Whippet Bulldog Mix: A Full Guide

Whippet bulldog crosses are energetic and playful canines with an incredibly friendly, gentle, and loving nature. Whippets are sweet-natured and speedy dogs with an adorable stance, while bulldogs are bold, courageous, and calm canines.

Mixing these two popular dogs results in lovely pups with whippets’ and bulldogs’ traits and features. These puppies are usually defensive and less delicate than whippets and more playful and sprightlier than bulldogs.

Knowing the behaviour, personality, and needs of whippet bulldog mixes is essential if you plan to live comfortably and happily with one.

This post aims to provide anything and everything you need to know about these unique and rare designer dogs.

Kindly keep reading to know the history, personality, features, and caring requirements of bullwhips to see if they’re the most appropriate fit for your home and how to raise one effectively.

Table of Contents

What Is A Whippet Bulldog Mix?

Also called Bullwhips, whippet Bulldog crosses are canines created by interbreeding purebred whippets and bulldogs.

They’re generally quiet, tranquil, and friendly dogs, just like their parents. However, as independent and intelligent pups, bullwhips can be tricky to train.

Therefore, you should be prepared to train and socialise your Bullwhip to prevent it from developing behavioural problems like aggression.

As a relatively easy breed to groom and maintain, whippet bulldog mixes are an excellent choice for even novice owners.

A Bulldog will have the strong will of its Bulldog parent and always eager to please like the whippet.

It can be a perfect dog for someone who can give it the attention, love, and care it needs. With adequate training, exercise, and socialisation, a bullwhip is a great family dog for active households.

History Of The Whippet Bulldog Mix

Bullwhips are a relatively rare and new dog breed. Therefore, not much is known about them. However, you can learn more about this hybrid dog by looking into their parents’ backgrounds.

Here is some brief detail about whippets and bulldogs history:

Whippets Background

Whippets are popular athletic and muscular canines. They originated in England around the late 18th century.

These dogs were produced by crossing petite greyhounds by various Terriers and later bred with Italian greyhounds for smoother and elegant coats.

People initially used these dogs to hunt and race, explaining why they’re very predacious and sturdy. Although they’re playful and independent dogs, whippets are exceptionally outgoing and gentle dogs.

They enjoy relaxing and snuggling with their owners and being indulged inadequate exercises and mental stimulation activities. On the downside, whippets aren’t excellent watchdogs because they rarely bark, even at strangers.

But generally, they are wonderful dogs for anyone who can give them the exercise, care, and the socialisation they need.

Bulldogs Background

Bulldogs’ origin dates back to the 13th century in England, during King John’s reign. The main reason for creating these strong, powerful, and courageous canines was to participate in bullbaiting, a practice that involved the dogs grabbing bulls’ muzzles and then shake them roughly.

However, this game became illegal in 1835, which made the bulldogs slightly less famous at that moment. However, the bulldogs’ stamina, energy, and courage won people’s admiration, and nowadays, it’s a widely preferred breed.

They were re-engineered to produce less aggressive and rough dogs by breeding bulldogs with only docile temperaments. This approach led to the development of gentle, loving, and sweet-natured bulldogs, the ones you see today.

Today, these dogs are loved for their adaptability and attractive personality. The AKC recognises them as family dogs and has ranked them as 5th most popular canines globally.

If you would like to learn more about bulldogs, check out our friends over at English Bulldog Blog for more information on the breed.

Whippet Bulldog Mix Temperament

Bullwhips are cheerful, active, and yet very gentle dogs. For this reason, these dogs are excellent companions for homes with children. However, they can be known to be aggressive if they’re poorly socialised and trained.

If you want a respectful and well-behaved pup, obedient training and housetraining will be essential. It’s advisable to train your dog as early as possible since bad habits are usually hard to break.

Although they are excellent choices for first-time owners, they can be a bit hard to train due to their intelligence level and independent nature. In this case, it’ll be easier for an individual with former pup experience to handle one.

Bullwhips are generally quiet, friendly, and calm dogs. However, since whippets and bulldogs were created for different reasons, the specific temperament of their crosses isn’t usually guaranteed. It usually depends on the parent with dominant genes.

Therefore, bulldogs can portray the protective character of the bulldogs or not. They may also be predacious like the whippet or stubborn like the bulldog.

Either way, proper training will help keep your pup in line. However, consistency and patience will be pivotal for successive training.

