I love pugs.

I always have. They are cute, adorable, friendly and fun.

They make a great family pet, what a beautiful little personality they have. The good reputable pug breeders love their dogs and want only the best for them.

But there's a problem with pugs, one that I want to help bring to the attention of the general public and one that I want to get fixed.

What is this problem? Well it's as simple as this:

Pugs cannot breathe normally!

Many are so bad that they need surgery to be able to breathe with ease, with some even requiring a permanent hole in their throat so that they can breathe. And it's not the odd one that's born like this - it's nearly every single one of them.

My experience as a vet - 20 years of it - is that every single pug I have seen needed surgery (more of which further on) so that it could breathe with ease. Every single one. Not all of them had the surgery (some owners didn't believe me, some couldn't afford it) but as a vet who knows what I am talking about on this matter I am telling you now - all of them needed it.

That's just wrong. It has to be wrong that nearly all of a breed have such a problem that they need surgery to live comfortably. To breathe.

The reason for this is that the anatomy of their skull is such that their upper airways are 'squashed' into too small a space. 

Have a look at these images of skulls of different breeds.

The skull of the Collie is a good example of what normal and healthy is - a nice long muzzle allowing the dog's airways to form correctly and therefore to be able breath properly, i.e. get air into and out of its lungs with ease.

Compare this to the Pug and French Bulldog. 

You'll see that their muzzles are practically gone. (The technical term for the short muzzled/flat faced breeds is 'brachycephalic'.)

The result is that all the soft tissue structures that are meant to be in the muzzle are compressed into too small a space and squashed to a point of blocking the air coming in. Their nostrils are too narrow; their soft palate is too long and thick; the little bones in what there is of their muzzle are too large for the space that's there; their windpipe is narrowed. Often times their tongue is too big as well.

Because of this these lovely little dogs just cannot get enough air into their lungs without having to make extra efforts to pull this air through narrowed, partially obstructed and convoluted airways. It's like breathing through straws.

The technical term for this condition is Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS).

(A little science: Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) is a well-known combination of several upper airway abnormalities. These abnormalities may be defined as primary (stenotic nares, elongated and thick soft palate, excessive nasopharyngeal turbinates, and hypoplastic trachea) or secondary (mainly laryngeal collapse). Redundant and hypertrophied pharyngeal folds, macroglossia, laryngeal edema, enlarged tonsils, and bronchial collapse may also be present.)

So when these little dogs with BOAS breathe they sound like the dog in the video below. Click play and have a listen.