Flat-faced dogs have become fixtures on social media and in city parks, yet new research shows that breathing trouble is not confined to pugs and bulldogs. A large study of popular breeds now links a much wider range of dogs to serious airway disease, raising uncomfortable questions about what I ask animals to endure for a particular look.
The data carry a clear message: once a muzzle is shortened beyond a certain point, cuteness can come at the cost of chronic respiratory distress, heat intolerance, and a shorter life. The findings do not just challenge individual owners; they put pressure on breeders, kennel clubs, and regulators to rethink which traits are rewarded and which should finally be phased out.
What the new research actually found
At the center of the new alarm is a cross-sectional study of brachycephalic dogs that treated the problem as a measurable disease, not a vague impression that some dogs “snore a lot.” From September 2021 to April 2024, the researchers recruited 898 dogs in, all at least one year old and representing a mix of flat-faced and more moderate skull shapes. They graded each dog’s breathing while at rest and after exertion, combining clinical exams with owner questionnaires to capture how often dogs panted heavily, wheezed, or struggled in warm weather.
The work went well beyond observation. The team took detailed measurements of the pooches’ bodies and faces, including skull length, nostril width, neck girth, and body condition, then compared those figures with each dog’s airway score. According to their report, dogs with the shortest muzzles and thickest necks were far more likely to show significant signs of the disease, a pattern that held across multiple breeds and that matched earlier work on brachycephalic anatomy. When I look at that dataset, I see a clear continuum: as faces flatten and soft tissue crowds into a smaller bony space, the risk of obstruction climbs steadily rather than appearing in a few isolated breeds.
Beyond pugs and bulldogs, the surprising risk list
The most unsettling finding for many owners is how broad the danger zone has become. Scientists confirmed that traditional flat-faced icons such as Bulldog, French Bulldog and Pug sit in the highest risk category, but they also identified a cluster of less obvious candidates that share similar skull compression. New analysis from Cambridge linked Pekingese, Shih Tzu and Staffordshire Bull Terrier to serious breathing problems, placing them among twelve dog breeds that showed clear clinical signs of airway compromise in the study population of short muzzled dogs.
Other reports on the same dataset highlight additional names that many people still think of as “normal faced.” The Affenpinscher, Boston Terrier, Boxer, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Chihuahua were all found to have a meaningful share of affected individuals, with some breeds having only 17.4 percent of dogs free of symptoms, a figure reported for The Japanese chin, while The King Charles spaniel and Boston terrier also performed poorly in breathing assessments of multiple breeds. When I line up all these names, it becomes obvious that the problem is not confined to a handful of fashionable dogs; it is embedded across a wide swath of the companion dog market.
Inside BOAS, the disease behind the cute faces
Veterinary specialists group these breathing problems under a single label, Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome, or BOAS. In simple terms, BOAS describes a set of structural abnormalities that narrow the upper airway, including stenotic (pinched) nostrils, an elongated soft palate, a relatively large tongue, and everted laryngeal saccules that collapse into the airway as the dog struggles to move air. I rely on descriptions from specialist centers that explain how these features combine to increase resistance to airflow, which forces dogs to generate more negative pressure when they inhale and eventually damages delicate throat tissues.
Clinically, that anatomy turns daily life into a cardio workout. Affected dogs pant noisily, tire quickly on walks, and can overheat even in mild weather because they cannot move enough air through their narrowed nasal passages and throat. Earlier anatomical work on short skull conformation shows how dramatically the soft palate and tongue can crowd the back of the throat in these breeds, leaving only a thin slit for airflow. Veterinarians describe owners who think loud snoring and “cute” snorting are quirks of the breed, when in fact they are hallmark signs of a chronic respiratory disorder that often progresses with age and weight gain.
How the study links shape, lifestyle and risk
What makes the recent work so influential is its effort to quantify exactly which aspects of body shape increase BOAS risk. The researchers used cephalic index and craniofacial ratio (CFR) to express how short and wide each skull was, then mapped those numbers to disease grades. They found that CFR had a much stronger association with BOAS than overall head size, which means the relative shortening of the muzzle, not just being a small dog, drives risk, a pattern that matches independent analysis of facial conformation and. Additionally, BOAS risk climbed in dogs with a higher body condition score and in neutered animals, suggesting that extra weight and perhaps hormonal changes can tip borderline dogs into overt disease.
The work also reinforces that not every dog in a given breed is doomed to suffer. In several breeds, a subset of individuals, such as the 17.4 percent of Japanese chin that were symptom free, had longer muzzles or wider nostrils and lower neck girth relative to their body. A cross-sectional analysis of fourteen brachycephalic breeds found that Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome, or BOAS, occurred across the group but that dogs with more moderate measurements within each breed had lower disease grades, a pattern documented in a large epidemiological study. When I interpret those findings, I see room for change: by selecting for slightly longer noses and leaner bodies, breeders could dramatically cut the share of dogs that struggle to breathe.
What owners, breeders and regulators can do next
For individual owners, the message is both sobering and practical. Anyone living with a Bulldog, French Bulldog, Pug, Pekingese, Japanese Chin, King Charles Spaniel, Shih Tzu or Griffon Bruxellois should treat loud breathing, heat intolerance, or exercise collapse as warning signs rather than endearing quirks, especially since Five breeds were found to be at moderate risk of BOAS, including King Charles Spaniel, Shih Tzu and Griffon Bruxellois, in a report on newly identified breeds. Veterinarians can perform airway exams, recommend weight management, and in some cases refer dogs for surgery to widen nostrils or shorten an elongated soft palate, although surgery can only partially compensate for extreme skull shapes.
Change at scale, however, depends on how breeders and kennel clubs respond. Scientists studying Pekingese, Shih Tzu and Staffordshire Bull Terrier have urged breed clubs to adopt stricter standards that discourage extremely short muzzles and encourage traits that keep the upper airway open, a recommendation that appears in calls from research veterinarians. I also see growing pressure on regulators and welfare groups to restrict advertising that glamorizes extreme flat faces and to guide prospective owners toward healthier lines or alternative breeds with longer muzzles, especially now that data from hundreds of dogs makes it hard to claim ignorance about the suffering built into certain looks.
