdog of the royal family, was a real luxury item. Around the beginning of the 15th century the pug then found its way to Europe via the Silk Road and quickly became the popular lapdog of the rich and the nobility. In its breeding, two things always played a role: its friendly and cooperative character as well as its cute, childlike appearance. Because of the latter, however, breeding defects such as bulging eyes and breathing difficulties increasingly arose over the course of time. In order to compensate for these breeding defects, attempts are now being made to give the pug back a healthier appearance, roughly corresponding to the somewhat longer-legged and slimmer pug known from old paintings and photographs. By crossing in other breeds, such as the Jack Russell Terrier, attempts are being made to breed a healthy “retro pug” in which the positive qualities of the pug are retained but the breeding defects disappear.

Appearance of the pug

According to the FCI standard, the pug is square and stocky with a shoulder measurement of up to 32 cm and an ideal weight of 6.3 to 8.1 kg. The coat should be fine, smooth, soft, short and glossy. Permitted colour variations are silver, apricot, light fawn or black, together with a mask with markings as well as an eel stripe. Particularly important, however, is the expressive baby face of the pug: large, dark, round eyes as well as a blunt, short nose characterise the open pug face to which so many admirers of the breed have become so devoted.

The character traits of the pug

Besides its childlike appearance, the pug is loved above all for its open, endearing manner, which has its origin in the history of the breed. Since the pug was never a working dog or ever had to serve as a guard, herding or hunting dog, its task was always only one: to be nice and to keep its human company. As a pure companion dog, particular value was therefore placed on a people-friendly character – even today, aggressiveness or timidity are regarded as criteria that exclude a dog from breeding. Accordingly, the pug is outstandingly suited as a family dog: it is friendly, open, willing to cooperate and always happy simply to be allowed to be in the presence of its humans.

Responsible pug keeping

Pug fans like to argue that the pug is the perfect dog for current living conditions – and that is largely true. For the pug does indeed seem better adapted to the present day than most other breeds: it has few demands in terms of space, exercise and occupation, yet is always happy to be with its human and accompanies its family fearlessly and amiably everywhere. This makes it well suited even for the often not very dog-friendly life in the big city.

However, there are also arguments that speak against the pug: the at times very high demand for cheap pug puppies has led to the breed struggling with sometimes massive breeding defects. Mis-breeding has robbed the pug of its athletic, enduring nature; instead, many specimens now struggle with breathing problems, joint damage, bulging eyes and the like. On the one hand this is of course limiting for the affected dog: many of these poor animals need operations in adulthood in order to make normal breathing possible at all, suffer from frequent eye injuries or the like. On the other hand, the wheezing sound that some pugs make when breathing is at times interpreted by other dogs as growling – this sometimes makes social interaction with other dogs difficult.

Anyone who decides on a pug should therefore choose a puppy from a responsible breeder who makes an effort to breed healthy, robust pugs (retro pug), so that breeding defects have no opportunity to spread. This is admittedly considerably more expensive than a puppy from a puppy farmer or even from abroad, but it may spare the dog a great deal of suffering and spare you, as the owner, costly veterinary treatments.