Whippet Bulldog Mix Appearance

The appearance of a designer dog mainly depends on its parents’ coat colours, patterns, body size, and posture. Bullwhips are usually medium-sized to slightly large dogs with a mixture of the whippets and bulldogs features.

The main feature of Bullwhips is their floppy ears. Their body size may vary based on the parent with more dominant genes.

For example, they may have lean and slim bodies like whippets or stocky and muscular stances like the bulldogs.

They may inherit the bulldogs’ short legs, big heads, and loose skin. Usually, bulldogs have short, broad black snouts with wide nostrils.

In addition, they have deep eye sets, small rose-like ears, wide square-shaped jaws, hanging upper lips, and unique rolling gaits.

On the other hand, whippets have deer-like legs, tapered faces, arching backs, swan-shaped necklines, big circular eyes, little rose-like ears, broad chests, and dark eyes, muzzle, and rims.

Bullwhips inherit most of the above characters. They usually weigh around 20-60 pounds with a height of approximately 13-20 inches.

Their coat colours also vary with the parents’ appearance. They can come in either white, cream, beige, brown, black, and pied coats.

Whippet Bulldog Mix Health

While hybrid dogs are generally healthy breeds, they can be susceptible to certain diseases their parents are more likely to get.

For example, bulldogs are vulnerable to Cherry eye, Dry eye, entropion, inverted/reverse sneezing, brachycephalic syndrome, hip dysplasia, tail issues, and head shakes.

Whippets tend to suffer from deafness, eye problems, von Willebrand’s disease, and anesthesia sensitivity. All the health issues mentioned above can affect a bulldog, but it’s not always a guarantee.

Reputable breeders usually avoid these problems by ensuring they select healthy and qualified dogs before breeding them. Therefore, it’s advisable to purchase your pup from a trustworthy breeder or rescue center that cares about the puppies’ health.

Regular vet checks can also help detect these issues earlier and treat them before they worsen. It would help if you also vaccinated your dog to prevent it from contracting certain dog illnesses.

A whippet bulldog cross can live for about 12-15 years with timely healthcare and proper maintenance.

Caring For A Whippet Bulldog Mix

All pets require effective care to stay healthy, happy, and comfortable. It’s impossible to enjoy your canine’s company if it feels dissatisfied and neglected.

Your Bullwhip needs sufficient food, love, exercise, training, and grooming to be the decent and well-behaved pup you desire.

Luckily, caring for a bullwhip is relatively easy and fun. As a short-coated dog, grooming bullwhips is usually an easy task. Their skin will glow with just occasional bathing and weekly brushing.

However, they’re also moderate shedders; therefore, you’d want to invest in an effective vacuum cleaner to keep your floor hair-free.

Their floppy ears can hide pests and harbor infections. Therefore, you should regularly check and clean your bulldog’s ears. Nails trimming and dental care are essential parts of grooming. You should obtain the appropriate tools for these purposes.

Besides grooming, your pup will need water, a balanced diet, and adequate exercise every day. Therefore, it’s essential that you purchase the right food for your dog and ensure it’s not starving or overeating.

The suitable food type and food amount for your dog may vary with age, health, metabolism, and activity level. If you’re unsure what your dog can and cannot eat, you should check out our recommended products section.

As a playful, energetic, and independent breed, training, exercising, and socialisation will be critical. For easy and more efficient training, it’s advisable to start training your puppy at an early age.

The best training is the reward-based approach, where you use treats and praises to reinforce positive behaviour and motivate your dog to keep acting correctly.

However, you should be watchful not to give your pup excess treats as they can eventually cause obesity.

Your Bullwhip will enjoy taking you on hikes, runs, and walks. Your dog will also love to constantly play with you and tag along with you on all errands.

However, this dog may not be the best companion for non-active owners who love being indoors all day. They need to exercise for around 40-60 minutes every day.

Bullwhips also excel in various canine activities like agility and trick training. They need spacious and well-fenced yards to explore and show off their playful energy.

Early socialisation is essential too. The best places your dog can interact with people and other pets are in busy parks, dogs, kindergartens, and daycares.

Final Thoughts

Bullwhips are gentle, enthusiastic, loyal, loving, and protective dogs. They need early socialisation and proper training to be obedient and non-aggressive companions.

Their dynamic personality and energetic bodies make them perfect family companions for active homes and owners.