This is a normal dog skull, which is structurally identical to that of a coyote, wolf, German Shepherd, dingo, or Jack Russell, albeit with differences in overall size.
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This is the skull of a Pug owned by a reader of this blog. It reminds me of one of those "pickled punk" jars they used to have at circus freak shows in the 1920s and 30s -- a deformed human fetus in a jar.
Of course deformed animals show up all the time in nature.
The difference is that so many Kennel Club breeds are bred for intentional defect and planned misery. This is systematic and institutionalized animal abuse by the American Kennel Club and it is abetted by puppy peddlers and dog dealers who call themselves breeders, as well as their show ring sycophants who put their own desire for fifty-cent ribbons over the daily lives of the living animals to be found in their own homes.
Why do wolves, fox, dingoes, coyotes, fox and honest hunting dogs have long snouts? For the simple reason that short snouts are maladaptive.
A dog with a short snout has no front-end eye protection when running in grass or weeds -- and yes, this is an issue for Pugs which often sustain serious injury because their eyes sit right at the "edge of the wedge" of their skulls with little to no orbit protection.
A dog with a short snout will almost always have teeth problems because the jaws have been shortened and now there is no place for the teeth and tongue to go.
A dog with a short snout will always always have a compromised sense of smell and may also have serious breathing problems if the dog's face is as short as that of a Pug's. The reason for this is that the nasal chambers of a flat-face dog are much smaller than those of a longer-snouted animal, and may also be crushed and twisted, obstructing the flow of air.
The bottom line is that Mother Nature prunes away its mistakes -- it does not give them a ribbon or try hard to make a lot more of them. And, as a consequence, in the world of natural dogs there is no canine that looks like a Pug!
If you have a Pug, try to keep it comfortable and love it until it leaves this earth. It's physical problems are not of its own making, and the dog is without sin. But pledge to never get a dog like this again. Dogs deserve better!
Same Pug as in the x-ray. Picture courtesy of the dog's owner, picture by Tim Rose for Dog’s Today.
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