Imelda Angehrn, the founder of the breed Continental Bulldog

​

Presumably Imelda at that time never assumed that she will go down in the cynological history, certainly not with bulldogs! Her breeder's heart belonged to the Newfoundland.

​

It took many years for her husband Peter Angehrn to persuade her to visit an English Bulldog breeder, because Peter Angehrn had been wishing for some time to have an English Bulldog.

Well, as we all know, you can not resist the sight of a Bulldog puppy and the first English Bulldog, called Jonny, moved in with the  Angehrn family. It was clear Jonny should not be on his own for long so a lady called Hexli came along very quickly.

​

In 1966 the kennel "Pickwick" of the Swiss family Angehrn celebrated its first anniversary and the first English Bulldog puppies were born.

The health of her animals has always been important to Imelda. She has been trying to breed a lighter type of English Bulldog to improve respiratory and birthing problems. However, their attempts did not show the desired success.

This was made even more difficult by the fact that many of these lighter dogs were not approved for breeding because they were not deemed "very good" at exhibitions.

To top it off the lighter, free-breathing male dog was disqualified because he did not run in typical breed style. Imelda was very furious and decided to change something fundamentally.

​

In addition, at the beginning of the 2000s a discussion started in Switzerland about stricter animal laws and breeding regulations which should supplement the existing European Convention on the Breeding and Housing of Pet Animals. Part of the of the new breeding regulations said it was now “prohibited to create and keep animals with certain characteristics, in particular abnormalities in physique and behaviour ...". Thus, various breeds of dogs became endangered and were destined to disappear as an official breed. Imelda realised the English Bulldog was in danger too.

 

She consulted her friend, Dr. Hans Räber, and other cynologists and came to the conclusion that selection alone would not significantly improve the health of the English Bulldog. Only by crossing similar dogs the desired improvements would be achieved. 

So in collaboration with other well-known cynologists Imelda tried to get permission to cross the English Bulldogs with other Bulldog breeds. The motivation of Imelda was to breed a medium-sized bulldog which would do justice to all animal welfare regulations in order to later be used again.

​

Carefully selected, allied dogs became the cornerstone of the crossbreeding schemes, which were provisionally granted by the SKG in the year 2000 for three generations.

​

In 2001, the first intersection litter fell.

The results in terms of improving health were a great success.

However, a backcross in the English Bulldog failed due to the hostile attitude by the standard-giving country England.

Because of her commitment, Imelda quickly became a thorn in the side of the entire English Bulldog world. Titled as a nest spew, she was often hostile and eventually relieved of some honorary memberships.

But Imelda continued to pursue the goal of breeding healthy dogs.

Since the results and response were so great, in 2004 the SKG approved the breed as a new breed under the name Continental Bulldog. In the same year, the Continental Bulldog Club Switzerland (CBCS) was founded and already in 2005 the breed standard, as well as the CBCS breeding order was approved by the SKG..

​

Despite these hurdles, Imelda always believed in her goal, fought hard for the same and never gave up. In the end she had success.