The Pug is a small, square, short-muzzled companion dog. The FCI lists China as its home country.[1]
The breed standard
The FCI standard sets no height. The ideal weight is 6.3–8.1 kg, and the dog should be “decidedly square and cobby”. The coat is fine, smooth, soft, short and glossy, in silver, apricot, fawn or black, with a black mask.[1] The muzzle is short and blunt, but the standard says that pinched nostrils and a heavy wrinkle over the nose are unacceptable, and that the eyes and nose must never be obscured by the wrinkle. Eyes must not protrude and must be free from obvious eye problems.[1] The standard itself therefore names the nose, eye and wrinkle problems that a very short muzzle can bring.
Name and origin
The FCI notes that there has been speculation about the origin of the breed. It gives China as the home country, says the dogs reached Europe with traders of the Dutch East India Company, and says they were admired in the Netherlands as far back as the 1500s.[1] It also says the breed came to England when William III took the throne, and that until 1877 it was seen there only in fawn, when a black pair was introduced from the Orient.[1] A study of breed relationships places the Pug in a toy-spitz group, close to the Brussels Griffon, and notes that it also shares many DNA segments with Asian toy breeds.[2] The AKC recognised the Pug in 1885.[3]
Health and lifespan
A study of Pugs at UK veterinary practices put life expectancy at birth at 7.65 years (95% confidence interval 6.99–8.20). The authors list the Pug among four short-muzzled breeds with the shortest life expectancies at birth.[4] A separate dataset, the Dogs Trust table of UK dogs, gives a median life expectancy of 11.6 years (11.4–11.8) for Pugs, based on 10,026 dogs of which 2,782 had died.[5][6] The two figures come from different datasets and are measured differently, so they should not be combined.
A study of Pugs under primary veterinary care in England counted 2,709 Pugs. Of the 1,009 Pugs seen in 2013, 68.19% had at least one recorded disorder. The most common were overweight or obesity (13.18%), corneal disorder (8.72%) and ear infection (7.53%). Just over 5% were diagnosed with brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, a breathing problem linked to a short muzzle, but records probably undercount it. The median adult bodyweight was 9.2 kg, above the standard’s ideal range.[7]
Popularity
The Pug ranked 38th on the AKC’s list of most popular breeds in 2025.[8]
Sources
- FCI breed standard 253, Pug
- Parker et al. 2017, Cell Reports 19: 697–708 (DNA relationships of 161 breeds)
- American Kennel Club, breeds by year recognized
- Teng et al. 2022, Scientific Reports 12 (life tables by breed, UK vets)
- Dogs Trust, “Life expectancy for 155 breeds and crossbred group” table (UK; median life expectancy)
- McMillan et al. 2024, Scientific Reports 14: 531 (longevity of UK companion dog breeds)
- O’Neill et al. 2016, Canine Genetics and Epidemiology 3: 5 (Pugs under primary veterinary care in England)
- American Kennel Club, most popular dog breeds of 2025