Bulldog Trivia
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50 free Bulldog trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Bulldog trivia quiz covers the English Bulldog from the bull-baiting pits to the college sidelines. History questions trace the first written 'Bulldog' of 1631, Christopher Merret's 'Butchers Bull or Bear Dog', the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 that ended the sport, Governor Nicolls's New York cattle round-ups, dealer Bill George, the short-lived Rockstro club and its Philo-Kuan Standard, Adam the first registered Bulldog, the Blue Post pub where the surviving Bulldog Club was founded, AKC recognition in 1886 and the 20-mile walk that killed Dock Leaf. The breed section covers the rope over the nose, corkscrew tails, weights on both sides of the Atlantic, the AKC's 'pacifist and dignified' temperament wording, and the hard health facts: a 7.39-year life expectancy in one UK study, hip dysplasia in 73.9% of tested dogs, 80% Caesarean births, airline bans, the Kennel Club's 2009 standard revision, the Dutch snout law and the Norwegian court case. Famous Bulldogs include Uga, Handsome Dan, Chesty and the Churchill comparison. Questions run from easy to expert with a difficulty score on each, so it suits a family quiz or a devoted Bulldog owner. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and breed references and each question carries its citation. Also try our Dogs and French Bulldog quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Bulldog is a British breed of which type?
Mastiff
Mastiff is the name a Tudor book of English dogs gives the dog used against bulls; by 1631 a letter could ask for a mastiff and bulldogs as two separate things.
Q 02The Old English Bulldog, ancestor of today's breed, was developed for which sport?
Bull-baiting
Bull-baiting set dogs on a tethered bull for wagers, and the one that pinned it by the nose won; centuries of that work gave the breed its low body and massive jaws.
Q 03Which organisation lobbied Parliament for the 1835 act that outlawed the Bulldog's original sport?
The RSPCA
The RSPCA was eleven years old and not yet royal when the 1835 act passed; with its sport gone the Bulldog nearly vanished, until fanciers bred the fight out of it.
Q 04In 1631 Prestwich Eaton wrote to London asking for 'two good Bulldogs' to be shipped to which country?
Spain
Spain: Eaton was an Englishman writing from San Sebastian, and he wanted them put on the first ship, so the breed was prized enough to export even then.
Q 05Which of these dog-world nicknames belongs to the Bulldog?
The Sourmug
The Sourmug scowl is all front: behind it the modern Bulldog is a docile, gentle companion, bred away from the fighter it once was.
Q 06Which rodeo event, pioneered by cowboy Bill Pickett, is still nicknamed 'bulldogging'?
Steer wrestling
Steer wrestling began when Pickett copied the cattle dogs he had watched subdue steers by biting the upper lip, and brought animals down with his own teeth.
Q 07Which Dickens villain's dog Bull's-eye is said to be modelled on one from a London Bulldog dealer's kennels?
Bill Sikes
Bill Sikes's dog is said to come from Canine Castle, the Kensal New Town kennels where dealer Bill George sold Bulldogs as pets once their old sport was banned.
Q 08The first Bulldog Club, formed in 1864 to preserve the breed, took which motto?
Hold Fast
Hold Fast was more than the club could manage: it folded within about three years, but not before it wrote the first description of the ideal Bulldog.
Q 09Which American truck maker has carried a Bulldog ornament on its hoods since the 1930s?
Mack
Mack got the nickname first: its blunt-nosed AC truck of the First World War was dubbed the Bulldog, and chief engineer Alfred Masury carved the first hood ornament in 1932.
Q 10Spike the Bulldog and his son Tyke are regulars in which classic cartoon series?
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry made the father-and-son Bulldogs popular enough that MGM gave Spike and Tyke cartoons of their own in 1957.
Q 11In which group does the American Kennel Club show the Bulldog?
Non-Sporting
Non-Sporting is an ironic home for a breed created for a blood sport; the AKC recognised the Bulldog in 1886, half a century after that sport was banned.
Q 12In 1893 the Bulldog King Orry beat show champion Dockleaf in what kind of contest?
A walking match
A walking match of about ten miles: Dockleaf was pulled out after two, yet fanciers still preferred his heavy look to the winner's, and it became the modern type.
Q 13The characteristic wrinkle lying across the top of a Bulldog's nose is called what?
A rope
A rope is the thick wrinkle lying across the top of the nose, and Britain's Kennel Club now rules a heavy one unacceptable: it must never obscure the eyes or nose.
