Why are Old Tyme Bulldogs so expensive?

The Old Tyme Bulldog is the 31st most popular dog type in the UK out of a total of 241, based on user adverts and searches here on Pets4Homes over the last year. The Old Tyme Bulldog is classed as a dog type rather than a breed, because they are not formally recognised by the UK Kennel Club, and so, are not eligible for pedigree registration for showing and breeding.

Despite this, Old Tyme Bulldogs can be very costly to buy – with the average advertised price for dogs of this type being £1,101, which is significantly more than the price commanded by even most pedigree dog breeds.

In this article, we will look at the Old Tyme Bulldog in more detail, explain what constitutes an Old Tyme Bulldog, and examine why they cost so much to buy. Read on to learn more.

What is an Old Tyme Bulldog?

Despite their name, the Old Tyme Bulldog is actually a fairly recent addition to the list of commonly recognised dog types.

They are closely related to English bulldogs – a very well known pedigree dog breed. Modern English bulldogs are very thickset, muscular, and almost square in appearance, with short legs and a very wide neck and large head. They also have long jowls, flat faces, and loose, wrinkled skin.

However, historical English bulldogs looked very different, being taller, leaner, and with a much less pronounced degree of exaggeration to the flatness of their faces and the size of their head and neck. Whilst the changes that the breed has undergone over time have taken place over the course of centuries, the most extreme and acute changes to the breed have occurred over the course of the last few decades.

The exaggerations that the modern breed possesses have resulted in a wide range of harmful health problems across the breed as a whole, including breathing difficulties, a propensity to overheating and exercise intolerance, skin problems, and in most cases, an inability to deliver young and even sometimes mate without assistance.

The Old Tyme Bulldog came into being in an attempt to produce a dog that possessed a more traditional bulldog appearance with less exaggerated traits, and so, better health and a lower level of risk for health problems.

The Old Tyme Bulldog is slightly taller and leaner than the English bulldog, and with a more proportionate head and neck as well as a longer, healthier muzzle.

It takes a long time for a new breed in the making to gain formal recognition by The Kennel Club and other international breed registries, and gaining recognition depends on the establishment of an accepted breed standard, a traceable ancestry for breed lines, and sufficient dogs of the type being present within the country to serve as the foundation for the new breed.

This process takes many years – usually decades – and so whilst the Old Tyme Bulldog is not currently eligible for pedigree registration, it may become eligible in the future.

Why are Old Tyme Bulldog prices so high?

It is unusual for even pedigree dog breeds to command average prices of over £1,000, and so the average purchase price of the Old Tyme Bulldog at £1,101 is even more notable, given that this type of dog is not a pedigree.

As is the case with any dog breed or type, there can also be a significant amount of variance across individual dogs of the breed in terms of their purchase price, but even so, the average across the board is still higher than many people expect.

A range of different factors help to contribute to the high average purchase price for dogs of this type.

First of all, demand for Old Tyme Bulldogs is very high, as evinced by their 31st place ranking out of 241 different dog types in the popularity stakes. A high level of demand means high prices for dogs of this type.

Secondly, breeding dogs of any type is costly, but for some types of dog, this is very pronounced, and the Old Tyme Bulldog is often more expensive to breed than other dog types.

English bulldogs are used within new Old Tyme Bulldog breeding programs and form a vital part of the ancestry of established breed lines, and this is a breed that itself commands a high price, which means that purchasing breeding stock in the first place is expensive. Additionally, because the goal of breeding Old Tyme Bulldogs is to produce a dog that is less exaggerated, leaner, and healthier than English bulldogs, the availability of English bulldogs without a high degree of exaggeration and with a less heavy build to use as foundation stock is rather low.

This means that Old Tyme Bulldog breeders will often have to go to some lengths to find and purchase potential English bulldog parent stock that possess the right traits for the type, and then set up a planned breeding programme that might take several generations to produce dogs with the right qualities.

Health issues are prevalent across the English bulldog breed, and this creates risk factors within related dog types like the Old Tyme Bulldog too, and so responsible breeders will also pay for health tests and associated expenses to ensure the viability of their breed lines.

Many bulldog breeds, and notably, the English bulldog in particular, tend to have small litters, often consisting of just two or three puppies – which means that the sale price of each puppy will be higher, to reflect the costs involved in producing them. Due to the close connection between the English bulldog and the Old Tyme Bulldog, this trait is often replicated within the Old Tyme type.

Additionally, English bulldogs are delivered by caesarean section in over 80% of cases, and whilst one of the main goals of breeding Old Tyme Bulldogs is to produce dogs with a more proportionate head and neck and so, increase the chances of natural delivery, caesarean delivery is still common across Old Tyme Bulldogs too. This is itself costly, and contributes to increasing the purchase price.

These are just some of the factors that contribute to making the Old Tyme Bulldog’s average purchase price on the high side – and of course, the average market rate also determines the cost that puppy sellers charge, even if their breeding costs are not particularly high for their own dogs.

Paying a high purchase price for a dog is no guarantee of quality or good health, and so you should apply the same selection criteria when choosing an Old Tyme Bulldog breeder and picking your puppy as you would in any other situation.