Q 21In a study of 2,443 puppies, which condition, where the legs splay out flat, was seen most often in Bulldogs?
Swimmer syndrome
Swimmer syndrome leaves a puppy flat on its chest, paddling its splayed legs instead of walking; the Thai study found it far likelier in small litters than large ones.
Q 22A UK survey found over 80% of Bulldog litters are delivered how?
By Caesarean
By Caesarean section in 86% of the litters surveyed: the pups' large heads meet their mothers' narrow pelvises, so a natural birth is rarely possible.
Q 23A 1918 US Marine Corps recruiting poster showed a Bulldog chasing which breed in a German helmet?
A dachshund
Q 14A Bulldog's short tail may hang straight or be coiled into what shape?
A corkscrew
A corkscrew tail has sharp bends or kinks: American judges accept it as 'screwed', while Britain's Kennel Club now marks extremely tight tails as highly undesirable.
Q 15What do Bulldog breed standards call the breed's loose, shuffling, side-to-side gait?
The roll
The roll comes as the dog's weight shifts from side to side with each short, quick step, and both the British and American standards ask for it.
Q 16The AKC standard asks for a Bulldog that is resolute and courageous but also what?
Equable and kind
Equable and kind is the standard's phrase, followed at once by 'not vicious or aggressive': Victorian breeders turned the old gladiator's grit into good character.
Q 17In a 2022 UK study of 18 dog breeds, the four shortest-lived shared which feature?
A flat face
A flat face brings disorders that can strike early in life, which dragged the Bulldog's life expectancy down to 7.39 years against 12.7 for the top-ranked Jack Russell Terrier.
Q 18University of Pennsylvania researchers studied the Bulldog as a natural model of which human sleep disorder?
Sleep apnoea
Sleep apnoea struck the dogs hardest in dream sleep and left them abnormally sleepy by day, as the disorder leaves human patients.
Q 19Why do several big airlines refuse to carry Bulldogs in the cargo hold?
Too many have died in flight
Too many have died in flight: US figures in 2010 showed Bulldogs were 25 of 122 dogs lost in five years, and airlines began turning the breed away that year.
Q 20The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals found which joint disorder in nearly three-quarters of Bulldogs screened?
Hip dysplasia
Hip dysplasia means the joint forms loosely and wears its way to arthritis; the Bulldog's rate in the foundation's 1974 to 2009 figures was the worst of any breed.
A dachshund in a spiked helmet flees across the poster, which traded on the Marines' new 'Devil Dogs' nickname; four years later the Corps enlisted Jiggs, its first live Bulldog.
Q 24After which 2008 BBC documentary did the Kennel Club rewrite its Bulldog breed standard?
Pedigree Dogs Exposed
Pedigree Dogs Exposed caused such a furore that new standards for 209 breeds took force at once; the Bulldog's asked for a smaller head and fewer wrinkles, over its breed council's protests.
Q 25What do dog breeders call a jaw like the Bulldog's, where the lower teeth close in front of the upper?
Undershot
Undershot jaws disqualify a German Shepherd from the show ring, yet the Bulldog standard demands one, 'projecting considerably' in front of the upper jaw and turning up.
Q 26Which country in 2019 began enforcing a law that makes Bulldogs illegal to breed?
Netherlands
Netherlands law draws the line at a muzzle about a third the length of the skull; the rule dates from 2014 but was enforced only once vets had set out how to measure it.
Q 27What happened to the 2022 Oslo ruling that banned breeding Bulldogs in Norway?
It was overturned on appeal
It was overturned on appeal for the Bulldog alone: the same court upheld the ban on breeding Cavalier King Charles Spaniels that the Oslo judges had imposed alongside it.
Q 28Which wartime British prime minister became known as the 'British Bulldog'?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill earned it for his refusal to give in to Nazi Germany, and the pairing helped fix the Bulldog as a symbol of Britain itself.
Q 29Uga is the live Bulldog mascot of which university?
Georgia
Georgia's initials, UGA, gave the dog his name; he watches home games from an air-conditioned doghouse on the sideline, often dozing on a bag of ice.
Q 30The first Uga, the famous Bulldog mascot, came to Sonny Seiler as what?
A wedding present
A wedding present from family friend Frank Heard: the pup appeared at the first home game of 1956, and the Seiler family has owned every Uga since.